timestamps for each OVA discussed: 05:03 Call Me Tonight 06:27 Fight! Iczer One 07:38 Dragon's Heaven 08:47 Dragon Half 09:52 Project A-Ko 10:53 (VHS Distribution) 12:42 Devilman: The Birth & Demon Bird 17:00 Wicked City & Demon City Shinjuku 18:27 Maryuu Senki 19:00 Digital Devil Story Megami Tensei 19:31 Karura Mau Movie 20:23 Demon Hunter Makaryuudo 21:00 Urotsukidoji 25:08 Vampire Hunter D 26:42 The Curse of Kazuo Umezu 30:02 Hell Target 34:02 Kite 35:55 Psycho Diver 36:56 Dark Sea, Moon Shadow 38:07 (Fansubbing) 46:53 (Archival) 48:37 The Death Lullaby 50:01 Dream Hunter Rem 51:10 La Blue Girl 52:07 Butt Attack Punisher Girl Gautaman 53:24 Plastic Little 54:18 "The Golden Age of Anime" & Conclusion
As one of the "Old Heads" of anime, when you started talking about costs it really brought back memories. At one point I had a bookshelf loaded with hundreds of tapes and we started talking about what we would save if a fire hit the apartment...I pointed at the shelf while my roommates were talking about their computers or mementos...I was like "there is over $10,000 worth of anime sitting there...I am not leaving that to burn"...so yeah the early days of tapes got expensive really quickly.
Yup. When I got into anime, the C/FO newsletter and its member list were how we located fellow fans. And APAs (amateur press associations) once you found people with similar interests. Good luck saving your collection when you're into laserdiscs. Those things are heavy.
One of the benefits of my friend's mom working at a video store. Anime VHS rental with no late fees and got a discount if I ever wanted to buy it with my allowance.
I've go a fuckload of anime on VHS. Used to have a wall unit packed 3 layers thick with tapes. Hell most of my Dragon Ball collection was on VHS till I finally picked up the full set of Blue Rays. Someone stole my VCR and 300 pound 40 inch CRT TV long ago so I only had my DVDs out, but even that got significantly condensed as my DB DVDs started at Babidi on, which is a surprisingly large amount of discs because the original DVD releases had the exact same ratio of episodes per case as the VHSes, it was SO bad. I was gonna replace my Sorcerer Hunters VHSes with DVDs but they were 30 a pop fuck that.
Yeap VHS tapes in the 80s were really expensive even if they were not about obscure imports. Thats why the 80's were the decade of the video clubs in my country. We literally had one in each block. And there were alot of anime but usually they were all going to the kids section because nobody bothered to watch and rate them. I was about 9 years old and on our casual visit to the video club with my mom, I picked ''Locke the Superman''... yeah lol let me say that ALOT of Greek kids had nightmares in the 80's because of this ova lol
I remember watching Devilman on my school issued laptop during a study period and having the teacher tell me he could hear it through my shitty $1 earbuds. I think that's the reddest my face has ever been.
My favorite part about Plastic Little was that after years and years of people debating what the title meant the Author said "Oh I just like how those two words look in english." academics with theorems were crushed.
Fun fact: the process of adding extra swearing to official VHS anime releases was called "fifteening" because the goal was to get a designation of being for audiences fifteen or older in the UK (whereas most anime were released in the US as unrated foreign films). The thinking was that this would make the content seem edgy and cool, sort of like the parental advisory stickers on CDs.
usually the tits or the Penthouse labels or being sold in the adult section is what made me think it was for the 14 year old me. 😺 i guess I started on Anime before it was marketed for children in USA.
Hell, I founded a college anime club in 96 (still going today *flex*) that was just so that people could get together in a theater and watch anime. That was a such a huge part of the community. Folks that had access to the fansubs sharing what they had so others could really enjoy the medium.
Fun Fact! It's never explained where A-ko's powers come from. But there is a very fast, blink and you'll miss it, scene where she's running out of her home and you see her parents. The father looks like Clark Kent and is reading a news paper where the headline is about Superman and the mother looks like Wonder Woman.
Hazel might not like this, so I'm not leaving a link in hopes to go under her radar for longer. If you like weird obscure Anime stuff, stuff that would make Hazel scratch her head and say "What the hell?" Then I recommend a RUclipsr named "kenny lauderdale". It's a lotlike Hazel here, only more random and he has a garbage upload schedule.
Some of us "old heads" are still around. Great to see new fans discovering the OVA era. I watched all of these OVAs (literally every single title mentioned in this video) back in the 80s and 90s when they were new. I'm still watching brand new anime today, and I know I'm not the only veteran otaku left here in the 'States.
Hey man do you know an OVA about a salaryman wagecuck (who looks and acts more like a generic japanese schoolboy) finding a mysterious pink haired girl that at one point splits into two girls, and i remember them acting totally in synch with each other for a while. I also remember the, uhhh, most unique part of this "normalguy everylead finds a magical gf" story which was that main guys boss was a gay caricature who looked like Iyami from Osomatsu kun only cringier somehow, and that main guy and this Gay-yami getting into some weird land of subconscious and then the anime lost me but i think it had to do with animus and anima finding each other?? And at the end the main guy has seks with his pink hair gf and dies in real life. Gay Iyami also got a tall hunky bf btw i think its implied to be an animus of either him or someone else. Its unsubbed. For some reason im compelled to rewatch it. Found it here on youtube before and ive no clue how to look for it. Its not super good looking or even interesting but ive been wondering what it is for a while now
I go back to the Starblazers era which predates the full on anime manga boom, and when the ONLY way you could get your hands on anime was unsubtitled VHS tapes bought at conventions or from friends in the military who were stationed overseas. The thing I think recent anime fans have missed out on was that 80's anime was the wild west era. Nobody was trying to appeal to a "western audience" and you never knew what you were going to get when you sat down to watch. Even the not so good stuff was certain to be insanely imaginative.
Twin Angels was a Tentacle Porn form the 90s that's also a Magical Girl show, and two episodes have a English Dub where every single voice in it you will recognize from Pokemon. One of the posts i plan to do on my Blog in October is on how the 00s were the most innovative decade of Anime.
I recently found a working torrent of Twin Angels saying that it combined the VHS tapes with some deleted scenes that weren't on that release I downloaded that a month ago after finding this channel And hoping that with this video Some of the OVAs mentioned here would get seeds on the cat website
This gives me childhood memories of giving my friend's mom a package containing a blank vhs and addressed to some rando in Michigan or Virginia I met on a yahoo group forum and praying I actually got it back with the subbed anime recording I asked for, also praying it came back on a weekend so I could beat my hyper-religious fundamentalist mother to the mailbox. My friend's mother eventually let me just use their address as a return address so I could just pick them up from them before school in the mornings, because she knew and understood how difficult my home life was and how much anime was an escape for me. She also eventually would tell me she would happily pay for the posting cost, as allowance wasn't a thing in my home, so I was just hoarding random money I got from my mother and her boyfriend. Fortunately I only ever got scammed once.
Religious extremists like your mother are just some of the worst people in the world,who are they to tell us what to do? Some people like anime and the Simpsons and all the other things churchy people don't like
Finally! Someone talks about La Blue Girl! I remember growing up in the 90s and 00s, my older siblings got their hands on any anime they could find, and if appropriate, I was able to watch after. I remember one time I was about to grab a copy of Sailor Moon from a stack of rentals and stumbled across La Blue Girl. Seeing "girl" in the title led me to believe that it was like Sailor Moon and I asked my sister if I could watch it. She quickly snatched it out of my hands and said maybe when I'm old enough. Well, I'm old enough (almost 30) and have yet to watch it. Is it weird that this became a core memory of my childhood?
Older sister here! 😅 I didn’t notice the cover just saw the name. Put it on to watch it with her coming into the room when it was about 3 minutes in. 😱 my husband took her out of the living room. I turned it off and told her she can’t see it. But my husband and I enjoyed it! We saw almost all of the series plus live action. We went past the rabbit hole and went into the looking glass.
Your older sister did you a solid by making sure you didn't see that when you were younger. The animation quality is pretty decent. But definitely not something you should watch till you're older. I saw it when I was 17, and it still hit my psyche like a freaking freight train. Its pretty intense shit dude.
@@neckbeardpig279 I totally watched a couple of episodes i found on limewire or Kazaa when I was maybe 13 or so, I was looking for dirty stuff but I didn’t expect it to be quite so violent, definitely pushes the limits of good taste 😅
@@neckbeardpig279 yeah, but my friends ended up seeing like, actual dead people and stuff on the internet around that time so I feel like I didn’t end up quite as scarred as some of them.
Apparently the popularity of Galaxy of Terror in Japan is traced back to that infamous bug scene. Incidentally it complied with all the restriction regarding adult scenes and it wasn't even an adult movie to begin with, making it quite popular and easy to access. Also, due to more relaxed censorship laws about visual violence, it wasn't unusual for studios to sent to Japan uncensored version of slasher and horror movies to make some extra bucks. Many rare variants of western horror movies were available only in Japan during the '80.
