Old School Anime - The 90s and Back

[Kaji Motomiya]

So...we're at 2011, right? New decade. But 2000 was the new millennium. So...where does the term "Old School" come in?

Anime like Mobile Suit Gundam, Dragon Ball Z, and Sailor Moon originated before 2000, and most anime that people can think of now and then they consider "old school" were definitely thought of as the prime of anime. The year 2000 rolls on by, and as the years pass, anime's become...quite different than how it was back then. Anime now are more fanservicey, IMO, than the anime then. I mean, look at Bleach. The mascot girls in the series, such as Orihime, Rangiku, and Yoruichi have the breasts the size of exercise balls (exaggeration).

But that's not the point of this thread.

Get on point, I want to know, the anime before from the 1990s and backwards, which anime series did you enjoy the most? Anime from our childhood that was brought to the US, or that you watched in Japan or Philippines or respective countries that showed it.

--

To me, I think my favorite anime of the time was....hm, it's really hard to call this one "old school". It was developed and released in 1999 in Japan, but made its way to the US in 2001. So it's past the new millennium, but it certainly felt pre-2000. Its second season, however, was developed by both Japanese and US minds in 2003. I'm talking about Big O, not as much of a classic in Mecha Anime, but honestly HAS made its mark within that territory.

Really, it IS hard to consider that a 90s anime, but it's something to me that felt so old school because it was prominent during my grade school days.

But if you want me to REALLY go past 2000, then I'm not gonna say Pokemon or Digimon or anything. No, that's too easy. Even Yu-Gi-Oh! is too easy to pick out. I think that...I'd go more with...Medabots. I would say Beyblades, but that contributed more to collecting that my anime interests. Medabots to me were kinda cool; "pet" robots that can fight and interchange their own parts. A sort of mecha anime IMO, but isn't the mecha anime where the main character rides it like one giant suit. It....was interesting. Definitely made its mark in my anime list as one of my top favorites in classics and in general.

 

[KouAidou]

Yu Yu Hakusho is one of my favorites of that era. The character designs are the perfect balance of 80s and 90s style. The anime does get padded out pretty badly, but it's not as bad as a lot of shows of that type (both before and after). More importantly, the show actually rewards you if you stick around to the end, rather than petering out the way some do.

I love YYH, I could just ramble on about it for days...

 

[Kaji Motomiya]

How does it end in the anime, anyway? Adult Swim never showed it after the the ex-Spirit Detective guy, the guy with the mole on his forehead.

 

[bigone]

Old School can mean different things to different persons for me its Era has to at least pre Dragon Ball since thats the First Full First Run TV Anime i Viewed if your your taking manga it has to Be Ashita No Joe

 

[Kaji Motomiya]

Mostly anime. Manga back then never came in the form it's in now. Back then, the books were huge, like comic books. Even had the quality of comic books, like the Electric Tale of Pikachu comics I used to buy back in the day, or that one DBZ chapter when Piccolo died.

 

[KouAidou]

How does it end in the anime, anyway? Adult Swim never showed it after the the ex-Spirit Detective guy, the guy with the mole on his forehead.

Wow, seriously? That's... so crummy of them. The Demon World arc is awesome, and pleasantly short.

I really recommend watching the last arc for yourself. It's quite short (only about 20 episodes long), full of amazing character beats that are difficult to describe in text, as well as some really spectacular animation.

However, if it's unlikely that you'll ever get your hands on the last episodes, I'll do my best to describe it.

(Warning: Extremely long and spoilery description of the last arc of YYH. I'm mostly going off of memory, but I watched it again fairly recently so it should be pretty accurate.)

[HIDE]Yuusuke feels uneasy about this whole "some dude possessed me and made me kill Sensui" thing. He decides to go to the Demon World to meet his demon "father" and hash things out with him. Kuwabara stays behind in the human world, because he's decided that he wants to do right, take the entrance exams and get into high school. Keiko is angry at Yuusuke for leaving again. Yuusuke tells her he loves her, and promises to come back in three years and marry her.

It turns out that the Demon World is in the middle of a power struggle between three demons: Raizen (Yuusuke's father, who rules a military sort of clan), Yomi (a blind demon who rules over a modern technopunk city), and Mukuro (a creepy masked demon who rules an underworld society).

Raizen is on the verge of dying of hunger, having made a vow never to eat humans. Mukuro and Yomi know that war will erupt after he dies. As Yuusuke meets and clashes with the dying Raizen, Yomi and Mukuro send messages to the Human World to recruit their own generals in the upcoming war. Their chosen generals are Kurama and Hiei, respectively.

Kurama and Yomi are old friends from Kurama's days as a Yohko. It turns out Kurama is the one who blinded Yomi back in the day, a punishment for his recklessness. Still, modern-Kurama decides to help Yomi. He goes to the human world to find more powerful demons to fight by their side, and brings back some favorites from the Dark Martial Arts tournament: Chuu, Link, Jin, Suzuki, Shishiwakamaru, and Touya. They train with Genkai to bring out their full potential, and Yomi accepts Kurama as his right-hand man.

As Hiei is thrust into a test of strength with a hundred demons under Mukuro's command, we learn about his backstory. He was a forbidden child; a fire demon in a country of ice maidens. He was was thrown out of their country as a baby and left for dead, but was saved and raised by thieves. When he came of age, he asked a man named Shigure to implant his third eye so that he could find the country of the ice maidens and slaughter them all in revenge. Shigure also trained him in the basics of fighting. As it turns out, Shigure is Mukuro's current right hand.

