The first year of the Heisei Era (1989)! Heisei Anime History] Vol. 1 Heisei 1 (1989) -- From OVA to TV animation, "Patlabor", and the beginning of a new era in which the popularity of the voice actor unit "NG5" exploded.

On April 30, 2019, the curtain will fall on the 31-year-long "Heisei" era. It was a turbulent time with many events, both in Japan and abroad, and countless works were created in the animation industry as well, and many topics were discussed.

Animation has come and gone as the world and people have come.

This is the start of a series of articles that will look back on anime of the Heisei era, one year at a time!

The beginning of the Heisei era saw the polarization of anime for families and anime fans.

On January 7, Emperor Showa, who had been in poor health since the previous year, passed away. The following day, January 8, the new year "Heisei" began, marking the start of a new era.

The animation industry during this period was in a "winter period," as one of the animation magazines of the time put it.

There are various theories as to why. One theory is that the domestic animation production site was stretched thin because many Japan-U.S. joint productions were being produced at the time and the main animators were working outside of Japan. However, it is also believed that changes on the part of the viewers who enjoyed anime were also significant.

Before explaining this, I would like to look back at the situation of anime in the late 1980s.

After the anime boom of the late 1970s, which was triggered by "Yamato" and "Gundam," the existence of anime fans was recognized by the world, and the number of animations for such "deep people" increased rapidly in the early 1980s.

Around the same time, a new hobby, "video games," as represented by the Famicom (NES), became a huge boom among children. Video games, which until then could only be played in arcades, could now be played at home on TVs.

These video games immediately captured the hearts and minds of children.

In the early 1980s, VCRs were still quite expensive, costing in excess of 200,000 yen per unit, but otaku were willing to invest in what they liked. The popularity of VCRs steadily increased, especially among anime fans with financial resources, who could watch their favorite anime anytime and as many times as they wanted, and could enjoy the images by recording in advance, frame by frame, and so on. It was against this backdrop that OVA (Original Video Animation) was introduced. The OVA (Original Video Animation) format was created for anime fans who were "willing to invest in what they love," and because the production costs could be recovered directly through the purchase of these works, a series of core works were created to cater to the tastes of anime fans.

In other words, children, the main target of TV animation, became engrossed in video games, and the productions for the big anime fans shifted their focus to the more niche market of OVAs. As a result, the mainstream TV animation in 1989 consisted of manga-based works such as "Dragon Ball Z," "City Hunter," "YAWARA!" and "Akuma-kun," Fujiko animations such as "Doraemon," "Chimpy," "Birinu Nandemo Shokai" and "Parasol Henbee," and "Obocchaman," "Dash! Shidorairo," "Shin Bikkuriman," "GO! Wrestler Gundan," and other children's or hobby anime serialized in "Korokoro Comic" and "Comic Bonbon"; and revived and nostalgic original works such as "Sally the Magician," "Jungle Emperor," "Gakideca," "Minashigo-Hutch," and others, The proportion of family-oriented and younger-aged works was high.

The anime industry in 1989 was more fragmented to meet diversifying tastes and preferences, and as a result, it was difficult to produce works that had the power to create a big boom like in the past.

However, that is not to say that there were no TV anime that became a hot topic among anime fans.

The most representative of them would be "Mobile Police Patlabor. This work started the previous year as a low-priced OVA series, and its popularity led to the release of the first theatrical version in July 1989. In October 1989, the TV series was finally broadcast, an unprecedented development.

In addition, "Shurat the Sky Warrior" and "The Demon King Granzort" also received great support from animation fans and were developed as OVAs after their broadcasts ended. The "invest in what you love. Here again, we can see the "I'm willing to invest in what I love" habit of anime fans. This is the origin of the event screenings and paid distribution that are used in many works today.

It was also in this year that "Ranma 1/2," based on the manga by Rumiko Takahashi, a manga artist who still enjoys great popularity, was adapted into an anime. In addition to the popularity of this work, the popularity of the voice actors was also heating up. The cast included the still young Kappei Yamaguchi, Megumi Hayashibara, Koichi Yamadera, Minami Takayama, and Kikuko Inoue. The popularity of the show was also evidenced by the formation of the female voice actor unit "Doco" later in the year.

The male voice actor unit "NG5" (Takeshi Kusao, Nozomu Sasaki, Taku Takemura, Hiroki Nakamura, and Tomohiro Nishimura), which emerged from the "Armoreden Samurai Trooper" anime broadcast the previous year, also began activities in 1989.

The "voice actor unit" activities that originated in anime are now commonplace, but they have their roots here.

Another case that must be mentioned is the Tokyo-Saitama serial child abduction and murder case that shook the whole of Japan that same year.

The media reported that the perpetrators of the serial murders targeting young girls were so-called otaku, pedophiles, and horror fanatics, which triggered an intense otaku-bashing campaign throughout Japan. The incident had no small impact on anime at the time, and was also a traumatic experience for anime fans and other otaku. The effects of this trauma are still felt today among anime fans in the form of a smoldering distrust of the media and mass media.

The anime of the Heisei era began with such a turbulent year.

The next year will be 1990. What kind of anime will appear in the next issue?