top ten least essential OVAs of the 80s

New Let's Anime all about the Original Video Animations from the 1980s that are absolutely NOT required viewing! Completely non-essential. There you go.



I have a different story behind viewing each one of these OVAs. COSMOS PINK SHOCK came to us via tap-swapping pretty soon after it came out in Japan, but after seeing Hirano’s ICZER ONE and expecting more gore, nudity, and lesbians, the complete lack of any of that in PINK SHOCK was, yes, a shock. It became a catch-phrase for failure among the Atlanta anime nerds, but time has been kind to this title; now that we can catch all the anime in-jokes and sight gags, prepared for its light comedy vibe, it screens more successfully.

DEAD HEAT was bought by a club member who had made a little career out of putting together little investment groups to buy Japanese LDs and VHS tapes; you’d kick in a little money and you’d get a copy of it when it came in. I believe he was also selling copies at other venues, but it’s just a suspicion. There was a certain desperate sense he was really trying hard to impress us with his ability to buy things. Anyway, this was one of the VHS tapes he bought, probably paid $100 for it all told. Big deal.

ELF 17 I had a 4th or 5th generation copy of at 4-hour speed on the back of a tape of something else; it was screened at a club meeting and then it sat on the shelf in the back of my video list waiting to be traded to somebody for something else. Not really bad, not really outstanding, easily as entertaining as other videos that got more attention for whatever reason. Who knows why one thing gets popular and another thing doesn’t?

MUGEN SHINSHI/DREAM DETECTIVE was shown at the 1988 Worldcon in New Orleans; Toren Smith had collected a bunch of C/FO types to supply anime for the video room and this was one of the titles. The custom at the time, since none of this was translated, was for some knowledgeable person to narrate what was going on to the rest of the room. In practice this meant some self-important beardo would sit by the TV and loudly inform the crowd that the hero was going into a room, now he’s talking to a girl, now they’re drinking, now a monster is attacking. At the time I could have sworn that Mugen Shinshi lasted at least three hours.

ROOTS SEARCH; honestly I don’t believe I ever saw more than two or three minutes of this one. It’s ugly and its mother dresses it funny. Later I bought the VHS for $1.

GOOD MORNING ALTHEA was the star attraction at the one C/FO Atlanta meeting that was held at Sgt. Singers Pizza Palace on Memorial Drive in conjunction with the gaming group DAGR which would later become Dragon*Con. So at least ONE future sex offender was present that day.

THE HUMANOID was boring in 1986 and it’s still boring. Sorry, Sorayama.

DIGITAL DEVIL STORY I had a pretty good copy of early on, but it never caught on in terms of club or convention screenings - the horrifying bloody death stuff is fine, but there’s way too much magic sword versus hairy monster fantasy crap in this thing.

SAMY MISSING 99 - I never had a copy of this in the old days, but I always saw it on other people’s video lists, and was always curious about it, and now after having seen it I am glad I wasn’t curious enough about it to waste videotape on it.

GIRL’S DETECTIVE CLUB - Again, never had a copy of this, never knew anyone who did. I only knew of it from ads in Animage and magazines of that vintage. One day I got curious about what the hell this thing was and tracked it down. Such a waste of my time, of TMS’s time, of everybody’s time.

Anyway, it was fun to research these creaky old forgotten OVAs and to be the only guy writing about, say, Mugen Shinshi to any extent, in English anyways.