Anime of the Year 1990-II Spring - Lodoss-tou Senki

Ended up choosing only Lodoss-tou Senki as borderline masterpiece.

1. Fushigi no Umi no Nadia Nadia: Secret of Blue Water ふしぎの海のナディア  [Gainax] (Dropped 3/39) Tags: Historical Adventure, Comedy, Romance, Sci-Fi In 1889, the world is on the pinnacle of great discoveries in technology. In mankind's grasp for the future, a sinister foe known only as Gargoyle, obsessed with restoring the former Atlantean empire to the glory it once held, begins his plans to take over the world. Nadia, with the help of a young inventor, Jean Roque Lartigue, and Captain Nemo of the submarine Nautilus, must fight to save the world from Gargoyle and Neo-Atlantis. Based on the Novel '20,000 Leagues Under the Sea' by Jules Verne. This anime loses a big time against Boy Conan and even against Flying Castle Laputa. Rather uninspiring and childish overall - can't see its value for adults. It's still above average.   Overall Rating: 6/10

2. NG Knight Ramune & 40 NG 騎士ラムネ＆４０  [Production Reed] (Dropped 3/38) Tags: Shounen Mecha Adventure, Comedy, Fantasy Lamune is an ordinary 4th grade boy who loves playing video games. He buys one from a peddler girl and helps her sell the rest. At home, he plays the game called "King Sccasher" & beats it. The peddler girl then comes out of the TV screen and asks for his help, calling him "The Blood Relative of the Chosen Hero Lamuness". She is Princess Milk and takes him to Hara-Hara World where his role is to revive the Guardian Knights. To do this, he had to find an unlock the shrine which held Tama-Q, a robot who became Lamuness' Advisor Robot, and key to freeing the Guardian Knights. All of the Knights are free-thinking mechas except for King Sccasher which is piloted by Lamuness. Opposing Lamuness is Don Harumage and his minions Da Cider and Lesuka. SD Mecha with elementary school boy is already pretty much doomed for me. No good humor spotted either.   Overall Rating: 5/10

3. Mahou no Angel Sweet Mint 魔法のエンジェル スイートミント  [Production Reed] (Dropped 3/47) Tags: Shoujo Mint is a girl who happens to be the princess of the world of dreams and magic. The natural environment of her world is a reflection of the dreams of the people on Earth. It is now in danger as people lose faith in their dreams and let darkness enter their hearts. The environment of Mint's world is starting to wither and die. On her 12th birthday, after a gala celebration with her father the King and her mother, she agrees to go to the world of humans to try to preserve people's hopes and dreams, and to prove that she has the qualities necessary to be a wise ruler. Her father arranges for her to stay with his sister, Mint's aunt Herb, who runs a gift shop on Earth called "Happiness Shop". Sweet Mint continues to use magical girl attributes introduced in Creamy Mami and provides an optimistic outlook as she helps people around. At the same time I can't find anything in it that stands out above the average level...   Overall Rating: 5/10

4. Idol Tenshi Youkoso Youko Idol Angel Welcome Yoko アイドル天使ようこそようこ [Ashi Productions] (Dropped 1/43) Tags: Shoujo Comedy, Drama A young girl and her flying squirrel goes to Tokyo in hopes of becoming an idol singer. On the way, she meets another girl who wants to become an actress, and together they work to achieve their dreams.  Just one episode seems to be translated. It provides super naïve outlook, probably indeed only for young girls.   Overall Rating: 5/10

5. Mashin Eiyuuden Wataru 2 Spirit Hero Wataru 2 魔神英雄伝ワタル2 [Sunrise] (Dropped 3/46) Tags: Mecha Adventure, Comedy Wataru has been lived happily on earth after he defeated Doakudar. When he plays around with his friend, Ryujinmaru appears and ask him to fight again. It appears that the 7 Stars Mountain, the source of Mt. Soukai's rainbow, have been taken over by Doakadar (Doakudar's brother). If all the stars mountain loses their brightness, Mt. Soukai's rainbow will fade and everyone will live in the darkness for eternity. Once again, Wataru has to go through all the 7 stars system and destroy this new stronger enemy. Only for fans of first season...   Overall Rating: 5/10

6. Lodoss-tou Senki Record of Lodoss War ロードス島戦記 [Madhouse] (Finished 13/13) Tags: Shounen Action, Adventure, Fantasy, Supernatural Created from the aftermath of the last great battle of the gods, Lodoss and its kingdoms have been plagued by war for thousands of years. As a quiet peace and unity finally become foreseeable over the land, an unknown evil begins to stir. An ancient witch has awakened, bent on preserving the island of Lodoss by creating political unbalance throughout the many kingdoms and keeping any one from maintaining central control. Only a mixed-race party of six young champions, led by the young warrior Parn, stand between this new threat and Lodoss' descent back into the darkness of war and destruction. I remember that it impressed me greatly the first time I watched it. I still enjoy it, especially when full adventurer party is in action .   Overall Rating: 7/10

7. Cyber City Oedo 808 Cyber City CYBER CITY OEDO 808 (サイバーシティ オーエド ハチマルハチ) [Madhouse] (Finished 3/3) Tags: Detective Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi It is the year 2808. Three convicts are recruited as members of the Cyber Police to keep major criminal activity in Oedo (formerly Tokyo) in check. In return, their life sentences will be reduced by a few years for every mission accomplished. However, to ensure that these convicts are doing their job, the police have secured special collars around their necks. If they attempt to remove their collars or fail to meet the time limit of their mission, the collars will self-destruct. Can be considered ancestor of Psychopass - even pistols have similar fingerprint locks. Each of three episodes focuses on one of three protagonists with some others also often participating. Well, I could not enjoy Cyber City. It's mostly gory action with a bit of intrigue beforehand. Not enough complexity or development for me .   Overall Rating: 6/10

8. AD Police AD Police Files ADポリス [AIC, Artmic] (Finished 3/3) Tags: Adult Cast, Detective, Gore, Mecha, Psychological Adventure, Horror, Mystery, Sci-Fi, Suspense The year is 2027 in MegaTokyo, six years before the Knight Sabers will make their debut. Boomers (artificial humans) are still a relatively new advancement, and the implementation and integration of boomers into society is still a bit buggy -- sometimes fatally so. Whenever a boomer incident occurs, though, there is the Advanced Police, a special force trained to deal with boomer crimes. Leon McNichol is a rookie in the AD Police, and is just starting to become exposed to the horrors and tragedies one finds every day in MegaTokyo. He and his veteran partner, Gina Marceau, slowly learn about the ever-fading line that separates man from machine. Very messy android action stories. Characters aren't introduced properly. Poor direction, hasty development, absolutely horrible endings. Maybe full-scale series make things right, but in this state can't recommend it to anyone.   Overall Rating: 4/10

9. Goddamn ガッデム [Studio Signal] (Finished 2/2) Tags: Seinen Racing Action Car racing anime, based on the manga by Kaoru Shintani that serialised in Big Comic Superior from 1988 to 1990. I've yet to see an interesting serious racing anime. But Venus wars was about racing partially too, and it was great. I blame scenarios - this is another super bland one with unremarkable characters.   Overall Rating: 4/10

10. Yagami-kun no Katei no Jijou 八神くんの家庭の事情 [Production I.G, Kitty Film Mitaka Studio] (Finished 3/3) Tags: Comedy Well, in short, the mother looks like she's 14, and the kid is "openly" in love with her—loli x motha-con. His teacher, too, is in love with her mother, and so the love rivals duke it out in classroom, as well as plotting the downfall of their common enemy, his father. The father has a secretary who is in love with him. But once she discovered that he has such a "young" wife she turned her attention to his son, who is now torn between his own mother and a naive, motorbike riding girlfriend. Wha? I mean... wha? In first episode son imagines wife of his father naked as he does not believe in their blood ties, but at the end of 1st episode she provides joint baby photos that are very persuasive. As I understand the concept, it would work only with borderline jokes while keeping things civil, and it indeed develops this way. In the end only curiosity urges to watch such silly, shocking comedy, but  it is very soon satisfied with only repetition or stakes rising possible, and we already know it goes the repetitions way, so no real point in watching it.   Overall Rating: 4/10

11. Burning Blood [Magic Bus] (Finished 3/3) Tags: Shounen Combat Sports Ryo Takagi is a trumpet player on the verge of hitting it big with his band, but he's also a natural fighter whose blood starts burning when he fights seriously; this gave him the nickname B.B ("Burning Blood"). After suffering absolute defeat at the hands of a young man named Jin Moriyama, though, Ryo decides to trade in his trumpet for a pair of boxing gloves in order to have a rematch the way Moriyama wants it: In the boxing ring. It's above average boxing spokon as characters have their own motivations and problems and because there's pretty much zero boxing in the first episode. But it's physically impossible for me to enjoy a serious spokon, so genre fans should deal with it themselves, really.   Overall Rating: 6/10

12. Milky Passion: Dougenzaka - Ai no Shiro ミルキィパッション 道玄坂 愛の城 [Animation 501] (Finished 1/1) Tags: Josei Romance Based on the Milky Passion manga by Morizono Milk. “Milky Passion” follows Hiromi, a 20-year-old woman working as a stereotypical office lady at a large Japanese company, who is whisked away into a car after work by two suspicious men and taken to a love hotel, where she’s told by the manager there that they want her to become the hotel’s new president. Before she can decline the offer, made to her because her late estranged father was the hotel’s founder, she’s given a fancy apartment near the hotel with designer clothes and accessories, which impress all of the people at her workplace, so she agrees to it. Qualifications? Experience? Who cares about those things when looking for your next president. OVA is just 28 minutes, so it only has time to show prologue, several silly situations at love hotel and worry about rival. No sense in watching it.   Overall Rating: 4/10

13. Ikenai Boy イケナイBOY [J.C.Staff] (Finished 1/1) Tags: Harem Comedy, Erotica An anime adaptation of the erotic manga "Ikenai Boy" by Yoshihiro Suma, serialized in Business Jump. Our hero is the typical young energetic college boy, but he got a special gift. He has "magic hands" that puts all women in ecstasy. Obviously he is taking advantage of this gift by meeting one bishoujo after the other! Second part of Ikenai Boy is marked as hentai, this one is mostly about nude massage. It's still closer to hentai as massage is in the focus and there's nothing else notable in this anime.   Overall Rating: 0/10

14. Shiratori Reiko de Gozaimasu! I am THE Shiratori Reiko! 白鳥麗子でございます！  [Ajia-Do] (Finished 1/1) Tags: Comedy, Romance  19-year old Reiko is a rich, arrogant, material girl, who refuses to admit her feelings for classmate Tetsuya Akimoto before it's almost too late. Reiko pursues him to Tokyo and enrolls at his university in an attempt to win him back. Guess this concept got so many TV adaptations because of combination of reasons : 1) girl is fashionable and from rich family 2) girl is proactive and willful 3) lots of youth craziness with rules of morals not applying. I'm sure it can be a funny dorama, but to show it all within 45 minutes with rather poorly designed character sprites... was mission impossible from the start.   Overall Rating: 4/10

15. Taiman Blues: Ladies-hen - Mayumi たいまんぶるうず レディース編 真由美  [Tokuma Japan] (Finished 2/2) Tags: Shounen Delinquents Mayumi runs away from home from to escape her predatory stepfather only to be abducted by members of a delinquent motorcycle gang. She's taken under the wing by Noriko, who invites her to move into her apartment, finds her a job in a service station and introduces her to the world of motorcycling. The two set up their own all-female gang - Eight Angels - but soon discover that local male-dominated gangs are hostile to this intrusion on their turf. Just when I said there was just one anime series about female gangs, here it is second one. It's better than male previous version Shimizu Naoto-hen in every single way, mostly because it does not limit itself to just tale about gangs. Nice coming of age story, definitely above average, though nothing special.   Overall Rating: 6/10

16. Onimaru: Senjou ni Kakeru Itsutsu no Seishun 鬼丸 戦場に駆ける五つの青春 [Madhouse] (Finished 1/1) Tags: Action, Adventure  During the Onin wars in Japan's medieval Muromachi era, five powerful warriors hire out their services to the highest bidder. Onimaru is the leader; Bo handles demolitions; Saru is as agile as a monkey; Osamu is a cool tactician; and Kiri is the sexy swordswoman. The group gains an extra member when Onimaru rescues Princess Aya who naturally falls in love with him and refuses to go away. Not translated. It's mostly protagonist ninja with non-fighting girl princess defending against atacking ninja and some other warriors on several occasions. The company is colorful, there's some comedy and some explicit content, so overall rather average, but without translation not worth watching.   Overall Rating: 5/10

17. Otokogi 男樹 [-] (Dropped 2/3) Tags: Seinen Organized Crime After his father leaves when he is very young, Kyosuke Murata grows up under the thumb of his overprotective mother, Shizuko. When he reaches adulthood, he is thrown into the harsh, violent world of Japanese gangland when his mother becomes involved in a gang-related crime. He goes up against the Murata-gumi organization, only to find that his estranged father is its head. Rising up through the ranks, Kyosuke eventually unites half the gangs in Japan beneath his own leadership, only to find that the other half have also combined to resist his new power, starting the greatest gang war in Japanese history. Not translated. There have been several serious yakuza OVAs so far, and none of them were nice. I blame lack of scale. This one has an alright scale of the whole country, so might be Japanese Godfather or something, but third episode is not found, so the resolution is unknown. Overall, a serious anime with a lot of characters and gore, above average yakuza anime for sure.   Overall Rating: 6/10

18. Tonari no Tokoro となりのトコロ [Pastel] (Dropped 0/1) Tags: Comedy  Based on the original story by famous Japanese comedian George Tokoro. Not found.   Overall Rating: 0/10

19. Furiten-kun (1990) フリテンくん [Knack Productions] (Finished 2/2) Tags: Seinen Comedy, Slice of Life Continuation of the everyday life adventures of the avid mahjong player Furiten-kun. Not translated. I quite dig kinky corporate parody humor. Would be a lot better translated.   Overall Rating: 6/10

