Dream Dimension Hunter Fandora - 1985

[Area88]

DREAM DIMENSIONAL HUNTER FANDORA - 1985

Dream Dimension Hunter Fandora is a 3 part OVA series from 1985. Another project fansubbed by ACR, Japanese with English subtitles. Based on the work of Go Nagai, this is in many ways what Dirty Pair would be like under his influence and direction. Expect the usual dose of violence, fan service and action. This is a great, unique blend of fantasy and science fiction.

Episode 1 (version 3), unzip both parts to get one complete file:

Fandora 01 - (Version 3) - Part 1 (Direct Download)

Fandora 01 - (Version 3) - Part 2 (Direct Download)

Fandora 01 - (Version 3) - Download Torrent

Version 3 (see screenshot on page 2) includes:

+ Higher Video Quality (higher bitrate, file size)

+ Revised Subtitle Timing (fixes a few errors)

+ New Attractive Font (more readable, compliments animation better)

Torrent & more updates coming soon.

Edited July 17, 2008 by Area88

[danth]

Dude, is this subbed?

[MisaForever]

Yea really. I'd watch it but I prefer a sub. Please inform.

[ComicKaze]

Come on guys! It's classic anime! I'd take it in ANY format that I could get my hands on!

Is this related to Dream Hunter Rem?

Edited July 5, 2008 by ComicKaze

[MisaForever]

Come on guys! It's classic anime! I'd take it in ANY format that I could get my hands on!

Is this related to Dream Hunter Rem?

Yes, but it's MUCH MORE ENJOYABLE when it's understood what is happening.

[Area88]

Yes, this is subtitled. ACR is fansubbing this 3 part OVA series.

No relation to Dream Hunter Rem, just by coincidence has a similiar name.

Edited July 5, 2008 by Area88

[Mercurial Morpheus]

Ah, the sub's finally out. Thanks.

[ComicKaze]

Yes, this is subtitled. ACR is fansubbing this 3 part OVA series.

No relation to Dream Hunter Rem, just by coincidence has a similiar name.

It's too bad only half of one OVA of Rem was released.

[MisaForever]

When I first saw this thread title, I read it as Dream Dimensional Hunter Fedora... and I was like "TEH ANIMATED INDY!!!"

[MisaForever]

Nyahaha I roffled at the Macross-like music. So Gainax'y and 80's, I love it

[danth]

That was way cool. Whenever I watch quality old school animation like that, I just can't get over how much better it is than the new garbage. New anime has washed out colors, poorly drawn characters, jerky animation...it's just ass. You can't beat eighties animation.

Oh yeah, apparently Go Nagai created this show. Crazy.

Edited July 6, 2008 by danth

[Mercurial Morpheus]

While I agree that 80s anime is great, what new shows are you watching? That's a pretty big blanket statement; and not a very accurate one at that. If anything, colors have gotten much more vibrant thanks to digital paint techniques (which started off looking horrid like Sol Bianca the Legacy, but has great improved to CAPS quality). Though some shows use muted palettes, as that's the directors choice. Watch something like Gankutsuou and try to tell me it looks "washed out". Character design is largely opinion. Animation quality varies from show to show, but the 80s was the height of Japan's "detail over fluidity" mentality. Anime is way more fluid now than any 80s TV show. Only movies and some OAVs match the average "Garbage" on TV today. Even than, it's largely subjective and depends on budget, studio and director. A lot of anime is still quite static as is preference (versus american animation preference of fluidity at all costs).

Heck, take Macross as an example. Ignoring chara designs as being of mostly opinion, Frontier is way more vibrant, fluid, and consistent than even A-team animated episodes of SDF Macross, even if it uses shortcuts like CGI (which ityself is a step above most). It's not until you get to DYRL that you have animation that can match it.

I love the look of old, cel painted series too, and the 80s had some awesome chara and mecha designers, but to call new stuff ass just because said designers have changed is just ridiculous. The 80s had plenty of crap too. It's just rightfully buried.

