I’ll edit later to fill in some details, but here’s a list of 70s-ish stuff I’ve seen and enjoyed. Bold on the must watches! I have a bias towards mecha/sci-fi.
Space Battleship Yamato (1974)
Electromagnetic Machine Voltes V (1977)
Invincible Superman Zanbot 3 (1977)
Invincible Steel Man Daitarn 3 (1978)
Mobile Suit Gundam (1979)
Rose of Versailles (1979) Shojo drama set during the events leading up to the French revolution. Super cool, moody show.
Aim for the Ace! (1979) - I’ve only been able to snag the movie version of this one. Classic sports anime - Gunbuster is a direct homage to this.
The ones below are early 80s releases, but to me we’re not quite into the look of 1980s anime™ until stuff like Super Dimensional Fortress Macross and Dallos. These shows have the old-school look imo.
Space Runaway Ideon (1980) and the movie double feature A Contact and Be Invoked (1982) This is what Gundam creator Yoshiyuki Tomino made after Gundam. The movies in particular are super-influential on Neon Genesis Evangelion. It’s best to watch the TV series before the movies, but A Contact is a compilation film of the series with Be Invoked being the sequel/reworked ending. Be Invoked is an amazing movie.
Fang of the Sun Dougram (1981) I’m almost finished with watching this one. What if you took Mobile Suit Gundam but the protagonist is a class traitor who joins the side of the anti-colonial guerillas.
Armored Trooper Votoms (1983) Probably one of the latest “70s anime” I’ve seen. Mech focused sci-fi series with an adult cast (no teenage killer robot pilots here!). There’s a lot of cool sequel OVAs and spinoffs that go on throughout the years (with the last one being made in 2011!!) - I’m pretty fond of Armor Hunter Mellowlink, but it’s an extremely late 80s OVA.
Will I be missing anything critical from Space Runaway Ideon if I watch the compilation movie version, or would certain episodes be excluded? And if I did watch the full series, would I still need to watch A Contact?
The two movies were originally released as a back-to-back double feature. You can watch them as a full experience, but you’ll miss out on character development and the pacing is super janky. A Contact compiles ~30 episodes of the TV show into ~90 minutes (the remainder of the show being the “TV ending”). The most apt comparison to watching the movies by themselves is watching Neon Genesis Evangelion: Death and Rebirth and The End of Evangelion (Anno was directly inspired by these movies lol).
If you have the time for it, watching the series is recommended. If you watch the show, you can probably skip A Contact.
Watching just the movies isn’t an optimal choice, but I’d recommend it over missing out entirely (kind of like the Gundam compilation films - the compressed version is an easier sell to someone who isn’t used to older anime).
More people need to watch 70s anime. It can have it’s fair share of problems, but it’s great
Please give me as many recommendations as you have immediately, subtitles preferred. Any genre is fine.
I’ll edit later to fill in some details, but here’s a list of 70s-ish stuff I’ve seen and enjoyed. Bold on the must watches! I have a bias towards mecha/sci-fi.
Space Battleship Yamato (1974)
Electromagnetic Machine Voltes V (1977)
Invincible Superman Zanbot 3 (1977)
Invincible Steel Man Daitarn 3 (1978)
Mobile Suit Gundam (1979)
Rose of Versailles (1979) Shojo drama set during the events leading up to the French revolution. Super cool, moody show.
Aim for the Ace! (1979) - I’ve only been able to snag the movie version of this one. Classic sports anime - Gunbuster is a direct homage to this.
The ones below are early 80s releases, but to me we’re not quite into the look of 1980s anime™ until stuff like Super Dimensional Fortress Macross and Dallos. These shows have the old-school look imo.
Space Runaway Ideon (1980) and the movie double feature A Contact and Be Invoked (1982) This is what Gundam creator Yoshiyuki Tomino made after Gundam. The movies in particular are super-influential on Neon Genesis Evangelion. It’s best to watch the TV series before the movies, but A Contact is a compilation film of the series with Be Invoked being the sequel/reworked ending. Be Invoked is an amazing movie.
Fang of the Sun Dougram (1981) I’m almost finished with watching this one. What if you took Mobile Suit Gundam but the protagonist is a class traitor who joins the side of the anti-colonial guerillas.
Armored Trooper Votoms (1983) Probably one of the latest “70s anime” I’ve seen. Mech focused sci-fi series with an adult cast (no teenage killer robot pilots here!). There’s a lot of cool sequel OVAs and spinoffs that go on throughout the years (with the last one being made in 2011!!) - I’m pretty fond of Armor Hunter Mellowlink, but it’s an extremely late 80s OVA.
Will I be missing anything critical from Space Runaway Ideon if I watch the compilation movie version, or would certain episodes be excluded? And if I did watch the full series, would I still need to watch A Contact?
The two movies were originally released as a back-to-back double feature. You can watch them as a full experience, but you’ll miss out on character development and the pacing is super janky. A Contact compiles ~30 episodes of the TV show into ~90 minutes (the remainder of the show being the “TV ending”). The most apt comparison to watching the movies by themselves is watching Neon Genesis Evangelion: Death and Rebirth and The End of Evangelion (Anno was directly inspired by these movies lol).
If you have the time for it, watching the series is recommended. If you watch the show, you can probably skip A Contact.
Watching just the movies isn’t an optimal choice, but I’d recommend it over missing out entirely (kind of like the Gundam compilation films - the compressed version is an easier sell to someone who isn’t used to older anime).