Anime Annual Squeeze 2 (1981-1985)

1981

The Good (2)
Ashita no Joe s2
Space Battleship Yamato s3

The Bad (1)
Tiger Mask s2

And the Meh (7)
Urusei Yatsura
Dash Kappei
Machiko Sensei
Doctor Slump
Ulysses 31
Queen Millennia
Dagram

The 80s came in bursting with the brand new genre of school comedies, establishing school as the most overused setting, and slowly replacing space adventures. I see these series the same way I do with classic giant robot shows. Fun to watch a few episodes per week, but nothing really changes since there is no plot continuity, thus they are all treated as meh.

I unfortunately have to place there even Ulysses 31, a kid favorite, which despite having some of the best battle themes and nice tributes to Greek mythology, all of which taking place in space, there isn’t much of a plot.

I also place there Queen Millennia despite having plot continuity, an exciting end of the world scenario, and a solid ending. The reason is simple; the protagonist is a chick. Leiji could never make an exciting series with a female protagonist because it always had to be about love and friendship, and being treated as the perfect waifu. Which, granted, he did eventually the same with Captain Harlock as the perfect husbando, but nonetheless, it’s a boring series because it’s not very action or adventure based.

Which is pretty much the same problem as Dagram, despite having mostly men fighting using guerilla tactics with giant robots. The first dozen episodes are very exciting because they have plot continuity and unusual fighting style. Unfortunately, the show had to be stretched unnecessarily for many more seasons, the result of which is no plot whatsoever. The ending is solid by the way; it’s just that by then you are not feeling anything about whatever is going on. It basically suffers from the Inuyasha syndrome and fortunately the Gundam franchise made the 8th MS Team in the 90s to give us a much better replacement.

In other news, many great shows ended last year, only to be replaced by mediocre school comedies and the return of the dreadful Tiger Mask. This is definitely not that good of a year and I rank it above 1974, simply for having 2 good series instead of 1, and below 1978 which had 3. This does not mean I rank years by the number of good shows, the ratio of bad to good also matters, with the mediocre titles acting as tie breakers.

///

1982

The Good (1)
Macross

The Bad (1)
Tiger Mask s2

And the Meh (14)
(7 School Comedies)
Space Adventure Cobra
Captain Harlock: My Youth in Arcadia
Ulysses 31
Queen Millennia
The Mysterious Cities of Gold
Xabungle
Dagram

1982 has Space Adventure Cobra, which is Lupin the Third in Space and translates to fun but plotless. There is also more Captain Harlock, which I no longer like hereon because they kept rewriting and rebooting and changing his backdrop, while making the stories more and more depressing to the point of vomiting. This is not why I was watching the original, and why it’s meh from here onwards. The Mysterious Cities of Gold, excellent adventure that even teaches you some history and culture, but unlike Future Boy Conan it’s low on action and eventually loses momentum as it goes in circles. Same problem with Xabungle, it has an excellent space western setting, fun characters, naughty humor, sets specific objectives, and then does very little with any of that. And now you can forget those titles since we got the original Macross, one of the best action adventures with dense plot continuity and lovable characters. Unlike its numerous lukewarm continuations and spin offs, the original is amazing and a must watch classic.

As for the ranking, 1982 has 1-1-14, and is placed above 1971 which had 1-1-5.

///

1983

The Good (1)
Macross

The Bad (3)
Dunbine
Dallos
Orguss

And the Meh (25)
(14 School Comedies)
Kinnikuman
Captain Tsubasa
Barefoot Gen
Captain Harlock: My Youth in Arcadia
The Mysterious Cities of Gold
Space Adventure Cobra
Votoms
Mospeada
Xabungle
Dagram
Vifam

1983 was a major descent, since everybody was trying to make the next Gundam or Macross and were failing terribly, since they didn’t know what the hell they are supposed to do with a war drama in space. We were just getting a ton of sci-fi with weak plots, which are a total drag to watch by today’s standards. And no, I am not a fan of Barefoot Gen either despite taking itself a lot more seriously; it’s not very well animated, voice acting sucks, and Grave of the Fireflies did it ten times better. There were also the kill ‘em all endings that were getting out of hand; so many shows were wrapping up simply by blowing the fuck out of everything and resetting life or civilization. And you know how I hate resets; just because they don’t use time travel does not mean they are not resetting everything. It’s because of those shows that 1983 has way more bad than good, and goes almost at the very bottom. Thankfully Macross is still around and makes this year slightly better than the terrible 1976.

///

1984

The Good (4)
Fist of the North Star
Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind
Macross – Do You Remember Love
Locke the Superman

The Bad (5)
Galient
Laserion
Dunbine
Dallos
Orguss

And the Meh (25)
(11 School Comedies)
(8 Mecha)
(4 Sports)
Glass no Kamen
Lupin the Third part 3

1984 brings us the beginning of fighting shonen with Fist of the North Star, which is still a cult classic worth of checking out if you are a fan of GAR. Miyazaki begins making movies, starting with the most famous Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, and Macross gets its spectacular movie version Do you Remember Love. There is even a rather low budget movie named Locke the Superman, which despite being mostly gore schlock, it is done brilliantly and remains a fine action flick for retro fans.

In the bad side of anime, mecha series continue to increase in numbers, nothing sticks out, and what is worse they begin using children as protagonists, which makes the whole thing retarded since they don’t do anything. The concepts of the shows are amazing, the robots are cool, the weak and passive kid protagonists ruin it all. For this reason the bad exceed the good once again by one. I place 1984 above 1973 for also being a year with bad exceeding good by 1.

///

1985

The Good (3)
Area 88
Zeta Gundam
Fist of the North Star

The Bad (2)
Galient
Laserion

And the Meh (21)
(6 School Comedies)
(7 Mecha)
(6 Sports)
Dirty Pair
Lupin the Third part 3

And lastly for this video, 1985 gave us Area 88, one of the best serious war dramas and Zeta Gundam, one of the not so serious war dramas because Tomino characters are bipolar. Nonetheless it still belongs in the good titles of the franchise. This year has 1 good title more than bad, so it is placed above 1981 for having the same analogy with fewer titles.