Aura Battler Dunbine

聖戦士ダンバイン (1983)

I just finished watching this series for the first time. While it may not be for everyone, especially if you're not particularly interested in Japanese animation, it was startlingly engaging for being almost 30 years old. My interest in Japan started with animation and I'm still a fan, but I find, like most stodgy old people, that I prefer the stuff of my own generation. That being said and biases aside, I strongly believe that anime of the 80's up through the early 90's is far superior to that being produced today with regard to pacing and basic story-telling ability.

I was having a conversation with a friend, thinking about Dunbine and other things—movies, in particular—that came out of the 80's. I won't call it a Golden Age, but I do feel that, in general, the pacing for movies was better then, that they were better punctuated, and you came away with a clear sense of progression and development. These days a lot of what we see seems to meander and we suddenly find ourselves at the end, not sure how we got there or how we're supposed to feel. I will say that many cable TV series in the last few years do not appear to suffer this.

My humble opinion, anyway. And perhaps all due to my poor choices, but here's a meaningless exercise: think about the last movie or TV show or whatever you saw—something you'd been looking forward to—and ask yourself about how the story unfolded, how the pacing was, and how successful or unsuccessful the piece was overall in light of those things.

(Oh, and Lor Kalkin's color scheme was actually NOT influenced by the Dunbine. Just a coincidence.)