Here they were liberal with the censorship, i remember i was little and nothing prepared me for OAV like Alita Battle Angel, or The Legend of Lemnear...around mid-late 90s this time...Steamflogger Boss wrote: ↑Thu Nov 23, 2023 12:50 am There was an anime scene here in the 90s but it was a lot smaller. Really *just* before my time entering the fandom so I'm going off the word of older fans about it. But really even when I got into it (like 2002) there was still largely a huge stigma around it in the US.
I think the value (for me) is what they left inside me. Is nearly indescribable...vol.2 wrote: ↑Thu Nov 23, 2023 1:25 amI grew up in MD, so we had Otokon in the mid 90s when it moved from U Penn down to Hunt Valley. I was at the first few of them before I moved away. It was basically started by guys like that who were trading stuff. I was also lucky enough to have a local comic book store that rented VHS tapes of anime. A lot of them were all those early OAVs from AnimEigo and Genon, but also all of the first Viz stuff to be released in the states like RanmaBryanM wrote: ↑Tue Nov 21, 2023 1:47 pm In my youth we had almost nothing. Voltron and pretty much nothing else. My favorite show was Thundercats, which probably ruined my life and made me overly sympathetic to furries.
Pretty much anything that was a break from the norm was like mana, so OVA's like Lupin and Fist of the North Star were the vanguard. I saw them on this weird TV station that felt slightly illegal. Reading about how college kids in that time had to make friends with clubs overseas and they'd trade tapes of shows is such a trip.
On local TV, we also had Macross in the form of Robotech, Speed Racer, Astro Boy, and translated Miyazaki stuff played on Nickelodeon; I first saw Nausicaa on Nick in must have been the late 80s or early 90s, definitely before HS
I think the reason that the journey to find the thing is what creates the value. imho, it's not the value of "working for it," it's the actual experience of interacting with the world that enriches cultural media. As a long time record collector, there has always been something fun and special about going to the record store, or having a conversation with a friend and stumbling upon new music that adds to the enjoyment. Of course it's still possible to do that, but most people are just sticking to the Spotify playlists at this point. It's great for set-it-and-forget-it, but not so good at creating strong connection and personal meaning to the music. It's psychological element to the media that's somewhat lost or replacedYou tend to value something more if you have to go out and work to get it. (My trash-digging hobby really is an embodiment of that sentiment. For every 1 thing I find that I like, I have to sift through like 20+ things that I don't.)
Perhaps with anime though, it was the scarcity of it here in the early days that created the value. I feel lucky that I got to watch Macross in the Japanese form in the early 90s, and I had the "rentals" at the comic store; I absolutely treasured all that stuff back then, and I would watch anything I could get my hands on lol. Even today, I still have a kind of reverence for older anime that stems from those times
I miss this, i miss the detailed hand-drawn animations, mature dub, the 88/2000s aesthetic (and some later exceptions).Steamflogger Boss wrote: ↑Thu Nov 23, 2023 2:04 am I've probably mentioned this before, but anime is horrifically overproduced now. The goal of anything has always been profit but a lot of stuff getting worse has lined up with tons more being pumped out. There are still some interesting series but you really have to dig.
The stories were also written better...the characters were deeper...
Ye, now everything is predictable...animations are simplified with 2D/3D CGI and the plot is always the same...they can't push my imagination and sense of immersion like older stuff
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oh god, stop! Strong Breed doesn't work orally!
the comparison to BLAME isn't one I make lightly!
