Forum - View topicThirty Years Ago: The Best Anime of 1988
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rinmackie
 Posts: 1040 Location: in a van! down by the river! |
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I got the re-release of Akira back in the early 2000's. I believe it got a new English dub and it did make sense!
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Parsifal24
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I just finished Legend of The Galactic Heroes on HiDive it honestly did not feel that long and I ended up really enjoying it. Also yes Grave of The Fireflies is as depressing as people make it out to be I mean broke down crying 15 minutes in. As I told a friend of mine "I'm crying over candy tin."
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invalidname
 Contributor Posts: 2504 Location: Grand Rapids, MI |
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Was there anything interesting going on in terms of shojo, comedy, or more light-hearted fare in 1988? That stuff wasn’t being actively licensed and imported at the time, so it’s hard to know if either there wasn’t much of it at the time, or it simply wasn’t brought over then and nobody has gone back for it. Looking quickly at Wikipedia, 1988 does look like kind of a lull: Urusei Yatsura and Kimagure Orange Road had ended by then, and Ranma 1/2 hadn’t started yet. There was probably at least a bad Project A-ko sequel, or something, right?
You do realize, of course, that the Venn diagram of “TurboGrafix-16 aficionados” and “AARP members” is no longer the empty set? |
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MarshalBanana
 Posts: 5542 |
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How come you are only covering OVAs and Films, weren't there any good TV shows that year?
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Merxamers
 Posts: 720 |
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Gunbuster has a special place in my heart, and i only discovered it a few years ago. That ending makes me cry every time, and i get emotional even just DESCRIBING the ending to others. I liked that Diebuster, like Gunbuster, reflected the trends of the time it was made, and i hope if another one is ever made that it will do the same (tho i wonder what those "trends" would be?)
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treatment
Posts: 149 |
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3/19/88:
Armored Trooper: Votoms ~The Red Shoulder Document: Roots of Ambition~ original video animation almost anniversary time... 
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EricJ2
 Posts: 4016 |
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We wouldn't have known if there was--Back in '88, and probably all the way up to '92-'93, anime was still underground in campuses and laserdisc convention-rooms, and if you weren't in a campus club watching DBZ, Gundam or Urusei raw, the only thing you COULD see translated were OVA's and Features. Mostly from Streamline Pictures ("Robot Carnival" was '87 and "Twilight of the Cockroaches" wouldn't be till '89) or AnimEigo, unless you could afford, and I mean afford, a Books Nippan VHS of Gunbuster. And since the OVA market was so determined to be the dark blood 'n sleaze they couldn't do for mainstream TV, we practically WEL...er, welcomed Dominion for having an actual sense of humor. (Whew, almost got used to typing in All-Shouting-Caps, after reading Daryl's occasional outbursts...New columnist, ANN?  )
...Hey, #3 - "Cinderella Rhapsody" was the good one! Shame about #4 - Final, but that wasn't until the year after. |
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Chocoreto
Posts: 105 |
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LEGEND OF THE GALACTIC HEROES!!!!
Currently reading the novels and reliving the experience, it's amazing no matter any other words you'd use to describe it. Especially the second volume was extremely tightly and nicely written!! I'm so glad that I see it getting the recognition it deserves and I get so mad when people bash it just because 'it's old so only elitists can say they like it'. No idiots. It's amazing because it's amazing, how old something is has nothing to do with it. |
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Spastic Minnow
 Bargain HunterExempt from Grammar Rules  Posts: 4640 Location: Gainesville, FL |
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He did say it was a golden age of direct to video. TV?.... Go ahead. Hit the Encyclopedia tab, go to the right bottom corner, chose "search by genre, theme, year", type in 1988 to 1988, uncheck "movies"... and you be the judge. Also notice how tremendously the OVA's outnumber the TV shows. The only ones that were released in the West, that I notice were a Transformers sequel and Legendary Armor Samurai Troopers (aka Ronin Warriors). |
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Lord Geo
Posts: 2748 Location: North Brunswick, New Jersey |
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A good list, and it does make me wonder what else form that year makes me think fondly...