Edited July 6, 2008 by Mercurial Morpheus

[ComicKaze]

While I agree that 80s anime is great, what new shows are you watching? That's a pretty big blanket statement; and not a very accurate one at that. If anything, colors have gotten much more vibrant thanks to digital paint techniques (which started off looking horrid like Sol Bianca the Legacy, but has great improved to CAPS quality). Though some shows use muted palettes, as that's the directors choice. Watch something like Gankutsuou and try to tell me it looks "washed out". Character design is largely opinion. Animation quality varies from show to show, but the 80s was the height of Japan's "detail over fluidity" mentality. Anime is way more fluid now than any 80s TV show. Only movies and some OAVs match the average "Garbage" on TV today. Even than, it's largely subjective and depends on budget, studio and director. A lot of anime is still quite static as is preference (versus american animation preference of fluidity at all costs).

Heck, take Macross as an example. Ignoring chara designs as being of mostly opinion, Frontier is way more vibrant, fluid, and consistent than even A-team animated episodes of SDF Macross, even if it uses shortcuts like CGI (which ityself is a step above most). It's not until you get to DYRL that you have animation that can match it.

I love the look of old, cel painted series too, and the 80s had some awesome chara and mecha designers, but to call new stuff ass just because said designers have changed is just ridiculous. The 80s had plenty of crap too. It's just rightfully buried.

Digital painting might get you brighter colors or better gradients and beautiful backgrounds but the inherent laziness in the cost-saving technique (click, paintbucket fill on mask) will never capture the texture and flow of colors, lightning, and shadow as was in 80s animation. It also seems that the dynamic action, energy effects, speed effects, character designs, and mechanical designs of the 80s are a lost art and we'll never capture those little touches that always seem to appear in 80s animation to surprise you at the intricacy of a certain something even if the overall animation isn't that great.

Edited July 6, 2008 by ComicKaze

[danth]

While I agree that 80s anime is great, what new shows are you watching? That's a pretty big blanket statement; and not a very accurate one at that.

I've sampled a lot of new anime. The only recent stuff that impresses me, animation wise, is Haruhi and Ghost in the Shell. If you wanna tell me what other new shows have great animation, I'll check them out.

If anything, colors have gotten much more vibrant thanks to digital paint techniques (which started off looking horrid like Sol Bianca the Legacy, but has great improved to CAPS quality). Though some shows use muted palettes, as that's the directors choice. Watch something like Gankutsuou and try to tell me it looks "washed out".

I always hear this opinion that old anime has "washed out colors." The only possible reason I can see why people would have this opinion is if the video itself is made from faded masters or something. Because largely, old shows have rich, almost wet looking color, while new shows look practically pastel. And be assured I've seen a ton of old and new anime, so yes, this is a large blanket statement.

Character design is largely opinion.

I guess, but I'm talking about poorly drawn characters. I actually like a lot of the new character designs, but in new anime, characters are pretty much off-model in every frame. Ever seen Twelve Kingdoms? I love the box art, and all of the creator's artwork, but the animation is horrible. The characters in the anime look hideous.

The there's stuff like Haruhi. I don't particularly like the chara designs, but the characters in the show are drawn so carefully that it's just pleasant to watch.

Animation quality varies from show to show, but the 80s was the height of Japan's "detail over fluidity" mentality. Anime is way more fluid now than any 80s TV show. Only movies and some OAVs match the average "Garbage" on TV today.

Except a lot of old shows had great detail and great animation, whereas new stuff typically have neither. I mean, sure, the "mentality" of eighties animation, you could argue, was to have a lot of detail, but in reality, back then they had big budgets, lots of talent, Japanese animators, and dedication to quality. Now days, regardless of the mentality, 80's-quality animation is rarely achieved. Look at the Itano Circus for example, that stuff requires many cels per second, and yet they did it back in the "detail over fluidity" days. Now they do that stuff with computers, which is fine if you like watching video games. The whole thrust of computers in animation is to reduce cost, not to make better cartoons. It happens with everything in capitalism: once something becomes profitable, it must maximize profit, and quality suffers.

Even than, it's largely subjective and depends on budget, studio and director. A lot of anime is still quite static as is preference (versus american animation preference of fluidity at all costs).

