For those who are too young to remember, OVAs (original video animations) were a big thing in the '80s and the '90s if you loved anime. Most of them were quite violent, but had some crazy concepts and ideas. If you grew up watching them, which ones were your favorite? Mines are Bubblegum Crisis, Cyber City Oedo 808, and Record Of Lodoss War.
https://screenrant.com/best-anime-ovas-from-the-80s-90s/
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I had gotten out of anime during this era. My exposure to anime was during the late 70's and early 80's with syndicated shows like Battle of the Planets, Starblazers and Speed Racer. After that I got into some of the features like Akira and Miyazaki. I've heard of most of the projects on this list though.
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I got into anime as a kid with 70's and 80's series like Captain Harlock, Space Adventure Cobra, or The Rose of Versailles, but OVAs really cemented my love for the medium. I only discovered Akira, Ghost in the Shell, and Studio Ghibli's movies afterward.
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Anime is practically a religion unto itself where I'm from (Italy) - the Studio Ghibli movies, Akira, Ghost in the Shell, Lupin the 3rd, even anime that never got dubbed into English such as The Three-Eyed One and The Little Norse Prince (Hols, Prince of the Sun) and the last season of Virtua Fighter (based on the eponymous video game) got Italian dubs.
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Although not anime one of my favorites is the 1981 animated film Heavy Metal. Created in collaboration with dozens of countries it combined some of the best classic rock (Sammy Hagar, Cheap Trick, Don Felder, Black Sabbath, Devo, etc) along with the London Symphony Orchestra. A presentation like no other at the time. The most impressive of Japanese animation OVAs is Akira- the drum beats that accompanied the soundtrack were used by finely aged bamboo sticks. Many had to be over 100 years old in order to create the perfect tune. Later on Shinichiro Watanabe would compose jazz in Cowboy Bebop with its futuristic setting. Hip hop with the Japanese samurai story Samurai Champloo. Techno and Pop with futuristic Space Dandy.
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Fun fact about Akira's soundtrack, it was composed by Tsutomu Ōhashi who is also a scientist and who used some sounds to affect the brain.
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Golden Boy and Jojo's Bizarre Adventure part2 are my favorite OVAs. It was a great time though we get 12 ep expansions instead now.
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Great list. Gotta check more of this stuff out.
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Rurouni Kenshin, Cowboy Bebop, and RahXephon hold special places in my heart!
Cowboy Bebop is definitely one of my favorite anime series.