Does Your First Anime Still Hold Up?

[Casual Shinji]

Alfred Jodokus Kwak

I keep forgetting that that was a Japanese-Dutch co-production, and thus anime. So I guess Cowboy Bebop wasn't my first after all. AJK was damn good too, that art style was amazing. Still is, to be honest, that one definitely holds up.

We had a couple of those co-productions in the 80's, come to think of it, I never quite got what sparked that. I know we and Japan share quite a bit of history together, but still.

Well, back then Japan seemed to be on a bit of a Euro craze. There's The Moomins anime, and both Boes and Dommel had anime shows based off Dutch/Belgium comic strips. Then there's Dog of Flanders which has multiple anime iterations, Heidi and Vrouwtje Theelepel (You know Mamoru Oshii co-wrote the script for that? Yeah...) and so on.

Now those were the simpler times. :' )

 

[Foolery]

Cast another vote for Pokemon, and "Hahaha, no." I tried watching the first season on Netflix some time back, it was not that great. If I was feeling generous, I'd say Season 1, Orange Islands, and maybe the first arc of Johto Journeys are somewhat watchable. It's just not worth my time, and my tastes have changed.

 

[Sigmund Av Volsung]

Rurouni Kenshin? Kind of.

It still has some very good moments and is as brimming full of romanticism as always. I kind of wish it capitalised on its potential with a seinen release where the magical elements are excised and its closer to a historical drama, however I still like it.

Trust and Betrayal is great though.

 

[Zetatrain]

An old chinese subbed version of Laptua: Castle in the Sky from the mid 90s. O'yeah, the movie still holds up well, very well.

As for my first anime series. Well that would be Robotech: Macross Saga. Its definitely not as good as when I first saw it, especially after seeing the original SDF Macross, but its still ok.

 

[Ishigami]

This is sort of a test of nostalgia. What's that one show that got you into this subgenre of cartoon, and do you think that the show is still one of your favorites? Have you tried watching it recently?

No not really.
I mean we are talking about stuff like Saber Riders and Queen Millennia in my case. These are shows from the 80ies.
That's basically some crazy stuff since I guess a lot of people here weren't even born when this stuff ran on TV on stations that haven't existed for a long time... it makes me feel old...

I actually tried to have a go at Queen Millennia when it was released as a digitally reworked fansub quite a while back and it was terrible.
I have really fond memories of the show which had quite a few remarkable scenes that stayed with me till this day for example when Yukino faces the tsunami or her ultimate last sacrifice but it just can't hold up. The show is now over 33 years old it is simply to be expected that the animation is lacking and really to the point where I have to say that it is indeed detrimental to the experience of the story and characters.
I really can't watch it.

Still awesome music:

 

[Nuuu]

The first one i remember actually watching every episode of was Bo-Bobo.
I can't say the comedy holds up at my age, but it was one of the most hilarious things i watched back when I was young, and it'd probably still be hilarious for anyone watching at a young age.

Then again my humors heavily dried out nowadays, so I shouldn't be one to judge how funny something is.

Probably a show better watched periodically rather than binged though.

 

[Hypertion]

sailor moon here was my first.

and while the reasons are differant i am quite fond of watching........ them.

 

[Dalisclock]

My first Anime was probably Akira and I think I appreciate it more now then I did when I watched it 15 years ago. That being said, I think it would have worked much better as a series then a film, because then they could have actually expanded on what the hell was going on.

I saw Ghost in the Shell around the same time and I have similar feelings about that. Needed to be a series and the fact that Stand Along Complex and 2nd Gig are so much more fun to watch only reinforces this feeling.

 

[LordLundar]

Oh geeze, I really have to think on this. Believe it or not, anime has been aired in North America for a pretty long time. I think my earliest was either Astro Boy or The Adventures of the Little Prince. As for how they held up? Well in terms of animation quality, I wouldn't put either of them on the level of Akira or Ninja Scroll, but in terms of story and character they both held up well for who they were targeted for.

 

[StormShaun]

How would it be considered a Harem? I can somewhat see it but...

Spoiler

I know it has the part where multiple girls are interested in the main character, so you have that there. The problem I have is almost all other harems I know of take things in a different direction. They are mostly over the top comedies where the main character is too oblivious to understand advances. In Clannad I don't remember the girls ever being super obvious, and if anything never did a whole lot to show any advances.