This whole video is giving me flashbacks to the college Anime Club my friends and I snuck into every Sunday for three years in the mid-90s, watching whatever fansubs people had from their collection with the interminable translation notes between every episode. Seeing that "Not For Kids" sticker was also like being throat punched. I could SMELL the Blockbuster carpet.
@Rudebega: as someone who ran a couple of Anime Clubs in the mid-1990s, I am wondering what one would possibly require anyone to sneak into them? At least the ones I was involved with welcomed any and all openly, with no admission fees. The intention was to promote an art form, not be gate keepers, nor profiteers.
It wasn’t a payment thing, it was a “we are 14 year olds going to a college social event” thing, lol. It’s also been like more than 20 years so I don’t remember the exact policies except that there was something clandestine to our presence. I did bring my own fansub of the Mermaid Forest OVA to share once though!
Ah, the good old days of crowding around a 19" color TV watching unsubbed episodes while glancing down at an info sheet, or listening to the one guy who's had a couple years of Japanese trying to provide a running summary of the dialogue...
I love these hour long anime videos, the amount of detail you go into about the history of shows I would never have heard of before is so interesting, thank u hazel!
I'm not into anime, but I love watching videos with people who like anime talking about anime - it's nice, and I feel like I'm gaining a whole new appreciation for it :) Also I've worked on that ferry so seeing it in a random video about anime took me for a ride! It ran in one of the arms of Sognefjorden, one of the longest fjords in the world (and the longest one in Norway). Here's a fun fact as thanks for the cool anime content; the ferry was built in 1970, and the company Fylkesbaatane rebranded into Fjord1 in 2005 so it was very nostalgic to see the old logo. Fjord1 ferries are so known for selling svele, a sweet, very soft and fluffy pancake-like cake with buttercream or brown cheese, that you can buy Fjord1-svele-merch on their boats. (i love ferries)
Oh man, this just unlocked a whole box of forgotten nostalgia. As an unsupervised kid on the late 90s/early 2000 internet, I saw 5 second video clips, stills, and fanart of so many of these, totally devoid of context. It's wild to me how many of these I instantly recognized, but know next to nothing about.
I adore Dragon's Heaven. I've never seen anyone really talk about it. Fun fact: that OVA was inspired by the art of Moebius, and legit looks like a Moebius comic in motion. They also made a little Dragon's Heaven comic that is a parody of Moebius' Arzach. The panels are even laid out the same.
Thank you for making this gem! I grew up in the late 90s and early 2000s era and got hooked on Sailor Moon, Card Captors, and etc because of my dad, he was a BIG anime kid back in his day. But I always wanted to venture out from the mainstream especially because I like weird and different things but wasn’t sure where to start. Thank you!
I've been using these videos like podcasts and honestly it's a great experience to be peacefully working on your art, zone out with it for a few minutes, and come back to some of the most batshit anime production lore you've ever heard in your life
I have fond memories of going to Video stores, finding the "Japanimation" section, and buying a random tape. Also trading bad copies of tapes that were copied so many times they were barely watchable. Our local Anime club had a member with family in Japan that would send the occasional Raw episode of Random Anime taped off of TV. I can't believe how easy it is to watch Anime these days.
I know dude. I mean it breaks my heart that so many series have been lost to time. But the sheer catalogue of anime we have access to these days is astounding.
@@Badusername2000 Yes, before people started using the term Anime, it was called Japanimation. That was the legit term, it was not making fun of it. Later people started calling it Anime, because that's what the Japanese called it. Also, people realized that instead of recognizing it as a combination of Japan and Animation, some people were mistaking it as a racial slur for Japanese combined with Animation. So we all started calling it Anime.
@@herbertholland924 oh i wasnt saying the term itself was making fun of anime, my dad hates anime because hes an idiot racist, so he still calls it japanimation
It's Hazel's version of you go to a restaurant, ge to a table, get your food and as soon as you start swallowing your first bite you hear "How's your food?"
Michael Keaton Jack Frost was by-far the most pants shittingly scary image you put in this video. I was ready for the tentacle blood organ demons but I was not ready for the memories of that film
Oh man I love your "trigger warning" . It's a great way of explaining that it's a lot like horror or old classics. You aren't going to judge them or act like the terrible things that happen in them are actions and beliefs the creators really support. It explores some messed up shit and sometimes it's done well and sometimes it's clunky and terrible. I get as an anime fan a lot of things get handwaved away that shouldn't, but it also gets a lot of unfair accusations, as if Redo of a Healer is the norm and that it's accepted and expected, despite it causing such a stir. The warning of it being adult content and it being twisted psychological horror should be enough. And the rest is on you to learn.
its because things get hand waved away that shouldn't that when something like redo of a healer comes out that its just further enforces peoples correct belief that anime does a lot of gross fucked up stuff. either as a fanbase we push to get rid of the incel bait or were gonna keep getting viewed that way, because that view is accurate. just because we've become desensitized to it even if we still acknowledge it as problematic doesn't mean people are wrong about their view of anime being for creeps. you can't deny that many titles are intentionally appealing to the incels of today just as they did the incels of yesterday. just because "not all" of it is doesn't mean A LOT of it isn't. the more I've tried to branch out the more I realize how much is just unwatchable garbage targeted to lonely creeps who should not be catered to. every medium has garbage, but not every mediums garbage is 99% designed for sad lonely sexists.
@@wesleywyndam-pryce5305 And who exactly are the incels you speak of? Because last I checked anime is first and foremost catered to the Japanese. Just say it isn't for you and move on, don't have to make mental gymnastics. You could argue some anime is like that nowadays, but it wasn't back in the 70s/80s/90s.
@@cruzgonzalez7061 definitely rose tinted glasses my dude almost every single ova she talked about here was garbage. Just bc they did special effects and backlighting without a computer doesnt mean its good it was still shit. An anime like To Your Eternity last yeah takes an absolute dump on every single ova on this list. From both animation, visuals, music, story, character development etc every single aspect that show shits on these ovas. You old heads are annoying. Ya stay talking about your era with these garbage straight to dvd animes lmao I mean your era was great but if you're using this garbage as a way to show how it was then go to bed
This episode of yours is so rich. I love your smash metal cut in the beginning! It felt very 'Mike Patton', Dragon-Half was a delightful gem that needs all the love, and I can't wait to look up your Patreon address on my work computer so we can get your a backup microphone for future use!
You mentioning that time you watched a show while delirious and under the influence of Benadryl being the best way to watch that show is oddly relatable. I watched Serial Experiments Lain during the week my dogs were slowly dying of organ failure and I'm not sure I would have fallen so utterly head over heels for the show had I been in any state of mind other than "utterly numb with grief and terrible anticipation"
I rented Wicked City from Blockbuster with my dad. I had just discovered anime around this time and Blockbuster had a very limited stock of anime in the "foreign" or "international" shelf. I watched the whole thing at around 12 or 13 years old with my dad. It was VERY awkward. We basically watched it in silence. I don't even ask him about it to this day. However, when I was older, I ended up buying the DVD version of the movie at Sam Goodie. Love that movie. Also, I appreciate the Gitaroo Man background music
Dude I just wanna say THANK YOU SO MUCH for including song lists. I happen upon so many videos with nice music that I wanna find but with no way to find the name. Seriously, thank you so much.
Wow, it's super impressive how immaculately sourced your videos are. Every single anime and song is titled, even the ones that are shown/played for barely a few seconds! As someone who has gone on many hours-long searches for background music I really, really appreciate this
I remember a review calling iczer 1 something like “anime-the anime”, which feels right considering how many hallmarks of 80’s anime it uses. Sapphic school girls, body horror, references to H.P. Lovecraft, space opera stuff, giant robots, etc.
Rewatched the section on Kite at 35:00 several times. Just beautiful writing with perfect music choice, editing, voiceover, everything. Honestly the new queen of video essay
great video Hazel, one thing worth mentioning about Dragons Heaven OVA development is that Kobayashi paid out of his pocket for those life-sized models used for the sequence because there wasn't any budget put aside for that
I really enjoy the way you describe being able to enjoy this type of art while also recognizing how it can be problematic. Thanks for the great content!
The weirdest part was I remember these style of OVAs seemed more accessible, at least from what I remember. From what I recall being a 10 year old in the mid 90s when I would go to Blockbusters it was either Miyazaki, something from the Captain Harlock univers like Galaxy Express, or some grimy OVAs making up the anime shelf. Watching Ninja Scroll and Devil Man right as you're starting puberty is definitely an odd experience.
this has easily become one of my favorite RUclips channels. long, well-made videos about obscure/niche games and anime are right up my alley, and the consistent rate they're uploaded is genuinely an impressive feat! thanks again for the wonderful video Hazel, I hope you're doing well! ^-^
thank you for doing this! I was born in the long-long ago before-time of 1980, so I used to watch all of these in the mid 1990s on sketchy super-late-night public access TV in my hometown, and re-rent the same 10 or so VHS tapes...god these neurons haven't fired in decades, it makes me feel younger and older at the same time. I once paid $60 for a grainy copy of Hades Project Zeorymer, and that was in 1997 dollars . Your writing and pace and music choices are all super fun. glad to subscribe, can't wait to see more.
