Resources

We’re casting our net much wider than these sites in our search for material for our link posts, as one of our goals is to include writing and podcasts from outlets that don’t specialise in older material. But these are a few places which might be of interest if you’re into, or getting into, older anime.

This list is naturally incomplete, and if you’d like to suggest additions, or if you run something which might be relevant, do get in touch!

Blogs

  • 80s Anime: 80s anime pictures, scans, and primers (like this neat one for the 80s).
  • Anim’ Archive: scans of various magazines, flyers, artbooks, postcards, doujinshi, goodies, etc. From the 70s to present. Also on Twitter @_animarchive.
  • Anime Nostalgia Bomb: time capsule from / showcase for anime fandom in North America.
  • Anime Nostalgia Podcast Blog: scans, reviews, news and release updates relating to older titles. Of particular note: a running list of older anime which can be legally streamed online in North America, and where to find them!
  • Anipages: blog with a focus on the artists & artistry behind anime. Many articles on studios, directors, animators, etc. from the 1960s thru 1990s.
  • Cries in Newtype: primarily a storehouse for translations of Japanese interviews, articles &c, focusing on (but not limited to) Gundam
  • Five Star Musings: blog dedicated to Mamoru Nagano’s Five Star Stories.
  • The Great OAV Watch: reviewing all the OVAs, one blog post at a time.
  • Heisei Etranger: blog posts with a focus on older anime, especially from the 80s, plus many helpful translations of Japanese resources
  • IroIro’s Retro Emporium: obscure anime and videogames from the 80s and 90s
  • Land of Obscusion: focuses on obscure or entirely forgotten anime and manga
  • Let’s Anime: Japanese animation 1960–90
  • The Mike Toole Show: themed retrospective column; see also the now-finished ANN columns Buried Treasure and Pile of Shame
  • Old Anime Fashion: celebrating and showcasing the fashion of older anime.
  • Oldtype/Newtype: glorious scans of vintage Newtype Magazine issues.
  • The Vanishing Tooper Incident: an (in)active blog with many articles on Super Robot Wars, sakuga, and animator studies—most notably, of Masami Obari.
  • Zimmerit: ‘a celebration of fandom in its infancy, of forgotten fads and trends and the idea that fans can create their own cool shit, too’.

Podcasts

Translations

Increasingly, if you’re lucky enough to live in particular parts of the world and read particular languages, older titles can be found in translation through legal streaming sites, notably on Crunchyroll or Hidive. In North America one company in particular, Discotek, has been putting out a bunch of old anime recently.

If you’re also prepared to break maritime law, here are a few groups who work on unlicensed obscurities:

Note also the existence of The Vault, a project to keep a running list of all TV anime which started airing before 31 December 1996 and are fully available in English (via any means, sub or dub).

We try to keep track of who out there is translating older anime but we are only two people. If you know of other groups who should be included here, please get in touch!

Miscellaneous

  • Moon’s Cocoon: Turn A Gundam fansite run by Feez; home of the Turn A Resource Compilation.
  • Kazenshuu: fansite dedicated to Akira Toriyama and the Dragon Ball series.
  • Sea of Serenity: Sailor Moon fansite.
  • Empty Movement: Utena fansite, including translated interviews &c
  • Cosmo DNA: massive Space Battleship Yamato compendium
  • The Big O Archive: archival materials (interviews, artwork, reconstructed pans &c) related to The Big O
  • MartyMcflies: YouTube collection of vintage anime music, in many cases transferred from now-rare vinyl releases
  • Animated Golem: tweets about particularly obscure and often hard-to-find older anime, including many shorts and music videos
  • The World of Go Nagai: Japanese fansite dedicated to Go Nagai.
  • TOMINOTSUKI: Japanese fansite dedicated to Yoshiyuki Tomino.
  • sakugabooru: clip collection dedicated to animation, from past and (less importantly) present.