You then have the fact that the main character waits till the last second to choose someone, or flip flops at times, or you just don't know. In this case, it was obvious from the first minute who it was, and there was never any time where one thought "maybe he will go with one of the others". Especially then the second season has no part where other girls might want him and focuses on Tomoya's and Nagisa's relationship with a few other character stories, I don't see the Harem part.

Then again, it might be because of the source material, which then I can see the Harem tag somewhat.

I think people label a harem because it has more than two girls who like the main character.
With what you said though, I fucking agree with it. I've seen what other harems can do, and what Clannad does goes beyond any of it.
So to me, it isn't classified as a harem.

It's too good to be one.
At least in my eyes.

And the onus for that would have been on you for not paying close enough attention. To Love Ru wears what it is on it's sleeve, so you got no real excuse for being 'surprised' by the content. It's like sitting down with Gundam and complaining about all the Mobile Suit battles.

Well, the words "first anime" are rather important in this case.
All of this roughly falls within early experience.

So this is the point in the life, where I know nothing about anime.
Gundam was my first mech anime, whereas Fullmetal Alchemist was my first shounen. The same for all the others.

So To Love Ru, was my first 'romance' and harem, I'm not exactly in the wrong. From my seat, I thought this is how all anime treated romance, it set the standard until Clannad came along and shat all over it.

It's still shit (enough to the point where the parody, porn managa are better), and I hate myself for falling such a trap.

 

[Fox12]

Ironically enough, despite its iconic status amongst Western anime fans it's almost forgotten in Japan. Though it'll probably get a new boost in popularity on both sides of the pacific once the live action movie gets finished, and despite the pesimism people usually have about that type of adaptation I think it's in safe hands given that Marco Ramirez will be writing it (he's the showrunner of the Daredevil Netflix series)

Really? That's very interesting, I just assumed it was a massive classic there. Out of curiosity, what's the status on the live action film? The last I heard some French guy who hates anime was set to direct it.

OT: My first anime series? That's like asking for my earliest memory. Chronologically it must have been DBZ. I was around five, I think, when it premiered on Toonami. I still remember watching it with Thundercats. It may not be "mature," but compared to the sanitated Disney fare I was used to, it was Shakespeare. It quickly became my favorite show, and series like Digimon and Outlaw Star would evuentually follow. I didn't understand what anime was, then, of course, but it did exposé me to a higher standard of storytelling then I was used to.

As for DBZ, does it hold up? Well, yes and no. The pacing was awful, and the story was a silly convoluted mess. But it had the best action scenes of any series I'd ever seen, the animation holds up incredibly well, and the characters were goofy and likeable to make the plot bearable. Even today it's the only shonen series I can stand at all. It's not exactly NGE, but it's a fun show in its own right. Assuming you keep the rocking American soundtrack, avoid the old lady japanese voices, and skip the filler on your DVDs.

 

[Zontar]

Really? That's very interesting, I just assumed it was a massive classic there. Out of curiosity, what's the status on the live action film? The last I heard some French guy who hates anime was set to direct it.

Last I herd the director was maybe that same guy or maybe someone else since they replaced a lot of people working of the project, but the writer is Marco Ramirez so no matter who directs you know someone competent who also loves the medium is going to be right behind him every step of the way.

But yeah Akira is all but forgotten in Japan, as are a lot of other anime from before the 90s we consider iconic (and even some from after) like Speed Racer, which is so forgotten that the live action movie didn't have the characters get their names changed to their original ones in the Japanese dub but instead remain the American ones. And hell Cowboy Bebop, which was on the air for 15 years here, is a show most in Japan would not know what you where talking about if you brought it up, and this applies even more so to Big-O, which only got a second season because of the American audience.

 

[Lunar Templar]

And the onus for that would have been on you for not paying close enough attention. To Love Ru wears what it is on it's sleeve, so you got no real excuse for being 'surprised' by the content. It's like sitting down with Gundam and complaining about all the Mobile Suit battles.

Well, the words "first anime" are rather important in this case.
All of this roughly falls within early experience.

