The 90’s Anime Boom

  • May 17, 2008 – 3:46 pm

This is an article I found while cleaning the house (VA).

「90年代総括」構成／小黒祐一郎　アニメージュ2000年2月号特集

“90’s Round-Up” by Yuichiro Oguro for Animage Feb 2000 Vol 260

In it, Oguro argues that the 90s saw a “Second Anime Boom” with titles like Sailor Moon, Evangelion, and Mononoke Hime. He also describes a “Third Seiyuu Boom” (seiyuu = voice actor). The first boom apparently revolved around Space Battleship Yamato in ‘78 and Gandam. Between the early eighties and the appearance of Sailormoon, there was a lull inthe anime industry that especially affected the anime magazines like Animage. Then Sailor Moon and Shinchan came along in the early nineties, kickstarting a decade.

With titles full of bishojo (beautiful female characters) like Oh My Goddess, Tenchi Muyo following Sailor Moon, Oguro calls the 90s the “Bishojo Decade.” This decade also saw Evangelion – notable for its high-tension plot, high-quality visuals, bishojo characters, and beautiful mechas. (Mechas are the huge robots that abound in sci-fi anime). After that came Ghost in the Shell which placed #1 in video sales in the U.S. Another representative title of the 90s was Pokemon. Oguro says that fantic (what he calls “maniac”) anime became the focus of the 90s, alongside mainstream hits like Mononoke and Shinchan.

Here’s a list of anime hits by year (in English – TV series unless otherwise noted):

1990:

  1. Nadia – Secret of Blue Water
  2. Mashin Eiyuden Wataru 2 [魔神英雄伝ワタル2]
  3. Dragon Ball Z
  4. Patlabor
  5. Ranma 1/2

 

1991

  1. Future GPX Cyber Formula [新世紀ＧＰＸサイバーフォーミュラ]
  2. Nadia – Secret of Blue Water
  3. Dragon Ball Z
  4. Ranma 1/2
  5. Only Yesterday (Movie) [おもひでぽろぽろ]

 

1992

  1. Sailor Moon
  2. YuYuHakusho: Ghost Files
  3. Porco Rosso (Movie)
  4. Fairy Princess Minky Momo
  5. Mama is a Fourth Grader

1993

  1. YuYuHakusho: Ghost Files
  2. Sailor Moon R
  3. Oh My Goddess (OVA)
  4. The Irresponsible Captain Tyler [無責任艦長タイラー]
  5. Sailor Moon

 

1994

  1. YuYuHakusho: Ghost Files
  2. Sailor Moon S
  3. Akazukin ChaCha
  4. Oh My Goddess (OVA)
  5. Macross7

 

1995

  1. Evangelion
  2. Gandam W
  3. Magic Knight Ray Earth
  4. Macross7
  5. YuYuHakusho: Ghost Files

 

1996

  1. Evangelion
  2. Slayers NEXT
  3. Martian Successor NADESICO
  4. Gandam W
  5. Sailor Moon Sailor Stars

 

1997

  1. The End of Evangelion (Movie)
  2. Slayers TRY
  3. Martian Successor NADESICO
  4. Revolutionary Girl Utena
  5. Princess Mononoke [Mononoke Hime] (Movie)

 

1998

  1. NADESICO The Prince of Darkness (Movie)
  2. Cowboy Bebop
  3. Lost Universe
  4. Kare Kano (His & Her Circumstance)
  5. Card Captor Sakura

 

1999

Unknown at time of printing. (All rankings derived from Animage “Grand Prix” polls in the following year.)

 This just gives you a sense of what major anime culture mags were covering at the turn of the millennium.

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