Our Favourite Classic Anime

[Sarah]

Join the writers at Anime UK News as they look back to the classic titles that first inspired them to investigate anime and ask, ‘What makes an anime a classic? Does it have to have stood the test of time?’

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[Lavigne]

Although I loathe Harmony Gold with a passion that can barely be described adequately, Robotech got me into anime.

I remember having the videogems release of vol 1 on VHS (which covered the first two episodes). It would be a decade or so before I found out that there was actually more made than those initial two episodes....From there, Evangelion, Gunbuster, Bebop, Lupin, Lum - those were the shows that solidified my love for the medium.

Ironically, I would later discover that many of my childhood shows were actually anime - Battle of the Planets (Gatchaman), Ulysses 31, The Mysterious Cities of Gold)...

Defining a classic is difficult, as it will likely vary from one person to the next. Longevity is probably the best starting point for trying to nail it down. There must be a reason why you'd go back to certain shows - with the number of anime shows/movies/OVAs at this point, you could easily never look back and still not struggle for things to watch. Nostalgia will draw you back, but yes, standing the test of time is what will ultimately define it. Nostalgia can only go so far - we've all done it - picked up that childhood treat, and then being crushed with disappointment when you realise that rose-tinted specs aside, it's not actually that good (now at least!) - the true test of quality will be whether you still get that same buzz from it. Qualities that will ultimately underpin a 'classic' are those that transcend the mere passage of time and mean it's both still relevant and engaging.

So to end, (nearly) where I began.....I re-visit the original Macross every few years, and although the tropes may now be all-too-familiar; the singing idol, the dashing pilot, the love triangle, the mecha.....they're still staples I adore and respond to, and Macross/Robotech was my first exposure to them.

 

[Just Passing Through]

Defining a classic is difficult, as it will likely vary from one person to the next. Longevity is probably the best starting point for trying to nail it down. There must be a reason why you'd go back to certain shows - with the number of anime shows/movies/OVAs at this point, you could easily never look back and still not struggle for things to watch. Nostalgia will draw you back, but yes, standing the test of time is what will ultimately define it. Nostalgia can only go so far - we've all done it - picked up that childhood treat, and then being crushed with disappointment when you realise that rose-tinted specs aside, it's not actually that good (now at least!) - the true test of quality will be whether you still get that same buzz from it. Qualities that will ultimately underpin a 'classic' are those that transcend the mere passage of time and mean it's both still relevant and engaging.

Exactly this, although I might add that nostalgia can also continue to blind you to a show's shortcomings. I still love Love Hina, it was the first harem anime that I watched (even before Tenchi Muyo), and I absolutely adored it then, and I like it just as much now. It's a classic to me, although I have to acknowledge that others don't feel that way. I guess there also needs to be a degree of democracy as well, the majority, or at least a significant minority have to recognise a thing as classic before it is so.

Another aspect is aging. It's something that we, or at least I would rather not acknowledge, so most of the shows I consider classics are shows that had a life before I discovered them. Just this week I was rewatching Gunsmith Cats, which I definitely consider a classic, and shows like Cowboy Bebop, the original Berserk, FLCL, and so on are easy for me to recognise as classics. But when someone suggests Madoka Magica, or Hanasaku Iroha, or Steins;Gate, or Space Dandy as classic shows, they may be 10 out of 10 shows in my estimation, but they just don't feel old enough to be classics as yet. Modern shows have to be genre defining for me to go in the instant classic category.

 

[Lavigne]

Oh I agree - nostalgia is a very powerful force, and can certainly continue to blind you to the relative merits. For a fair reflection you almost need to be able to detach yourself and observe remotely, and therefore objectively, which is incredibly difficult to do.

It's hard to quantify how this should be overcome - I too thought of including elements such as 'must have wider appeal' - however there you risk going down the avenue of popularity equating to quality. I think it can be done, but only within very narrow confines.

Agree with newer shows - there are a good number where I could point the finger and say 'classic', but you're right, there needs to be that passage of time, so that they can be objectively analysed and appraised in the cold light of day, without the prism of contemporary popular opinion. I have little doubt that some of the shows that I would hold up in high regard today will continue to do so down the years, but only the passage of time will prove that one out.

 

[ayase]

But when someone suggests Madoka Magica, or Hanasaku Iroha, or Steins;Gate, or Space Dandy as classic shows, they may be 10 out of 10 shows in my estimation, but they just don't feel old enough to be classics as yet. Modern shows have to be genre defining for me to go in the instant classic category.

I'm not sure I'd ever regard anything as an "instant classic" as that seems like somewhat of an oxymoron. Of course everyone is entitled to have favourite shows and ones which have made a lasting impact on them personally regardless of what anyone else thinks about them, but I do think a quality necessary for something to be regarded as a classic is to stand the test of time. It is a difficult term to pin down though, since it seems to have different meanings to different people. Is "personal classic" even a valid term? I dunno. I'd tend to err on the side of "personal favourite".

Speaking of both classics and personal favourites, some that weren't mentioned in the article that I'd consider deserving of the term are Bubblegum Crisis, Patlabor and on the more recent side Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex. And it was nice to see Urusei Yatsura at least get a nod, Takahashi's Maison Ikkoku likewise deserves to be up there imo.

 

[Just Passing Through]

I'm not sure I'd ever regard anything as an "instant classic" as that seems like somewhat of an oxymoron.