I know that anime has traditionally had less cels per second that US animation, but if you look deeper, you'll see that a lot of old-school anime, even though animated at 12 images per second, really took advantage of each image and had stunning artwork at each "frame", whereas new stuff looks more like 6 frames, and it's not even as well drawn.

Heck, take Macross as an example. Ignoring chara designs as being of mostly opinion, Frontier is way more vibrant, fluid, and consistent than even A-team animated episodes of SDF Macross, even if it uses shortcuts like CGI (which ityself is a step above most). It's not until you get to DYRL that you have animation that can match it.

Well, it's hard to compare Frontier's computer stuff with SDF's; of course it's more fluid, but for me personally, I'd rather watch hand-drawn animation. I'd take an Itano-directed episode of SDF any day. I think the episode of SDF where Max chased Miria into the Macross is the best animation ever made. But anyway, the non-cg parts of Frontier are really bad, in particular the character animation. It looks like modern-day Anime Friend.

I love the look of old, cel painted series too, and the 80s had some awesome chara and mecha designers, but to call new stuff ass just because said designers have changed is just ridiculous. The 80s had plenty of crap too. It's just rightfully buried.

Like I said, it has nothing to do with character designs, although I think new character designs kinda suck as well. But yeah, the 80's had it's share of crap too -- ironically, Anime Friend-animated episodes of SDF Macross were among the worst.

I realize that much of this argument is subjective, but that's not the end of the argument. Beauty is subjective, but how many dudes would rather make the sexy time with Roseanne Bar instead of Jessica Biel? You can also look at things like budget, cels per second, man-hours per episode, and that's all objective.

But what really gets me is this: new anime isn't even hand-drawn. The animators "draw" by bending lines with a mouse in vector-based drawing programs, instead of free-hand drawing. And it really shows because the curves in modern character drawings look awkward and unnatural. Why do they do it this way? Because it's cheaper: they can just "bend" the lines to make a new digital cel instead of redrawing everything.

And what's this crap where characters have to talk out of the side of their faces just so they don't have to draw one more cel. Talk about cheap.

[Renato]

I agree with most of ComiKaze and Danth's opinions, and I'm sure Area88 feels the same way or he wouldn't be putting this much effort into trying to dig up all this stuff.

It ties in with what I wanted to ask a while back, Danth, what is your avatar from? It looks like a Yoshikazu Yasuhiko design, who is one of the greatest manga artists, illustrator, animator, etc.

He doesn't do anime anymore, he only draws Gundam: The Origin these days.

He, like similar 80s hero Haruhiko Mikimoto, developed his style into a more "pointy" look (particularly the nose) during the 90s. These days I can't really see that much of the original charm in the drawing style of Mikimoto.

I think less care is taken these days in the drawing of certain lines and curves.

[danth]

It ties in with what I wanted to ask a while back, Danth, what is your avatar from? It looks like a Yoshikazu Yasuhiko design, who is one of the greatest manga artists, illustrator, animator, etc

I love Yoshikazu! But I don't know what my avatar is from. It's actually a piece of fan-submitted art from an old Animage magazine. Unfortunately it's a tiny picture printed on grainy paper, so the grain really shows in the scan. I'm gonna download GIMP and try to clean it up.

[Mercurial Morpheus]

I've sampled a lot of new anime. The only recent stuff that impresses me, animation wise, is Haruhi and Ghost in the Shell. If you wanna tell me what other new shows have great animation, I'll check them out.

Two shows by Kyoto and IG respectively. Both companies are known for large budgets and consistent animation. Gainax, Shaft, Bones, Ghibli, Madhouse and 4c are also known for this. Sunrise tends to be decent. Gonzo shifts on project to project from great to blah. Toei, Pierrot, and Deen are usually okay to awful. Everyone else is about average. As always it depends on the project.

I always hear this opinion that old anime has "washed out colors." The only possible reason I can see why people would have this opinion is if the video itself is made from faded masters or something. Because largely, old shows have rich, almost wet looking color, while new shows look practically pastel. And be assured I've seen a ton of old and new anime, so yes, this is a large blanket statement.

