Comment on Anime Questions, Recommendations, and Discussion Thread [2025, Week 36]
Rottcodd@ani.social 4 days agoVHS
That was a lot of the thing. There was such a limited number of anime released on VHS that all of us that were fans then tended to have seen the same things, so conversations naturally went to Akira and Vampire Hunter D and Bubblegum Crisis and Ninja Scroll and Hellsing and so on.
And as you note, another part of that was just seeing parts of series. Like I had a tape with the first four episodes of Trigun, so for years, that was all I knew of it. (Imagine the impact when I finally saw the rest - it’s mood whiplash enough when you watch it straight through).
Toonami opened things up and exposed a lot more people and provided a dependable way to watch a series all the way through, but it was still a relatively limited set of shows - Gundam Wing and Cowboy Bebop and Tenchi Muyo and so on.
And yeah - it’s a whole different world now. Now there are so many choices available any time that the biggest issue I face is option paralysis.
And on the topic of the VHS era of anime - a video I’ve always liked - a barrage of anime from that era, set to music: SR-71 - Let It Whip
nyan@lemmy.cafe 4 days ago
Unless you had connections to the VHS fansub scene, in which case you were able to get your hands on stuff no one you talked to had ever heard of. Except that it could take years for anyone to sub the next four episodes, because sub groups back then actually had to do their own translations from scratch, by ear, and then use an Amiga to burn the subtitles into the video.
(Also, Hellsing was DVD era—I’m not sure it was officially released on VHS, but I still have the DVDs.)