1. Bubblegum Crisis: Tokyo 2040
A devastated Tokyo rose from the ashes thanks to the technologies and products of the GENOM Corporation, creators of the “Boomers”—biological robots who have become man’s new servants and labor force. Unfortunately, the Boomers have a tendency to blow their stack and need to be taken down by force … which is where the Knight Sabers, an independent militia of women in form-fitting combat suits, come in. Their long-term mission: to wipe all Boomers off the face of the earth—that is, if the Boomers themselves don’t displace the human race first.
The original 1986 Bubblegum Crisis OVA never got a chance to play out to its completion, due to money problems and behind-the-scenes squabbling. This late-Nineties reboot of the series stretches the series out to a full 26 episodes, keeps the same basic premise, upps the wattage, and brings everything full circle to a conclusion that’s well worth sticking around for.
Reissued by: FUNimation, who as with Gantz (see below) rescued this from ADV’s library after that company lost the rights to many titles.More »
2. DragonBall Z Kai / DragonBall Z Level 1.x
DragonBall Z is one of those shows that hardly needs to be recommended: the fans know what it is and avidly spread the word for it. But two new editions of the show released this year deserve some mention on this list.
DragonBall Z Kai might be best described as “DBZ for People in a Hurry.” It takes the original DBZ storyline and pares down most of the repetition and fat, making the storyline far more accessible to the uninitiated. Newcomers to the show and non-diehards will want to start here. But for the completist, there’s DragonBall Z Level 1.x, the first in a series of ongoing reissues of the original and uncut DragonBall Z.
Reissued by: FUNimation, who else? Both Kai and the Level reissues are in HD and have been remastered extensively by FUNi’s in-house restoration team, using the original 1.33:1 TV aspect ratio.More »
3. FLCL
Nothing ever happens in Naoto’s hometown—at least, not until the Vespa-driving Haruko comes riding along and gives Naoto a smack in the head with her bass guitar, unleashing a horde of robots which only Haruko can fight off. And it just gets crazier from there—but also that much more bittersweet, heartfelt and unpredictable.
Anime fans use FLCL as an initiation rite: if you can survive it, you can survive most anything. Despite being only six episodes, it crams in more invention, incident, detail and humor than many shows can fit into thirteen or even twenty-six. Essential, if only as a demonstration of how anime can not only go out on a limb but leap from it and launch itself into outer space.
Reissued by: FUNimation, who provided us with both conventional DVD and Blu-ray Disc editions. The BD version is something of a red herring, though, since the original show wasn’t in HD and had to be upscaled from standard-def.More »
4. Gantz
First you die. Then things get really bad. That’s what two high-school kids find out after they’re flattened by a train in an ill-advised attempt to save a drunk who fell on the tracks. They’re whisked away from the moment of their deaths to a strange room populated by others who’ve also “died,” fitted with weapons and armor, and sent out on missions to kill “aliens” who live undetected amongst us.
And that’s just the beginning of Gantz, a show whose fiendish cleverness is only matched by its cynicism and stark violence. Don’t expect full-blown explanations for everything that happens; you won’t get any. Do expect a brutal dissection of human behavior in extreme situations. This isn’t everyone’s idea of fun, nor should it be. But for those with the stomach, it’s an unparalleled ride.
Reissued by: FUNimation, who have repackaged the entire show in a single handy volume after ADV’s license for the show lapsed.More »
5. Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind
Any list of best-anime-ever routinely contains at least one Studio Ghibli and Hayao Miyazaki title, if not more. And for good reason: a disproportionate share of anime classics are theirs, some of them among the best animated films made in any language or country. Nausicaä was the first release under the Ghibli name, and remains among the very best things they ever did.
Adapted from Miyazaki’s own comic about a princess striving to protect her embattled kingdom against environmental devastation, Nausicaä contains all the staple elements of a Miyazaki/Ghibli production: a spunky heroine, wide-gauge epic-scale imagery, a gallery of well-rounded supporting characters (even the villains get time in the sun to be fully human), and an urgent awareness of how this planet is the only one we have.
Reissued by: Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment. The Mouse House has issued the film on DVD previously, but this new BD/DVD remaster—first in a series of same for the Ghibli titles—is more than worth the upgrade.More »
6. Revolutionary Girl Utena
A tomboyish student at an exclusive academy discovers a ritualized struggle taking place within the bowels of the school. Various fellow students duel each other to win the hand of a female classmate—a girl who has a power that could change the world, or destroy it.
The greatest danger one runs into when talking about this show is running out of adjectives, and maybe superlatives as well. It’s allegorical, surreal, eye-filling, thought-provoking—but under it all, Utena works as riveting human drama, where the stakes are nothing less than the very personas of the participants. If only five anime could be rescued from Earth, odds are this would be one of them. It contains multitudes.
Reissued by: Nozomi Entertainment / Right Stuf International, who gave this series the high-end, boxed-set, deluxe-presentation blowout version it rightfully deserves. Also included is the feature-film version of the story, Adolescence of Utena. The only place to go from here is a HD remaster from the original film elements and a Blu-ray Disc set. (Please?)More »
7. Rurouni Kenshin: Tsuioku-hen
What a beauty this is, and what a heartbreaker too. A four-episode OVA (total runtime: two hours) prequel to the Rurouni Kenshin TV series, which delves into how Himura Kenshin went from orphaned naïf to cold-blooded killer to repentant wanderer. Here is a man who committed his life to something, only to discover it was both the wrong commitment and the wrong life.
The cinematic-grade animation further helps evoke a sense of a time long gone by and a life lost to the vicissitudes of fate. Animation connoisseurs should appreciate the remastering job done for Blu-ray Disc, especially since Tsuioku-hen was shot on film and hand-animated directly to cels, not done digitally. It feels all the more like a specimen of a dying breed, much like its embattled hero.
Reissued by: Aniplex, who reprinted it along with two other Kenshin standalone projects (Seisou-hen and Rurouni Kenshin: The Motion Picture) on Blu-ray Disc. They’re expensive since they are import-only items, but this one in particular is absolutely worth the price.More »
8. Yu Yu Hakusho
Juvie delinquent Yusuke Urameshi’s troubles begin when he’s killed saving the life of a kid in a traffic accident. Instead of dying completely, though, he’s sent back into the human world with a few supernatural powers and a new mission: he’s now a “spirit detective” in the employ of the Lord of the Underworld. Not what he had in mind when he wrote up his “My Future Career” essay in class, but with the aid of a motley assortment of sidekicks (some human, some not) he’s soon setting otherworldly wrongs right.
Reissued by: FUNimation, who did a DragonBall Z with this series and dug out the original film elements to give it a top-grade HD remaster. The resulting Blu-ray Disc releases make every previous edition of this series doubly obsolete.More »