I’ve volunteered to cover 1994 for the The Golden Ani-versary of Anime blog project, so I need to play catch up on my own browse through the 90s and hopefully reach 1994 around the time my post will appear there.
I picked 1994 because it is one of the void years where nothing of great note emerged in TV anime. There were three shows I could see myself talking about, less for themselves and more for what they represented. A fourth show is in retrospect noteworthy, even though it meant little at the time, but beyond that I was wondering what to cover. I didn’t have TV ratings at hand, all I had were hazy memories of what was popular on the VHS fansub scene a couple of years later. By the way if you do have 1990s TV ratings available please let me know, as that would be hellaciously useful.
Then I remembed that the Animage Grand Prix existed. Not only do Animage keep a record on their site of the winners of their annual vote on the best of anime, they also have the top 20 and number of votes cast. This opened things up and I’ve now got eight shows to talk about in 1994. I won’t spoil the surprise, but I will say one gives me the opportunity to bring up Hanna Barbera’s Fred and Barney Meet The Thing.
In the meantime let us look at the top tens for the three years I’ve already covered to some degree here.
May 1991 Grand Prix
Full results on the Animage site here.
Coming as it did in May 1991, this mainly covered 1990 anime. Nadia being top didn’t surprise me. The strong showing for Mashin Hero Wataru 2 did, along with the other two shows cut from the same cloth – NG Knight Ramune & 40 and Grandzort. Perhaps it shouldn’t have done given it’s many imitators. I think the lack of coverage/licensing they got in the UK/US makes them seem more obscure than they were. The TV movie Like the Clouds, Like the Wind, I had never even heard of, but I am now curious about.
May 1992 Grand Prix
Full results on the Animage site here.
A big drop off for Wataru, presumably his votes ending up with Cyber Formula, which while not a Wataru clone, certainly shares some of the same energy. Otherwise no big surprises here. But it did remind me that Raijin-Oh got licensed, no one bought it and thus no more than three volumes came out. Anime Midstream, the Crusader Video of the 2000s.
May 1993 Grand Prix
Full results on the Animage site here
The year shojo struck back. Wasn’t surprised to see Sailor Moon walk it, but high showings for the new Minky Momo, Mama Is a Fourth Grader and Yadamon did raise eyebrows. Mine in fact. DBZ and Ranma are fading now, and you can definitely see a pattern of the thrill of the new wearing off for former big winners as Cyber Formula drops the same way Wataru did when it came to an end.
I guess that means I better do some more 1992 posts. We’re touching on Sailor Moon in the podcast soon, so I think it might have to be Mama Is A Fourth Grader next.