(Each decade
throughout history brings about a new legion of Otaku. While we’ve seen a huge boom in the last 20
years or so, incase you haven’t noticed I tend to go back a little further with
certain titles. My beginnings in Anime
go back to the early to mid 90’s with some titles even coming from the 80’s
themselves (when I first saw Voltron I never knew it was Anime in origin). Well, now that Gundam Month Mark II is all
over, it’s time for another month long event for the blog. Only this will be exclusive to T5W. For the next few weeks I’ll be looking at the
last four decades: the 80’s, the 90’s, the 2000’s and the 2010’s so far and
selecting my Top 5 Favorite Titles from each decade.)
With the 80’s behind us, let’s move on to my Top 5
Favorite Anime of the 1990’s, the decade where most of my all time favorite
titles came from.
#5: Mobile Suit
Gundam Wing and Mobile Suit Gundam: The 08th MS Team
Yes it’s a tie. But
there’s no way I could make this list without acknowledging the breakthrough
Anime title of my life and one of the best Gundam entries from the 90’s I found
because of it. I don’t think I need to
say much about Gundam Wing. It was the
juggernaut title that made Gundam a household name. Maybe it was because of the premise, the
characters, the twists and turns writing or the general suits themselves. Whatever the case, Wing still stays with me
as a title near and dear to my heart.
And because of it, I found 08th MS Team a year later and man
is it an awesome show. Brutal mecha
combat, including one of the best Gundam battles of all time (and you’re not
even really rooting for the 08th Team themselves, Norris Packard is
that bad ass). 08th MS Team
may surpass Wing in overall quality…but just go back to the beginning of the
paragraph and re read why Wing sticks around with it in this slot. Without these two shows, my love for Gundam
(which I dearly name my blog after) would not be as great.
#4: Neon Genesis
Evangelion: The End of Evangelion
NGE as a whole is pretty damn impressive. But it was the feature length film finale
that left a huge impact on the way I look at Anime. The brutal loss of characters id come to care
about. The overall sense of helplessness
knowing the good guys were not going to win.
And in the end, it haunted me for days but this depiction of the end of
the world is beyond incredible overall.
Sure it doesn’t wrap up every single plot point from the series, but
what it does is give fans a better end than the series ever did. Even if we lose most of the cast, they have a
moment to shine. The Eva’s themselves
get one last hurrah and Anno’s gets to give his saga the animation and
theatrical upgrade it’s always deserved.
It’s gorgeous, it’s epic and the effect it has will stay with you forever…and
you will never be able to get that cheerful sounding apocalypse song out of
your nightmares for a good long while as well.
#3: Ghost in the
Shell
What’s funny about this is, the first time I saw this
film I almost swept it under the rug.
For this being a movie that inspired “The Matrix”, the lack of action
was kind of disappointing. But man, am I
happy I gave this film another go. The
philosophy, the cyberpunk storytelling, the awesomeness that is Motoko
Kusinagi, Batou, Togusa and Aramaki. And
that score? Kenji Kawaii could create
the ultimate bedtime musical set and I would be a very happy kid. This was the beginning of a long friendship
with the infamous franchise. Just take a
look at the blog. Ive covered pretty
much every major GitS release, including the movies, the series, the OVAs…even
the travesty of a live action flick we got this year. What can I say, I cant get enough and it all
started with this classic flick that definitely lives up to the hype.
#2: Macross Plus
Besides my #1 pick, Macross Plus is as close to “Perfect”
as an Anime gets. I even gave the series
a solid 10/10 when I reviewed it here on the blog. The action, perfectly executed. The character development, solid across the
board, even with the secondary characters.
The animation, fluid, flawless, holds up even against most major
releases today. The music…Yoko Kanno,
nuff said. The most Macross I had ever
been exposed to when I first saw this was the Macross Saga in Robotech. But you really don’t need to know much about
the show that preceeded this to get maximum enjoyment out of this one. They call Macross Plus the “Top Gun of Japanese
Anime”. Honestly, I cant argue
that. Even Gundam couldn’t get it’s “Top
Gun” entry perfect (talking about Gundam 0083).
It’s a title that every Anime fan must see at least once, especially newcomers
before it becomes a lost classic. It is
a title “for our future pioneers” after all.
#1: Cowboy Bebop
As I said above, Macross Plus isn’t the only title one
can call a perfect Anime. THIS is the
title that defines perfect Anime. The
adventures of Spike, Jet, Faye, Ed and Ein continue to wow fans both new and
old even almost twenty years after they first blazed across TV screens in
1998. Their big US boom in 2001 via
Adult Swim was how I got to see it for the first time and it is a show that has
stayed with me ever since. Spike is the
King of Cool. Faye is still one of the
most dream worthy girls in existence. Ed
and Ein…they need their own spin off. Yoko Kanno…is a freaking goddess of music
and her soundtrack of Bebop should be owned and listened to by all. Even if you don’t like Blues and Jazz, you’ll
make an exception for these heavenly beats.
Cowboy Bebop is a show that even people who aren’t into Anime can get
behind. We need more universally beloved
titles like this one.
…Bang.
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