[Zakkuri! Heisei Anime History] Vol. 8 1996 -- "Nadesico", "Saber Marionette", "Ramune", and "Eva"! A New Era of TV Animation Begins at TV Tokyo

On April 30, 2019, the curtain will fall on the 31-year-long "Heisei" era.

It has been a turbulent time with many events both at home and abroad, and the animation industry has also produced countless works, and various topics have been discussed in the world.

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

This series of articles, "A Brief History of Heisei Animation," looks back at anime in the Heisei era, one year at a time! Heisei Anime History. This time, we will look back at the year 1996, the year of the anime bubble, spurred on by the growing popularity of Eva.

⇒ Click here to see the past articles!

The drastically changing TV animation scene

The anime industry was suddenly on the rise with the appearance of blockbuster anime such as "Slayers" and "Evangelion. The year 1996 was a year of great excitement.

One of the most notable examples is the lineup of TV Tokyo's evening slot anime.

Among the most talked about were "Slayers NEXT," "Saber Marionette J," "Mobile Battleship Nadeshiko," and "VS Knight Ramune & 40 Flames. These works continued to generate significant buzz throughout the year.

Slayers NEXT" and "Saber Marionette J" are based on novels, while "Mobile Battleship Nadesico" and "VS Knight Ramune & 40 Flames" are original anime projects without original works. Both have been published as original novels or comicalized works in magazines and labels of Kadokawa Shoten (now KADOKAWA). Toys and merchandise development is modest ("Nadesico" released a plastic model during the broadcast period), but CDs containing soundtracks and character songs have been released one after another. The series was broadcast in a two-cour format (around 26 episodes), following in the footsteps of "Slayers" and "Evangelion" of the previous year.

Another characteristic of this series is the style of production, which puts beautiful girl characters at the forefront of the story. These works, which would have been released as OVAs in the past, proved that they could be made into TV animations if they took the form of a package business.

Another similar work is "Magical Girl Pretty Sammy," a spin-off of the OVA "Tenchi Muyo! series released by Pioneer LDC. This was originally an OVA work that parodied "magical girl anime. It is one of the most successful works that symbolize the anime scene of this period, as this parody work for anime fans did not end up as a joke, but became a TV animation work and was a commercial success.

Escaflowne in the Sky" is another work representative of this period. It has elements of shoujo manga romance and hardcore fantasy warfare, as well as robot action. This work, which also has robot action elements, is based on an original story by Shoji Kawamori of "Macross" fame, and features a heavy orchestra with musical accompaniment by Yoko Kanno and Hajime Mizoguchi. The film was also produced by a splendid lineup, with character design by Yuki Nobuteru, mechanical design by Yamane Kimitoshi, and the lead role and theme song sung by Sakamoto Maaya, who was still in high school. In addition, CG, which was still the most advanced technology at the time, was experimentally introduced, and even in mecha battles, the weight of the weapons and the deadly battle sequences were depicted in a way that made the viewer feel the weight and gravity of the weapons.

Let us also mention "Neon Genesis Evangelion," which had started broadcasting the previous year. This work began to show signs of a major movement around the beginning of the year. The timing was around the latter half of the story, when the main characters were being eliminated one after another and the main character, Shinji Ikari, was being driven into a mental corner. The words related to biology, psychology, and religion began to appear, and the tension among the viewers rose dramatically with the mysterious worldview. The excitement reached its peak in the 24th episode (featuring Kaworu Nagisa), just before the climax. The final battle for the survival of the human race is finally depicted in ......! As if to betray the expectations of the viewers, the 25th episode, in which the psychological conflicts and traumas of the characters are discussed endlessly, took the viewers by surprise.

The final episode, episode 26, finally recorded the highest rating of the series at 10.3%. While anime fans all over Japan were watching for the ending, a school anime-style scene was suddenly inserted, and the main characters all gathered to congratulate Shinji, who was able to affirm himself after a long period of self-doubt, a shocking content that completely abandoned the narrative punchline.

Everyone was stunned by this. Some were in raptures, others were outraged. The "Eva controversy" erupted among anime fans, who questioned the merits of that final episode. This excitement was sparked by cultural and entertainment figures active in the subcultural discourse and media, and was eventually picked up by the general press and newspapers.

In April, it was announced that episodes 25 and 26 would be reworked according to the original script, and that a completely new movie version would be produced (this completely new version was never produced).

The re-broadcasting of the series in the late-night time slot began, and the ratings were very high. This accelerated the "Eva" boom even further, as many new viewers were introduced to "Eva" through these broadcasts.

As a result, "Eva" demonstrated the potential of late-night animation, leading to a rapid increase in late-night animation from the following year, and the success of evening animation on the TV Tokyo network after "Eva" encouraged a shift in animation broadcasting style from primetime, where broadcasting rights fees were high, to the evening slot.

Compared to the 3- to 4-cour anime that had been the mainstream up to that point, these works were compact, with a 2-cour run, and the tempo of story development was also increased. In addition, new works were broadcasted one after another in a fast cycle, providing anime fans with new and exciting new stimulation.

I will not discuss the merits and demerits of this trend here, but there is no doubt that anime fans were intoxicated with unprecedented excitement and stimulation during this period when new anime titles were being released one after another. A certain exuberance and enthusiasm swirled among anime fans in the late 1990s, and the industry began to release new and innovative works as if it had been swept away.

