Sixty Years Since Mighty Atom: 1988
Jan. 26th, 2023 07:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
krpalmerNot that long ago I happened to get pointed to a challenge of “finding anime that came out when you were twelve,” which does happen to date me just like it would date anyone else listing their own titles. Almost everything I can say I’ve seen from then was OVAs and movies. Having included a “feature-length OVA” among the movies I watched in the closing weeks of last year, though, could be seen as cover for including a few “TV episode-length OVAs” in the first days of this year. It would be easy enough to watch the first episode of Gunbuster once again, but having done that as part of my previous “one anime per year” tour back in 2010 I decided I could get around to opening up my latest Patlabor collection.
I’ve watched my way through the Patlabor OVAs twice on home video, but each time I’ve done that I then happen to see notices about a new collection with better video or subtitles. That then delays me from getting to the TV series I saw bits of way back in my university’s anime club (enough to know it establishes an “alternative continuity” by having different introductions). The OVAs would seem significant by having been directed by Mamoru Oshii (who had directed a solidly establishing chunk of the first Urusei Yatsura), and they do have a laid-back, character-establishing, genre-stretching, “this isn’t just for cheap giant robot thrills of the week; this is for discerning fans with disposable income” feeling to them. Along the way, though, the first episode does make a reference to Mazinger Z, so I suppose it could be seen as not pushing the genre all the way to an apparently inevitable breakdown. I at least wonder about going on to the TV series without going through all of the OVAs again, even with long-nagging “but what if it’s better to have things to get to than to have got to them?” thoughts.
I’ve watched my way through the Patlabor OVAs twice on home video, but each time I’ve done that I then happen to see notices about a new collection with better video or subtitles. That then delays me from getting to the TV series I saw bits of way back in my university’s anime club (enough to know it establishes an “alternative continuity” by having different introductions). The OVAs would seem significant by having been directed by Mamoru Oshii (who had directed a solidly establishing chunk of the first Urusei Yatsura), and they do have a laid-back, character-establishing, genre-stretching, “this isn’t just for cheap giant robot thrills of the week; this is for discerning fans with disposable income” feeling to them. Along the way, though, the first episode does make a reference to Mazinger Z, so I suppose it could be seen as not pushing the genre all the way to an apparently inevitable breakdown. I at least wonder about going on to the TV series without going through all of the OVAs again, even with long-nagging “but what if it’s better to have things to get to than to have got to them?” thoughts.