I grew up in the UK, and I can say I never once saw an original copy of Legend of the Overfiend at the time. Not even in stores (and I was growing up during the Video Nasties scare, which played a big part in being a fan of horror movies. Tell a kid not to do something, and...) did I see an original. I saw it via a mate that was into tape trading, and this came up. It was the movie that turned a cousin of mine into a total anime nut at a time when there wasn't much easily bought in the UK.
I remember seeing it around 1995 or 1996, when I was around 11 or 12 years old, at a friends apartment who through his parents always managed to have the most astonishing works of art whether it be film, music, video games, etc. We were all rather poor then so I don't mean the latest "cool" things, just obscure. The most adult things I'd witnessed up to that point was sneaking to look at adult magazines with friends in corner stores; needless to say it was an eye-opening experience. Anyway I was more into video games and anime was always a somewhat tangential passion for me, but I always recall this one in particular because the same friend and I were very much into White Zombie, and the moment the apocalypse scene near the end started we immediately recognized where the sample used at the very beginning of La Sexorcisto came from!
for anyone who doesnt know: the reason why hazel's mic was picking up radio signals is due to a metal plating issue(?) that causes electronics to link itself to radio waves. somehow. i had the same issue with an amp i own that was fixed through replacing the outlet cable. so yeah, thankfully, the mic isnt haunted. \o/
i've only ever had this issue with old quarter inch cables, never an amp or a microphone, so i was pretty shocked when swapping xlr cables didnt solve the issue
This sometimes happens to me with my laptop speakers and like...JFK air traffic control, lol. Unnerving! And kind of surprising that prosumer condenser mics like these MXLs can suffer from this (and it not being a cable or preamp issue)
I can't recommend the sequel to Vampire Hunter D, Bloodlust, highly enough. It is literally so good and beautiful and does everything charming about these early OVAs on a higher budget in higher quality. It's so wonderful.
I was a young weeb with an animecrave account when I was 12. This is how I found most of the OVA's that I've watched. Years after watching it on AC, I found the entirety of Vampire Princess Miyu for sale at a local thrift store. At 50 cents a tape, I absolutely couldn't pass it up, as it's always had a special place in my heart.
Thanks for making this video, it brought me back to the anime that I love. This was when it was anime was at its most chaotic, artistically loose and dangerous, before it quickly was replaced by magical girls and shonen tournaments, then the choose your moe waifu stuff and now the teenage nerd gets sucked into a fantasy world stuff. All of it has good stuff (if writing and art are good) but the VHS OVA period struck a chord with me that the following stuff did not, even as you say the communal aspects of it, trading tapes with friends and having watch parties.
I always love winding down to your videos every time I'm home from school, like this shit not only gives me exploration OVAs to watch but something abt ur videos are so artistic and sweet and earnest- true passion oozes from your words, it's very lovely
The fact that I recognized project a-ko from a single frame despite not having seen it in 20+ years makes me sad. It doesn't surprise me, mind you. But it makes me sad.
I realized I haven't actually watched an anime in quite a while but I've developed this semi passive interest in the culture that I can't quite shake since so many of my friends are into it and this channel is kinda great for that so thanks.
Hazel is one of the best essayists in the game!! Love how absolutely IN your aesthetic element you are tbh! It's like your damn mind has an interior decorator and every individual part fits your vibe. Best dollar I've ever spent!!
Oh man, I was super surprised/stoked when I went to Scarecrow the first time and saw all the different titles they had. Growing up the local video stores only had a limited selection of anime and it was usually just a few OVAs or "Blank": The Movie, not a lot of series.
Man... All of hazel's Vids have such a unique vibe that you don't get to feel or see anymore. Kinda nostalgic with a drop of modernity... And absolutely beautiful.
On cursing, Japanese doesn’t really have a direct equivalent of “fuck” or “shit” as single words. Level of cursing is usually sort of established with context and general levels of rudeness. So studios adding in curses in English where it feels appropriate is probably usually correct from a localization standpoint (if not a direct translation one)
I think you're the only video essay channel with videos that I immediately want to rewatch. (And I watch a lot of them) Your stuff is just so cozy, I absolutely love it. Keep it up! Hope the creative process is going well for you!
You just essentially mocked the viewing habits of my teenage years and all I can say is...I love it! This video rocks, you rock, subbed and about to binge. Also seek out the live action wicked city from Hong Kong for live action spider woman action...its...I don't have words.
Yo, massive Dragon Half fan here, and I just wanted to take a moment and point something out. This isn't to bash your research or nothing, but you showed something REALLY cool on screen by mistake! At 9:44 you mentioned Dragon Half got a PC-98 game but then showed the front cover of the first volume of the Dragon Half tabletop RPG game. From what little I know about that, it comes with a few character sheets for things like dragon halves, slime halves, then a few things not seen in the actual series like orc halves (or something like that, I don't remember the species exactly) as well as vampires and other races too. It comes with a few campaigns from what I understand, and the second volume adds a few more as well as even more races. As for the PC-98 game, that is more of a pink cover that features a brand new character exclusive to the game and it takes place somewhere in the middle of Mink and co.'s search for the Pido Potion. The new girl is named Maril and is a Yuki Onna who is looking for the Pido Potion so she can become human, get a boyfriend at the beach while wearing a bikini, and do ALL of that without melting. There's also a PC Engine game that may or may not be a port of the PC-98 game. Its manual has the some of the same art as the PC game, but I don't know if the story is the same since Maril wasn't on that cover. Sorry about rambling, I don't normally post comments, but seeing that cover just got me real excited. Keep up the great work, been loving these videos!
@@yunogasai1338 The manga is a really fun read and I highly recommend picking it up! Seven Seas did a really nice job packing it into 3 omnibuses with some color pages and stuff. And if I remember correctly, Eastern Star did a rerelease of the OVA a few years ago. So if you can't track down an ADV release you may still be able to find that one on rightstuf or whatever.
@@falconJB I love the old colored VHS tapes ADV did back in the day. Got pretty lucky myself and found a red copy of Sol Bianca from ADV and a blue copy of Urusei Yatsura volume 6 from Anime Eigo at the same Half Price Books about half a year back!
I love that even after an artist is well past their work and even gone, it could be loved by everyone given enough time. Thanks for sharing another awesome video 🙏
I remember in middle school, late-90s for me, my friends and I would rent as many VHSs as we could from local video stores and watch them overnight at one of our houses. Among them we actually did see Plastic Little, and Dragon Half. It was neat to see them on this list too.
THIS is the way I was introduced to anime back in the 90s! These gritty ugly violent old OVA VHS tapes sold in the back corner of a Suncoast in the mall. Honestly most of this stuff you watched here was more refined than the weird crazy stuff I was watching back then, haha!I do kind of miss this era of anime. It was super fascinating to me back then. These were why I got into anime. Not Toonami and Dragonball Z.
Same, Urotsukidoji, Akira and Ninja Scroll were my introductions to anime and I recall when Suncoast was the most reliable source for it other than vendors who would set up around farmers markets or auction house spaces.
Somehow your videos are always too applicable to my real life. I'm living in an ancient dorm right now and I just found a stash of someone's old anime on VHS tucked into a lounge cabinet.
This is the second video of yours I've listened to since it popped up in my suggested list. Video games are more my passion, and I could only classify myself as a causal consumer of anime, but I see how the two passtimes overlap time and again. The algorithm served us both well, as it provided me with something interesting and entertaining to have on in the background, and got you a new subscriber. Great stuff.
Sometimes, in this age of the internet, it feels difficult for me to enjoy what I enjoy because I’m aware that people either view it as ‘sinful’ or ‘problematic’ content. It’s nice to know that there’s a place where it’s okay to like trashy trash dumpster fire garbage anime and people just acknowledge the implications of it and move on. It’s kinda cozy. I don’t even like anything crazy within the anime industry lmao
Wicket city and Vampire Hunter D are not "trashy trash dumpster fire garbage anime". I don't know why hipsters feel the need to take things that were popular 25 years ago, take them out of context and then call them garbage and then act like they discovered the tower of babel for forming an ignorant hot take void of context about something they didn't know existed until 5 minutes ago.
@@DeathmetalPersian I’m assuming you agree with me? It’s frustrating when people take a cursory glance at something and completely identify it as “bad” or not worth anything. My treasure is their trash I guess. But I do admit that some of the stuff I enjoy is media junk food.
