Anime Wink

Why Anime Wink? It's the name of a long-defunct anime and manga store I ran across in an early 90s issue of Animerica a while back. And the name charmed me so much that I decided to adopt it for this account. But yeah, welcome! 💜

Hyperspace gate exit in post-Earth Exodus solar system, 2071. When asked about the gates and how hyperspace works, Shinichiro Watanabe once described it like old movie film, where regular space is the visible frame and hyperspace is the gaps between the frames.

Snapped from an Anitype CD-ROM: A cornucopia of cosplay at Anime Expo 2003. A con I'd attend a year later, and I remember seeing these FF8 cosplayers then too.

Recorded from Patlabor TV DVD volume 1 (2002 US Manga Force/CPM: The special DVD-ROM menu and features you'd get from popping it into a PC DVD drive.

All Purpose Cultural Cat Girl Nuku Nuku appreciation for your late 90s desktop. 800x600 resolution of worth of cat-brained android from a Commodore Amiga fan CD.

Robotech! Now on Video Cassette in 1985! Just shy of ten bucks apiece. The gateway to wider anime appreciation and fandom for many back then. Which is why I feel it's such an important thing in the annals of anime outside of Japan, despite its infamy of Macross plus other stuff glommed together.

Battle stations! Planet Latis is under threat! Lord British reaches out to Planet Gradius and three ace pilots for aid. Salamander, Studio Pierrot's 1988 three episode OVA, adapts the first three games of the Gradius series, adding character and political drama and featuring music from the games.

Enjoy the Summer of Love with Macross 🎶 📖: Animerica, July 1998

Anime featuring Church-sanctioned witch/vampire/occult hunters seen to have been one of those things that popped up in a little bubble for a few years in the early 2000s. Witch Hunter Robin (2002,Sunrise) is my favourite example of that from the time.

Where it all began for anime OVA's: Hisayuki Toriumi and Mamoru Oshii's Dallos. (1983). Just pipping another production to the post as the first direct-to-video anime, and the first direct-to-video animation anywhere.

From a 1995 calendar that was in an archive of files for one of the PC-98 Record of Lodoss War games: an adorable illustration of chibi mischief and adventure.

Anime inspirations: Streets of Fire (1984) Fusing 50s rock-and-roll aesthetics with 80s cybernoir dystopia, SoF was an influential cult hit in Japan. One of the most direct influences can be seen in Bubblegum Crisis, with Priss' performance an homage to SoF's Ellen Aim and the Attackers.

Hentai, bishōjo, and an early online hub for otaku merch: the early years of JAST USA, J-List, and the announcement of Milky House. 📖 : Protoculture Addicts, July 1999

One of the other core isekai series of the 90s: Yuu Watase's Fushigi Yuugi. (1995) Anyone familiar with the series and watched it through may now have "Tamahome!" "Miaka!" "Tamahome!" "Miaka!" ringing in their ears at the mention of it. 📖: DOKAN, Octoner 1998

Mamoru Oshii and Yoshitaka Amano's combined vision of a gothic world drowning in silence and decay. Now back in UK theatres and well worth experiencing on the big screen. 📺: Angel's Egg, 1985

Anime on Commodore Amiga! World of Manga, released in 1993, is an Italian demoscene slideshow 'prod'. There was frequent crossover between the Amiga/ST demoscene and European anime fandom, with both screencaps of popular shows and pixel art fan tributes often shared.

"The "Right Stuff" has never been so nicely packed!" Ahem. (The Right Stuff refers to post-WWII high-speed test pilots) 801 T.T.S. Airbats (1994-1996, Studio Fantasia) is a seven episode OVA focused around the slice-of-life misadventures of an all-female JSDF acrobatics squadron.

Planet Anime's movie-edit ads are a little treasure. 25% off domestic tapes and 20% off domestic DVDs all the time! 📖: Protoculture Addicts, July 1999.

Soaring from the big screen to videotape in 1993: Porco Rosso. As vintage inter-war aviation is one of other things I'm fond of exploring, Porco is one of my favourite Ghibli movies. 📖: Technopolis, December 1992

A snippet from the 1998 dub of Panzer Dragoon OVA (1996) Studio Giants, Production I.G, and a whole mess of other companies doing bits and pieces on it, including Studio DEEN and Gainax. They try to cram a *lot* into a touch over 25 mins.

Scrapping off a few cobwebs, and kicking off some new, regular posting with a voyage into infinite space. Pulled from a 2002 Minami CD. 📺: Lost Universe (1998) 🎶: Infinity 👩‍🎤: Megumi Hayashibara

Minami brings the 🔥 with FORCES. Composed by Susumu Hirasawa, who extensively used Commodore Amigas in his early composition career.