One-Pound Gospel: A very fun OVA adaptation of Rumiko Takahashi's boxing manga, and the only time Osamu Dezaki ever used his Makura Saki pen name for a directorial role. Would love to see this re-released, but I highly doubt it'll ever happen. Saint Seiya: Heated Battle of the Gods & Legend of Crimson Youth: Ttwo Seiya movies made while the anime was airing in Japan, & both directed by Shigeyasu Yamauchi. The former is pretty much just a prototype for the later Asgard Chapter filler arc, and is the weakest of the movies (in my opinion), while the latter is an outstanding production all around, and easily the best of the movies in general (even including the Heaven Chapter & Legend of Sanctuary films made decades later). F: I've only seen the first three episodes of this TV anime, directed by Koichi Mashimo, based on the racing manga of the same name, but I absolutely loved what I saw. It's about a country boy who's obsessed with going fast, so he winds up moving to Tokyo in order to train to be an F1 racer. Those introductory episodes were just filled with great comedy, drama, & amusement, and I only hope that the rest of the anime is just as good as those first three. Sakigake!! Otoko Juku: Another anime I've only seen bits & pieces of, but I really enjoyed what little I saw. A true Shonen Jump classic that both pokes fun as "manly" action series, while also embracing it to create some truly zany moments. Honestly, I could still see a company like Discotek give this a release one day... Maybe. Xanadu: Dragon Slayer Densetsu: The first anime based on a Nihon Falcom game, but it's also easily the most bizarre. A wild mish-mash a fantasy, a little bit of sci-fi, family-friendly comedy, some hyper-violence (the King is literally smashed into bloody bits via a giant spiked ball!), & even a tentacle monster at the end! It's not exactly "good", but it's unpredictably fun to watch. It's also, oddly enough, a bit of a proving ground for many future names in anime like, Junichi Hayama, Keiji Gotoh, Keiichi Sato, Hideki Hamasu, Michio Fukuda, & Yasuchika Nagaoka, so it's honestly well animated. Too bad it never got more than a VHS & VCD release in Japan.. Yes, a VCD release. Admittedly, 1988 is a little light on "new" works, but at least what did come out that year was generally strong. |
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Zin5ki
 Posts: 6680 Location: London, UK |
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If anything can please me more than to read of the genesis of Patlabor, it is to read the same of Dominion Tank Police. At Justin's advice, the latter was one of the first anime I watched to have been produced before I was born, and thus it was my introduction to the stylistic trends of the era. If only it had enjoyed a similar popularity within the 21st century as some of its contemporaries.
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Codeanime93
Posts: 599 |
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Honestly think even Tomino hated Quess deeply, look at how in the movie he has her spoiler[die for her naiive stupidity.] I honestly think Tomino knew she'd be that annoying. She also contributes to Char's meme lolicon status in Gundam.
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Swissman
Posts: 800 Location: Switzerland |
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The KOR movie "I want to return to that day" was in theaters in late 1988. One of the best anime dramas of all time, Imo. The fifth movie of Urusei Yatsura, The Final chapter, was also in theaters that year. It's one of the better UY-movies. But yeah, I don't know about light-hearted fare which was new in 1988; there were some long running comedy series like City Hunter, but that's it, I guess? |
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PurpleWarrior13
 Posts: 2042 |
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I own two animation cels and pencil outlines from Vampire Princess Miyu (one of Himeko holding Aiko from Part 1, and another one from Miyu and Larva's first encounter flashback in Part 4). It's an incredibly underrated series, and I wish it would be rebooted in anime form one day. I also think it could make an interesting and spooky film. I wish the manga would get a proper release too.
Of course, My Neighbor Totoro, Grave of the Fireflies, and Akira are all classics of cinema, not just anime. |
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Kicksville
 Posts: 1277 |
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Boooooooo Char's Counterattack is something I really didn't...get, at first, but has really grown on me immensely over the years. It has a weird and personal feeling to it, like the whole film is dealing with an uneven personal grudge. Or maybe more accurately, longing and jealousy - frankly, I appreciate it a great deal more after considering a BL framing (which actually isn't exactly a stretch, considering some of Tomino's own words). The place Char went as a character is more daring and interesting than what I think people perhaps even hoped for (spoiler[to some degree, he regressed, and just can't stop USING people]). |
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