You're right of course. I always remember getting that rare tingle in my spine, a sign that I recognise that I was watching something really special with shows like K-On! GITSSAC, the original Fullmetal Alchemist, and Haruhi Suzumiya S1, and feel that my opinion is justified when they go on to amass audience acclaim.

I somehow forget that I have had the same tingle for shows like Chihayafuru, Kids on the Slope, Planetes, Gosick, Samurai Champloo, and brilliant though those shows are, they aren't titles that leap to people's minds when thinking of classics.

 

[Rui]

I decided to limit myself to just one choice, and for me Utena is a very special series (probably my very favourite ever) as well as being a classic in its own right. Maison Ikkoku is a fantastic call too, I cried like a baby the first time I watched that (despite most of it being a comedy...) but in my case, I didn't get to watch it properly until later on. So it was missing that life-changing feel that Utena gave me.

If I had let myself run wild, Urusei Yatsura is probably the show I credit most with turning me into an anime fan so that would definitely get a glowing write-up with due respect to Ranma 1/2 and Maison Ikkoku, and Sailor Moon was another key title in my formative years even though I had to watch it all in German and raw Japanese. I watched Macross Plus a whole bunch of times. Serial Experiments Lain broadened my horizons. I almost died of joy when Record of Lodoss War finally made it to the UK; it's inherently generic but it does what it tries to do so perfectly that it scratches that itch for me as the western fantasy show the west never made. Slayers was a huge addiction for years and years. Millennium Actress is the perfect film, with Grave of the Fireflies definitely up for mention in the same category too. Now And Then, Here And There needs more love than it gets these days. FLCL was my first JP import on DVD and I certainly got my money's worth out of that. I could probably have written an essay on Evangelion all by myself.

Yet GitS:SAC, K-On! and many other shows widely loved by generations of other fans never clicked with me; they couldn't manage broad enough appeal to tickle my personal tastes. I love Gundam but the first TV series wasn't the strongest entry and the versions I like best aren't necessarily the most deserving of the 'classics' label. I also don't like most Ghibli films at all. Tenchi Muyo! was something I was really into back in the day that hasn't stood up to the test of time. While there are some titles I recognise as important for their contributions to anime as a whole, I'm not qualified to write about things that don't set my heart racing. At the same time, other titles were important to me in peculiar ways (Cyber City Oedo 808 wasn't exactly deep, but Benten was my first exposure to a type of character which simply didn't exist in any other media I was consuming back now; I was fascinated).

Some newer candidates for classics I can think of would be The Tatami Galaxy, March Comes In Like A Lion, Shouwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu, Baccano!, The Eccentric Family, FMA: Brotherhood (JPT and I might have to fight for this one!), Attack On Titan (sorry, but I think it is) and the Monogatari series (though Katanagatari is actually better). Yuri!!! On Ice is likely to be something I watch again and again. But I'd like to give this newer content more time to 'mature' in my mind before throwing my weight behind it. There are so many titles that were 'the' anime to watch in their day which are probably obscure mysteries to modern fans. Magic Knight Rayearth, Saikano, Fushigi Yuugi, Kodocha, X; all of these were hot topics of debate for years and years yet nobody talks about them any more.

For me, a classic is something that rewrites the rules on some level; Utena is such a love letter to Rose of Versailles that I can't really call it genre-defining but it definitely moved all of the goalposts around for me. Most of the shows I actually rave about during simulcast viewings are totally trashy - I stand by my opinion that DAME x PRINCE was the best show last season - but classic titles definitely have their own vibe. I guess it's easy to tell which titles I rate most in that respect since they're the ones I buy over and over again. Though I own about 10 copies of Sengoku Basara TV and that probably isn't an actual classic

R

 

[Yami]

I'd say longevity is the only criteria to meet to be considered a classic, unless you consider 'classic' to be synonymous with masterpiece/great/[insert superlative here]. Which may or may not be the case, as influence/legacy doesn't necessarily match up with quality or watchability. I'd point to Momotaro's Divine Sea Warriors and Hakujaden for example.

 

[Vashdaman]

Wow great idea AUKN! There are now loads of classics that I've added to my 'to watch' list.

Great post Rui. I think it's so interesting to hear about people's trajectory though anime. Also, I'd never heard of any of those anime you mention as being hot in their day! Apart from X, which I'd totally forgot about until reading your post, that was a bit of a dark one I seem to recall, I can only really remember one particularly gruesome scene. Hold the phone a second, I just googled it, X was originally a Shoujo manga? Wow, I'm quite surprised about that for some reason, I wouldn't have expected shoujo to be so violent.

My pick of a classic to add to the list would, unsurprisingly, be Trigun. To be fair, the last time I watched it was a decade ago, so perhaps my view of it is a bit rose tinted, but I still think the character of Vash is pretty special (and Johnny Yong Bosch's dubbing is a big part of that too for me personally). It's just so hard to not love him. And the ending is the best ending of any anime I've seen. The show is just so utterly heart warming. Now that I'm thinking about it, I think I would only appreciate the show more now with my recently acquired GCSE level critical reading faculties. For example, Vash is a Christ-like figure, yet Wolfwood who wears a dog's collar and carries a big cross (full of guns) is morally less unimpeachable. Is Nightow here making a comment on the contradictory nature of Christianity, and humanity more generally? Or is Vash (Christ) the one really being lambasted here, too innocent and scrupled to really be effective in the world?

One thing is certain at least, I know who my personal Jesus is.