Best old school Anime / Manga which still holds up well if not perfectly today?

[Amag0k1]

What old school anime have you watched which still holds up today?

For me Patlabor The movie is still relevant, not just it's style but the issues it deals with such as;

Gentrification and people being displaced.

The problems with engineering and the misplaced faith in technology, rushing to update to the new thing and the common issue which is still relevant today, which i will past this one quote here from another post i have:

"No matter how fancy or advanced the technology gets, one thing don't change, people who make them, people who keep them running, and the people who drive them. As long as the people don't mess up, machines wont mess with yea!"

The one rule i have, is that i want an explanation on your picks like i have given above. Explain your choice and how it hit hard for you?

 

[Stingy Perry]

The Vision of Escaflowne is one of favorite. It’s a mecha anime which is in a fantasy rpg like world. This came after a few years Magic Knight Rayearth which is also a classic.

 

[retro-gamer]

The Vision of Escaflowne is one of favorite. It’s a mecha anime which is in a fantasy rpg like world. This came after a few years Magic Knight Rayearth which is also a classic.View attachment 66014View attachment 66015

This anime is great, I don't know how many times I watched it.

Post automatically merged: Yesterday at 4:28 PM

Cowboy Bebop ist great and old but good. I am still waiting for a sequel but yes, unfortunately it would be discontinued.

 

[MDGeistsfavMC5song]

Angel's Egg, Vampire Hunter D, MD Geist 1 and 2, Sorcerer Hunters, Slayers, Dominion Tank Police, Armor Hunter Mellowlink (an Armored Trooper Votoms side story), anything with Captain Harlock but in particular Arcadia of my Youth/ My Youth in Arcadia, Record of Lodoss War, any of the Go Nagai shows like Cutie Honey, DevilMan, and Violence Jack, Demon City Shinjuku, Fist of the North Star, Legend of Galactic Heroes, Macross but in particular Do You Remember Love?,X, Angel Cop, Jin Roh, Patlabor, Outlanders, Project A-Ko... uh... i can go check the rest of my vhs/ dvd collection.. but thats off the top of my head

Post automatically merged: Yesterday at 4:45 PM

This anime is great, I don't know how many times I watched it.

Post automatically merged: Yesterday at 4:28 PM

Cowboy Bebop ist great and old but good. I am still waiting for a sequel but yes, unfortunately it would be discontinued.

cowboy bebop isnt old... that makes me feel old.. is trigun, last exile, blue gender, blue seed, silent mobius, boogie pop phantom considered old?

 

[_-_AceDragon_-_]

What's old school now?... My view is slightly skewed on that one lol... It's not my favourite show or anything like that but I pick X 1999 (or the movie even). Ignoring the drama / relationships between characters, this anime is basically a war between two groups: one fighting to annihilate mankind and allow the earth to reset/heal from the damage done to it by humans (dragons of earth). The other group is fighting to prevent mankind's annihilation (dragons of heaven). Climate change continues to become a more and more relevant issue over time and so the motivations of the characters have a bit more weight to them watching it in 2025 than when I first watched it back when it first came out.

Also, I believe the TV show was directed by yoshiaki kawajiri... Or he was at least involved, and most of his works are great....
Also the movie is animated/drawn beautifully for it's time and is a marvel just for that reason alone.

 

[Denmdm]

I can never think of something that does or doesn't "hold up well", since at the end of the day what matters is if we can enjoy it or not. Do you mean in terms of animation, plot, or something else?

 

[MDGeistsfavMC5song]

What's old school now?... My view is slightly skewed on that one lol... It's not my favourite show or anything like that but I pick X 1999 (or the movie even). Ignoring the drama / relationships between characters, this anime is basically a war between two groups: one fighting to annihilate mankind and allow the earth to reset/heal from the damage done to it by humans (dragons of earth). The other group is fighting to prevent mankind's annihilation (dragons of heaven). Climate change continues to become a more and more relevant issue over time and so the motivations of the characters have a bit more weight to them watching it in 2025 than when I first watched it back when it first came out.

