Pre Toonami Anime.

[malestrithe]

For a Website I'm working for, Word of the Nerd, I'm planning on doing an expose of Anime released in the West before Toonami, Pokemon, and Yu-Gi-Oh blew open the flood gates and saturated the market. However, my memory of that time is very limited. I do remember seeing a lot of stuff, but not a lot of specific titles.

For this project, I'm looking for anime that was released in the West before 1998. Good, Bad or meh, it does not matter. Maybe, if time and interest permits, I might tackle some of the older more cultish fare.

If you can provide me with lists, links, suggestions, I would greatly appreciate it.

Before anyone says it, yes, it's exactly like Bennett White's Anime Abandon series at TGWTG.com and possibly several other anime centric websites. He's probably an inspiration for the project. However, I am not interested in making fun of old series. I want to expose the WotN readers to a side of anime most of them are quite frankly too young to remember.

 

[Hazy992]

Isn't Akira supposed to be one of the films that popularised anime in the West?

Also Dragon Ball Z first aired in the US in 1996, but got picked up by Toonami in 1998.

EDIT: Sailor Moon too.

 

[Aris Khandr]

*blink blink* Before... what? Toonami was such a late-comer that the entire premise is rather silly.

Anime that was quite popular WELL before Toonami:

Sailor Moon
Gundam
Voltron
Tenchi Muyo
Dragonball (and Z)
Evangelion
Devil Hunter Yohko
Ranma 1/2
Ah! My Goddess
My Neighbor Totoro
Dragon Half

And that's just what's sitting on my shelf right now. Really, asking about "anime before Toonami blew open the flood gates" is a bit like asking about "vampire books before Twilight made them popular". It probably widened the demographic, but didn't bring anything of real substance to the table that wasn't being done in a vastly superior way elsewhere.

 

[malestrithe]

*blink blink* Before... what? Toonami was such a late-comer that the entire premise is rather silly.

No, it's not a silly one. It's an accurate one.

Anime existed in the U.S. before Toonami that much is true. But it was mostly schlock titles and failed OVAs that were cheap to buy the distribution rights to. US Manga Corps, now Manga Entertainment, got its start doing this stuff. Toonami, Pokemon, and Yu-Gi-Oh blew the floodgates wide open and the west got deluged by it. All of the anime most talk about came from this post Toonami period. You'll be surprised by how many people who've never heard of the pre toonami stuff, even so-called anime buffs.

Either way, thank you for the suggestions.

 

[Lunar Templar]

for me it was

Voltron
DBZ
Sailor Moon
Tekkaman Blade (Technoman)
Vampire Hunter D
Akira (i hated it though)
Speed Racer (also not one i liked, but i've seen it)
and
of course
The Samurai Pizza Cats
edit: forgot about Digimon for some stupid reason

 

[malestrithe]

Isn't Akira supposed to be one of the films that popularised anime in the West?

Also Dragon Ball Z first aired in the US in 1996, but got picked up by Toonami in 1998.

EDIT: Sailor Moon too.

I'm happy find someone that knows Akira's importance to anime in the West. I thought I was the only one that remembers Pre Toonami anime.

There is a difference between popularizing and causing market saturation. Akira may have peaked interest and caused people to look at Japan as a place for new artistic endeavors, but Toonami broke down the floodgates and caused companies to realize how much of a cash cow Anime actually is. 75 percent of the stuff out there was released after Toonami became popular (based on a study in which I wrote down numbers until one of them looked about right).

Also, most of the people I talk to fondly remember Toonami and its stuff. They look at me and say Akira Did What Now?

 

[smearyllama]

AKIRA! AKIRA is essentially what brought anime to the US, and due to the surprisingly adult content, it also caused animation in general to be taken a little bit more seriously as a medium, rather than just cheap entertainment for kids. You'd be doing yourself a disservice by not looking into AKIRA.

 

[Hazy992]

snip

I'm too young to actually remember Akira, I just know of it's importance. Not gonna lie, Toonami was probably what introduced me to anime more than anything. Only other thing I was really aware of was Sailor Moon.

 

[malestrithe]

AKIRA! AKIRA is essentially what brought anime to the US, and due to the surprisingly adult content, it also caused animation in general to be taken a little bit more seriously as a medium, rather than just cheap entertainment for kids. You'd be doing yourself a disservice by not looking into AKIRA.

I've seen Akira in early 90s. Was not my favorite. It made very little sense to me. It made even less sense after I've read the manga. Will talk about it though.