Elf" appeared on the eve of the late-night anime era

As mentioned earlier, late-night anime has been produced on an irregular basis. However, rather than being "anime for anime fans," which is the mainstream today, they had a strong nuance of "anime for adults," and were positioned as a variety in the late-night slot or as a variant of TV dramas.

However, "Elf wo Kakeru Monotachi" broadcast on TV Tokyo that year differed from these works in that it was a late-night anime completely aimed at anime fans. The story was about a modern Japanese man and woman who were summoned to another world, and in order to return to their original world, they had to collect spells carved into the skin of a young elf woman, and each time the elf was forced to take off her clothes in a comedic style.

This work is sometimes spoken of as the originator of late-night anime, and in a sense that is true.

The animation scene in the late 1990s was thus dominated by TV Tokyo, and the year 1996 marked the beginning of the animation boom.

Looking at other TV anime, anime based on manga serialized in "Weekly Shonen Jump" (published by Shueisha) were also strong. The following anime series began broadcasting in 1996: "Kochira Katsushika-ku Kameari Koen Mae Hashutsujo," "Jigoku Sensei Nube-" "Midori no Makibao" and "Rurouni Kenshin: Meiji Kenkaku Ronoman Tan" (Rurouni Kenshin: Meiji Swordsman Romantic Tan). In addition, "Dragon Ball GT" started as an anime original sequel.

It was also during this year that "Detective Conan," a popular anime that continues to this day, began broadcasting.

The popular anime series "Gegege no Kitaro (4th season)," "YAT Anshin! Space Travel" and "Bakushan Brothers Let's Go! were also popular, as well as anime based on girls' manga such as "Kodomo no Toy" and "Suiro Jidai.

The "Beast Wars: Transformers" was a full CG animation that attracted attention for its overly funny voice actors' ad-libs. This work is part of the "Transformers" series, an animated robot series that gained popularity in the 1980s, and depicts the battles of Transformers who transform from animals to robots (metamorphosis), drawn in full CG. The story is a battle between the two camps of Cybertron, the righteous, and Destron, the evil. The cast includes Takehito Koyasu, Wataru Takagi, Kappei Yamaguchi, Keiji Fujiwara, Shigeru Chiba, and Yuichi Nagashima (now Cho), all of whom have strong personalities and deliver a series of ad-libbed lines that are not in the script. They do whatever they want, including parodies of other works, current events, and finally, they even go so far as to insert themselves into the subtitle superimpose. The no-rules nature of their performances made them very popular with men and women of all ages.

The "Gundam" series had been broadcast every year, but with the broadcast of "Mobile New Century Gundam X" that year, the TV Asahi evening slot ended for the time being. According to one theory, this was due in part to the first foreign-venture M&A deal for a Japanese broadcaster, in which a joint venture between Softbank led by Masayoshi Son and News Corporation led by businessman Rupert Murdoch became the largest shareholder of TV Asahi.

In the end, the deal was settled when Asahi Shimbun became the largest shareholder of TV Asahi. However, in the midst of this takeover frenzy, it was decided that airing anime in the evening and primetime hours would lower corporate value, and "Gundam X" suffered the consequences, being moved to 6:00 AM and having its broadcast time shortened. In addition, "Chouja Raideidai" was aired at the same time as "Gundam X".

In addition, Sunrise works such as "Chousha Raideen" and "Dag-On" were popular among women. Chousha Raideen" is a hero story based on the 1975 robot anime "Yusha Raideen," in which beautiful boys from a male idol group transform into Raideen warriors and fight against evil. Unlike the previous series, "Dag-On" was the seventh in the Yusha series, in which high school boys transformed into life-size heroes, fused into robots, and fought against evil.

While both series were popular as heroes for boys, they also gained support from female anime fans. Chousha Raideen" was extended from a two-cour run to a three-cour run, and a drama CD with more female-oriented services and character song CDs were released, and live events were held by the voice actors.

OVAs begin to be taken in by the stormy waves of the times

In OVAs, sequels and original works became the center of attention.

One interesting example is "Soreyuke! Space Battleship Yoko Yamamoto," "Tetsuwan Birdie," "Master Mosquito," "Wizard Tai! These works were released as OVAs in the same year, but were later made into TV animations, a phenomenon that can be seen in the shift from OVAs to TV animations for anime fans in the late 1990s.

In addition, many OVAs based on video games were also released. These included "Chojin Gakuen Gokaizer," "Toushinden," "Panzer Dragoon," "Fire Emblem: The Mystery of the Emblem," "Houma Hunter Lime," and "Power Doll," all of which were made into animated features, many of which had popular characters.

In theatrical animation, the manga "X," originally created by CLAMP, was adapted into a feature-length anime. The theme song "Forever Love" was sung by the rock band X JAPAN, also connected to the "X" series. The film was directed by Rintaro Rintaro, with character design by Nobuteru Yuki, and features beautiful characters and a high-impact visual depiction of Tokyo collapsing, leaving the Tokyo Tower in ruins. The audience was stunned by the shocking final scene.

It was also during this year that Pixar's CG animated film "Toy Story" was released in Japan. It was the first full-length CG animated feature film, and it was a true entertainment classic, with children thrilled by the adventures of the CG toys, and adults moved to tears by the nostalgia. In Japan, it was a huge hit, selling 1.9 million units of celluloid video.

Thus, a shift in the animation business in Japan. The year 1996 was marked by a number of exciting topics, such as the opening of the late-night animation era and the emergence of CG animation.