So this is the point in the life, where I know nothing about anime.
Gundam was my first mech anime, whereas Fullmetal Alchemist was my first shounen. The same for all the others.

So To Love Ru, was my first 'romance' and harem, I'm not exactly in the wrong. From my seat, I thought this is how all anime treated romance, it set the standard until Clannad came along and shat all over it.

It's still shit (enough to the point where the parody, porn managa are better), and I hate myself for falling such a trap.

To be fair, High School DxD and Monster Musume shit all over To Love Ru as well, and those are both Ecchi shows as well.

But, yeah, I guess I can see that, it just didn't sound like you where as 'inexperienced' in your original post. I had a similar run in with Ikkitousen >.> it did not look nearly as bad as it turned out being when I was still really getting into anime, which didn't actually happen till Toonami and the anime shop we had for a while opened up down town.

 

[FalloutJack]

Only Robotech fans know for sure. But if I had to say on the basis of one of the others, I would actually like a copy of Voltron right now.

 

[chiggerwood]

Hell yeah! Outlaw Star is still as awesome today as it was back in the year 2000.

 

[StormShaun]

To be fair, High School DxD and Monster Musume shit all over To Love Ru as well, and those are both Ecchi shows as well.

But, yeah, I guess I can see that, it just didn't sound like you where as 'inexperienced' in your original post. I had a similar run in with Ikkitousen >.> it did not look nearly as bad as it turned out being when I was still really getting into anime, which didn't actually happen till Toonami and the anime shop we had for a while opened up down town.

A lot of things shit all over it. XD

Yet, if I were to be fair.
Which is incredibly hard in this situation, but I can think optimistically, and say that the series did allow me to explore much more richer anime. I mean, Clannad wasn't the only by-product of my salty, salty rage towards To Love Ru. After that I believe I discovered such things as Kimi ni todoke, and weirdly enough, anime from other genres like Trigun for instance.

I feel dirty now.

 

[Lunar Templar]

To be fair, High School DxD and Monster Musume shit all over To Love Ru as well, and those are both Ecchi shows as well.

But, yeah, I guess I can see that, it just didn't sound like you where as 'inexperienced' in your original post. I had a similar run in with Ikkitousen >.> it did not look nearly as bad as it turned out being when I was still really getting into anime, which didn't actually happen till Toonami and the anime shop we had for a while opened up down town.

A lot of things shit all over it. XD

Yet, if I were to be fair.
Which is incredibly hard in this situation, but I can think optimistically, and say that the series did allow me to explore much more richer anime. I mean, Clannad wasn't the only by-product of my salty, salty rage towards To Love Ru. After that I believe I discovered such things as Kimi ni todoke, and weirdly enough, anime from other genres like Trigun for instance.

I feel dirty now.

Shouldn't feel dirty, so long as that bad experience resulted in something better down the line and made you more aware of your 'surroundings' so you can avoid things you dislike, that said, it should also not close your mind to the genera/trope entirely.

There still good stuff up there under those banners, it can just be hard to find and few and far between, which is why I generally tend to hold a 'voucher' requirement for some genera, like the show in question need to have a team that's done stuff I like before, or have some one trustworthy enlighten me on certain details that aren't going to be featured in a trailer or promotional work.

 

[FPLOON]

Tenchi Muyo... The original series... I finally bought it once it was released on Blu-Ray... I say it does and then some... #Toonami4Life

Other than that, the only thing that hasn't hold up was my first hentai series...

 

[fluffybunny937]

I'll always love the Dragon Ball franchise, I grew up with it.

 

[Shoggoth2588]

When I was at that odd edge of time as a toddler/young child with hardly any memory I remember watching Gatchaman. Years pass and Pokemon/Sailor Moon happened but mentally I didn't make the anime connection because I was a dumb kid. I didn't really make the connection and really find out what anime was until a friend showed me Fist of the North Star. That's when I really got into anime was when I spent a night at his place and we watched Fist of the North Star, Ninja Scroll and, Devilman. It was freaking magical but only one of those have aged well. Good luck finding much Devilman (80's Devilman) but Fist is on...I think Crunchyroll. There have been updated OVAs of Fist that are pretty good but the original is...it's not bad but it's a product of its era.