@@happythekatt8419 yeah I am agreeing with you but I'm just frustrated with the way the person in the YT video is portraying these movies as just garbage people have never heard of when in reality vampire hunter D was immensely popular and wicked city and devil man have huge cult followings. Yet all she could muster up to say about them was that they were forgettable and a mess and no one but her would be crazy enough to waste time on them. As if none of these things existed until she had heard about them before. It's like trying to portray buttered toast as this age old secret everyone forgot about lol its so dumb.
@@DeathmetalPersian Did we watch the same video? She said D, Wicked City, and Devilman were great. They're also trashy, but in that Grindhouse holy-shit-what-is-this-garbage-and-where-can-I-get-more way. You can like something without thinking it's the most amazing thing ever, AND good things can get forgotten. I mean, shit, Vampire Hunter D basically vanished off the pop-culture radar here in the states.
So, this just landed in my recommendations, and I cannot believe that you're using significant percentages of my playlists here! Guess I need to sub now lol
Damn! Color me impressed by the depth you took on this one! I thought I knew all the messed up ova material from that time and I haven't seen a solid half of these! Excited!
i got recommended your videos for seemingly no reason. i thought there was nothing valuable in old anime. i now wish for a small crt tv and a couple ova tapes in a bed with a big bowl of za. your videos have gotten me into old anime.
You might have already heard of them, but KaiserBeamz does great deep dives/reviews of OVAs from this era. He covers all sorts, but he has focused on quite a few of the really infamous titles
As a fellow content creator that hardly gets any RUclips Videos done, how the f*ck do you manage to get these huge and detailed videos out so often and so regularly. That must be some crazy good workflow or hardcore time investment you are doing for the sake of bringing SUPERIOR CONTENT to us. Thank you ♥
Always love seeing reactions to the anime I grew up with and, still to this day, heavily influences my own work. I must admit I haven't seen a few of these myself, (only had so much paperboy money back then) but I will be rectifying that over the coming weeks. Great video! All the best =)
My mom has always been into nerd and fandom culture and I grew up surrounded by it as a kid and I remember several family friends that were briefly roommates being very heavily into the early anime localization scene and I have very early memories of being occasionally kicked out of the room when they would watch certain stuff and having no idea why at the time. 🤣
Looking up what the name actually got localized as, I actually think I remember them all (about two or three dudes in total if I remember right) trying to hunt down Urotsukidoji and and being quite excited when it came in the mail. I remember looking at the title and asking to watch it thinking that it was some generic fantasy movie, being localized is Legend of the Overfiend, and them basically telling me and my mom that I should be not allowed near those tapes under any circumstances. (I was like 10 at the time) 🤣
One of those sidebar recommendations I tend to ignore, but as a 90s kid growing up in regional Australia, renting OVAs was a big part of my youth. Not only a great trip down memory lane but so much more. Subbed!
I remember when I was a kid and my sister and her friend walked in the house one day with a VHS of Wicked City. We were so confused and yet so entertained. I showed it to my best friend and we've been quoting it to this day. I still have that VHS tape. Great times.
curious about the thumbnail but subscribed and watched the whole thing. i am unfortunately ancient and remember when a lot of these VHS came out. I am glad to be reminded of a period of my life i almost forgot. good work all around
Kudos for doing this rundownalysis! Must be something in the water lately, I've been deep-diving into all that pre-Adult Swim anime for the last month. I grew up with it, used to know which rental place in town had which OVA (and the ONE that had the first three tapes of Ranma 1/2!) and when the family finally got pay TV I was able to enjoy the stuff that wasn't available by taping it from the Sci-Fi Channel or IFC. And what you said about losing access has been ringing true for me as well, so much of this stuff goes out of print and the streaming rights lapse (or never existed) that I've started hoarding it on physical media. Bought more anime in the last month than the previous 20 years combined. Thankfully, crowdfunding has enabled a few remastering efforts for Blu-Ray re-releases from this era. Already plunked down a preorder for my all-time favorite, Project A-Ko, since they've finally tracked down a 16mm film print for a real restoration. How much that one, Vampire Hunter D, and Battle Angel Alita completely altered my aesthetic for a good decade or so is impossible to put into words.
6:37 fun fact, this one (and its sequel) actually made it into MULTIPLE Super Robot Wars games and Iczer one is generally considered to be an absolutely broken unit (in a good way)
What I love about this era of anime is that it was produced without any outside audience in mind. It's what Japanese animators wanted to make for Japan. The export licensing is vital to the business model these days, and it shows.
27:25 Hazel!! I was able to dig up a copy of that Hideshi Hino OVA a while back after a pal on the LMW found me a rip!! I'm a big Hino stan and was curious to see what it was all about. If you are ever interested in seeing Hino's work in less of an animated adaptation and more so of a slideshow- hit me up, haha!
The meme at 34:51 had me UGLY CACKLING out loud because I did base almost all of my personality around chickens and still do to this day. Also, great video, I discovered you from your Arisa Good Luck video and am gradually working my way through your videos. (Definitely going to check out Goldfish Warning based almost entirely on that angry chicken side character.)
timestamps for each OVA discussed:
05:03 Call Me Tonight
06:27 Fight! Iczer One
07:38 Dragon's Heaven
08:47 Dragon Half
09:52 Project A-Ko
10:53 (VHS Distribution)
12:42 Devilman: The Birth & Demon Bird
17:00 Wicked City & Demon City Shinjuku
18:27 Maryuu Senki
19:00 Digital Devil Story Megami Tensei
19:31 Karura Mau Movie
20:23 Demon Hunter Makaryuudo
21:00 Urotsukidoji
25:08 Vampire Hunter D
26:42 The Curse of Kazuo Umezu
30:02 Hell Target
34:02 Kite
35:55 Psycho Diver
36:56 Dark Sea, Moon Shadow
38:07 (Fansubbing)
46:53 (Archival)
48:37 The Death Lullaby
50:01 Dream Hunter Rem
51:10 La Blue Girl
52:07 Butt Attack Punisher Girl Gautaman
53:24 Plastic Little
54:18 "The Golden Age of Anime" & Conclusion
If I may ask, have you ever considered watching Senki Zesshou Symphogear?
20:49 nip slip just warnin ya
que sera sera
@@hhhazel true
@@hhhazel Where are the links to the other videos? I was gonna watch some of them
Past episodes: “my girlfriend and I…”
This episode: “my wife and I …”
Congratulations to you!
IKR SO CUTE
CONGRATS HAZEL 🥺🖤
Yea that's baller does your wife know?
Wait did they actually get married?
@@yeeb2945 yes
"i'm a sucker for cute girls with scratchy voices being stupid"
yes, very good
ooh, me! that's me! I'm stupid!
Isn't hazel just describing herself?
Well, if you replace "being stupid" with "talking about anime".
will personally fund a show starring mayumi shintani as a whole cast of characters to realize this fully
Me watching hazel's videos
an indicator of highly-refined taste
As one of the "Old Heads" of anime, when you started talking about costs it really brought back memories. At one point I had a bookshelf loaded with hundreds of tapes and we started talking about what we would save if a fire hit the apartment...I pointed at the shelf while my roommates were talking about their computers or mementos...I was like "there is over $10,000 worth of anime sitting there...I am not leaving that to burn"...so yeah the early days of tapes got expensive really quickly.
And to get this clear this is 10k back in the 80s no 👀 i need context i didnt exist bf the 2000s
Yup. When I got into anime, the C/FO newsletter and its member list were how we located fellow fans. And APAs (amateur press associations) once you found people with similar interests.
Good luck saving your collection when you're into laserdiscs. Those things are heavy.
One of the benefits of my friend's mom working at a video store. Anime VHS rental with no late fees and got a discount if I ever wanted to buy it with my allowance.
I've go a fuckload of anime on VHS. Used to have a wall unit packed 3 layers thick with tapes. Hell most of my Dragon Ball collection was on VHS till I finally picked up the full set of Blue Rays. Someone stole my VCR and 300 pound 40 inch CRT TV long ago so I only had my DVDs out, but even that got significantly condensed as my DB DVDs started at Babidi on, which is a surprisingly large amount of discs because the original DVD releases had the exact same ratio of episodes per case as the VHSes, it was SO bad. I was gonna replace my Sorcerer Hunters VHSes with DVDs but they were 30 a pop fuck that.
Yeap VHS tapes in the 80s were really expensive even if they were not about obscure imports. Thats why the 80's were the decade of the video clubs in my country. We literally had one in each block. And there were alot of anime but usually they were all going to the kids section because nobody bothered to watch and rate them. I was about 9 years old and on our casual visit to the video club with my mom, I picked ''Locke the Superman''... yeah lol let me say that ALOT of Greek kids had nightmares in the 80's because of this ova lol
I remember watching Devilman on my school issued laptop during a study period and having the teacher tell me he could hear it through my shitty $1 earbuds. I think that's the reddest my face has ever been.