Actually, I never stated that I was of the opinion that old anime is washed out, so if you're implying such, you're mistaken. I merely stated that digital paint allowed for a greater range of color, thereby rendering a statement that newer animation looked "washed out" as ridiculous. One need only look at the CAPS system to see the gradients it allowed in just its first uses to see the truth there. The range allows for the "pastels" you speak of. Since cel painting permitted more solid colors instead, of course old school stuff might appear more translucent in presentation. A lot of TV shows had very simple color ranges. I'd say the chroma has remained the same. The only difference is that newer animation can benefit from a much more varied palette. You think Sheryl's hair would've been plausible with cel painting? Maybe, but it would've been a huge headache. Whether the studio wishes to to this is up to them. Light colors have gotten popular, as has the muted look. Even stuff like Vampire Hunter D used mimimal colors to set tones back in the day. So yes, it is a large blanket statement. One that compares apple and oranges.

I guess, but I'm talking about poorly drawn characters. I actually like a lot of the new character designs, but in new anime, characters are pretty much off-model in every frame. Ever seen Twelve Kingdoms? I love the box art, and all of the creator's artwork, but the animation is horrible. The characters in the anime look hideous.

The there's stuff like Haruhi. I don't particularly like the chara designs, but the characters in the show are drawn so carefully that it's just pleasant to watch.

Twelve Kingdoms was an early 2000s series that ran 45 episodes and was animated by studio Pierrot, a company never known for having the best consistency, especially in later years. They do specialize in long series, and have probably learned to stretch a budget. Compared to the more recent, much shorter Haruhi, done by Kyoto, a studio known for lavishing money on cafeful animation, of course there's a difference.

Having just watched the latest Code Geass, I can say that every character has remained on-model throughout the episode, and it's by Sunrise.

Still, I don't see how you can argue that this is anything new. As even you've admitted, TV animation in the 80's was just as inconsistent. Keeping Macross as an example, it was admitted that Misa hardly ever actually looked like her character design. Then you have Gunbuster, which has near flawless animation.

Except a lot of old shows had great detail and great animation, whereas new stuff typically have neither. I mean, sure, the "mentality" of eighties animation, you could argue, was to have a lot of detail, but in reality, back then they had big budgets, lots of talent, Japanese animators, and dedication to quality. Now days, regardless of the mentality, 80's-quality animation is rarely achieved. Look at the Itano Circus for example, that stuff requires many cels per second, and yet they did it back in the "detail over fluidity" days. Now they do that stuff with computers, which is fine if you like watching video games. The whole thrust of computers in animation is to reduce cost, not to make better cartoons. It happens with everything in capitalism: once something becomes profitable, it must maximize profit, and quality suffers.

True, a lot of old shows had great animation, but again, it depends. A lot of old shows also had passable animation. Even more shows had great animation with many, many scenes of sloppy animation. A lot of the new shows I've seen have had splendid animation, and detail befitting it's style. Still others have the pitfalls of their older brethren. I don't think I've ever seen anything as bland as you describe. What are these "typical' shows?

Anime has branched a bit in that the new techniques, I think, allow a little more freedom in look. So some show use simpler styles. It also depends on modern mentality. I love the ridiculous detail some old mecha shows had. That look may not always be what is wanted today. I've been watching Code Geass, Kamen no Maid Guy, and Golgo 13 and the animation has always befitted the scenes they depict. It again is subjective. A lot of the older shows looked just as good, and just as bad.

In terms of eighties mentality, I mention it as a fan of both Japanese and US animation. Hence the old argument over priorities. The Japanese have always prioritized detail over movement when budget allowed. By the eighties, it was down to a fine art. Movement only when needed. Remember in VHD how the count never even moved for most of the film. It was because he didn't have to, so he became a talking head. Still, you had plenty of shows with crap detail in some scenes to allow easier animation.

Trust me, you're preaching to the choir on the over use of CGI. I've had a long hate affair with GONZO for pushing it, and how people loved it. I still shudder at how reviewers called Last Exile, "the most gorgeous anime ever" when it relied on moderately detailed ships flying in straight lines, CG'd for no apparent reason. I only tolerate it if it's justified. If the complexity warrant it, then I'll stay quiet.