 

[malestrithe]

snip

I'm too young to actually remember Akira, I just know of it's importance. Not gonna lie, Toonami was probably what introduced me to anime more than anything. Only other thing I was really aware of was Sailor Moon.

I appreciate your candor. That's what a lot of people I've talked to tell me on a daily basis.

To be honest, a lot of the stuff before Toonami falls into the "Oh Shut up! This movie Does not exist!" category. They were not bad, well most were, but weird.

Roujin Z is the poster boy for this insanity. A sentient hospital bed, made from former military hardware (because they always are) is tasked to take care of an elderly patient. Somehow, the bed thinks it is the patients long dead wife and resorts to its old military programming. It also has high speed chases where the police and this hospital bed shoot it out.

 

[Hazy992]

snip

Yeah and I didn't know it was from Japan at the time. I knew it was different from other things I'd watched but that's about it.

And yeah Roujin Z sounds mental

 

[Aris Khandr]

There is a difference between popularizing and causing market saturation. 75 percent of the stuff out there was released after Toonami became popular (based on a study in which I wrote down numbers until one of them looked about right).

Akira was released in the US somewhere between 91 and 93. We'll say 92, to split the difference. Toonami started in 1997 (the only anime they ran that year was Voltron), and started to take off when they picked up Sailor Moon and Dragonball Z (both picked up from other networks that had already done a lot of the legwork in making them popular) in 1998. So six years between Akira and Toonami actually mattering in any way. It is 2012 now. Fourteen years since Toonami started mattering. Just by basic math, considering the way that the American anime market market was completely over-saturated and eventually collapsed, the idea that only 75% of the releases being post 1998 is actually kind of sad.

And that's just looking at base numbers. Correlation is not proof of causation, after all. Those of us old enough to remember how things were back then see this as much the same as offering SEGA credit for popularizing the home game console. Yeah, when I was young, most of the people I knew owned a Genesis (though I had my NES and later SNES), but that doesn't diminish the fact that they simply hopped onto the back of Nintendo's success. Toonami didn't popularize anime, it simply hopped onto what was clearly a growing trend. That is also not to say that there aren't people who became fans of anime through Toonami. But to actually lay the credit at the feet of Cartoon Network is to grossly misrepresent the foundation that was already established before Toonami arrived on the scene, and without which it would have crumbled.

 

[Sean Hollyman]

Akira, Sailor Moon and DBZ I think.. they're all I've seen anyway

 

[malestrithe]

Snip

1. You are thinking way too much about this. All this does is prove my point that most people think of Toonami for starting it, which is what I'm trying to correct. Foundations were laid sure, so what? Popularity of Anime in the U.S. did not arrive until Toonami in 1998 (and regardless of technicalities, I'm still going with 1998 for this project) Most people think Toonami as starting the Anime movement in the U.S. Argue with that all you want to, does not change the perception I'm correcting.

Also, Akira was released in the U.S. in 89. Limited Release, sure, but still in 1989.

2. What about Anime from the 80s, 70s and before that? Astroboy was the first popular anime in the U.S. and that was 60s. If you factor that stuff into your equations, you will see that anime was in the U.S. for Decades, but most remember the last 16 years.

3. Stop arguing. You're not going to win this debate. The best we will be able to do is stalemate each other and that's it.

 

[Hazy992]

snip

Speaking of the 60s I just remembered something else; Speed Racer

 

[Scarim Coral]

If I remember correctly these anime aired (in the UK) before the birth of Toomani-

Samurai Pizza Cat
Guyver
The New Adventures of Gigantor
Robotech
Technoman
Eagle Riders

I may edit this later as I think there were abit more than that.

 

[Link55]

Dragon Ball
Speed Racer
Dragon Ball GT
Dragon Ball Z
Cowboy Bebop
Sailor Moon
Pokemon
Yu-Gi-Yo
That's all I can remember.

 

[Flamezdudes]

Was Neon Genesis Evangelion released in the west before Toonami? I didn't watch it at the time so I'm not sure. It came out in 1995 though.

 

[malestrithe]

Was Neon Genesis Evangelion released in the west before Toonami? I didn't watch it at the time so I'm not sure. It came out in 1995 though.

I saw it in 1996 I believe.

 

[Soviet Heavy]

Welp, in Canada, we had Sailor Moon, before I even knew it was called anime. Then there was Dragon Ball Z, with the Ocean dub (best Vegeta voice), and I think Pokemon. Then toonami launched in the states, so Canada turned YTV into the poor man's version overrun with 4Kids dubs and no Bebop.