Lovely covers full of scientific romance: Vol 1 of ADV's 2001 ten-volume release of Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water.

All Purpose Cultural Cat Girl Nuku Nuku appreciation for your late 90s desktop. 800x600 resolution of worth of cat-brained android from a Commodore Amiga fan CD.

Casting a spotlight on Outlaw Star in September 2000's Animerica. Collectively, this show got a lot of coverage in ani-mags around the world from 98-2000. About as much as its space cousin, Cowboy Bebop.

Two of the personal crown jewels of our anime collection: Image Entertainment's (and US Manga Corps) 1998 two-part DVD release of Record of Lodoss War OVA. If you picked up DVD movies early on, you may remember buying these cardboard and black clippy frames releases.

When he's not observing fiendish scheming of conquest from tall grass or staring into destiny in the setting sun, Metalder is not above delivering boxes of puppies. If you're familiar with VR Troopers, then you've seen bits of this. 📺: Chōjinki Metarudā/Super Android Metalder, 1987

Available for the princely sum of 16,000 yen but on the futuristic format of the 80s, LASERDISC: Daicon III and IV Opening Animations. Unofficially released in 1988 due to legal entanglements, this now rare release compiled the short movies created by animators who'd go on to form GAINAX.

When Final Fantasy meets Anime. Well, at least by the way of its most famous illustrator: Yoshitaka Amano! More than a hint of Elric of Melniboné in the character design for the titular protag - and in the surreal nature of his world. Fitting stuff for Amano's dreamy art style.

ADV Films: More collateral damage per episode! Guaranteed! Especially true with Dirty Pair! 📖: Tokyopop magazine, August/September 1999

Moments before the Angel's Rise in the endless cicada summer.

The Winged God Awakens: RahXephon. 📖: Newtype USA, March 2003

Leading the Millennium's Otaku: OTAKON 2001. Guests included: Toshihiro Kawamoto, Hikaru Midorikawa, Adam Warren, and Steve Bennett.

One of the now more obscure 90s OVA's: 801 T.T.S. Airbats. (Studio Fantasia, 1994) The trials and tribulations of an JSDF aerobatics squadron.

Anime is Hot! Ryo-Ohki greets you and has all the hot titles in '95 as Pioneer goes on a charm offensive with its range of VHS's and Laserdiscs. 📖: Panime Pioneer Anime Catalogue, 1995.

"Babbages Software Etc now carries anime on VHS and DVD!" As the Year 2000 turned and the anime bubble swelled larger still: a new source of mainstream store shelf presence.

Anime fanzine fandom in Hawaii in 1998: The Anime Connection. (Animeco) Produced by the Japanese Animation Society of Hawaii, with the first issue in 1996. Scanned issues dry up at ten on Internet Archive, and I haven't yet found anything else about how many issues it ran for.

“Is anybody down there listening to this broadcast? This is mankind’s first astronaut. The human race has just taken its first step into the world of the stars.” 📺: Royal Space Force: The Wings of Honnêamise, Hiroyuki Yamaga/Gainax, 1987.

From a Kawaii magazine CD in '02: One of my favourite OPs: Full Metal Panic. 🔥

Join the UN Spacy! 🫡 Macross fandom at Animexpo 2003.

From a 1998 Spanish anime encyclopedia CD called Anime Robot: Esca... flowne! Esca... flowne! The series that truly hooked me into anime.

Spirituality, mysticism, politics, and mecha: Gasaraki. On three disc formats in Japan as 1999 dawned: LaserDisc, Video CD, and DVD. One of the more under-the-radar mech shows these days, but from the amount of coverage it gets in Newtype, it was a big deal then.

There's no mistaking a Robert's Anime Corner Store ad when you're flicking through the pages of Newtype USA.

"To be continued..." Spanish and Catalonian early 2000s anime and manga store ad cuteness, where they have the latest releases every month - and a cute catgirl mascot. 📖: Minami issue 32

Anime! Manga! Anime! Manga! Spotlight on Polish anime fandom: Kawaii, published by the Krakow-based club of the same name. The computer demoscene had also been key in sparking interest, including anime and manga features in computer magazines such as Secret Service.

Enjoy the Summer of Love with Macross 🎶 📖: Animerica, July 1998

From replay to light novel to TTRPG to OVA and now over to PCE CDROM. Character profiles and a Record of Lodoss War history rundown for PC Engine RPGers eager to play through the events of the OVA. 📖: PC Engine Fan, November 1991

As the millennium turned, it's time to catch 'em all on VHS and new kid on the mainstream media block, DVD. 📺: Pioneer Promo, 2000.