My First Anime

I have had a bit of a Rankin and Bass Renaissance as of late and wanted, nay, needed to watch some of my old favorites. You may be thinking of the classics of stop motion that get played every holiday, but these are not what I was craving. I was looking to the traditional animation they did back in the 70's and early 80's. I loved these movies as a child and why not great stories, catchy tunes, likable characters, and the safety blanket that was Rankin and Bass gave it all a good coating. I still enjoy these films for the same reasons today, (you try and get The Last Unicorn opening song out of your head). One thing I noticed when I was watching the credits of these films though was the amount of Japanese animators, producers, directors, ect. As a kid I just assumed this all came from the magical place that non Warner Brothers, non Disney animation coalesced from, probably somewhere on the west coast. I think that with the amount of animators from Japan these films that I liked so much may have actually been the first anime that I was exposed to and loved. Of course these films are not considered anime in the traditional sense, they are commissioned and distributed by an American company and are the retelling of western novels. However the animation was reminiscent of the early anime series that any fan of anime that is more than 22 years old remembers, like Sailor Moon, Voltron, Knights of the Zodiac, Lupin the Third. The stories were handled with care and while aimed at children retained enough of their substance for adults to enjoy as well, the voice acting was well done for the time, and the characters themselves showed enough expression in form and voice that you could empathize with them. The stories themselves also contained some elements that a child couldn't grasp as the time such as the unicorn losing herself in a different form, or how a ring could corrupt so easily. I just think it funny that all this time I thought of my self as a anime fan and I had no idea that I got my start so early. In truth my first real "anime" was Akira, and I saw that when I was 8 years old. At that time however the Rankin and Bass movies had already been deeply rooted in my mind and may have helped me to realized that animation was deeper than Bugs Bunny or Micky Mouse. Im Alive!


Above is a charater from The Last Unicorn, below is a character from Galaxy Express 999(by Leiji Matsumoto) I am always remned of one or the other when I watch them, I think for me it the eyes and the long hair that seem similar in the character design, to my knowledge Leiji Matsumoto was not involved in the character design, but watching his series as well remind me of the Rankin and Bass style.