Raizen dies, and Yuusuke inherits his clan. He meets some of Raizen's old drinking buddies at the funeral, including a demon named Enki. They're jocular types, and it turns out Raizen was quite similar to Yuusuke -- he loved a good fight with friends, wanted to be stronger, and clearly had a weakness for the woman he loved. We learn that the reason Raizen decided to stop eating humans was that a thousand years ago, he met a woman who humbled him for the first time. The woman made love to him, spawning the line that would eventually lead to Yuusuke himself.

Yuusuke goes to meet with Yomi to discuss the terms of the upcoming war. Yuusuke's solution is typical Yuusuke -- hold a fighting tournament! The winner of the tournament will be the undisputed ruler of the Demon World for four years. Kurama and the others (Chuu, Link, etc) declare that they'll fight on Yuusuke's side if it comes down to a war, so Yomi decides to go along with the fighting tournament idea. He uses his technological prowess to raise a creepy clone-baby "son" of his own, literally bred for fighting, to help guarantee his victory in the tournament.

The tournament gets underway. I won't recap all of it, save to say that it's quite short, and some really spectacular and fun stuff happens in it. The highlights:

Kurama fights Shigure. He realizes how using the power of the Yohko has been turning him more and more into the cold-hearted demon he used to be. He voluntarily reverts back to his human form in the battle, and manages to scrape out a pyrrhic victory using his classic strategy and plant-control powers.

Hiei faces down Mukuro, who has revealed her unmasked form, a half-mechanical monstrosity. As a fellow misfit, Mukuro feels an affinity with Hiei. She defeats him after ripping his Black Dragon Wave in half. Hiei promises to stay by her side until he can get strong enough to defeat and kill her, but it's clear at this point that the respect between them has become mutual. (Bear in mind that this is the first time in the series that Hiei has lost a fight to anyone but Yuusuke.)

Yuusuke fights Yomi, and it's clear that Yomi is the toughest opponent he's ever faced. During the fight, Yuusuke finds himself questioning what he's doing here. He remembers his battles with Sensui and Toguro, and wonders if he'll become the same type of man, a demon who lives only for fighting, getting stronger, and terrorizing people in order to find more powerful opponents.

In his moment of doubt, he remembers the friends he's made through fighting, and the people he's protected. He rediscovers his human ki, which melds with his demonic ki to become something previously unseen. This new ki pierces Yomi's perfect defense. They're forced to give up their DBZ-style aura boners and duke it out, classic brawl-style. It becomes clear that Yomi and Yuusuke are bonding through this slam-down, drag-out match of equals, much the way Kuwabara and Yuusuke did way back before this all started

Yomi hits Yuusuke hard, and Yuusuke blacks out. He wakes up two weeks later, and realizes that he has lost. The eventual winner of the tournament is Raizen's old friend Enki, who seems a very humble, kind, and capable leader. He declares that as long as he is ruler, demons must stay out of the affairs of the Human World and must not eat humans. It's just as Raizen would have wanted.

Yuusuke says goodbye at Raizen's grave, and decides to take a journey through the Demon World, while Kurama returns home to be with his family (his mother has remarried and he has a new, younger step-brother). Hiei is also staying in the Demon World as Mukuro's right hand. He asks Kurama to return Yukina's necklace, but Kurama tells him to return it himself.

It's three years later. Kuwabara has grown into a fine young man, very popular with the girls in school. Of course, he still carries a torch for Yukina, who is living with Genkai as her assistant. Keiko is very popular in school as well, but doesn't date anyone because she's waiting for Yuusuke. The portal to the Demon World has been permanently opened, since demons no longer pose a threat to humans. Hiei is working with Mukuro as a sort of policeman, helping those humans who accidentally wander through the portal.

Genkai has called Kurama, Kuwabara, Shizuru, Yukina, and Keiko to officially bequeath them care of her temple after she dies. After the meeting, the others stop by the beach. Keiko looks out over the sea and yells at the horizon, scolding Yuusuke for not keeping his promise to come back to her.

Of course, just then, Yuusuke appears. She tackles him, they kiss. The whole gang frolics in the water in fine style as the full-sized OP theme and credits play. Good times all around.[/hide]

(Didn't I tell you I could ramble about this show forever? )

Anyway, again, this all happens over the course of about 20 episodes or so. It's very fast-paced and fulfilling; every major character gets a payoff to their arc and it makes the whole show feel like a complete story.

Honestly, the fact that CN refused to show it after getting all the way through the Sensui arc is just bizarre. And depressing. :disappoin

 

[Kaiju]

Old school? ...90's ????

 

[Painted_Outlaw]

The anime does get padded out pretty badly, but it's not as bad as a lot of shows of that type (both before and after).

Really? I thought the show had pretty much no filler. ?_? (I know they cut a few chapters from the start but...)

How does it end in the anime, anyway? Adult Swim never showed it after the the ex-Spirit Detective guy, the guy with the mole on his forehead.

Toonami showed that arc, not Adult Swim. Iirc, AS only showed some of the first arc before it went to Toonami.

Honestly, the fact that CN refused to show it after getting all the way through the Sensui arc is just bizarre. And depressing. :disappoin

They showed it all but [hide]Everything from Yuusuke's 2nd death onwards was shown on regular CN at 5:30AM. And y'know that scene with the OP playing over Yuusuke and Keiko kissing? Welp, they started playing it, but then the announcer girl (they had for the shows at the time) started ranting about seeing Grim (from Billy and Mandy) in the grocery store the other day. And it then went to TMNT right after.[/hide]

 

[Kaji Motomiya]

I know it's kind of weird to explain. WHen I think of "old school" anime, or "classics", I think of anime BEFORE the year 2000. I mean, LITERALLY before the year 2000. Like 1999, 1987, etc. Honestly, after the year 2000, anime got...mad boring.

 

[KingRanger]

Old school? ...90's ????

My thoughts exactly :sly: