#Takeyuki Kanda

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Armor Hunter Mellowlink ~ Takeyuki Kanda ~ 1988

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[hambrababy]

A Journey Through an Internet Anime Rumor on Takeyuki Kanda

There is a rumor that’s spread about anime director Takeyuki Kanda’s sudden death in 1996 that has nothing to back it up. As best as I can tell, it remains unfounded and almost certainly false. The rumor is that he died in a car crash, but the only available information on Japanese sites doesn’t mention that at all. The oldest source I could find for that rumor was an uncited English Wikipedia article written by an account later banned for bad edits.

The only confirmed detail on Kanda’s death is that he suddenly passed away at the age of 52. That much, at a minimum, is confirmed by an official interview on the VOTOMS website with Ryosuke Takahashi that mentions Kanda’s passing, specifically in its third footnote.

I was (and still am) working on a separate, more fun article about a series of anime image albums, but I got sucked into this rabbit hole over the last few days. I figured I’d tell the story of how this unraveled, as well as share some thoughts on anime rumors in general.

Hey, Maybe Someone Should Check Wikipedia

I was chatting with people from Inka Subs about Vifam, and Ralem, one of the staffers, posted the credits of its 1920’s Chicago gag spinoff OVA short. The credits are in English and contain a bunch of names and inside jokes on the staff involved, and one of them was for the director “Drunkard Kanda”.

Takeyuki Kanda was a seasoned anime director who worked on many shows over his career, and he was Vifam’s series director, hence the shoutout. A tidbit I’d heard through the years and repeated myself was that Kanda died while directing the Gundam: The 08th MS Team OVA because he got into a fatal car accident. Because other staff noted his tendency to drink, that carried the implicit connotation of an alcoholic car crash, which would explain why the OVA had a director change part way through. It’s a short, somewhat dramatic story that gives a grim flourish of sudden crisis to the production of The 08th MS Team.

Except I thought for a second and realized that I wasn’t sure where that detail actually came from. I’d heard it so often, but where did it come from originally? Just to double check, I went to his English Wikipedia page to see if it was sourced there.

It was soon apparent that something was wrong. The Wikipedia page for Kanda was barebones, and it hadn’t been updated since June 13th, 2021. The article at the time had this as its bio paragraph at the start:

None of this information was cited whatsoever. There were no formatted citations, no in-text descriptions, and no links of any kind except external ones to IMDB and ANN. The page had a huge “this article needs additional citations for verification” warning slapped right at the top since 2019, but nothing had been done to fix anything.

I switched over to JP Wikipeda to see if it was listed there. I don’t know Japanese myself, but even from cautiously using both Google Translate and DeepL with the page, there’s no mention there of any sort of car crash, which was also checked by the Inka people who knew Japanese.

I looked back through the history of the page to see where that detail could have possibly come from, and it turned out that unverified detail was there from the page’s inception in 2015. That’s also where I noticed that there was an additional unverified detail about Kanda being “heavily inspired by Stanley Kubrick and Steven Spilberg [sic]” (and 20 days later even added Nicolas Roeg). The user who made that page had not only received warnings from other Wikipedia editors for adding unverified information even before the article was written, but was repeatedly blocked and later permabanned for sockpuppeting, unverified malicious edits, and personally attacking other editors.

Needless to say, the car crash detail is very suspect and unreliable. There’s no reason to believe it’s real based on the existing current evidence. Other Inka members checked through JPN sites with pages about Kanda, and none of them mentioned a car crash. Checking on my own, it’s not mentioned in the Pixiv encyclopedia, the NicoNicoDouga encyclopedia, nor even a fan-site Sunrise encyclopedia. All of those are user generated and don’t have sources themselves, so even the details that are there are unverified.

There is official interview on the VOTOMS website with Ryosuke Takahashi in 2010 where mentions Kanda. The third footnote only confirms that he suddenly passed away at the age of 52 in 1996, with no mention of the cause of death. The note does mention he shared drinks, but there are no further details beyond that.

It’s possible somewhere out there, there’s some obscure contemporaneous Japanese article or coverage where something like that maybe happened. But until any actual proof emerges, there’s no reason to believe the car crash rumor is true, or any of the other details on those JP sites for that matter. The only verifiable detail is that Takeyuki Kanda suddenly passed away at the age of 52 in 1996. If anyone has more reliable information to add to this, please share it.

Other Wrong Listings

The next “official” source I could find for that car crash rumor was ANN’s encyclopedia page on Kanda. The detail has no information on its source unless logged in, but I initially thought it could have maybe had some reputable source.

After logging in, its only listed source was that same Wikipedia article. AniDB's page also has that detail but again only lists Wikipedia as its source.

With all this looking like a mess, I decided to remove that detail from Kanda’s Wikipedia page myself. I also submitted an error report to ANN and to AniDB, both of which are pending at the time of this post.

I decided to later check the 08th MS Team Wikipedia article to correct the information there as well, and that’s where another oddity popped up. It had “citation” on Kanda dying in a car crash, but it was an anime blog that gave me a fake virus warning pop-up ad upon opening. That blog post had no source listed. There was also a link to a different anime blog saying that the episodes were delayed after of Kanda’s death (though they don’t mention the rumor, good on them!), which is at least a more plausible inference based on the release schedule, but still not confirmed. I deleted those sections as well.

I think that rumor is now at least dead on Wikipedia and hopefully soon ANN and AniDB, but by that point it had likely spread for years. I’m thankful people shared my description of this on Twitter, but that’s still a small subset of a niche of a niche on an unrepresentative website. Who knows how far that unconfirmed detail has spread?

Something Was Wrong on the Internet

Despite my attempt to tell this somewhat as a story, all of this was rather basic. Checking a Wikipedia article to see if it has a citation takes seconds. Even with blunt use of auto-translator software, which itself is very imperfect even in the most narrow and careful possible circumstances, checking JP Wikipedia and other bio sites had no mention of anything close to an auto accident. Finding reliable anime information is a thankless task, but doing the most basic fact-checking to see if a detail has a confirmed source is relatively simple. Anything unsourced on Wikipedia is always suspect, and even things with sources there need checking to see what they’re linking too.

It’s commendable that English staff databases and editable encyclopedias even exist, but those also have structural issues. On ANN, you can’t see the source listed for something unless you’re logged in, which seems like a rather serious flaw for a public encyclopedia that’s the most public-facing source of Anime staff information aside from smaller sites like AniDB and AniList. Having an editor manually approve changes is a good deterrent from false info getting posted, but it does make it harder to speedily correct things aside from using error reports to put tiny red warning circles.

As much of a weird obsession this has been for me over the last few days, and as much as it feels good to see this attempt at a correction getting shared, it is still emblematic of a larger problem.

Wrong and misleading information is a longstanding issue in English anime fandom and companies, especially when communication was more limited, but even the long-debunked ones remain nigh-unkillable even now. How many times has the “Ghost Stories flopped” rumor been spread even though it was totally wrong? Or the rumor about where Toriyama “intended” for Dragon Ball to end that’s not only inaccurate across the board but also includes outright hoaxes? Or the lacking knowledge about the anime production process as a whole?

Even from my own experiences, small details can cause these kinds of issues if they remain unchecked. A few 0079 mecha on the Gundam Wiki had to have their articles reformatted because their model numbers were lifted from made-up details posted to Japanese Wikipedia years ago from a doujin site, including the Gaw and the Dopp (thanks to editors MatokoLee and SuperFeatherYoshi for pointing these out!). The Dopp one was copied into the Wiki in 2011, but no one had bothered to verify them for so long because there was no immediate reason to suspect they were wrong. This isn’t as egregious as the prior examples since all the tech specs for mecha are fictional (and sometimes contradictory), but even the tiniest pieces of incorrect anime info can linger on for years.

I won’t give other specific rumors any more oxygen, but this still happens with tons of recent shows. One detail from an interview or one comment from an animator on twitter can get spun into something totally unfounded from the original basis of what they were trying to say, and then those misconceptions only get more repeated and exaggerated the more users and sites they pass through.

To some extent, a certain amount of this is inevitable given the language and cultural barrier for English anime fandom. But since anime has grown far wider from its initial niche, it’s almost even easier for bad information to spread quickly while corrections and actual well-researched information can’t catch up. Running actual news and press sites is challenging as online news faces many economic struggles, and there’s little incentive for individuals or influencer-type people to concern themselves with accuracy. It’s easy, and frankly more entertaining, to mythologize about so many aspects of anime production and history, to spread speculation, or to share funny or gripping details that sound true enough while never bothering to do the most basic checking on any of them.

I sometimes wonder if it is possible to make some kind of website cataloging and debunking common anime misconceptions and rumors. Kazenshuu’s rumor guide is the most comprehensive in debunking anime-related rumors, even if it’s only for Dragon Ball. Wikizilla’s misconceptions page (thanks Chungris!) is also another good example, as is TFWiki’s  “urban legends” page. But there needs to be a way more centralized way to broadcast these kinds of rumor-debunkings rather than individual people happening to find them years later.

The obvious takeaway from all this is for people to be more cautious, which seems straightforward enough, but that only gets so far. My blither takeaway is that more people, myself included, should just learn Japanese. There’s a whole world of anime magazines, interviews, websites, and more that could clear up tons of longstanding rumors and even provide new details never accessible beyond Japan before, but so much remains untranslated. I have paid people to translate things I really wanted to access before (thanks Windii!), but realistically that’s an expense I can’t incur that frequently.

Life is already getting busy for me, but I think there’s merit to devoting enough time to learn some Japanese. Anime is a hobby, but it’s a hobby I love and want to learn as much as I can. Relying so much on secondhand info spread through random people, having to use flawed and unreliable auto-translate programs to skim websites, or being lucky enough to know fansubbers with actual Japanese knowledge isn’t a sustainable substitute for actually knowing things.

Learning Japanese wouldn’t fix everything. Bad information and rumors still spread among JP fans too. Even official sources from companies can intentionally mislead, while faulty memoirs and recollections from animators can get things wrong. But the English anime community needs more serious, verifiable (and far less scattered) work on sourcing anime history and news. If any of us can move that needle and stop wrong info from spreading, then that’s already more valuable than any amount of casual waffling, opinionating, and speculation that only begets more wrong information.

So be the annoying pedant who asks where someone got the detail they’re sharing. Don’t spread something that sounds too neat and simple without bothering to check. Don’t take anything for granted. Learn Japanese and look things up yourself. Demand better of others and yourself.

By the way, this shouldn’t overshadow Kanda’s extensive career in anime. I haven’t finished Vifam yet, but I highly recommend it. Watch the shows Kanda worked on and played a huge role in shaping. Let that be his legacy.

Postscript: Some Better Sources

This is by no means an exhaustive list and I don’t mean to snub anyone, but I figured I’d at least post a few people I know are more thorough with things to steer this post towards a better direction.

Regarding Gundam, I can recommend Mark Simmons’ UC-focused website, Feez’s Turn A blog, and the translations on the Zeonic Website. They have lots of old interviews and production details translated that are invaluable for understanding the behind-the-scenes of Gundam.

For anime production information more generally, I can recommend the Full Frontal team and the SakugaBlog/Booru team. They’re doing some of the best active work in covering current anime creators and detailing the current state of the industry with high quality translations and original reporting of their own.

Windii has been an immense help for me in the past, and she’s actively soliciting to translate and preserve tons of anime (and lots of Sonic) related stuff.

This is with the clarification that I don’t watch anime youtubers, but I can at least say MercuryFalcon has some very well-sourced videos, especially his Toei Fushigi Comedy one.

None of these are perfect, but they do a solid job of translating information that I’d like to see more of. Again, apologies if I forgot or don’t know about other people, but I figured I’d shout out a few of the ones I do know.

[dfjiewei]

신성한 이혼 다시보기 7화 8화 누누 무료 7회 8회

신성한 이혼 다시보기 7화 8화 누누 무료 7회 8회 링크 <<

신성한 이혼 다시보기 7화 8화 누누 무료 7회 8회 좌표 <<

JTBC 드라마 '대행사' 후속 작품 '신성한, 이혼'이 강태경 작가의 동명 웹툰이 원작으로 알려지면서 화제가 되고 있다.

등장인물 및 인물관계도를 살펴보면 신성한(조승우)은 파이니스트의 길을 걷던 중에 한 사건을 계기로 이혼 전문 변호사가 됐다. 그가 갑자기 법조인이 되기로 결심했던 이유는 무엇일까?

기상캐스터 출신 라디오 디제이 이서진(한혜진)은 청취자들의 인기를 한몸에 받고 있지만 남편의 정서적 학대를 받고 있다. 그런 남편이 반갑게도 이혼을 요구했지만 아들만은 포기하지 못해 신성한 변호사를 찾는다.

신성한 사무실 사무장 장형근(김성균)은 신성한의 중학교 친구로 사랑했던 사람에게 이별 통보를 받는다. 역시 신성한 중학교 친구 조정식(정문성)은 하는 일마다 죄다 말아먹는 사람이었지만 부동산 사장이 된 이후로 빛을 보고 있다.

라면집 할머니 막내딸 김소연(강말금)은 신성한 사무실 아저씨들이 걱정돼 급하게 대신 가게 문을 열었다. 라디오 PD 방호영(유주혜)와 더불어 감초 역할을 톡톡히 해낼 것으로 보인다.

사진=JTBC '신성한, 이혼' 드라마 '신성한, 이혼'은 총 12부작 예정으로 OTT는 티빙과 넷플릭스에서 공개한다. 제작사는 SLL, 하이그라운드, 글뫼이며 극본은 유영아 작가가 맡았다.

한편 '신성한, 이혼' 방송시간은 매주 토, 일요일 오후 10시 30분이며 재방송 및 다시보기는 오는 5일 오전 10시 30분, 오후 3시 10분에 1회가 방송될 예정이다.

JTBC 드라마 신성한 이혼 다시보기 1회 2회 3회 4회 5회 6회 7회 8회 9회 10회 11회 12회 13회 14회 15회 16회 17회 18회 19회 20회 마지막회

JTBC 드라마 신성한 이혼 다시보기 1화 2화 3화 4화 5화 6화 7화 8화 9화 10화 11화 12화 13화 14화 15화 16화 17화 18화 19화 20화 마지막화

JTBC 드라마 신성한 이혼 다시보기 E01 E02 E03 E04 E05 E06 E07 E08 E09 E10 E11 E12 E13 E14 E15 E16 E17 E18 E19 E20

JTBC 드라마 신성한 이혼 다시보기 재방송 다시보기 공식영상 보러가기 회차정보 방송시간 시청률 몇부작 등장인물

JTBC 드라마 신성한 이혼 다시보기 인물관계도 같은드라마 주요인물 주변인물 포스터 방영일정 하이라이트 편성표 방송정보

JTBC 드라마 신성한 이혼 다시보기 예고편 본방송 방송시간 넷플릭스 티빙 SBS 드라마 KBS2 드라마 MBC 드라마

JTBC 드라마 신성한 이혼 다시보기 tvN 드라마 ENA 드라마 OCN 드라마 유투브 네이버 구글 다음 네이트

JTBC 드라마 신성한 이혼 다시보기 고화질 1080P 720P 480P 다운로드 보는곳 보는법 사이트 무료보기 토렌트 TORRENT

JTBC 드라마 신성한 이혼 다시보기 마그넷 실시간 스트리밍 반응 해외반응 리뷰 후기 방송채널 작가 제작사 더쿠 대사 디시

JTBC 드라마 신성한 이혼 다시보기 갤러리 관계도 시간 순위 생방송 몇시 하는시간 GIF 움짤 FULL netflix 키스신 추천

JTBC 드라마 신성한 이혼 다시보기 왓챠 JTBC 드라마 메이킹 NAVER VOD 정주행 몰아보기 완결 전편 모음 전체보기 OST

JTBC 드라마 신성한 이혼 다시보기 Tving 디즈니 채널A 드라마 olleh tv Apple TV 쿠팡플레이 TV조선 드라마 명장면

JTBC 드라마 신성한 이혼 다시보기 시청소감 공식홈페이지 후속 범인 작가 웹드라마 2022 한드 추천

JTBC 드라마 신성한 이혼 다시보기 완결 전편 더쿠 몇부작 줄거리 등장인물 인물관계도 1080P 720P 고화질 넷플릭스

He was very impressed with Tomino Yoshiyuki's Triton of the Sea, but said he had no intention of doing animation. A senior who works at Toyoo Ashida's studio live said, "I'm busy with Sunrise work, but I need someone to decipher the continuity and help with the work." So I went to help and heard that he was good at deciphering Conti, so he was hired the same day. He is a newcomer, but he was in charge of setting production at Invincible Robo Try The G7, and then participated in setting production for the strongest Robo Dai Oja.

Animation work was fun, but it was an unstable industry with low wages and no insurance, so I thought the future was uncertain. I quit Sunrise to take over the family business, a drapery store. returned to Kanda Takeyuki, whom he met at Garat, taught Fukuda how to draw storyboards, and during the Armored War Dragona, Kanda said, "I think you can direct it." So, I started directing in earnest. He begins his full-fledged career as a director.[1] Because of this, Fukuda mentions Kanda Takeyuki as his teacher. He acted under the name of Mitsuo Fukuda (福田 満夫 or ふくだみつお) for setting production and directing responsibilities. Since he worked as a setting producer in the early days, he wrote and supervised most of the settings in the works he directed.신성한 이혼 다시보기 7화 8화 누누 무료 7회 8회

After that, he went through directing for Demon God Hero Waru Wataru and Madong King Grand Zotte, and was promoted to directing chief in Hero Ex Kaiser, and was in charge of the bank scene, which is considered a famous scene in these 3 works. He is said to have been called the master of the bank scene in Sunrise because of his good skills. He has a heroic beauty and uses refined directing. The summon scene and bank shot that Granjo fans like in Korea are also the work of this person. In particular, the influence of Fukuda's directing on the Hero series was so great that director Katsuyoshi Yatabe copied his directing from Fibird, the Hero of the Sun, and Dagan, the Legendary Hero, even though Fukuda did not participate. As Shinji Takamatsu takes over as director, you can see a direction that is a little different from Fukuda. Even in the Wataru series, from 2 onwards, Fukuda does not participate, but the direction of the back dragon sword directed by Fukuda in 1 and the direction of the Holy Dragon sword in 2 are the same. In addition, in the end, someone else is doing it, so it gives a somewhat awkward feeling.신성한 이혼 다시보기 7화 8화 누누 무료 7회 8회

In 1991, he made his debut as a director by directing and storyboarding at Shinsegi GPX Cyber Formula. Afterwards, in Cyber Formula Double One and Zero, which were released as OVAs, he succeeded in directing the original plan, director, and screenplay by himself.

He only participated in Mobile Suit V Gundam once as a continuity, and at this time, he studied directing under director Tomino. This became a springboard, and in 2002 he became the general manager of Mobile Suit Gundam SEED.

After finishing the Cyber Formula series, he supervised GEAR Warriors Dendo, and participated in the fighting crash Gear Turbo as a 3D chief, creating action scenes.신성한 이혼 다시보기 7화 8화 누누 무료 7회 8회

After Sid, there are no special works or projects, but Sid-related settings, supervising plastic models, and directing and producing other animations within Sunrise. Rumors circulated that he was kicked out of the industry and became unemployed, but he denied it, saying, "If I don't work, how can I live with my family?" He was once a freelancer, but seems to have gone back to taking care of Sunrise.

And he was in charge of directing the opening movie for Warlord Shinhee ~Battle Master Mk.2~, which was released on the PSP. #

On March 29, 2019, he returned to his directorial position as the director of MEGOHIME MEGOHIME, an animation jointly produced by Fukushima GAINA and Miharu Town, Fukushima Prefecture, Japan. However, it's not a TV series, it's a local PR animation, and the running time is pretty short, around 10 minutes. The production team [2] and the voice actors are confused about such a topic. [3]

After a while, in October 2014, he participated as a creative producer in a new animation called Cross Ange Angel and Dragon's Yunmura.신성한 이혼 다시보기 7화 8화 누누 무료 7회 8회

In fact, there are cases where it is said that it is unemployed because of the long gap between works, and there are cases where it is said that it is buried in the industry, but at least the former is close to slander. There are a lot of people who do directing activities with such a hiatus, and it takes quite a bit of time to create the setting or proceed with production. In the first place, there are dependents and the children are young, but if they were kicked out of the industry or unemployed, the family would have been ruined. He is strictly watching his work activities within Sunrise. It looks like this because of Sidman's activities that have been holding on for 10 years. After the SEED TV version, it was produced as a special edition, and then developed into an HD remaster. And now, a special edition of SEED HD is also being produced. Most of my work life was devoted to creating and revising SEED, but many people know that I did nothing at this time. Of course, there are people who do multiple works, but there are also many people who spend their entire lives working on one project. There are many writers who are in a similar profession, cartoonists, who make a hit, then turn it into a follow-up or collector's edition, and there are many one-hit wonders who live their entire lives on a single hit song, such as composers and singers. People who live their entire lives with only one hit work are widely spread, regardless of the creative field. It is absurd to say that it is deformed. It's rare in the animation industry, but how can Sid be so successful that he's been alive for nearly 20 years…신성한 이혼 다시보기 7화 8화 누누 무료 7회 8회

Therefore, it is difficult to conclude that Fukuda has been buried in the industry. There is a faction of animators who prefer to work with Fukuda, and there are many cases in which animation directors release works every 4 to 5 years, but Fukuda has worked almost without a break, including the SEED remaster. Also, no matter how much Fukuda is criticized, there is a fan base that supports Fukuda, and except for Gear Warrior Dendo, there have been no ruined works since their debut, and they have given Sunrise and Bandai a huge amount of money. He has no reason to be buried [4] [5] The work that proves this is Cross Ange Angel and Dragon's Bon Dance, where Fukuda's position is the producer. To the extent of being a producer, it means that Fukuda's status within Sunrise is quite high. Being a producer is impossible without connections. Entering 2020-2021, he participated in the Gunpla Battle series such as Gundam Build Divers Re:RISE as a directing intermittently, and then resumed the position of director of the Gundam Seed theatrical version, 신성한 이혼 다시보기 7화 8화 누누 무료 7회 8회which is being promoted again to restart the Gundam Seed world view, and resumed the large-scale project of Sunrise. took over To put it bluntly, apart from his position within Sunrise and the commercial success of his films, it would be better to see that people's perception of him has become subtle due to the various problems in this document.

In 2020, he was in charge of directing some episodes of Gundam Build Divers Liraise, and the episodes he was in charge of were highly praised for directing.

It is said that he is quite talented in directing, but it is his wife and personality that have caused the biggest damage to his career. After coming to Cyber Formula Saga, I discussed with my wife that the story was not going well during planning, and then I suddenly selected my wife, Chiaki Morosawa, as the scriptwriter for the work. After that, I enjoyed working with my wife. Because his ability as a role was a mess, people who fell in love with Fukuda's directing talent in the past and became his fans also dropped out of school. It is to the extent that he divides his work career before and after participating in Morosa. As will be discussed later, it is also the 신성한 이혼 다시보기 7화 8화 누누 무료 7회 8회decisive reason why Mitsuo Fukuda's career as a manager has been sluggish compared to his time in Leeds, despite the high status of Mitsuo Fukuda within Sunrise.

In this respect, he is more outstanding as a director than a director, and can be seen as a runaway director who needs someone to stop him even when directing. Among the works he created, the well-received Cyber Formula and Cross Ange have in common that there was a separate person to stop and control Fukuda.[6]

Directing features[edit] He enjoys shooting Dutch angles, where he captures subjects at an angle with the camera, and is good at directing things by turning the camera angle round and round and capturing objects in three dimensions. This method of utilizing perspective and three-dimensional effect with diagonal composition is sometimes called Fukuda Pars (Fukuda Perspective) in industry terms. In addition, it is often used to increase the sense of speed by letting light rays or concentration lines pass through the background. Obari Masami, who worked as an animator under him, also followed this directing, and is known worldwide as Obari's directing, but the originator is Fukuda. It was Fukuda, not Obari Masami, who first performed the Brave Sword.신성한 이혼 다시보기 7화 8화 누누 무료 7회 8회

Since he has been producing the settings for robot animations for a long time, he structurally grasps which robots transform, where and which weapons are used and how they are used, and directs them. In the case of Gundam SEED, Fukuda made these settings, so when the game or plastic model comes out, it is supervised by Fukuda. Even if he was not active in his work, he continued to work and eat and live. Fukuda's production of transformation and synthesis gives the impression of transforming a real toy by turning it.

With this directing ability, the bank scenes of several animations of Sunrise were extracted in high quality. However, it is a problem that he uses a lot of bank scenes in his work. Rather, "I don't know why anime these days don't use bank scenes in the 2010s. If you use bank scenes effectively, the quality of the work gets better." I prefer the bank scene to the extent of emphasizing the importance of the bank scene.신성한 이혼 다시보기 7화 8화 누누 무료 7회 8회

Of course, it is true that if you select the bank scene well and use it in the right place, you can catch both rabbits: quality improvement and cost reduction. In fact, Fukuda's bank scenes, such as the Granjo summoning scene, Eldekaiser casting scene, Cyber Formula's drift and overtake scene, Freedom's first sortie scene, and the hero series' transformation fusion or special move scene, not only have excellent drawing quality, but also make unique viewers They are excellent bank scenes in that they make the mulberry fill up and 신성한 이혼 다시보기 7화 8화 누누 무료 7회 8회naturally lead to toy purchases. However, Fukuda does not simply use bank scenes, but overdoing them to the point of being a problem. Later on, it is not effective to use bank scenes from the beginning of the bank scenes that exceed 1/3 of the synagogue.

[dayinanimanga]

Today in Anime History

October 21st, 1983

The Ginga Hyoryu Vifam anime premieres. Although the series is mainly created by  Takeyuki Kanda, Yoshiyuki Tomino also had creative involvement in the series.

Created by Takeyuki Kanda and Hiroyuki Hoshiyama

[bizarrobrain]

[sunkentreasurecove]

[recentanimenews]

Sunrise's Classic Robot Anime Metal Armor Dragonar Gets Blu-ray Box Release in March 2022

    In commemoration of its 35th-anniversary, a six-disc Blu-ray box of Sunrise's classic real robot TV anime Metal Armor Dragonar is set to be released in Japan at the price of 55,000 yen (483 USD) on March 2, 2022.

  As a follow-on program to Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ, Metal Armor Dragonar directed by Takeyuki Kanda (Galactic Drifter Vifam) was aired for 48 episodes from February 1987 to January 1988. The press release writes, "This is the last Sunrise real robot anime of the 80's, which follows a legitimate storyline while depicting a light touch atmosphere with comedic interactions between characters."

  The box set includes all of the full-HD remastered 48 episodes, which are scanned in 2K from new print master positive film and a special booklet that contains newly-recorded interview with the main staff. And its three-sided box illustration is newly drawn by Masami Obari, who worked on the anime's legendary OP movie. According to his comment on Twitter, it is a self-homage to the last scene of the OP movie. 

    Box illustration:

    【#機甲戦記ドラグナー Blu-ray BOX】 大張正己さんによる三方背BOXイラストを公開???? ドラグナー１・２・３勢揃いの大迫力な一枚❗️ 特徴的なメタリック感がポイント✨ 2022年3月2日(水)発売???? ????商品詳細はこちらhttps://t.co/vaYnjEAAXo pic.twitter.com/UTBqMc2BTJ

— ハピネット / Pictures (@happinet_p) November 12, 2021

    SD/HD comparison PV to show how much the image quality has improved:

    CM:

    Original poster for the Japanese TV broadcast in 1987:

    Source: Happinet press release

  ©SOTSU・SUNRISE

  By: Mikikazu Komatsu

[moominpappa]

Mobile Suit Gundam: The 08th MS Team (1996-1999), dir. Kanda Takeyuki

[mangacultes80]

Ultraman II - Les Nouvelles Aventures (01 Set)

dans les années 80 est l'adaptation française d'une vidéo sortie en 1983 aux États-Unis sous le titre "Ultraman II: The Further Adventures of Ultraman". Il ne s'agit pas d'un film d'animation mais des quatre premiers épisodes de la série japonaise "The Ultraman" (appelée parfois "Ultraman Jonias" ou encore "Ultraman Joe"),

Ultraman II - Les Nouvelles Aventures (01 Set) (NB Imgs: 450) (1983)

Nom original: Ultraman II: The Further Adventures of Ultraman / The Ultraman (ザ☆ウルトラマン)

Origine: Japon, Etats Unis

Année de production: 1979

Production: Tsuburaya Productions

Animation: Sunrise

Nombre d'épisodes: 01

Auteur “historique”: Eiji Tsuburaya

Réalisation: Hisayuki Toriumi, Takeyuki Kanda

Scénarii: Keiichi Abe, Sôji Yoshikawa, Hiroyuki Hoshiyama, Bunzo Wakatsuki, Yoshihisa Araki, Keisuke Fujikawa, Yasushi Hirano, Shirô Azusawa, Kiyoshi Miyata

Le vaisseau spatial l'ISS3 (l'unité spéciale des forces de défense de la Terre) patrouille à travers l'espace. Le rôle de cette unité spéciale est de développer une nouvelle technologie spatiale ainsi que de protéger la Terre contre les planètes agressives ou bien encore de repérer les problèmes sur la Terre elle-même, grâce à son observation ininterrompue. Un jour, une lumière étrange se forme autour de la Terre tandis que des lettres lumineuses apparaissent dans le ciel. Afin de percer le mystère de ce message, le chef des forces de défenses de la Terre décide de créer une équipe spéciale comprenant des combattants et des scientifiques : la force d'intervention scientifique de défense urgente.

[newsintheshell]

GOD SIGMA: Yamato Video ha in cantiere una nuova edizione della storica serie robotica anni ‘80

L’edizione finalmente completa e restaurata della serie arriverà ad inizio 2022.

Yamato Video ha annunciato di aver acquisito i diritti di “GOD SIGMA”, l’originale serie mecha prodotta da Toei fra il 1980 e il 1981.

Rimasto orfano degli episodi finali nella sua primissima trasmissione televisiva italiana, l’anime verrà proposto nei primi mesi del 2022 in una nuova edizione rimasterizzata e restaurata, finalmente completa di tutti i 50 episodi, anche doppiati in italiano.

Terra, anno 2050.  L’umanità ha raggiunto un livello tecnologico tale da sviluppare, grazie al geniale dottor Kazami, la Trinity Energy, una fonte di energia pulita ed inesauribile. Improvvisamente, il pianeta viene attaccato dal misterioso Impero di Helda, le cui forze provengono da 250 anni nel futuro. Nel loro tempo, il loro mondo è stato invaso dalla Terra e sonoramente sconfitto grazie alla Tinity Energy. L'obiettivo delle forze imperiali è quello di impadronirsi della portentosa fonte di energia, prima che possa essere usata contro di loro. A difendere i terrestri si erge il potente robot God Sigma, pilotato da Toshiya, Julian e Kiraken.

Diretta da Katsuhiko Taguchi (Voltron) e Takeyuki Kanda (Mobile Suit Gundam: The 08th MS Team, Metal Armor Dragonar), la serie gode del character design a cura del mangaka Kaoru Shintani (Area 88) e dell’animatore Kazuhiko Udagawa (Ambassador Magma), mentre le musiche sono state composte da Hiroshi Tsutsui (Daltanious, Daikengo).

* NON VUOI PERDERTI NEANCHE UN POST? ENTRA NEL CANALE TELEGRAM! *

Autore: SilenziO)))

[FONTE]

[thefreakseasonofficial]

Sin duda alguna nos encontramos ante la mejor entrega en formato Ova de toda la saga, The 08th MS Team es considerada hoy en día como un ejemplo de cantar una historia alterna de manera impecable, dirigida por el duo Takeyuki Kanda y Umanosuke Lida en el año 1996, nos contaron las hazañas y conflictos de una unidad terrestre de la federación de la tierra durante la guerra de un año. La serie está ambientada en el año 0079 del U.C. en las junglas del sureste de Asia. La Federación de la Tierra y el Principado de Zeon se encuentran librando una brutal guerra de guerrillas por el control del área y sus recursos. El principado de Zeon pone sus esperanzas de victoria en un nuevo Mobile Suit experimental y en su piloto, Aina Sahalin. Mientras tanto, el Ejército Federal Terrestre recibe refuerzos desde el espacio. Dentro de los soldados que llegan se encuentra el Teniente Shiro Amada, recién nombrado comandante del 8.º Pelotón de Mobile Suits. Aina y Shiro se conocen después de rescatarse mutuamente en el espacio exterior, pero cuando Shiro descubre que Aina es de hecho el piloto del mobile suit experimental de Zeon, es arrestado por traición. La federación le ofrece a Shiro una oportunidad para redimirse: Este debe ir junto al 8.º Pelotón M.S. a lo profundo del territorio ocupado por Zeon y descubrir donde está escondida su base secreta. Con Zeon acorralado y con La Federación dependiendo de Shiro para ganar, los amantes Shiro y Aina se encuentran en una encrucijada: o luchar por su amor, o seguir leales a sus respectivos bandos.

[hambrababy]

2023 Year-End Roundup

With 2023 winding down, I want to do a short recap on the blog this year. A part of this is to help me evaluate my thoughts and writing with enough hindsight, but it’s also fun to see the weird places I wandered to throughout the year. I wasn’t planning on writing about electronic anime albums, a Gundam guide, and a journey through someone making crap up on Wikipedia, but it all led to some fun diversions, even if I still haven’t settled on a cohesive identity for this blog.

While this blog still wasn’t too active, I’m happy I had the discipline to write, edit, and release multiple posts on varying topics. This is all still a hobby of mine, but it’s good practice for my own writing. I don’t have huge aspirations for this page, but if I can make something entertaining and informative for at least a few other people while exploring my interests, that’s rewarding enough.

The only major change to the blog itself was making it look more presentable. A purple background with white text was a bad idea and I don’t know why I put it in at all, but hopefully the light pink with black text style ages better. Or maybe I’ll decide that look stinks too, we’ll see.

For some reason, neither this nor the Tumblr show up Google’s search, but they do appear on Yahoo and Bing. I’m doing the Google site analytics tools to crawl the URL and see what the issue is, but any advice is appreciated. I don’t want this to be stuck on social media alone, especially since I avoid using it too much.

With all that said, here's my brief recap of what happened here in 2023.

Posts

Diving into the Digital Trip My favorite and longest post that I worked on, this was a chance to explore a true passion of mine, and I’m glad that it got read and shared by others. I’ve loved going through these albums so much over my years of ani/toku song listening, but I noticed there was not a direct English overview of the series as available aside from blogs and scattered forum posts covering a few individual albums. While I hoped to balance providing actual details with some personal opinions, the overarching goal was to have some kind of record (tee hee) of the series.

There is the issue of writing about music without getting to demonstrate it with the actual songs, but I’m skittish about YouTube given my past experience with a fun clips channel that got nuked. Even for the official uploads, I didn’t want to rely on links to videos that could get eventually removed when writing the post. I’ve seen lots of posts that bank on watching a now-deleted linked video as a part of reading it, so I wanted to make the post work well enough on its own.

I also regret that I didn’t have enough primary sources to make it a proper “history”, and I disdain having to fall back on generalizations regarding some details like the series’ end. This is something I’d love to revisit again in the future, either as a more specific history or covering a few of the albums in more detail. Still, I enjoyed writing and releasing this one the most, and I hope I can make posts in this style going forwards.   A Journey Through an Internet Anime Rumor on Takeyuki Kanda An unexpected post idea that spun out of an offhand Discord conversation that then spiraled into a whole messy chain of tracking wrong rumors, but I think it came out decent. Sometimes I get so fixated on Som winding story that I need to write it out to put my mind at ease, for catharsis if nothing else. While that normally results in longer, meandering slogs I don’t end up releasing, this time it gave me something interesting to talk about, even if it ended up delaying the Digital Trip article.

The ending part is a bit more dramatic and speechifying than what I’d prefer, but I wanted to capture some of my frustrations that come dealing with anime rumors online. I still have an old Genki book a friend loaned years ago, but I do hope to have the time and plan to actually learn more Japanese, for my own education at least.

  Toei Took Down My Youtube Channel Self-explanatory. It was more an update for anyone familiar with my old channel than a real “post”, and there’s already loads more significant cases of Youtube’s copyright system being annoying for years. This also taught me why you shouldn’t ignore your inbox for multi-day stretches, even if you really want to.

  The Importance of Big Cool Sci Fi Stuff A breezy, if somewhat superficial post that was my first attempt at writing a post that wasn’t a review, publishing a translation, or episode recap/speculation. This was an idea I had nagging at me without thinking of the right way to formulate it, but I guess it was as plain as “big stuff in sci fi is cool”. I’d written argument-styled articles in real life a few times, so I thought this was a good chance to translate that style into something more nerdy and lower-stakes. If I were to write more opinionated stuff on the blog again, I’d aim it something close to this, though perhaps with stronger topics.     How to Get Into Gundam While I try to avoid writing things based of things that swim through social media, this started because I’d seen variations of this question pop up so many times. I wanted to make a more concise and direct guide that didn’t overcomplicate something that’s actually rather straightforward. The reductive, but still fairly accurate recommendation is to just follow production order, which is a useful “watch order” approach in almost all cases of franchises, but I think Gundam’s unique situation of being more a thematic umbrella made a guide like this helpful enough on its own, even if it’s less about the shows’ content.

This was intended more as a “how do I approach Gundam” rather than a “which ones are good”, since opinions on show quality are more personal and less helpful to a newcomer trying to explore. Besides, I’ve seen basically every show get praised or slagged by different people, and “fan consensus” is limiting in its own way, if it even exists. I still had some opinion parts fall in there more than I intended, but I think the updated version is better balanced. I don’t know if I could or want to make other guides like this going forwards, but this was a fun diversion regardless. My ideal guide would be something closer to Berndadelta Subs’ guides for Pre-Zyu Sentai and Metal Heroes that talk about aspects and specifics that might appeal to different people, but I hope mine is still helpful to some extent.

(Also, I once accidentally removed the pics from the Blogspot version. Oops!)

  G-Witch Episodes 1-6 Recaps These weren’t technically this year, but I figured I’d include them anyways. This was an attempt to have a recurring benchmark to meet, but college eventually caught up with me. I still watched the show all the way through and enjoyed it even after I stopped doing the recaps (and season recaps I tentatively promised), though I felt talking about it with others on Discord was a better way of working through my thoughts than posts like this.

I’m not sure this type of weekly recap is that useful except as a marker of some of my initial impressions. There’s no shortage of takes, opinions, and weekly recaps on anime anyways, so I figure this is something I won’t try again.  

Translations (all courtesy of Windii)

Macross DT Liner Notes A supplement to the DT article that gave some of the more concrete details for how the arranging process worked, which was also gratifying for one of my favorite albums in the series. The harmonic math involved on some tracks also highlighted the careful technical knowledge needed for this kind of song arranging. I hope to have more DT liner notes translated in the future.

Newtype August 2023: Ippei Gyoubu Interview on G-Witch’s Costume Designs Sci fi costume design is a longstanding interest of mine, so this was my favorite interview to see translated. A lot of the details also made me appreciate aspects of the show I hadn’t noticed as closely, especially with Suletta’s outfits. Costume design is much more important and deliberate in original anime shows than I had realized, and I’d still love to see more about the other costume designs, especially the Earth House casual outfits and epilogue ones.

  Animedia February 2023: Mogmog Interview on G-Witch’s Character Designs This was the first interview I got translated. I wanted to avoid duplicating subjects or interviews other people might do, but I more so chose this article because I loved the designs for the show, especially in that they came from a total newcomer to anime. Mogumo has amazing skills as a character designer and artist, even if the more anime-involved designers played a large role as well, and I enjoyed the character descriptions they were aiming for (especially Suletta and Miorine being dog and cat-like). The interview also showed how involved director Kobayashi was in the process at multiple points, and seeing character details worked out through the design traits is always fun to learn.

I really hope Mogumo and Hisadake can do more anime-related work in the future, especially seeing their designs in new contexts. I bought some of their concept pitch art books digitally, and it seems like they’re also putting out more extensive work at the recent Comiket 103.

Stuff I Want to Tackle in the Future

I don’t have concrete plans for what I’ll tackle in 2024, but there are a few ideas I’ve ruminated over:   Translations I feel like so much knowledge about anime is limited because of how much information is out there but goes untranslated, leaving people to speculate (or fabricate) in its place. Learning Japanese is still a far-off goal for me, but I still want to do what I can to get better information about anime floating around through paying people who are good at it (thanks again Windii!). I’ll continue buying some magazines and books myself, but there’s also loads of pages that people have scanned online over the years that are still lying untranslated. Ideally, I want to get more liner notes and older anime magazine articles up throughout the year, though I am still limited by my own finances. More immediately I want to get other liner notes and articles on a few series I like translated, so look out for those in the next months.

  Short Opinion/Analysis Articles These would be in the succinct style of the “Big Cool Sci Fi Stuff” article but sometimes focused on more meaty topics. The main one I teased was exploring the way people talk about anime directors, but I’m wary of diving into discussions of fandom habits since it’s too easy to abstract and generalize. Talking about fandom discourse is also less important to me given how ephemeral and subjective it is.

I also want to avoid straight reviews or critical analysis, since I think there’s no shortage of media analysis and criticism online that is still entertaining but less substantive in the longer-term than more fact-centered discussions. I have plenty of opinions on the narratives of anime and enjoy talking with pals and friends about some aspects, but I feel like anime plot discussion is a very saturated field that I don’t have anything interesting enough to add to in longer posts. If I do write something like that, I’d tag it under something like “Ruminations”.

I don’t begrudge the people who make reviews, rankings, or discuss anime plots and themes. 

It takes a special skillset to articulate cogent and readable opinions beyond mere quick or angry takes. But I feel like opinions on writing and stories have sucked up too much space in anime discussions for a long time compared to other topics like artistic styles, production history, or broader looks at narrative structure, even if that’s been changing lately. I want to make more unique contributions that are still opinionated but would go beyond the standard habits of critical reviews, hopefully something more unique and useful.

While I know what I want to avoid, it’ll take more time to find more focused topics to write about. Additional retrospective overviews of albums are one possibility, and there are broader aspects of some shows I want to explore beyond more standard critical reviews, but there’s a lot I remain unsure about. Still, I’m optimistic I’ll form something out of this tentative plan.

  Animation Links Hub I’m nowhere near the skills and capacities of the many people who talk about animation and art in anime, but I always regret how decentralized many sites, people, and resources are when trying to learn about the craft behind anime. This would ideally be a more centralized hub of links to pages that both I and others could use.  

Whatever Else I’m sure there’s other things I’ll think of in the future. Balancing the need to not constrict my scope while still giving my blog some kind of tangible identity is difficult, but I hope I can still make this whole thing distinct enough.  

Conclusion

Despite the infrequency, I’m satisfied at what I was able to cover this year. I always want to improve my skills as writer, both creative and informative, and this site has already helped as practice. If I can find continued inspiration, I hope to keep this going at least a few more years. I’m expecting life to get busier next year both in real life work and with other creative pursuits, but I plan to make enough time to make new posts here and expand into different topics.

Here’s to 2024!   Thanks, Hambrababy

Linktree with other socials and websites

[juanvdp]

Mini-Reseña: Armor Hunter Mellowlink

https://ift.tt/39FLoP9

// Genero: Acción, Ciencia Ficción, Mecha, Militar

// Director: Takeyuki Kanda // Estudios: Sunrise

// N° Episodios:12 // Año:1988

Estrenado en 1988, Armor Hunter Mellowlink, es una serie de  anime original de formato OVA, producida por  los estudios Sunrise y  Dirigida por Takeyuki Kanda, que llegó a contar con un total de 12 episodios. La obra es un spin-off del anime para televisión de 1983, Armored Trooper VOTOMS, creación de Ryousuke Takahashi, el cual fue el puntapié de una franquicia relativamente extensa compuesta además de por dicha serie, por varios otros título más que vieron la luz durante los años subsecuentes, entre ellos obviamente Mellowlink, y la cual se caracterizaba por ser un anime bélico de mechas con mucho peso dramático de por medio, en el que los robots de turno, los Armored Troopers también conocidos como AT, resultaban ser vehículos de combate bastante más rústicos que sus pares de otras obras, siendo de echo armas más comunes, simples y hasta desechables, que tendían a ser derribadas sin mucho problema, intentando con esto presentar un aspecto más cruento de la guerra, a la par de entregar un elemento de ciencia ficción menos fantasiosa y más realista.

Mellowlink pues, pese a ser un spin-off lo cierto es que presenta su conexión con el título original como algo más bien anecdótico, ambientándose sus eventos en el mismo universo y periodo de tiempo que su antecesora, e incluso retomando algunas de sus locaciones, y presentando algunos elementos en su historia que se relacionan vagamente con los de Votoms, pero no llegando estos a ser lo suficientemente relevantes como para se haga necesario ver un título para entender el otro ni viceversa, siendo por esto Mellowlink un anime bastante auto contenido y que se sostiene sin problemas por sí mismo. El trabajo entonces se trata de un título de acción y ciencia ficción de ambientación bélica con mechas de por medio, cuya historia va de Mellowlink, un joven pero habilidoso soldado que equipado con un gigantesco rifle Anti AT, viaja por el mundo buscando vengarse de los oficiales superiores que fueron responsables de un complot que llevo al resto de su escuadrón a la muerte, inculpándolos en el proceso de un crimen que no cometieron.

Cómo ven una trama de venganza bastante simple, que realmente nunca llega a presentar ningún giro ni revelación particularmente llamativa, más la cual funciona como una excusa perfecta para ver a nuestro héroe tener que hacer frente a enemigos generalmente superiores y armados con AT personalizados, lo que nos lleva a lo que me parece es el elemento más curioso y atractivo del título, y es que pese a ser este un anime con mechas, lo cierto es que Mellowlink nunca pilota uno, estando únicamente armado con su rifle y cualquier otra arma con la que se pueda hacer al momento, cosa que ocasiona a que todas sus confrontaciones sean en teoría bastantes desiguales para él, pero logrando nuestro héroe solventar está brecha a punta de ingenio y habilidad, otorgándonos con esto luchas bastante entretenidas y poco habituales de ver en el género, en el cual un hombre a pie logra dárselas de tu por tu a pilotos experimentados en sus vehículos de combate armados. La serie pues se desarrolla, por lo menos durante los primeros capítulos bajo un formato bastante episódico, viendo en cada capítulo a Mellowlink llegar a una nueva locación , dígase una base del ejército, una pequeña ciudad, una mansión, los restos de una nave espacial estrellada, etc. para cobrar venganza en contra de alguno de los causantes de sus desgracias, normalmente teniendo la colaboración de algún tipo de un par de personajes recurrentes, y asegurándose de hacerle saber a su próxima víctima que ahora va a por él. 

Tras cruzar el ecuador de la serie, la obra empezará a dejar un poco de lado este formato episódico para relatar una serie de eventos más interconectados entre sí, que eventualmente llevarán al gran final del título, y durante los cuales se nos darán a conocer las revelaciones finales de la trama, revelaciones no particularmente impactantes o inesperadas, pero que cuando mínimo funcionan para darle algo más de peso a los sucesos finales de la obra. Un formato simple y que no deja mucho a la imaginación, pero finalmente competente, que logra entregarnos un espectáculo tal vez no demasiado memorable pero sí bastante entretenido de seguir hasta el final, siendo una obra no particularmente resaltante pero si muy llevadera y cumplidora que entrega lo que promete, una buena dosis acción y muerte.

Visualmente la serie sin ser despampanante es bastante correcta, entregando una animación competente que dependiendo del capítulo se puede despuntar en mayor o menor medida, los diseños de personajes son dentro de lo que cabe atractivos y muy diferenciables entre sí, mientras que los diseños mecánicos no están nada mal tampoco, así mismo el trabajo de fondos sin ser nada del otro mundo cumple bien su cometido. La música por su parte, aunque cumple con su labor de ambientar es sinceramente olvidable, apenas y llegando a notarse que está allí, cosa que se extiende a los temas de opening y ending, titulados respectivamente "Soldier Blue" y "Vanity", que aunque correctos para el tono de la obra, lo cierto es que no destacan demasiado que digamos siendo muy olvidables. En conclusión, un título de premisa y ejecución bastante simple, pero por demás entretenido, que cumple cabalmente a la hora de entregarnos buenas confrontaciones llenas de acción y tensión, y momentos llenos de badasseria, no es la serie más imprescindible que haya por allí, pero es un título cumplidor que sin complicarse demasiado logra entregar una buena premisa de venganza adornada con una tónica miliar. En fin, una serie muy recomendable para cualquier que quiera pasar un buen rato, y una recomendación perfecta para ese amigo tuyo que dice que todos los animes con mechas son iguales.

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OTD in Otakusatsu fandoms: "Galactic Drifter Vidal 13" anime series begins in Japan. Usually just called #Vifam13, It's a sorta-remake of the original from 1983, but has some story and character changes. This series was broadcast in memory of Takeyuki Kanda, the director of the original anime series, who reportedly died in a car crash in 1996. ⠀ ⠀ #vifam #gingahyouryuvifam #mechaanime #military #roddyshuffle #bartslyan #1998 #mecha #アニメ #mech #otaku #mechs #aesthetic #scifi #90sanime #retroanime #onthisdate #onthisday #奥特曼 #kaiju #daikaiju #漫画 #特撮 #怪獣 #울트라맨 #OtakusatsuOTD

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[recentanimenews]

FEATURE: You Watched Way More Anime On Nickelodeon Than You Thought You Did

  At some point, we as anime fans all realize that our first foray into anime was a lot earlier than we first thought. Whether via Speed Racer, Star Blazers, or Robotech, homes in the second half of the 20th century were surprisingly full of televised anime. If you were a Nickelodeon household, this was especially true.

  Young viewers in the 1980s had their fair share of imported TV via the channel, from Britain's Danger Mouse to Canada's You Can't Do That on Television. But it's the crop of cartoons lots of us remember fondly, many of them issuing not only from Japan, but in particular from some of Japan's most famous creators — creators whom, as 21st-century fans, we remember for other shows entirely.

      While Haim Saban and Shuki Levy may have been the names printed indelibly on our young brains at the time, today we're looking at five Nickelodeon classics straight from Japan, and the big names who shaped our childhood.

  Grimm's Fairy Tale Classics

  Hey, come along and join the fun! For many (including myself), the earwormy intro to Grimm's Fairy Tale Classics is a warm memory. The anthology series premiered in Japan in 1987, then in North America two years later. Despite the name, it actually adapted folk tales both within and outside of the Grimm canon. You could expect to see animated takes on Snow White and Cinderella, along with the ones that tend to slip through the cracks, like Iron Hans and The Devil's Grandmother.

  If the series feels a bit World Masterpiece Theater-like, that's for good reason: it was directed by Hiroshi Saito, who directed Tom Sawyer and much of Rascal the Raccoon for the long-running series. And there's a familiar name on the localization side, too: anime voice actor/director/writer/producer Tony Oliver was the script supervisor for the dub.

  The Adventures of the Little Prince

    Nostalgia for The Adventures of the Little Prince comes at you one of two ways if you're a child of the '70s or '80s — this one isn't the one featuring Bob Fosse as a tap-dancing snake.

  The anime series isn't based on Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's classic story so much as it is on its young hero: the little boy who lives on the asteroid B 612 with three volcanoes and a rose. We hear the Prince discuss travels to other planets and a few adventures on Earth, but the anime expands this even further. The Prince catches a star to Earth and travels around Europe, learning more about people and helping out where he can. (The English localization was altered to imply that the Prince made short hops to Earth and elsewhere, returning home between episodes.)

  Mecha anime fans will be happy to know that director Takeyuki Kanda (Vifam, Mellowlink, and the first part of Gundam 08th MS) was among the many directors who worked on the series, as was Mobile Suit Gundam character designer Yoshikazu Yasuhiko. Even better news for fans? If you want to return to the series, it's available on Amazon Prime!

  Maple Town

  Not to be confused with Sylvanian Families, the other line of forest-dwelling anthropomorphic animal adventures to come from Japan. Originally titled Maple Town Monogatari, the series was created by Chifude Asakura — a contributing writer for several series including Dear Brother, Glass Mask, and the 1989 remake of Sally the Witch.

  The sweet series follows Patty and the rest of the Hoperabbit family as they settle in Maple Town as mail carriers, making friends with the rest of the animals there. Series director Junichi Sato would go on to direct series like Sgt. Frog, Princess Tutu, and Hugtto! PreCure, as well as writing magical girl manga Prétear and directing its anime adaptation.

  Belle and Sebastian

  Not to be confused with the Scottish rock band of the same name ... though their name and this series do share roots.

  Belle and Sebastian is yet another series that technically doesn't fall under the World Masterpiece Theater banner, but has both similar source material and some shared production staff (including character designer Shuichi Seki). The series is based on the 1965 novel by Cécile Aubry about a young boy and his Great Pyrenees named Belle. Originally aired in Japan in 1981 as Meiken Jolie, it came to Nickelodeon in 1984 and the UK's CBBC in 1989.

  Director Keiji Hayakawa steered this production, within a few years of two of his other big directorial jobs: Prefectural Earth Defense Force and 26 episodes of Rumiko Takahashi's Urusei Yatsura.

  The Mysterious Cities of Gold

  Image via Amazon Prime Video

  Decades before Miraculous Ladybug, France and Japan teamed up for another fantastical adventure series. The Mysterious Cities of Gold had airtime in the US, Japan (as Taiyou no Ko Esteban), and France (as Les Mystérieuses Cités d'Or). The series brought together France's DiC Audiovisuel and Japan's Pierrot (the company behind Naruto, Mr. Osomatsu, and many more).

  The 16th-century science-fantasy adventure brings together the children Esteban, Zia, and Tao — each of whom is searching for a piece of their family or past. As they navigate with the explorer Mendoza in search of one of the world's Seven Cities of Gold, they find much more ... in terms of history, mythology, and ancient technology.

  Hisayuki Toriumi (Gatchaman) was one of the series's directors, and composer Ryuji Sasai (Windaria, Final Fantasy Legend III) joined Saban and Levy in contributing music to the series.

  Image via Amazon Prime Video

  Ultimately, whether or not we "knew" what we were watching at the time is irrelevant — what matters is the enjoyment they brought us in their time, and the fond memories we have now. But it's kind of nice to know that creators whose work we love now have been a part of our lives for years.

  What are some of your favorite early anime — Nickelodeon or otherwise? Let's reminisce in the comments!

    Do you love writing? Do you love anime? If you have an idea for a features story, pitch it to Crunchyroll Features!

By: news+feed@crunchyroll.com