The opening shot in DYRL is still a favorite due to all the non-computer assisted detail in it. Same as the fly through in Beautiful Dreamer. I hate the Star Wars SEs for the very same reason.

Still, modern techniques and the overall maturation in the art has allowed for much more fluidity in recent years.

Remember that animation has always been about money. it was a lot less obvious before the bubble burst.

I know that anime has traditionally had less cels per second that US animation, but if you look deeper, you'll see that a lot of old-school anime, even though animated at 12 images per second, really took advantage of each image and had stunning artwork at each "frame", whereas new stuff looks more like 6 frames, and it's not even as well drawn.

Again, this is a horrid blanket statement only made acceptable by the use of "a lot of". I'm not saying the 80s stuff didn't or couldn't look great. Just that its on par with today. Your statement paint it like everything from the 80s was genius, and 00s animation is cheap. Trust me, the frame rates are the same, if not higher, as is the detail, but it depends on who's making it and what they're resources are. Heck the Zeta movies are a great example to this. You can't tell me modern movie level animation looks worse than mid 80s TV animation. At the same time, the old animation still holds up well. It seems like an unfair comparison, but it proves my point. It all depends (the new animation was the only good thing out of said films, but that's another thread). Toward the Terra is another great example. The old movie looks great. The new series is about on par, with much more detailed designs, and just as fluid animation. The color is also worlds more varied. I like some scenes better in the film, and vice versa. I'd say the TV looks better having been done now than if it had been done in the 80s as a TV. Conversely, I'd take the Dirty Pair Movie over Flashes look any day. So saying "a lot of old animation looks better than new" is a weak, pointless argument. As it can be proven true in it's vagueness, and can just as easily be proven untrue. most of your grievences appear much more based on tastes than objective comparison.

It's like saying Dexter's Lab is the epitome of western animation. One need only look at The Thief and the Cobbler to see extraordinary animation, drawn mostly on 1s, with superb detail that proves this untrue. There's a shot of a cog so precisely animated, the commentator had to point out that it wasn't CG.

By your criteria, one could argue

80s = high detail, lush color perfection

90s = so-so detail, bland color

00s = CGI, pastels/muted color, simplistic (your view)

It wouldn't be wrong, but it's awfully unfair and narrow.

You do not need to defend old stuff from me, as I'm a huge proponent of old-school. I even ran an anime club that championed oldschool, for crying out loud. What I'm saying is that anime hasn't really changed much, and that you're judging everything as a whole, when really it's a case by case thing.

Well, it's hard to compare Frontier's computer stuff with SDF's; of course it's more fluid, but for me personally, I'd rather watch hand-drawn animation. I'd take an Itano-directed episode of SDF any day. I think the episode of SDF where Max chased Miria into the Macross is the best animation ever made. But anyway, the non-cg parts of Frontier are really bad, in particular the character animation. It looks like modern-day Anime Friend.

Precisely. Apples and oranges. Based largely on opinion, and ignoring of simple truths. I prefer hand stuff too, but this discussion is about claiming all new anime is stilted and has degraded from the 80s, which you just admitted it's not. The best animation ever, in terms of technical prowess and not just opinion, would probably be the afore mentioned Thief and the Cobbler. Specifically the War Machine sequence. Seeing as it was drawn on 1s and directed by a guy so anal, he'd throw away a day's worth of shooting if one hair landed on a cel.

My personal favorite is Sleeping Beauty. Absolutely gorgeous animation is every way. Beautifully rendered, with exquisite backgrounds done mostly by one guy, and just the right amount of fluidity. It's a moving painting.

Though amusingly, the better the animation, the simpler the story it seems..

I think the character animation is fine and no worst than anything in SDF. What's your criteria for saying that anyway? The often lush backgrounds? The often on model characters moving rather fluidly? The great effects animation for lighting. How is it anything like the crap Anime Friend put out? We've not had a mannish looking, horribly off model Sheryl stiltedly run at an unmoving Alto with a knife against a plain, simple background. Then proceed to fight an important scene using all of two frames of animation.

