Ye Olde OVAs
You remember way back when anime came out on these chunky black plastic things called "VHS" and several of them only had two or three episodes, six, (if you were lucky) but REALLY GORGEOUS visuals?
Yes, I'm talking about those things.:heh: Weren't those things lovely?:) Do older members (or perhaps younger ones) have any particular ones that you still treasure today? Let us talk about them here. :) Maybe bring underrated or forgotten ones to attention and even make some recommendations? I will go first. http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s...e/IMG_9017.jpg Princess Rouge I've talked a little bit about this OVA on here before but I'll repeat it's my all-time favorite one. I just find everything about it irresistibly enchanting. This is the unfinished one that hurts me the most. But I still adore it. I rented it on VHS from my not-so-local anime shop. Then I bought the tape. Then when it finally came out on DVD, I bought that. :heh: But I still won't get rid of that tape...because the cover of the tape is much cuter! The preview for this beautiful little OVA was what sucked me in, which you can watch here: Perhaps it will work its magic on you too. ;) http://www.absoluteanime.com/my_dear_marie/index.jpg Boku No Marie This was actually the first OVA I saw and the first "magical girlfriend" and "ecchi" anime I saw as well. I bought it on VHS when I was fifteen because "the pink-haired girl looked cool". XD (Pink is my favorite color lol) But the most attractive thing was that the girl had huge white wings so I thought she might have been some magical angel or something. Marie turned out to not be angel but a robot who had much kindness like an angel but flaws like a human (and robot). And she was awesome. The dub was actually very very funny with an outrageous script (as only ADV films could bring us). Episode 3 has the most accurate portrayal of how dreams flow while you are asleep. I was really impressed with that. http://www.absoluteanime.com/galaxy_...yuna/index.jpg Galaxy Fraulein Yuna I think it would be impossible for everyone on THIS forum to be new to Yuna.:heh: After all, it's game-based, Chisa Yokoyama, Pink Bishoujo Ghetto, super-moe, 90S STYLE. Do not tell me Yuna does not have fanboys here!!:heh: Yuna came on two tapes: one with two light-hearted episodes and one with three "heavier" episodes. I find drama more memorable so I have preference over the second episode set, even though the ending makes me sad.:( http://www.ex.org/5.2/images/cover_rane.jpg Yousei Hime Ren OMG THIS ANIME.:heh: This is probably the most nonsensical hour of animation I've ever watched. But it is really fantastic if randomness is your thing. And also if you like the work of this crazy genius!! Nobody quite knows how to put anime on crack like him.:D http://www.absoluteanime.com/shinesman/index.jpg Shinesman I find this to be the best parody of sentai genre ever, to be honest. And the dub script always gets me rolling on the floor laughing. They love breaking that fourth wall! I highly recommend this OVA to sentai fans and sentai parody fans. So, those are my favorites. There are too many OVAs to go through one by one like this so I'm just going to list the rest that I've seen/heard of. Gunsmith Cats Record of Lodoss War Ninja Cadets Vampire Princess Miyuu Sailor Victory Geobreeders Dragon Half Earthian Knights of Lamune The Adventures of Kotetsu Mahou Tsukai Tai Master of Mosquiton Photon The Girl From Fantasia Mamono Hunter Youko Voogie's Angels Angel's Egg (or is this a movie? I don't know :confused:) If you are a fan of any of these, give a holler on this thread, okay?;) And make sure you mention what makes them special/memorable to you. SPREAD THE NOSTALGIA!! I miss these days....:( |
Yes I remember them and I even got a few of them and watch them still
|
Quote:
|
Elf Princess Rane. Consider its spastic speed -- AND -- it's done with cel animation. :eyespin: Too bad it's only 2 episodes.
Went about and torrented Red Photon Zillion, and I'll be going through that series... after having watched the OVA on TV well over 15 years ago. Gunbuster. This one is a must see. |
Rebuild of Evangelion 1.0? Isn't that considered 1990s?
|
Seen most of them too! Gunbuster IS highly recommended, and Project A-ko wasn't half bad. And don't forget the original Appleseed too.
