Like, the animation was sick (especially for the time)

Tbh, this is the only reason why. The story is severely underdeveloped, but at the time big improvements in tech were what sold audiences.

I kinda feel the same way about the Star Wars: A New Hope. The story was fairly anemic and did a poor job of explaining anything that was going on. It felt like an old Greek myth in terms of how things just happen as opposed to a continuous series of cause and effect. But A New Hope revolutionized media because it was the first movie to really depict alternate worlds well, giving it that technological advantage at the box office that ut wouldn’t get if it released today