Sure, it's had it's production errors, but now you're just being silly. ;;

Like I said, it has nothing to do with character designs, although I think new character designs kinda suck as well. But yeah, the 80's had it's share of crap too -- ironically, Anime Friend-animated episodes of SDF Macross were among the worst.

At least now you admit it. Though I thought you liked most new chara designs? The crap versus gold ratio is pretty much the same. There's just more of everything know, and the crap is more obvious.

I realize that much of this argument is subjective, but that's not the end of the argument. Beauty is subjective, but how many dudes would rather make the sexy time with Roseanne Bar instead of Jessica Biel? You can also look at things like budget, cels per second, man-hours per episode, and that's all objective.

Actually it, and mostly opinion, which does end the argument. The fact of the matter is that the quality is about the same. The only difference is that production has gone up, stretching talent and budget, new techniques and design preferences have taken hold, and a lot more crap gets it's day in the sun than before. Whether you view this positively, negatively, or passively is up to you.

But what really gets me is this: new anime isn't even hand-drawn. The animators "draw" by bending lines with a mouse in vector-based drawing programs, instead of free-hand drawing. And it really shows because the curves in modern character drawings look awkward and unnatural. Why do they do it this way? Because it's cheaper: they can just "bend" the lines to make a new digital cel instead of redrawing everything.

Now this is something I've not heard of in my years of studying animation. Where did you read this? Anime studios effectively use something similar to the CAPS method to my knowledge. even if such a technique were used, I doubt everyone's doing it, same as how some studio stuck with cels for a long time.

Everything is hand drawn. It's just scanned into a computer and painted instead of being inked and painted. Why? Because it is cheaper. That's true. it's also faster, and allows better control over the finished look. Gankutsuou's frozen patterns look would be impossible without said techniques. Even Disney's new paperless process, used because of Eisner's retarded dismantling of CAPS, uses stylists and drawing pads. The only difference there is there's now nothing to scan, but it's still hand. What you're describing is full on 3D animation. One of the reasons such doesn't impress me as much. I find this hard to believe. Do you honestly think studios would find such a method easier? Drawing with a mouse is much harder. I know, as I've tried.

If you have proof to the contrary, I'd love to read it. I've found precious little on japanese production techniques. Seeing as they've long emulated animcan ones, the methods I've described sound more logical. I don't recall ever seeing a modern making of stating use of vector graphics outside of full CGI.

And what's this crap where characters have to talk out of the side of their faces just so they don't have to draw one more cel. Talk about cheap.

A really old technique dating back to the 60s. Heck, the Japanese almost never animate chins. It is cheap, but nothing new.

I really don't know why we're arguing. We're both hardcore old-school fans (even Area 88 can vouch for me), but personally I have nothing against modern stuff. It's not better, it's not worse. It's just different. Personally, I just hate it when someone slames new anime because it's different just as much as when newer fans slam old anime because it's, well, old.

Still, as an artform, it's just getting more refined as techniques become perfected. It all depends on talent, length, format, and budget. Just like it always has.

This post has gotten long enough, and I'm tired of proofreading it. I've even been snipped twice. Truce as fellow old school fans?

Comic Kaze, my bit on digital paint was merely in response to "new animation looks washed out" and wasn't meant to be a comment on the virtues of either technique. I love the work that goes into the hand method, but even I can't argue with using a cheaper, faster, much more flexably method just because "it's lazier". There's was plenty of lazy cel painters too. Why else do we have color errors and background drawing done in one color instead of the correct three or more.

Also, danths avatar looks familiar, I just can't place it.

Edited July 7, 2008 by Mercurial Morpheus

[danth]

I really don't know why we're arguing. We're both hardcore old-school fans (even Area 88 can vouch for me), but personally I have nothing against modern stuff....This post has gotten long enough, and I'm tired of proofreading it. I've even been snipped twice. Truce as fellow old school fans?

Absolutely. Especially after seeing your huge reply! Arguing further would just be too much work!