Also, I believe the TV show was directed by yoshiaki kawajiri... Or he was at least involved, and most of his works are great....
Also the movie is animated/drawn beautifully for it's time and is a marvel just for that reason alone.

i mentioned X too.. i remember recording it on vhs from STARS ACTION channel with blue seed and the 2 armitage movies in the early 2000's... i really like X, its like two teams of (dragon of the earth vs dragon of heaven) anime super hero archetypes, but with the added drama of kamui vs his childhood friend.. really good stuff edit- a similar death game dichotomy happens in that more recent ( by my life) anime Basilisk (i found it at best buy for ten bucks) but its Iga ninja vs Koga ninja in the Tokugawa shogunate era... same thing, crazy powered characters killing each other for a supposed bigger point, but also with an underlying connection between the characters and stuff.. you get to see the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Hattori Hanzo..

Post automatically merged: Yesterday at 5:29 PM

another old school great anime with a fantastic soundtrack is California Crisis... got that lovely late 80's outrun vibe

 

[_-_AceDragon_-_]

i mentioned X too.. i remember recording it on vhs from STARS ACTION channel with blue seed and the 2 armitage movies in the early 2000's... i really like X, its like two teams of (dragon of the earth vs dragon of heaven) anime super hero archetypes, but with the added drama of kamui vs his childhood friend.. really good stuff edit- a similar death game dichotomy happens in that more recent ( by my life) anime Basilisk (i found it at best buy for ten bucks) but its Iga ninja vs Koga ninja in the Tokugawa shogunate era... same thing, crazy powered characters killing each other for a supposed bigger point, but also with an underlying connection between the characters and stuff.. you get to see the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Hattori Hanzo..

Snap! I just saw your comment! Yeah Trigun is a classic. Great show. And yeah it's old by today's standards. It's over 25 years old now isn't it? 1998 it came out....
I just picked X mainly coz I think it's so relevant today. Most of the anime I like came out by the year 2005 ish or earlier lol, so if I went with all anime that I think still hold up it will be a long list!!

With the continued rise of AI, the original ghost in the shell is also massively relevant now. Forgot to mention that. I still need to watch stand alone complex though.

 

[Big Finger Jim]

All of Yoshiaki Kawajiri's shit.

 

[MDGeistsfavMC5song]

Snap! I just saw your comment! Yeah Trigun is a classic. Great show. And yeah it's old by today's standards. It's over 25 years old now isn't it? 1998 it came out....
I just picked X mainly coz I think it's so relevant today. Most of the anime I like came out by the year 2005 ish or earlier lol, so if I went with all anime that I think still hold up it will be a long list!!

With the continued rise of AI, the original ghost in the shell is also massively relevant now. Forgot to mention that. I still need to watch stand alone complex though.

i got the original GITS and Ninja Scroll at blockbusters a long, long time ago and loved em.. i got the Stand Alone Complex dvd collection a few years ago at Half Price Books and still havent finished watching them (too much backlog)... is stuff like Samurai X/ Rurouni Kenshin, Those Who Hunt Elves, Gungrave, Mysterious Girlfriend X, To Love Ru,Bubblegum Crisis, Cat Planet Cuties, and Gunsmith Cats considered old too?... god damn.. i guess im old..

Post automatically merged: Yesterday at 5:56 PM

What old school anime have you watched which still holds up today?

For me Patlabor The movie is still relevant, not just it's style but the issues it deals with such as;

Gentrification and people being displaced.

The problems with engineering and the misplaced faith in technology, rushing to update to the new thing and the common issue which is still relevant today, which i will past this one quote here from another post i have:

"No matter how fancy or advanced the technology gets, one thing don't change, people who make them, people who keep them running, and the people who drive them. As long as the people don't mess up, machines wont mess with yea!"

The one rule i have, is that i want an explanation on your picks like i have given above. Explain your choice and how it hit hard for you?

Wings of Honneamise is god tier.. it won awards

 

[Samatonic]

....I haven't watched many.

