Arion

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R E T R O = at least 20 years old, but not yet 40 years old!
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░{ 𝐀𝐧𝐢𝐦𝐞 𝐅𝐢𝐥𝐦 𝐛𝐞𝐭𝐰𝐞𝐞𝐧 𝟏𝟗𝟖𝟐-𝟐𝟎𝟎𝟐 }
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Retro high fantasy, medieval fantasy and DnD lookalikes. Isekai included. No hentai included.
For more retro high fantasy including stuff made in the 2000s, check this chart:
https://www.edison23.net/dir/ar/img/fantasy.jpg

Part 2: https://myanimelist.net/stacks/32825

Enjoy:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=awgehIvCXs8

Anime either based on, heavily influenced by or drawing key aspects from folklore. Folklore encompasses the traditional beliefs, customs, and stories of a community, people or culture passed down through the generations by word of mouth and later often recorded in written form.

While the majority of works listed in this club have their origins in East Asian folklore (for obvious reasons) also included are examples of folklore ranging from portrayals of the mythology of Ancient Greece, stories featuring local spirits, legendary folk heroes, adaptions of Brothers Grimm fairy tales and narratives featuring the Gods of the Norse pantheon as characters. Modernised interpretations and retellings have been largely excluded.

As MAL currently sadly only allows a max of 50 entries on interests stacks this list prioritises the stand out and most high quality examples of folkloric anime. For a more comprehensive list which also includes manga, I direct you to my accompanying folklore club of the same name.

Some anime OVAs dating back to this time, with not many movies included.

I initially created the stack for personal use, but decided to make it public. I hope it can be useful to someone.

Welcome to my Obscurity series, which I hope will help you delve deeper into the depths of anime, particularly the classics.

The criteria here is simple: Anime released in 2001 or earlier, with under 35,000 MAL Members, and which I've rated a 7 or higher.

I'm also not including anything that I've already included on my Good Stuff list: https://myanimelist.net/stacks/9517

It is perhaps worth noting that I rate things entirely on gut feeling. It's just, "I like that, that was good, it gets a 7.", that's the whole process. I can also find enjoyment in just about anything and there's very little that bothers me.

Ascend: https://myanimelist.net/stacks/9834
Descend: https://myanimelist.net/stacks/9615

Tags: Old, Obscure, Oldtaku, Retro, Underrated, Hidden Gems

title

Anime inspired by Greco-Roman civilization

Before the likes of Saint Seiya, Dragon Ball Z and Pokemon conquering the kids in the west, it was actually Akira that opened the door and made people realize that the cartoons coming from Japan weren't what you would expect from Disney or your TV channels.
A huge flood of VHS tapes came showing animations with mature themes, absurd plots, and enough graphic sex and violence to make parents freak out... what a glorious time!
They don't make cartoons like this anymore.

This is a comprehensive list with stuff from very good to very trashy, but all in the same spirit.
Some early 00's also included.

ps: I also recommend, but can't include here, Kage (OVA).

Glorious 80's and 90's (Sci-Fi, Neo-Noir and Crime Drama)
https://myanimelist.net/stacks/30604

The intent of this stack is to provide a complete history of Sunrise animation in a single course, meant to fit inside the framework of a 3 credit class with an expectation of 90 hours of out-of-class material over the period of a 15 week semester.

Adaptions of manga, or novels will be mostly excluded unless the creators themselves worked at Sunrise like in the case of Dunbine, or Arion. This means extremely notable, and historically important series, such as Cyborg 009, Ultraman, City Hunter, Inuyasha, Planetes, Sgt. Frog, and Gintama will all be excluded, despite the critical artistic contribution of this works on Sunrise's style. A truly dedicated academic would, at the minimum, watch some of the City Hunter, Inuyasha, Sgt Frog and Gintama side content since they were incredibly important on influencing Sunrise studio direction.

This course would ideally be taken alongside a thrice per week hour long lecture, breaking down the lineage of Sunrise's works, and how they influenced one another to build what we have today. As a result, there may be a series you feel is critical, or exceptionally great, but it will be excluded in favor of discussing the series role and relationship to the studio due to the limitations watching long form weekly series made for weekly broadcast. Sunrise is unique in that many of their major series have movies, or OVAs that summarize or recap the main franchise to give viewers a soft entry to understanding the work. However, there are of course serious works like Giant Gorg, Vifam, Pazer World Galient, Ronin Warriors, Jushin Liger, the entirety of the critically influencial Brave Series, most alternative Gundam series (which would be left to their own "Gundam" course), Garasaki, Infinite Ryvius, s-CRY-ed, Big O, Tiger & Bunny or even Love, Live! that would be discussed in class even if they aren't going to be watched.

This is a developing experiment, so please contact me if you have any suggestions, or questions.

Anime featured in the Anime Vision Video Magazine, which was released on VHD videodisc throughout the mid 80s.

Anime Vision featured upcoming and current animation, usually OVAs, as well as alot of interviews and behind-the-scenes with artists, directors, voice actors and other crew. It was usually presented with skits and a relaxed pace, and is well-worth a watch if you can track them down. There are also some original pack-in shorts, seemingly cancelled series and even 80s fanart which you can't find anywhere else!


Currently up to end of issue 2 as that's all I've been able to find. There were a total of 20 issues.

Every cinema or direct to video anime film that came out in 1985.

1985: https://myanimelist.net/stacks/34028
Part 2: https://myanimelist.net/stacks/34035
1987: https://myanimelist.net/stacks/34036
https://myanimelist.net/stacks/34037

For a good shot of adrenaline to the retinas
Or a big smack to the hypothalamus
please consult this list.

From wibbly-wobbly animation, or intricate stylized ones, to highly detailed and superb animation. Please please consult this list.

Mostly includes OVAs and Movies.

Part 1 here : https://myanimelist.net/stacks/37307

Fantasy works set in medieval or archaic settings.

Short form anime series on this site can often be underappreciated. In the same way poetry is radically different from fiction novels, which are radically different from screenplays and so forth, I view shorter series, typically OVAs, in the same way. Too frequently they're compared to TV series, and there will be many comparative allusions roughly paraphrasing, "You can't expect much from the story/characters because of how short it is", or other similar comments. The value of the efficacy of the presentation in both shorter and longer series are for the most part incomparable to each other. They both strive to do very different things through very different means despite the shared medium of "anime". Of course, what constitutes the differences or goals of a creator is quite vast, but the point is that from my personal view, because the context of the existence of shows that would either be shorter in length or longer are so different and require much different means for communicating the information that they present, I think they should be judged by different standards. How a person judges them is up to themselves, but I do believe short series are worthy of the praise that many would only attribute to more lengthy series. What I want to do is give reverence for the fun-sized length series I have come across and enjoyed to some degree.

What constitutes a “short” series is something shorter in length than a standard minimum length TV series, which is 12 episodes in length. The focus is not on the number of episodes, but rather judging roughly the amount of time. So, if there is a series with 24 episodes, but they are only 3 minutes in length, for example, that would constitute a short series.

Works in which Yoshikazu Yasuhiko served as either director or character designer.

This stack include all anime that are set in a world similar to ancient greece.

Grumpy Jii-san was an anime reviewer and hiking enthusiast. Many of us were fond of him. This is the fourth part of a list of the anime he reviewed in video order from oldest to newest. They are presented without his score as mild encouragement for you to watch his reviews.

https://www.youtube.com/@GrumpyJiisan