That's both sad and hilarious at the same time.
My favorite part about Plastic Little was that after years and years of people debating what the title meant the Author said "Oh I just like how those two words look in english." academics with theorems were crushed.
“Is it okay for me to wear my shoes in here?”
“I don’t give a shit.”
Fuckin comedy gold
Ton of that kind of stuff in the cyber city oedo dub. You'll probably like that one a lot.
I need to find this devilman ova lol
Low key plays like a Go Nagai joke
Yeah I let off a big ole Sideshow Bob cackle at that
Fun fact: the process of adding extra swearing to official VHS anime releases was called "fifteening" because the goal was to get a designation of being for audiences fifteen or older in the UK (whereas most anime were released in the US as unrated foreign films). The thinking was that this would make the content seem edgy and cool, sort of like the parental advisory stickers on CDs.
usually the tits or the Penthouse labels or being sold in the adult section is what made me think it was for the 14 year old me. 😺
i guess I started on Anime before it was marketed for children in USA.
hazel has become one of those "drop everything and watch immediately" youtubers for me
Same
This is my second video and I'm absolutely on that train
Same. Been binging all of her content. Got me into Yuri lol
I’m in a similar boat of “watching her videos over and over even if I saw the video yesterday”.
I tried that but now my nephew won't stop crying ;-;
Hell, I founded a college anime club in 96 (still going today *flex*) that was just so that people could get together in a theater and watch anime. That was a such a huge part of the community. Folks that had access to the fansubs sharing what they had so others could really enjoy the medium.
dude that's actually sick!
Fun Fact! It's never explained where A-ko's powers come from. But there is a very fast, blink and you'll miss it, scene where she's running out of her home and you see her parents. The father looks like Clark Kent and is reading a news paper where the headline is about Superman and the mother looks like Wonder Woman.
And her mom is folding a Superman suit.
The highlight of every other week, learning obscure facts about anime that you never knew you wanted to hear about
Hazel might not like this, so I'm not leaving a link in hopes to go under her radar for longer. If you like weird obscure Anime stuff, stuff that would make Hazel scratch her head and say "What the hell?" Then I recommend a RUclipsr named "kenny lauderdale". It's a lotlike Hazel here, only more random and he has a garbage upload schedule.
I don't even like anime (with a few exceptions) and this is still true for me.
I lived a lot of this at the time haha
Some of us "old heads" are still around. Great to see new fans discovering the OVA era. I watched all of these OVAs (literally every single title mentioned in this video) back in the 80s and 90s when they were new. I'm still watching brand new anime today, and I know I'm not the only veteran otaku left here in the 'States.
Are there any old titles you didn't get to see then, which you discovered more recently?
Fellow Old who got into the fandom in the mid-80s here.
Thank you for your service, sensei
Hey man do you know an OVA about a salaryman wagecuck (who looks and acts more like a generic japanese schoolboy) finding a mysterious pink haired girl that at one point splits into two girls, and i remember them acting totally in synch with each other for a while.
I also remember the, uhhh, most unique part of this "normalguy everylead finds a magical gf" story which was that main guys boss was a gay caricature who looked like Iyami from Osomatsu kun only cringier somehow, and that main guy and this Gay-yami getting into some weird land of subconscious and then the anime lost me but i think it had to do with animus and anima finding each other?? And at the end the main guy has seks with his pink hair gf and dies in real life.
Gay Iyami also got a tall hunky bf btw i think its implied to be an animus of either him or someone else. Its unsubbed. For some reason im compelled to rewatch it. Found it here on youtube before and ive no clue how to look for it. Its not super good looking or even interesting but ive been wondering what it is for a while now
I go back to the Starblazers era which predates the full on anime manga boom, and when the ONLY way you could get your hands on anime was unsubtitled VHS tapes bought at conventions or from friends in the military who were stationed overseas.
The thing I think recent anime fans have missed out on was that 80's anime was the wild west era. Nobody was trying to appeal to a "western audience" and you never knew what you were going to get when you sat down to watch. Even the not so good stuff was certain to be insanely imaginative.
Twin Angels was a Tentacle Porn form the 90s that's also a Magical Girl show, and two episodes have a English Dub where every single voice in it you will recognize from Pokemon.
One of the posts i plan to do on my Blog in October is on how the 00s were the most innovative decade of Anime.
Thanks for the rec
I recently found a working torrent of Twin Angels saying that it combined the VHS tapes with some deleted scenes that weren't on that release
I downloaded that a month ago after finding this channel
And hoping that with this video
Some of the OVAs mentioned here would get seeds on the cat website
I wonder if you can buy it anywhere?
I remember picking up twin angels out of curiosity lol... I wouldn't mind if it deserved a spot on this list
This gives me childhood memories of giving my friend's mom a package containing a blank vhs and addressed to some rando in Michigan or Virginia I met on a yahoo group forum and praying I actually got it back with the subbed anime recording I asked for, also praying it came back on a weekend so I could beat my hyper-religious fundamentalist mother to the mailbox. My friend's mother eventually let me just use their address as a return address so I could just pick them up from them before school in the mornings, because she knew and understood how difficult my home life was and how much anime was an escape for me. She also eventually would tell me she would happily pay for the posting cost, as allowance wasn't a thing in my home, so I was just hoarding random money I got from my mother and her boyfriend. Fortunately I only ever got scammed once.
No one should live in fear of another human being. I love God but I dont force my views on other people.
thank god for understanding friend's parents, they have helped lots of kids out there. Sorry you went through that.
Religious extremists like your mother are just some of the worst people in the world,who are they to tell us what to do? Some people like anime and the Simpsons and all the other things churchy people don't like
Finally! Someone talks about La Blue Girl! I remember growing up in the 90s and 00s, my older siblings got their hands on any anime they could find, and if appropriate, I was able to watch after. I remember one time I was about to grab a copy of Sailor Moon from a stack of rentals and stumbled across La Blue Girl. Seeing "girl" in the title led me to believe that it was like Sailor Moon and I asked my sister if I could watch it. She quickly snatched it out of my hands and said maybe when I'm old enough. Well, I'm old enough (almost 30) and have yet to watch it. Is it weird that this became a core memory of my childhood?
Older sister here! 😅 I didn’t notice the cover just saw the name. Put it on to watch it with her coming into the room when it was about 3 minutes in. 😱 my husband took her out of the living room. I turned it off and told her she can’t see it. But my husband and I enjoyed it! We saw almost all of the series plus live action. We went past the rabbit hole and went into the looking glass.
Your older sister did you a solid by making sure you didn't see that when you were younger. The animation quality is pretty decent. But definitely not something you should watch till you're older.
I saw it when I was 17, and it still hit my psyche like a freaking freight train. Its pretty intense shit dude.
@@neckbeardpig279 I totally watched a couple of episodes i found on limewire or Kazaa when I was maybe 13 or so, I was looking for dirty stuff but I didn’t expect it to be quite so violent, definitely pushes the limits of good taste 😅
@@HiDefHDMusic 13, damn dude. That's rough.
@@neckbeardpig279 yeah, but my friends ended up seeing like, actual dead people and stuff on the internet around that time so I feel like I didn’t end up quite as scarred as some of them.
Apparently the popularity of Galaxy of Terror in Japan is traced back to that infamous bug scene. Incidentally it complied with all the restriction regarding adult scenes and it wasn't even an adult movie to begin with, making it quite popular and easy to access. Also, due to more relaxed censorship laws about visual violence, it wasn't unusual for studios to sent to Japan uncensored version of slasher and horror movies to make some extra bucks. Many rare variants of western horror movies were available only in Japan during the '80.
Holy shit.
This whole video is giving me flashbacks to the college Anime Club my friends and I snuck into every Sunday for three years in the mid-90s, watching whatever fansubs people had from their collection with the interminable translation notes between every episode. Seeing that "Not For Kids" sticker was also like being throat punched. I could SMELL the Blockbuster carpet.
@Rudebega: as someone who ran a couple of Anime Clubs in the mid-1990s, I am wondering what one would possibly require anyone to sneak into them? At least the ones I was involved with welcomed any and all openly, with no admission fees. The intention was to promote an art form, not be gate keepers, nor profiteers.
It wasn’t a payment thing, it was a “we are 14 year olds going to a college social event” thing, lol. It’s also been like more than 20 years so I don’t remember the exact policies except that there was something clandestine to our presence. I did bring my own fansub of the Mermaid Forest OVA to share once though!
Ah, the good old days of crowding around a 19" color TV watching unsubbed episodes while glancing down at an info sheet, or listening to the one guy who's had a couple years of Japanese trying to provide a running summary of the dialogue...
I love these hour long anime videos, the amount of detail you go into about the history of shows I would never have heard of before is so interesting, thank u hazel!
