[4Tran]

Originally Posted by DonQuigleone

Well, as far as I'm aware, the major gap for me for the 90s are the Masterpiece theatre type shows, but I didn't necessarily get into Anime for that type of thing. If I wanted Heidi, or the Dog of Flanders, I'd actually read those books.

I feel much the same way, but can the same not be said of manga?

Originally Posted by DonQuigleone

As for choosing vintage shows to watch, my first port of call is usually MAL, rather then the reccomendation of any given person (my experience with reccomendations has been poor, randomly picking stuff off MAL goes better for me, the higher up the list it is, the more likely it is to be good, particularly with old stuff).

While random recommendations can be very hit or miss, basing your selection on MAL isn't necessarily a good remedy either. Using this method, you're a lot less likely to come up with a real stinker, but you're going to miss a good selection of older works. Th oldest thing on your list is Legend of the Galactic Heroes: Overture to a New War, and that only goes back to 1993. On top of that, MAL is effectively an internet poll, and internet polls are absurdly unreliable to begin with. This is especially true since the tastes of less discerning viewers is given greater weight than the rest.

A more reliable method would be simply to take the creative people in your favorite anime, and see what else they've worked on. Or just check out the works of the masters: Miyazaki, Ishiguro, Takahata, Dezaki, Tezuka. Outside of the Ghibli films, these guys' works are pretty much ignored by the fandom.

Originally Posted by DonQuigleone

Now if you're saying there's some amazing Anime that's not on that list (perfectly possible), due to a) being somehow overlooked by the 1000s of Anime fans out there or b) not being fansubbed, then I admit that there would be perhaps more. But I have no way of meaningfully knowing the existence of those titles. If I was somehow alerted to those titles I'd watch them and probably enjoy them (as I have with LoGH, Gunbuster, Cowboy Bebop, All the Ghibli movies...) but as they have not been brought to my attention through either a) buzz or b) presence on MAL or ANN's top list, there's little I can do.

Buzz is barely relevant to older works, and the taste of anime fandom is relatively questionable. One thing that I can suggest to get over your hangup on sports shows is that you check out Hikaru no Go. It's a great show that also serves as a non-intimidating entry into the genre; the first five episodes should let you know whether it's worth watching or not.