20. Versailles no Bara: Seimei Aru Kagiri Aishite ベルサイユのばら 生命あるかぎり愛して [Tokyo Movie Shinsha] (Finished 1/1) Tags: Shoujo Historical Drama, Romance A theatrical re-edit/summary of the TV series. Some of the voice actors were changed (eg. Oscar is played by Keiko Toda instead of re-using the original audio by Reiko Tajima). Not translated (except in Spanish) and very poor video quality. Fine for those who does not want to watch this whole series.   Overall Rating: 5/10

21. Onna Senshi Efe & Jira: Gude no Monshou Gude Crest: The Emblem of Gude 女戦士エフェ&ジーラ グーデの紋章 [J.C.Staff] (Finished 1/1) Tags: Adventure, Fantasy Two partners Effera and Jiliora escape from a slave boat with the aid of their friend Orlin and a young boy named Kilian. When Kilian is killed in the escape Effera and Jiliora take it upon themselves to return Kilian's pendant to his two siblings who are being held captive by Baron Celdion, who is plotting to take over all of the neighboring countries. Again, not bad small fantasy OVA does not go further than that and remains just not bad to the end.   Overall Rating: 6/10

22. Hashire! Shiroi Ookami White Fang 走れ! 白いオオカミ [Group TAC, Toho] (Finished 1/1) Tags: Drama A boy named Lasset who lives on a farm in the rural northern US makes a perilous trek through the wilderness to a sanctuary 300 miles to the north to save the life of a gray wolf that he had raised from a puppy after an incident in which the wolf kills the family dog. I've come to conclusion that all anime about normal non-speaking animals is made for kids and it tries to show morals and teach as first priority, and story is second priority and not that important or interesting usually. I think there were at least three similar anime about Silver Fang already, it stops to be funny on the second run let alone the fourth.   Overall Rating: 5/10

23. Kuro ga Ita Natsu クロがいた夏 [GEN Productions] (Finished 1/1) Tags: Historical, Pets Drama Hiroshima, summer of 1945. A young girl named Nobuko saves a starving kitten from crows. She wants to keep the kitten, but her parents dismiss the idea. Nobuko eventually convinces them to let her keep it. She and her brother Makoto name the cat Kuro. Kuro quickly brings joy and laughter to the family. As World War II takes its toll on Japan, it becomes harder for Nobuko and her family to care for Kuro. One August morning, Kuro begins acting strangely... This anime is stupid not because kitten saves protagonists two times and then dies heroically, but the way American fighter pilot flies low and with a smirk aims with machine gun scope at a small girl running with a kitten in the center of the street and launches a barrage. If you make movie like this, best not make any, really.   Overall Rating: 4/10

24. Heavy ヘヴィ [Artland, Nippon Animation] (Finished 1/1) Tags: Action, Drama, Sports Gai, a karate expert in the New York slum, is trained to be a boxing champion by a cancer-strucken doctor and a transvestite suffering from AIDS. Based on the manga by Motoka Murakami. Not translated. Another above the average boxing movie, but by how above is for spokons fans to decide.   Overall Rating: 6/10

25. Perrine Monogatari Movie 劇場版 ペリーヌ物語 [Nippon Animation] (Dropped 0/1) Tags: Shoujo Historical Drama, Slice of Life Movie version of the TV series Perrine Monogatari. Not found.   Overall Rating: 0/10

26. Makkuro na Obentou まっ黒なおべんとう [Kyodo Eiga] (Dropped 0/1) Tags: Historical Drama n the 6th of August, 1945, an atomic bomb was dropped on the city of Hiroshima. A young boy, Shigeru, left home for his job as a building excavator that morning, carrying a bento made by his mother, only to never return home again. Before long, his mother managed to find Shigeru's remains, and she noticed the completely black and carbonized bento box next to them. This is an anime adaptation of the original book, "Makkuro na Obentou (The Charred Lunchbox)" written by Kodama Tatsuharu and illustrated by Kitajima Shinpei. The bento box that becomes the focus of the story is actually on display in the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum. Not found.   Overall Rating: 0/10

27. Obatalian オバタリアン [Sunrise] (Finished 1/1) Tags: Comedy The pejorative word obatalian is a pun between the Japanese word obaasan (old lady) and the English word battalion. Obatalian are known to always enter a train running as fast as they can, bumping others people in order to catch a free seat before the others. They haggle things that aren't normally haggled like grocery store produce. They are fearless and pitiless, just like a battalion of barbarians. This anime is follows 6 stories of one such Obatalian and her wake of destruction. Not translated. But hilarious battle grannies, as expected.   Overall Rating: 6/10

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