I'm not into anime, but I love watching videos with people who like anime talking about anime - it's nice, and I feel like I'm gaining a whole new appreciation for it :)
Also I've worked on that ferry so seeing it in a random video about anime took me for a ride! It ran in one of the arms of Sognefjorden, one of the longest fjords in the world (and the longest one in Norway). Here's a fun fact as thanks for the cool anime content; the ferry was built in 1970, and the company Fylkesbaatane rebranded into Fjord1 in 2005 so it was very nostalgic to see the old logo. Fjord1 ferries are so known for selling svele, a sweet, very soft and fluffy pancake-like cake with buttercream or brown cheese, that you can buy Fjord1-svele-merch on their boats.
(i love ferries)
Oh man, this just unlocked a whole box of forgotten nostalgia. As an unsupervised kid on the late 90s/early 2000 internet, I saw 5 second video clips, stills, and fanart of so many of these, totally devoid of context. It's wild to me how many of these I instantly recognized, but know next to nothing about.
The use of the Drakengard 3 censor scene gets an A+ from me. Hazel is truly cultured
The way she uses some of drakengard 1 music too. Yes
KUROIIII HANAAAA
I adore Dragon's Heaven. I've never seen anyone really talk about it. Fun fact: that OVA was inspired by the art of Moebius, and legit looks like a Moebius comic in motion. They also made a little Dragon's Heaven comic that is a parody of Moebius' Arzach. The panels are even laid out the same.
kenny lauderdale covered it pretty well
Thank you for making this gem! I grew up in the late 90s and early 2000s era and got hooked on Sailor Moon, Card Captors, and etc because of my dad, he was a BIG anime kid back in his day. But I always wanted to venture out from the mainstream especially because I like weird and different things but wasn’t sure where to start. Thank you!
I've been using these videos like podcasts and honestly it's a great experience to be peacefully working on your art, zone out with it for a few minutes, and come back to some of the most batshit anime production lore you've ever heard in your life
I have fond memories of going to Video stores, finding the "Japanimation" section, and buying a random tape. Also trading bad copies of tapes that were copied so many times they were barely watchable. Our local Anime club had a member with family in Japan that would send the occasional Raw episode of Random Anime taped off of TV. I can't believe how easy it is to watch Anime these days.
I know dude. I mean it breaks my heart that so many series have been lost to time. But the sheer catalogue of anime we have access to these days is astounding.
oh, that was a real section? i wondered why my dad always makes fun of anime by calling it that
@@Badusername2000 Yes, before people started using the term Anime, it was called Japanimation. That was the legit term, it was not making fun of it. Later people started calling it Anime, because that's what the Japanese called it. Also, people realized that instead of recognizing it as a combination of Japan and Animation, some people were mistaking it as a racial slur for Japanese combined with Animation. So we all started calling it Anime.
@@herbertholland924 oh i wasnt saying the term itself was making fun of anime, my dad hates anime because hes an idiot racist, so he still calls it japanimation
"Evangelion, Lain, Ghost in the Shell, Perfect Blue, Samurai Pizza Cats" MY SIDES
Hazel, I'm literally out getting milk... why now of all times to drop a banger?
It's Hazel's version of you go to a restaurant, ge to a table, get your food and as soon as you start swallowing your first bite you hear "How's your food?"
Michael Keaton Jack Frost was by-far the most pants shittingly scary image you put in this video. I was ready for the tentacle blood organ demons but I was not ready for the memories of that film
Oh man I love your "trigger warning" . It's a great way of explaining that it's a lot like horror or old classics. You aren't going to judge them or act like the terrible things that happen in them are actions and beliefs the creators really support. It explores some messed up shit and sometimes it's done well and sometimes it's clunky and terrible.
I get as an anime fan a lot of things get handwaved away that shouldn't, but it also gets a lot of unfair accusations, as if Redo of a Healer is the norm and that it's accepted and expected, despite it causing such a stir. The warning of it being adult content and it being twisted psychological horror should be enough. And the rest is on you to learn.
its because things get hand waved away that shouldn't that when something like redo of a healer comes out that its just further enforces peoples correct belief that anime does a lot of gross fucked up stuff.
either as a fanbase we push to get rid of the incel bait or were gonna keep getting viewed that way, because that view is accurate. just because we've become desensitized to it even if we still acknowledge it as problematic doesn't mean people are wrong about their view of anime being for creeps. you can't deny that many titles are intentionally appealing to the incels of today just as they did the incels of yesterday.
just because "not all" of it is doesn't mean A LOT of it isn't. the more I've tried to branch out the more I realize how much is just unwatchable garbage targeted to lonely creeps who should not be catered to.
every medium has garbage, but not every mediums garbage is 99% designed for sad lonely sexists.
@@wesleywyndam-pryce5305 And who exactly are the incels you speak of?
Because last I checked anime is first and foremost catered to the Japanese.
Just say it isn't for you and move on, don't have to make mental gymnastics.
You could argue some anime is like that nowadays, but it wasn't back in the 70s/80s/90s.
@@wesleywyndam-pryce5305 Alternatively
You can get filtered.
@@cruzgonzalez7061 I mean you've seen japanese citizens literally don't fuck? That's enough to assume they are in else /j
@@cruzgonzalez7061 you know damn well what I'm talking about, Japan wasn't devoid of sexism in the 70s.
“I dont think we’ll ever see an art form peak in our lifetimes” is… wow thats something to think about. Thats gonna be living in my head forever.
The OVA era was the golden age of anime. So much creativity, mostly all hand drawn, with amazing stories and music.
rose tinted glasses
@@wesleywyndam-pryce5305 Nope, get back to me when you find out how special effects and backlighting was done without computers back in the day. ;)
@@cruzgonzalez7061 definitely rose tinted glasses my dude almost every single ova she talked about here was garbage. Just bc they did special effects and backlighting without a computer doesnt mean its good it was still shit. An anime like To Your Eternity last yeah takes an absolute dump on every single ova on this list. From both animation, visuals, music, story, character development etc every single aspect that show shits on these ovas. You old heads are annoying. Ya stay talking about your era with these garbage straight to dvd animes lmao I mean your era was great but if you're using this garbage as a way to show how it was then go to bed
@@philo2189 Lmao my guy, way too assume shit about me. But go on, keep thinking I'm somehow an old head that only prefers that era...
Jeez people are allowed to like what they like man. Fucking chill
I love how how hazel’s description of Overfiend devolves into an entire platoon of Nice Boats
I don't know if I ever met a person IRL who knows what that is an that was back in like 95 for me.
Bless you Hazel, this is my absolute favorite world of Anime and this is such a wonderful resource
This episode of yours is so rich. I love your smash metal cut in the beginning! It felt very 'Mike Patton', Dragon-Half was a delightful gem that needs all the love, and I can't wait to look up your Patreon address on my work computer so we can get your a backup microphone for future use!
You mentioning that time you watched a show while delirious and under the influence of Benadryl being the best way to watch that show is oddly relatable. I watched Serial Experiments Lain during the week my dogs were slowly dying of organ failure and I'm not sure I would have fallen so utterly head over heels for the show had I been in any state of mind other than "utterly numb with grief and terrible anticipation"
I rented Wicked City from Blockbuster with my dad. I had just discovered anime around this time and Blockbuster had a very limited stock of anime in the "foreign" or "international" shelf. I watched the whole thing at around 12 or 13 years old with my dad. It was VERY awkward. We basically watched it in silence. I don't even ask him about it to this day. However, when I was older, I ended up buying the DVD version of the movie at Sam Goodie. Love that movie.
Also, I appreciate the Gitaroo Man background music
I can feel the awkwardness all these years later , all these miles away
Reminds me when my dad walked in and sat down while I was watching Ninja Scroll, neither of us the wiser. We watched the whole thing.
I'm sorry dude, thats rough
A new hazel drop!? Let's freakin' go!
Dude I just wanna say THANK YOU SO MUCH for including song lists. I happen upon so many videos with nice music that I wanna find but with no way to find the name. Seriously, thank you so much.
It really warms my heart that this community is out there… Keep that torch heading into the future.
Wow, it's super impressive how immaculately sourced your videos are. Every single anime and song is titled, even the ones that are shown/played for barely a few seconds! As someone who has gone on many hours-long searches for background music I really, really appreciate this
I remember a review calling iczer 1 something like “anime-the anime”, which feels right considering how many hallmarks of 80’s anime it uses. Sapphic school girls, body horror, references to H.P. Lovecraft, space opera stuff, giant robots, etc.
Rewatched the section on Kite at 35:00 several times. Just beautiful writing with perfect music choice, editing, voiceover, everything. Honestly the new queen of video essay
New Hotel Books sounds different
What is the song used here? @@Hipno702 @Skyehoppers
@Skyehoppers
@hazel
great video Hazel, one thing worth mentioning about Dragons Heaven OVA development is that Kobayashi paid out of his pocket for those life-sized models used for the sequence because there wasn't any budget put aside for that
I really enjoy the way you describe being able to enjoy this type of art while also recognizing how it can be problematic. Thanks for the great content!