 

[Amakuchi]

For me the best shows from the past to show newbie weebs are:

Record of Lodoss War
Dirty Pair (The original entries before Flash)
Bubblegum Crisis
Excel Saga

I think those are pretty timeless imo, and even some of my friends who really don't dig deep for old school stuff really enjoyed them.

 

[_-_AceDragon_-_]

i got the original GITS and Ninja Scroll at blockbusters a long, long time ago and loved em.. i got the Stand Alone Complex dvd collection a few years ago at Half Price Books and still havent finished watching them (too much backlog)... is stuff like Samurai X/ Rurouni Kenshin, Those Who Hunt Elves, Gungrave, Mysterious Girlfriend X, To Love Ru,Bubblegum Crisis, Cat Planet Cuties, and Gunsmith Cats considered old too?... god damn.. i guess im old..

Post automatically merged: Yesterday at 5:56 PM

Wings of Honneamise is god tier.. it won awards

You mentioned Gungrave.... Best anime I've ever watched.... Alongside a few others.. and yep it's old now. Over 20 years old is old. Which shocks me too haha. But it's not old old like Akira or even Ninja Scroll.

Also, you mentioned basilisk in your earlier post which I missed. Fantastic anime. Not mentioned enough imho.

Samurai X was great, especially the first arc/second arc. But the best thing about it was the trust and betrayal ova.

In one year's time, Death Note will be 20 years old. So I'd consider it on its way to being old school now too, which means I can list:
Berserk 1997 - still the best animated format for berserk.
Samurai Champloo best samurai anime series I've ever seen
Wolfs Rain
Trigun
Scryed
One Outs
Slam Dunk

Vampire hunter D bloodlust
Cyber City Oedo
Demon City Shinjuku
Can't believe I'm saying this but sword of the stranger is nearly 18 years old.... So I'm counting that too

I used to get games mostly from blockbuster back in the day as they hardly had any anime. But we had a second hand video store nearby (neither of those stores exist anymore) which I got ninja scroll from too, X the movie, Heroic Legend of Arislan (original OVA not the remake), street fighter 2 the animated movie and fist of the north star movie. All VHS. I'd count those too.

I'm defo missing a bunch of anime I'd also list but those are the ones I can think of

 

[Antilocal123]

None.

 

[irkella]

I guess "old school" is a bit nebulous, but I'll define it as older than ~20 years. Some really great ones mentioned here, but a top pick for me would be Stop!! Hibari-kun! (1983), definitely feel like it holds up quite well, gave me a ton of laughs throughout and deals with aspects of societal perception and pressure while never taking itself too seriously.

Wings of Honneamise is god tier.. it won awards

I'll also second Royal Space Force: The Wings of Honnêamise (1987), one of my favourite movies of all time, and an amazingly topical story about a flawed man stuck as a political pawn between two competing global powers, and resources being poured into technological innovation and progress in a world facing fundamental poverty and everyday struggle.

Others of note I didn't see mentioned:
Ergo Proxy (2006)
Gokusen (2004)
Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi (2002)
Serial Experiments Lain (1998)
Dead Leaves (2004)
Outlaw Star (1998)
Phantom Quest Corp. (1994)
Black Magic M66 (1987)
Macross Plus: The Movie (1995)
Birdy the Mighty (1996)
A Tree of Palme (2002)
Venus Wars (1989)
A Wind Named Amnesia (1990)

 

[SylvanSwordstress]

I mean, my avatar kinda gives away the fact that I love Record of Lodoss War, but retro anime is just kinda my favorite thing. I just like the art styles better than what we get today; it's all so detailed and expressive.
Berserk
Record of Lodoss War
Mobile Suit Gundam and Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam
Vision of Escaflowne
Neon Genesis Evangelion
Gunbuster
Sailor Moon
The Rose of Versailles
Cardcaptor Sakura
Magic Knight Rayearth
Serial Experiments Lain
Inuyasha
Ranma 1/2
Bubblegum Crisis
Ghost in the Shell
Angel's Egg
Vampire Hunter D
Cowboy Bebop

I could go on, but honestly there's just so much good stuff from that era (pre-2000s). Traditional cel-animation is just incredible.