Random Thoughts Thread

[Exhuminator]

You bought them on VHS or you used to rent them?
Which anime was popular back then?

I would drive an hour or two away to larger cities to buy anime at specialty movie stores. I would also mail order anime from catalogs. Back then purchasing anime was not a casual task, and it was a very expensive hobby. That said, there were two video rental stores in my town that had small sections of anime for rent. I rented everything they had and made copies of them onto VHS using the ol' VCR to VCR trick. That said, I also spent a small fortune buying legit anime so I was doing my part in sustaining the industry.

As to what anime was popular in the 90s, that's a very broad question. There was just as much back then as today. In the 90s I was partial to such titles as Ninja Scroll, Battle Angel, Robot Carnival, Agent Aika, Urotsukidoji, F³, and many many others.

[TSTR]

Ninja Scroll so sick; found a DVD of that at an antique store of all places.

[Exhuminator]

Ninja Scroll so sick; found a DVD of that at an antique store of all places.

I won my VHS copy from a contest Manga Entertainment ran in EGM circa 1993. I didn't even know I won until a UPS truck showed up with it a few months later. I watched it that night and I was not at all prepared for how intense and perverse that film is. I loved it.

[Luke]

^NINJA SCROLL and APPLE...apple something*, and FIST OF THE NORTH STAR were big hits 'round my way.

*APPLESEED. Took me a minute.

[RCBH928]

Its funny how when you buy something new you take special care of it and later you just don't care. When I first got my 360 I treated it like it was the original Mona Lisa. Today I use it as a small table for my Dreamcast.

@Exhuminator

clear my up on this, are series only considered as "anime" or does it include movies? Because I rather watch a single movie than follow a 300 episode series.

[Ack]

@Exhuminator

clear my up on this, are series only considered as "anime" or does it include movies? Because I rather watch a single movie than follow a 300 episode series.

I'll answer this for him.

"Anime" is any sort of non-interactive animated video content from Japan, be it shorts, full length movies, series, etc. The term is a bit fast and loose with regard to computer generated material versus that drawn by hand, as most content considered anime nowadays is created digitally.

"Manga" is the term for drawn visual content presented in the form of a book or comic book from Japan.

Anime only comes from Japan. There are similar styles and products from countries like Korea, Taiwan, and the United States, but those have their own titles or are labeled anime-styled, or anime-influenced.

[Exhuminator]

clear my up on this, are series only considered as "anime" or does it include movies? Because I rather watch a single movie than follow a 300 episode series.

To add to what Ack said...

Anime comes in a few formats.

There's series, which are TV series. These usually run the gamut of 12 or 24 episodes. It's uncommon for an anime series to ever reach the length of 300 episodes. TV series usually have lower quality production compared to other anime formats. However due to their length, plot and character development is allowed to evolve into complex narratives.

There's OVAs; these are usually 1 episode or 6 episodes long. OVAs are direct to video anime episodes, not normally shown on TV. Think of them as one off episodes or very short series. OVAs usually have higher quality production than TV series. OVAs usually allow for a fairly high degree of plot and character development, not as much as TV but more than films.

And then there's movies. Anime movies are exactly that, highly produced theatrical releases spanning the length of one film. Being a movie, these have the highest budgets of all. But being only an hour and a half in length on average, plot and character development is minimal compared to OVAs and series.

So if you're in it for amazing production values, go for movies. If you are in it for really awesome stories, go for TV series. If you want something in the middle, OVAs are where your best bet is.

[BogusMeatFactory]

@Exhuminator

clear my up on this, are series only considered as "anime" or does it include movies? Because I rather watch a single movie than follow a 300 episode series.

I'll answer this for him.

"Anime" is any sort of non-interactive animated video content from Japan, be it shorts, full length movies, series, etc. The term is a bit fast and loose with regard to computer generated material versus that drawn by hand, as most content considered anime nowadays is created digitally.

"Manga" is the term for drawn visual content presented in the form of a book or comic book from Japan.

Anime only comes from Japan. There are similar styles and products from countries like Korea, Taiwan, and the United States, but those have their own titles or are labeled anime-styled, or anime-influenced.

Wait...Avatar the Last Airbender isn't anime?!

[Ack]

Wait...Avatar the Last Airbender isn't anime?!

Neither are ThunderCats, G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero, The Transformers, or Challenge of the GoBots...though the movie Revenge of the GoBots is.

[fastbilly1]

Wait...Avatar the Last Airbender isn't anime?!

Neither are ThunderCats, G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero, The Transformers, or Challenge of the GoBots...though the movie Revenge of the GoBots is.

Thundercats was Rankin Bass, but Gi Joe and Transformers were Toei Animation