Here is a list of the titles we showed at our panels at Anime Festival Orlando 2015. If you liked the information we presented, consider listening to and/or subscribing to our podcast if you aren’t already doing so. You can also read our reviews of newer material over at Otaku USA Magazine.
Short Anime: 15 Minutes or Less
(pre-panel) Namie Amuro – Defend Love PV
Robot Carnival – Opening
Cromartie High School
DD Fist of the North Star
Kick-Heart
Gdgd Fairies
Hi-sCoool! SeHa Girls
Animator Expo – I Can Friday by Day!
The Animatrix – Program
Detroit Metal City
Osamu Tezuka’s Broken Down Film
On Your Mark
Robot Carnival – Star Light Angel
Thirty Years Ago: Anime 1985
Megazone 23 Part 1
Vampire Hunter D
Area 88
Dirty Pair TV
Dream-Dimension Hunter Fandora
Leda: The Fantastic Adventure of Yoko
Goshogun: The Time Etranger
Bobby’s Girl
The Dagger of Kamui
Captain Tsubasa Movie – Big Match Europe
Cosmo Police Justy
Fire Tripper
Urusei Yatsura Movie 3: Remember My Love
Fight! Iczer-One
Blue Comet SPT Layzner
Touch
Ninja Senshi Tobikage
Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam
Angel’s Egg
Night on the Galactic Railroad
A Little Princess Sara
Magical Emi the Magic Star
Minky Momo vs Creamy Mami
Lupin the Third: Legend of the Gold of Babylon
Penguin Memories: A Tale of Happiness
For the protection and well-being of all present (that, and time considerations since this ran a bit long) we did not show Odin: Photon Space Sailer Starlight or acknowledge that it came out in 1985 despite having clips at the ready. The Armored Trooper VOTOMS: The Last Red Shoulder OAV was only mentioned in passing since my copy of it isn’t that good looking, and Mospeada: Love Live Alive was omitted since it’s not exactly got much in the way of new content produced for that year. It’s probably best if we just don’t mention the examples of shoddy American cartoons made in that year.
Wait, you canned Odin for Fandora? Really? REALLY?
Well, you know your market better than I could ever guess, and metal bikini girl is a more clear crowd pleaser compared to slow glittery sailing ship in space, and points for not being The Humanoid.
But man, that “Let’s board our ship NOW!!” scene is so damn glossy and loud and crazy…
It’s not that I didn’t have that exact scene in the playlist. It was just going to be the second to last clip, and by the time I got to talking World Masterpiece Theater, I saw I only had 10 minutes left, so the last several clips all had to be cut short to fit them in. To cut any scene in Odin short is to deprive it of its terror. No, the AWA version of this panel will just have to truncate even more (somehow) in order to ensure there is a full 3 minutes and 45 seconds worth of guys in popped collars running down halls.
I fully understand the problem when you’re kind of editing on the fly. Maybe next time this panel is done, see if you can get a 90 minute slot?
Given some of the other titles on the list, I would not treat 3m45s of guys in popped collars running down halls (and jumping into seats, flipping various switches and making things light up, mind!) in a dismissive manner. It’s actually something you could almost make a clip show out of because it was a ‘thing’ then. I can recall that exact same kind of motion- running to something, flinging oneself into the seat, frantic switch flipping leading to lots and lots of lighting effects, then ACTION!- that’s part of the OP for Dragonar, pretty sure that happened in Gal Force, I know it was part of Mighty Orbots, that arcade LD game called..oh, crap, I think it was Cobra Command. And on and on.
Wait, is that an Obari deal? 🙂
So much hate for Photon Space Sailor Starlight is undeserved. Storywise it’s a mess but man the visuals are great as is the soundtrack. Seriously a rock soundtrack on a science fiction anime ? Shouts 80s to the core.
It’s fair to say the story is a mess, but that’s because a. there’s a LOT of story and 2 hours wasn’t the right format, and b. far too much time spent was talking about stuff Nishizaki was really into (hard science fiction and ‘procedural’ stuff like all the process of casting off). The pages and pages of notes for Yamato 2520 discussing the birth of the universe, the ‘cosmic egg’ theory, superstring theory, and magnetic monopoles, all fascinating but dull dull DULL and really, not terribly important to the story at hand. It’s great he liked to find some real (if theoretical) basis for story points and technical worldbuilding, but man, leave it in the notes. 🙂
(Yamato 2199 does continue the tradition but it’s handled much more smoothly)
Odin was supposed to be a trilogy of films, according to production notes, but they tried to cram enough story to be a stand-alone film. It does make for a turgid mix. Sure is pretty, tho. So glossy and shiny.