The weirdest part was I remember these style of OVAs seemed more accessible, at least from what I remember. From what I recall being a 10 year old in the mid 90s when I would go to Blockbusters it was either Miyazaki, something from the Captain Harlock univers like Galaxy Express, or some grimy OVAs making up the anime shelf. Watching Ninja Scroll and Devil Man right as you're starting puberty is definitely an odd experience.
Yeeesss agreed. The local video rental place HitList was really life changing for me. Not just anime, but all sorts of other weird imported cartoons.
The quality and frequency of your videos is so impressive. Your content is impecable, as always.
this has easily become one of my favorite RUclips channels. long, well-made videos about obscure/niche games and anime are right up my alley, and the consistent rate they're uploaded is genuinely an impressive feat! thanks again for the wonderful video Hazel, I hope you're doing well! ^-^
thank you for doing this! I was born in the long-long ago before-time of 1980, so I used to watch all of these in the mid 1990s on sketchy super-late-night public access TV in my hometown, and re-rent the same 10 or so VHS tapes...god these neurons haven't fired in decades, it makes me feel younger and older at the same time. I once paid $60 for a grainy copy of Hades Project Zeorymer, and that was in 1997 dollars . Your writing and pace and music choices are all super fun. glad to subscribe, can't wait to see more.
I grew up in the UK, and I can say I never once saw an original copy of Legend of the Overfiend at the time. Not even in stores (and I was growing up during the Video Nasties scare, which played a big part in being a fan of horror movies. Tell a kid not to do something, and...) did I see an original. I saw it via a mate that was into tape trading, and this came up. It was the movie that turned a cousin of mine into a total anime nut at a time when there wasn't much easily bought in the UK.
Man you guys really got screwed with the highly edited version of urotsukidoji
I remember seeing it around 1995 or 1996, when I was around 11 or 12 years old, at a friends apartment who through his parents always managed to have the most astonishing works of art whether it be film, music, video games, etc. We were all rather poor then so I don't mean the latest "cool" things, just obscure. The most adult things I'd witnessed up to that point was sneaking to look at adult magazines with friends in corner stores; needless to say it was an eye-opening experience. Anyway I was more into video games and anime was always a somewhat tangential passion for me, but I always recall this one in particular because the same friend and I were very much into White Zombie, and the moment the apocalypse scene near the end started we immediately recognized where the sample used at the very beginning of La Sexorcisto came from!
for anyone who doesnt know: the reason why hazel's mic was picking up radio signals is due to a metal plating issue(?) that causes electronics to link itself to radio waves. somehow.
i had the same issue with an amp i own that was fixed through replacing the outlet cable. so yeah, thankfully, the mic isnt haunted. \o/
i've only ever had this issue with old quarter inch cables, never an amp or a microphone, so i was pretty shocked when swapping xlr cables didnt solve the issue
This sometimes happens to me with my laptop speakers and like...JFK air traffic control, lol. Unnerving! And kind of surprising that prosumer condenser mics like these MXLs can suffer from this (and it not being a cable or preamp issue)
I can't recommend the sequel to Vampire Hunter D, Bloodlust, highly enough. It is literally so good and beautiful and does everything charming about these early OVAs on a higher budget in higher quality. It's so wonderful.
Literally found it in a pile of CD-Rs my brother borrowed from our cousin, it was fucking incredible. I've rewatched it at least twice since.
Yeah it's fuckin good. Wish they would animate more of the stories. There's like 20 Vampire D books out there
Bloodlust is what got me into anime back in the day. VHD always hits different for me.
Also up there with Akira in the "Best traditional anime movies of all time" for me because it's GAWJUS.
Vampire hunter d bloodlust >>>>>> vampire hunter d
This might be the most Hazelcore video yet
I was a young weeb with an animecrave account when I was 12. This is how I found most of the OVA's that I've watched. Years after watching it on AC, I found the entirety of Vampire Princess Miyu for sale at a local thrift store. At 50 cents a tape, I absolutely couldn't pass it up, as it's always had a special place in my heart.
Thanks for making this video, it brought me back to the anime that I love. This was when it was anime was at its most chaotic, artistically loose and dangerous, before it quickly was replaced by magical girls and shonen tournaments, then the choose your moe waifu stuff and now the teenage nerd gets sucked into a fantasy world stuff. All of it has good stuff (if writing and art are good) but the VHS OVA period struck a chord with me that the following stuff did not, even as you say the communal aspects of it, trading tapes with friends and having watch parties.
I always love winding down to your videos every time I'm home from school, like this shit not only gives me exploration OVAs to watch but something abt ur videos are so artistic and sweet and earnest- true passion oozes from your words, it's very lovely
The fact that I recognized project a-ko from a single frame despite not having seen it in 20+ years makes me sad. It doesn't surprise me, mind you. But it makes me sad.
Don't be sad, you're not alone. lol
Same, except I haven't seen it in almost 30 years
Because almost every old-school anime shows had a distinct recognizable art style
I realized I haven't actually watched an anime in quite a while but I've developed this semi passive interest in the culture that I can't quite shake since so many of my friends are into it and this channel is kinda great for that so thanks.
The song at 4:05 made me so glad you put a song list in the description
Thank you so much for making this and for leaving such detailed references. Your work is very well done and well thought out.
Hazel is one of the best essayists in the game!! Love how absolutely IN your aesthetic element you are tbh! It's like your damn mind has an interior decorator and every individual part fits your vibe. Best dollar I've ever spent!!
Really appreciate what you’ve been uploading lately, Hazel. Very glad I stumbled upon this channel!
Oh man, I was super surprised/stoked when I went to Scarecrow the first time and saw all the different titles they had. Growing up the local video stores only had a limited selection of anime and it was usually just a few OVAs or "Blank": The Movie, not a lot of series.
Man... All of hazel's Vids have such a unique vibe that you don't get to feel or see anymore.
Kinda nostalgic with a drop of modernity... And absolutely beautiful.
You and Kenny Lauderdale are the goats of showing me old obscure anime in a fun cozy way
On cursing, Japanese doesn’t really have a direct equivalent of “fuck” or “shit” as single words. Level of cursing is usually sort of established with context and general levels of rudeness. So studios adding in curses in English where it feels appropriate is probably usually correct from a localization standpoint (if not a direct translation one)
糞〜〜〜〜〜！
@@zerothehero123 my rule #1 never listen to westerners about Asia 😜
@@ShawnJonesHellion 確かに！
@@zerothehero123 that was the funniest (Translated by Google) I’ve ever clicked on
So OP, how is that 🤡 makeup working out for you?
I think you're the only video essay channel with videos that I immediately want to rewatch. (And I watch a lot of them) Your stuff is just so cozy, I absolutely love it. Keep it up! Hope the creative process is going well for you!
I lost it when "who is named, I fuck you not" lined up.with the girls mouth in the clip.
You just essentially mocked the viewing habits of my teenage years and all I can say is...I love it! This video rocks, you rock, subbed and about to binge.
Also seek out the live action wicked city from Hong Kong for live action spider woman action...its...I don't have words.
I am aware of the song being dropped at the 4 minute mark and I APPRECIATE YOU FOR DROPPING IT.
Thank you for uploading today Hazel. I'm only three minutes in and my day's already been vastly improved by you :)
Yo, massive Dragon Half fan here, and I just wanted to take a moment and point something out. This isn't to bash your research or nothing, but you showed something REALLY cool on screen by mistake! At 9:44 you mentioned Dragon Half got a PC-98 game but then showed the front cover of the first volume of the Dragon Half tabletop RPG game. From what little I know about that, it comes with a few character sheets for things like dragon halves, slime halves, then a few things not seen in the actual series like orc halves (or something like that, I don't remember the species exactly) as well as vampires and other races too. It comes with a few campaigns from what I understand, and the second volume adds a few more as well as even more races.
As for the PC-98 game, that is more of a pink cover that features a brand new character exclusive to the game and it takes place somewhere in the middle of Mink and co.'s search for the Pido Potion. The new girl is named Maril and is a Yuki Onna who is looking for the Pido Potion so she can become human, get a boyfriend at the beach while wearing a bikini, and do ALL of that without melting. There's also a PC Engine game that may or may not be a port of the PC-98 game. Its manual has the some of the same art as the PC game, but I don't know if the story is the same since Maril wasn't on that cover.
Sorry about rambling, I don't normally post comments, but seeing that cover just got me real excited. Keep up the great work, been loving these videos!
This video reminded me that dragon half's manga was available in English. I'm definitely thinking of picking up the ova too.
I think I still have the old white VHS of Dragon Half packed away somewhere.