|
Quote:
Quote:
.....it's possible nobody even thought of the rest of the story though. :heh: Quote:
Quote:
|
Your poll is missing the 80s...tons of great OVAs from the 80s. An aside, when I first got into anime fandom "OAV" seemed to be the more common term. Perhaps it was an English fandom thing? When more people started calling them OVAs, the excuse I heard was that OAV implied it was a porno. :heh:
Anyway, my all time favorite OVA is Gunbuster. That is the show that made me an anime fan. I had watched a few of the early North American commercial VHS releases (this was in the very early 90s before I had ever seen a fansub, so my exposure to anime was low), and none of them really caught my fancy beyond being something different from Western animated material. Then came the US Renditions VHS release of Gunbuster (around 1991 or so?). I first saw this when the Mom 'n Pop rental shop (remember those?) I used to frequent in my early college days got the first tape in. It blew me away and has remained one of my top anime to this day. This was one of the first pieces of anime that I purchased ($40 a tape for two episodes, yeah). As for some underrated OVAs, I always thought Kishin Corps was one. It always seemed to be overshadowed by Giant Robo. I am not a mecha fan at all; if I watch mecha anime the mecha are secondary to other elements (plot, characters, etc.) However, I love the mecha in Kishin Corps. Watching this series I can understand those fans that obsess over the design of mecha in other shows. Speaking of dubs, back then I avoided dubs like the plague, because many were quite bad. Plus, with VHS you had to choose, and getting stuck with a crappy dub hurt when you were already paying at least $20-30 for a one or two episode tape. After getting burned on really bad early dubs (like Bubblegum Crisis) I swore them all off. However, when US companies started releasing bilingual laserdiscs (and I got into LD in a big way in the mid-90s), I started listening to a few dubs and actually liked some of them. Dubbed OVAs I liked included: Oh My Goddess - the OVA from 93-94 is the only part of this franchise I like. And the dub was quite good, I am willing to listen to either the Japanese or English on this one depending on my mood. You're Under Arrest - again, the OVA is the only part of YUA that I like. I actually prefer the English dub for this. Macross Plus - I still can't believe the dad from Malcom in the Middle voices Isamu. :heh: El-Hazard: The Magnificent World - another one where I prefer the English dub entirely (I think I've only watched the Japanese once). And here's a few other OVAs that I liked back in the day that weren't on your list: Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket - the only Gundam that I really enjoyed (and again, it wasn't because of the mecha). Patlabor - I'm listing a lot of mecha shows, but I like them for other reasons I swear! :heh: Video Girl Ai - seriously truncated from the manga, but I still loved it. Also liked DNA2. Here is Greenwood - I always wondered why this OVA received two different English dubs. I think I have a soft spot for this because Minaguchi Yuko voices a character in episode 4, and I always loved her voice (Inokuma Yawara, what a sweetheart). Ambassador Magma - I liked this because when I was a kid I had really enjoyed the live action "Space Giants" dubbed version of Magma Taishi. However, when I got older no one I knew had ever heard of "The Space Giants" and wondered if it was some figment of my childhood imagination until I saw this OVA. Key the Metal Idol - the first "trippy" anime I got into. New Cutie Honey - has one of my favorite ED songs "Circle Game" for the first two episodes. Please Save My Earth - another OVA that really chopped up the manga, but still great. I've said before but it's really a shame the OVA has mostly gone away and been replaced by one cour TV. A lot of one cour TV shows would be better off if they were shortened down to six episodes and had higher production values and less filler (yeah, filler on a 12-13 episode show is pretty sad). |
Quote:
|
Quote:
Quote:
http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/OVA Quote:
Quote:
|
Of the older OVAs, I own the DVD of Macross Plus, which I will watch one of these days(I guess I'm not sure if I want to watch it without having seen the original Macross or the Movie Macross: Do You Remember Love, which I will look into seeing if I can import that Blu-Ray that comes with a game)
I have also seen Area 88, which was a good 80s OVA. The first ED (the one that goes "how far to paradise") was actually great for the mood of the whole thing. It was sort of a bittersweet experience really. |
Quote:
Nevertheless, OAV phases out and that leaves us with OVA to use. When used in acronym form, we could careless about the grammatical aspect of it. === On second thought, "video" could be used as an adjective. e.g. video tape, video cassette, etc. |
Of course I remember old '90s OVAs. However, '80s OVAs are a lot more nostalgic for me. :heh: Anyway, I'll list some '80s and '90s OVAs that I like that have not been listed yet.
Vampire Hunter D(1985) Hades Project Zeorymer(1988-1990) Riding Bean(1989) Roujin Z(1991) Harlock Saga(1999) Fight! Iczer-One(1985-1987) Adventure! Iczer-3(1990-1991) Kimagure Orange Road OVA Series(1989-1991) Landlock(1996) Mobile Suit Gundam 0083: Stardust Memory(1991-1992) Mobile Suit Gundam: The 08th MS Team(1996-1999) All Purpose Cultural Cat Girl Nuku Nuku(1992) |
Don't OVAs still exist nowadays?
|
I got into anime relatively late... at 25 to be precise and the reason why earlier production didnt suck me in were the strange visuals/character design and bad story telling of the earlier animation.
It is interesting to see that there are so many lovers of the good old anime days and it proves the concept of the golden childhood age in my opinion. What we experience in our young days will burn itself irreversibly as the best thing ever in our brain. |
Quote:
However, for anything released as just as an OVA (instead of a complement to an existing series) like Riding Bean -- not that I know of. |
Quote:
Though the latter eventually became a series... |
Quote:
Denpa teki na Kanojo and Hellsing Ultimate come to mind as a few contemporary ones. |
Quote:
Honestly, the anime that changed me from being a casual fan to a hardcore one is the old Vampire Hunter D OVA that I mentioned in my last post. It definitely is a very fond memory that was etched into my brain. I can still recall the first time I watched that anime like it was yesterday. :) |
Really needs to be more people than just the OP and myself that have seen Dragon Half! Hilarious, zany use of Mozart in the ED theme, but most of all...Dick Saucer! DICK! SAUCER! Even people who aren't normally into manly fab characters usually dig Dick Saucer!
Others I've seen: Geobreeders El Hazard: The Magnificent World Lodoss Wars Photon There's probably more but I really can't remember off the top of my head. |
All times are GMT -5. The time now is 02:08. |
Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.11
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions Inc.