But seriously, the important thing is what we have in common, and there's no point in getting into an argument with the one member of Macrossworld who lives less than 40 miles from me. I realize my point-by-point reply to you looked like I was trying to "pick a fight," but that's not really what I was after -- I just love talking about this stuff! Still, a passionate debate about this sort of thing starts to feel personal, even if it really isn't, and it's off topic anyway. So a truce is probably the best idea.

For the record, I think you're a cool guy and you make a lot of valid points. But I still think there is something "missing" in almost all new anime that can't simply be dismissed as opinion or nostalgia, but arguing that would be an epic undertaking and could be the basis of an entire website. And if it makes you feel better, even though ComicKaze and Area88 probably feel the same way as me, almost nobody else does! On every other web forum where I've made my opinions on new anime known, I've been totally dog-piled. From what I can tell, my opinion is super unpopular.

My argument is a tough sell because most defenders of new anime absolutely deny two of my basic premises:

1) One can talk about general trends in anime (for instance, you objected to my "blanket statements")

2) One can talk about levels of quality or aesthetic value in anime (you said it's all subjective, which ends the discussion)

Also, when I said new anime was "ass," it was an unfair exaggeration born of frustration.

Oh, wait. Here's where I ask you a favor. If you recommend some new anime to me, I will totally go watch them (and not just to trash them). I really, honestly, truly want to find some new anime that really wows me. Since we have a lot of the same old-school tastes, you're probably an ideal person to recommend something for me. And I know this isn't some honor I'm bestowing upon you -- you would totally be doing me a favor. So it's only if you feel like it. What do you say?

Edited July 8, 2008 by danth

[Area88]

Wow this thread went off topic.

When I try to justify why I love the animation style from the 80's more than anything else, it always comes down to a huge adoration and preference for the character designs and colour palletes animators used at the time.

I also only love the look of cel animation, i can't tolerate the look of digital ink even remotely. CGI doesn't cut it for me either.

While there's been debate in this thread about TV series, it's the OVA's from the 80's that are the defining reason why I prefer anime from this time period. The majority that came out in 1985 and 1986, for instance, were mostly all ambitious, experimental and boasted new high produciton values that eclipsed almost anything that came before it. Every OVA had a completly different feel to the last. Artwork, music and content had huge diversity between titles, everything had that sort of 'new' feeling.

You can see the shift from highly detailed to a less, more fluid style of animation in the original BGC series. Episodes 1-3 were very detailed but a little choppy in places. Later episodes went for fluidity, this transition started to occur around 19988/89. This is why I love the mid 80's the best and almost all my posts on these forusm reflect this, few are outside the 1984-1987 bracket.

This debate is a blast from the past, me and danth participated in a one on another, less inviting forum, well over a year ago. Things didn't go down well at all. Neiither one of us really posts there anymore. This forum is full of much more friendly, open minded and intelligent people.

Although it stirred up alot of controversy last time these pics were used, here are some comparison shots that heated the debate:

Edited July 9, 2008 by Area88

[Greyryder]

When's the torrent going up? That second file's not working for me.

[ComicKaze]

When's the torrent going up? That second file's not working for me.

Part 2 works perfectly fine. You can only download 1 file at the time on megauplaoad

[Greyryder]

I only downloaded one at a time. I even tried downloading the second part a second time. &zip refuses to extract the file from the .rar.

EDIT: Managed to extract it, but it still won't play. Not even VLC will open it.

Edited July 11, 2008 by Greyryder

[Area88]

Greyryder, try using WinRAR, both .rar files should be in the same place. Extract part 1 and part 2 should unzip automatically, giving you just 1 complete file.

The torrent will hopefully be soon, the guy who uploads all the stuff onto our tracker is not responding right now.

[Greyryder]

Okay. I didn't know that the two .avi files needed to be merged. I figured out how to do that with 7zip. I've got the whole thing in one piece, now. Thanks everybody.

[Area88]

Episode 1 (Version 3) released:

+ Higher Video Quality (higher bitrate, file size)

+ Revised Subtitle Timing (fixes a few errors)

+ New Attractive Font (more readable, compliments animation better)

See front page for more details. Screenshot below:

Edited July 16, 2008 by Area88

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