@@yunogasai1338 The manga is a really fun read and I highly recommend picking it up! Seven Seas did a really nice job packing it into 3 omnibuses with some color pages and stuff. And if I remember correctly, Eastern Star did a rerelease of the OVA a few years ago. So if you can't track down an ADV release you may still be able to find that one on rightstuf or whatever.
@@falconJB I love the old colored VHS tapes ADV did back in the day. Got pretty lucky myself and found a red copy of Sol Bianca from ADV and a blue copy of Urusei Yatsura volume 6 from Anime Eigo at the same Half Price Books about half a year back!
I love that even after an artist is well past their work and even gone, it could be loved by everyone given enough time. Thanks for sharing another awesome video 🙏
I remember in middle school, late-90s for me, my friends and I would rent as many VHSs as we could from local video stores and watch them overnight at one of our houses. Among them we actually did see Plastic Little, and Dragon Half. It was neat to see them on this list too.
THIS is the way I was introduced to anime back in the 90s! These gritty ugly violent old OVA VHS tapes sold in the back corner of a Suncoast in the mall. Honestly most of this stuff you watched here was more refined than the weird crazy stuff I was watching back then, haha!I do kind of miss this era of anime. It was super fascinating to me back then. These were why I got into anime. Not Toonami and Dragonball Z.
Same, Urotsukidoji, Akira and Ninja Scroll were my introductions to anime and I recall when Suncoast was the most reliable source for it other than vendors who would set up around farmers markets or auction house spaces.
Somehow your videos are always too applicable to my real life. I'm living in an ancient dorm right now and I just found a stash of someone's old anime on VHS tucked into a lounge cabinet.
The jealousy I feel
This is the second video of yours I've listened to since it popped up in my suggested list. Video games are more my passion, and I could only classify myself as a causal consumer of anime, but I see how the two passtimes overlap time and again.
The algorithm served us both well, as it provided me with something interesting and entertaining to have on in the background, and got you a new subscriber. Great stuff.
Sometimes, in this age of the internet, it feels difficult for me to enjoy what I enjoy because I’m aware that people either view it as ‘sinful’ or ‘problematic’ content.
It’s nice to know that there’s a place where it’s okay to like trashy trash dumpster fire garbage anime and people just acknowledge the implications of it and move on. It’s kinda cozy.
I don’t even like anything crazy within the anime industry lmao
Wicket city and Vampire Hunter D are not "trashy trash dumpster fire garbage anime". I don't know why hipsters feel the need to take things that were popular 25 years ago, take them out of context and then call them garbage and then act like they discovered the tower of babel for forming an ignorant hot take void of context about something they didn't know existed until 5 minutes ago.
@@DeathmetalPersian
I’m assuming you agree with me?
It’s frustrating when people take a cursory glance at something and completely identify it as “bad” or not worth anything.
My treasure is their trash I guess. But I do admit that some of the stuff I enjoy is media junk food.
@@DeathmetalPersian I guess I really don’t understand your take here
@@happythekatt8419 yeah I am agreeing with you but I'm just frustrated with the way the person in the YT video is portraying these movies as just garbage people have never heard of when in reality vampire hunter D was immensely popular and wicked city and devil man have huge cult followings. Yet all she could muster up to say about them was that they were forgettable and a mess and no one but her would be crazy enough to waste time on them.
As if none of these things existed until she had heard about them before. It's like trying to portray buttered toast as this age old secret everyone forgot about lol its so dumb.
@@DeathmetalPersian Did we watch the same video? She said D, Wicked City, and Devilman were great. They're also trashy, but in that Grindhouse holy-shit-what-is-this-garbage-and-where-can-I-get-more way. You can like something without thinking it's the most amazing thing ever, AND good things can get forgotten. I mean, shit, Vampire Hunter D basically vanished off the pop-culture radar here in the states.
So, this just landed in my recommendations, and I cannot believe that you're using significant percentages of my playlists here! Guess I need to sub now lol
Damn! Color me impressed by the depth you took on this one! I thought I knew all the messed up ova material from that time and I haven't seen a solid half of these! Excited!
Its my day off, just found out Abba is releasing a new album, and Hazel uploaded an hour long video about vintage anime. Today is a fantastic day! ☺💖✨
WOW, I never thought Jamaican Pikachu would protect me from seeing Vegeta drop the f-bomb, but here we are. 40:36
Also, great video as always!
You really brought me back with Call Me Tonight and fact that there's still no dub is amazing.
21:00 “unless of course, you’re nasty” shit made me choke on my soup
i got recommended your videos for seemingly no reason. i thought there was nothing valuable in old anime. i now wish for a small crt tv and a couple ova tapes in a bed with a big bowl of za. your videos have gotten me into old anime.
You might have already heard of them, but KaiserBeamz does great deep dives/reviews of OVAs from this era. He covers all sorts, but he has focused on quite a few of the really infamous titles
As a fellow content creator that hardly gets any RUclips Videos done, how the f*ck do you manage to get these huge and detailed videos out so often and so regularly. That must be some crazy good workflow or hardcore time investment you are doing for the sake of bringing SUPERIOR CONTENT to us. Thank you ♥
Always love seeing reactions to the anime I grew up with and, still to this day, heavily influences my own work.
I must admit I haven't seen a few of these myself, (only had so much paperboy money back then) but I will be rectifying that over the coming weeks. Great video!
All the best =)
My mom has always been into nerd and fandom culture and I grew up surrounded by it as a kid and I remember several family friends that were briefly roommates being very heavily into the early anime localization scene and I have very early memories of being occasionally kicked out of the room when they would watch certain stuff and having no idea why at the time. 🤣
Looking up what the name actually got localized as, I actually think I remember them all (about two or three dudes in total if I remember right) trying to hunt down Urotsukidoji and and being quite excited when it came in the mail. I remember looking at the title and asking to watch it thinking that it was some generic fantasy movie, being localized is Legend of the Overfiend, and them basically telling me and my mom that I should be not allowed near those tapes under any circumstances. (I was like 10 at the time) 🤣
One of those sidebar recommendations I tend to ignore, but as a 90s kid growing up in regional Australia, renting OVAs was a big part of my youth. Not only a great trip down memory lane but so much more. Subbed!
As part of the "I discovered anime because of Street Fighter II : The Animated Movie" generation, this brought back a lot of nostalgia.
that movie got some sakuga man. the scene where cammy jumps around and kills some dudes with her legs ? classic
Comparing the original music to the alternative/grunge soundtrack from that old dub VHS is pretty jarring (and hilarious)
I've been loving your videos! It's a shame that I only just now found you in this sea of sub-par creators. Keep up the great work!
I remember when I was a kid and my sister and her friend walked in the house one day with a VHS of Wicked City. We were so confused and yet so entertained. I showed it to my best friend and we've been quoting it to this day. I still have that VHS tape. Great times.
curious about the thumbnail but subscribed and watched the whole thing. i am unfortunately ancient and remember when a lot of these VHS came out. I am glad to be reminded of a period of my life i almost forgot. good work all around
I legit NEVER watch RUclips videos this long, but this was so good I couldn't stop watching! Thank you for the nostalgia trip!
Kudos for doing this rundownalysis!
Must be something in the water lately, I've been deep-diving into all that pre-Adult Swim anime for the last month. I grew up with it, used to know which rental place in town had which OVA (and the ONE that had the first three tapes of Ranma 1/2!) and when the family finally got pay TV I was able to enjoy the stuff that wasn't available by taping it from the Sci-Fi Channel or IFC. And what you said about losing access has been ringing true for me as well, so much of this stuff goes out of print and the streaming rights lapse (or never existed) that I've started hoarding it on physical media. Bought more anime in the last month than the previous 20 years combined.
Thankfully, crowdfunding has enabled a few remastering efforts for Blu-Ray re-releases from this era. Already plunked down a preorder for my all-time favorite, Project A-Ko, since they've finally tracked down a 16mm film print for a real restoration. How much that one, Vampire Hunter D, and Battle Angel Alita completely altered my aesthetic for a good decade or so is impossible to put into words.
6:37 fun fact, this one (and its sequel) actually made it into MULTIPLE Super Robot Wars games
and Iczer one is generally considered to be an absolutely broken unit (in a good way)
What I love about this era of anime is that it was produced without any outside audience in mind. It's what Japanese animators wanted to make for Japan. The export licensing is vital to the business model these days, and it shows.
27:25 Hazel!! I was able to dig up a copy of that Hideshi Hino OVA a while back after a pal on the LMW found me a rip!! I'm a big Hino stan and was curious to see what it was all about. If you are ever interested in seeing Hino's work in less of an animated adaptation and more so of a slideshow- hit me up, haha!
The meme at 34:51 had me UGLY CACKLING out loud because I did base almost all of my personality around chickens and still do to this day. Also, great video, I discovered you from your Arisa Good Luck video and am gradually working my way through your videos. (Definitely going to check out Goldfish Warning based almost entirely on that angry chicken side character.)