Anime of the Season

I have to majorly disagree with kivandopolus on which anime are the best for this particular season.

Slayers- Slayers is one of those odd anime that, though the animation itself hasn't aged well, manages to maintain a certain level of attraction even today.  It is one of the anime I most often use to introduce people to anime, for a few reasons.  One of those reasons is that the english dub is actually one of the best from that period of time, thus making it an ideal entry-level anime.  Another reason is that the humor is straightforward slapstick for the most part, meaning there is no need for the watcher to be familiar with Japanese humor to be able to enjoy it.  While I won't say the story of this particular anime is great, it is more than enjoyable enough to be worth watching to the end.  Best of all, it is a series that kids and adults (anime fan adults, anyway) can watch together without either side getting bored.

Fushigi Yuugi- I have to say that Kivan's assessment of this anime is waaay off.  While the otome-style format of this particular fantasy is mostly not done anymore in anime, at the time it was a moderately popular style, of which Fushigi Yuugi was one of the most famous at the time.  If this one were to be remade today, it would probably achieve a reasonable level of popularity, in my opinion.

Gundam Wing- of the Gundam series, this one is one of the top three (and considering there are like twenty Gundam series, that actually says a lot).  Like all the Gundam series, it is a bit heavy-handed in using the odd dichotomy of being a series about war that is heavily anti-war (this peculiarity is only rarely mentioned by reviewers for some reason, though).  However, the characters are excellent, and the series has aged very well.  The only downside to it is that, three decades after the Soviet Union's fall, it is a bit hard to relate to some aspects of the setting for younger people.  For younger people who want something they are more likely to be able to relate to, Gundam 00 is similar with a more modern set of references in the setting.

 

Quite a number of anime that I recognize of in this season, so let me try to comment on it.

Sailor Moon SuperS - Other than particular focus on side character, this series is also featured the only main villain who actually manage to fought Sailor Moon for more than one series, although in SuperS finale the villain here is defeated and there'll be another fight against her in first six episode of the next series. Unlike previous series, this time Toei decided to not make the remake of the series like Sailor Moon Crystal, but instead they decided to remake the series through two-part movie called Sailor Moon Eternal.

Gundam Wing - I decided to dig the Indonesian magazine from 2001 that mentioned this in the article abut on how anime is not for the children (For the info back when the magazine is published people did perceive anime as the entertainment for children), and after seeing TV Trope page of this let's just say that the theme is definitely quite heavy for the children (Well Gundam theme has always been quite heavy). Oh yes we have Midorikawa Hikaru as Heero (Gundam Wing MC) manage to said the phrase 'I'll kill you' in a cool way, although obviously what Heero did is not the good example for the children (Especially when he said that phrase to his future love interest Relena).

Rayearth 2 - Unlike first Rayearth in which the villain has quite complex motivation, in here CLAMP (Or rather the director because CLAMP encouraged the director to make the anime different compared to the manga) decided to make the simpler villain in that the motivation of the villain is just to destroy everything. That said, obviously the heavy burden that the three girls received still haunting them, and so in here they're trying to try to move on from the burden by once again saving the world that they're previously saved. Forgot to mention that while this series is classified as magical girl series, in here the girls will ride the robot to fight so there'll be super robot fight.

Wedding Peach - If you thought that this is like Sailor Moon, then you'll be right on the mark because the manga here is written by one of Sailor Moon anime script writer. Like Sailor Moon, Wedding Peach here also focused on love in which case it's the wedding so naturally there'll be more talk about wedding, although in exchange the manga writer decided to use angel and devil instead of alien like in Sailor Moon. Speaking of Sailor Moon comparison, in here the anime ending here is lighter than first Sailor Moon anime ending.

Fushigi Yuugi - Also known as Curious Play, and the first thing that I understand is that it has a lot of sappy moment such as when Tamahome (Voiced by Midorikawa Hikaru as well) and Miaka keep calling each other name and my sister comment on how cheesy the moment is (She later watch it herself and liking it). As you can see, this is indeed an shoujo isekai anime with Miaka who is a childish girl summoned to become Suzaku priestess with the mission to summon Suzaku, although of course the mission here is not an easy one seeing that there'll be a lot of death (And the mangaka Watase Yuu here didn't hesitate to kill off the main characters through the series). It should be noted that compared to other Fushigi Yuugi series that Watase wrote, this series is Watase's lighter one in which it's still quite dark from on how several main characters are killed of.

That's all for what I can say in regard of Spring 1995 anime.

Edited October 25, 2022 by littleshogun