Dallos

Dallos (and its contemporaries) exists in the rough edges that capitalism has sanded away from anime as an artform over the past 40 years. In 2024, the presence of a highly advanced "anime industry" and all it means - merchandising deals, strategic branding meetings, business influences broadly - ensure that Dallos could never be made now. It is too coherent, daring, and honest to be produced by a major studio in 2024.

Dallos's historical significance as both "the first OVA" and part of the early careers of multiple masters of the form (including Mamoru Oshii) make it additionally worth watching for anyone who wants to consider ... themselves seriously interested in anime.

What a pity that shows like this are not & cannot be made anymore!

Dallos is a 4 episode OVA series from 1983-1985 that's notable for being the first ever anime OVA (original video animation), a format that would become immensely popular, especially throughout the 1990s, but has seemingly become almost extinct in the modern era with the rise of ONAs (original net animation). The pedigree of being the first anime OVA is the main reason I wanted to watch this anime, but beyond that it's nothing too special. I don't think it's bad either, though. It was a fun watch, it's extremely short, it has drama, action, moral ambiguity, and some good sci-fi ideas. ... I think that if it got a full TV anime series it could have been much greater. But as it stands it was somewhat enjoyable, but it's still hard to recommend for any other reason than watching the first anime OVA, and I probably won't remember it for very long. Oh, and Mamoru Oshii was responsible for this OVA, who later became known for Patlabor and the original Ghost in the Shell Movie, so that's something I guess.

The worst thing Oshii has ever laid hands upon. Rebels fighting the government for four episodes. Both sides feel generic and unconvincingly brought about, probably due to the staff forcing their conflict into the narrative without fleshing things out enough so the audience could actually give a shit. Self-serious exploration of a theme that goes nowhere thematically, and the drama is cringeworthy with eye-rolling interactions, contrived chemistry and a final sequence that pretends to be epic while being just hard to sit through. Basically, 80s cheese trying to be more than what it is and whose only redeemable aspect would be Oshii's directing, which to ... be honest is far from noteworthy in here. How he went from this to directing one of the most beautiful pieces of arthouse ever in little more than a year remains a mystery to me.