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In the 1980s, Western audiences were barely aware anime existed at all. It wasn't until sometime in the '90s that fans started to get some of the more popular '80s series, and then by the 2000s the focus was almost entirely on modern anime. As a result, Western fans missed out on the majority of the foundational parts of anime history.

Of course, not every series ages well--for every Mobile Suit Gundam there's also a Ronin Warriors. That being said, some anime from the '80s don't get the respect they deserve, even though they're still well worth checking out today. While they might be a little harder to track down, that just makes it more rewarding for the people who finally get a chance to see them.

Related 10 Great '90s Anime Everyone Forgot About

While all but the biggest '90s anime have gone forgotten, most...

‘Alien: Romulus’ is right around the corner, so it’s the perfect time to check out ‘Lily C.A.T.,’ an anime body horror classic that’s a gory tribute to ‘Alien’ and ‘The Thing’.

“Confine them? We’re on a ship. We’re practically confined ourselves.”

Ridley Scott’s Alien is an iconic horror/science fiction hybrid that’s had its ups and downs as a film franchise, but remains an essential genre film 45 years later. Alien is such a tried and true property with limitless potential that it’s kind of remarkable that there hasn’t been an Alien animated series or in-universe anime that’s in the vein of The Animatrix that translates this iconic sci-fi horror property into animated madness where it can really let loose and not be confined by live-action’s limitations. An unreleased Alien vs. Predator anime is the closest thing that audiences have gotten to this,...

Heavy Metal Synopsis

Based on the fantastical illustrated magazine Heavy Metal, producer Ivan Reitman enlists the help of some of Hollywood’s animation masters to create the otherworldly tale of a glowing green orb from outer space that spreads destruction throughout the galaxy. Only when encountered by its one true enemy, to whom it is inexplicably drawn, will goodness prevail throughout the universe. Richly and lavishly drawn, the vignettes of the orb’s dark victories include the character voices of John Candy, Harold Ramis and a pounding soundtrack by Black Sabbath, Blue Öyster Cult, Cheap Trick, Devo, Donald Fagen, Don Felder, Grand Funk Railroad, Sammy Hagar, Journey, Nazareth, Stevie Nicks, Riggs, and Trust. Highly imaginative and full of surprising special effects, Heavy Metal set the standard for alternative contemporary animation. An intoxicating experience not to be missed!

Disc Details & Bonus Materials

Presented within a limited edition SteelBook, including Heavy Metal...

Titan Comics have revealed, at C2E2, the first interior art and story details for Robotech #1 – Titan’s take on the influential ’80s anime classic, which returns on July 26 with a brand-new ongoing series! The debut issue comes with stunning covers to collect by amazing talents like​ ​Stanley “Artgerm” Lau, Karl Kerschl (Gotham Academy), Michael Dialynas (The Woods), Blair Shedd (Doctor Who), The Waltrip Bros.(Robotech) and more!

The all-new Robotech comic series returns to Macross Island, the place where it all began! Writer Brian Wood, artist Marco Turini and colorist Marco Lesko have crafted a thrilling new tale that’s perfectly accessible to new fans, as well as providing a deeper layer of twists for old-school protoculture addicts!

In July, the story continues as we bring Carl Macek’s original vision full circle. Taking into account every iteration of the series, this new Robotech #1 casts a fresh eye over classic characters like Rick Hunter,...

As the Robotech film moves ahead, we look at the anime's history, knotty rights issues, cultural impact, and earlier failed film attempts.

"In the year 1999, high above Macross island in the South Pacific, a phenomenal event occurred in the skies which altered the cause of human history..."

With a blaze of animated light, a huge alien space craft bursts through Earth's atmosphere and collides with a city, reducing its buildings to atoms in an instant.

That dramatic opening heralded the arrival of Robotech - and American television had never seen anything quite like it. Here was animated show which told a sprawling saga set across multiple epochs, full of alien invaders and exotic transforming robots. Its characters seemed low-key and somehow real; there were brave pilots, nervy new-recruits, romances and love triangles. There was action, but also comedy, tragedy and pathos. It even provided a generous helping of bubblegum pop music.

From Marine Boy and Thundercats to Cities Of Gold and Akira, we look at the TV shows and movies that introduced the UK to Japanese anime

One evening in 1994, the BBC screened a documentary simply called Manga. Presented by Jonathan Ross, it showcased the rising popularity of Japanese animation, largely focusing on the output of Manga Entertainment, whose dubbed VHS releases had made a huge impact on anime fans and caused a certain amount of consternation among the mainstream press.

For British viewers, the anime boom took a long time to arrive. In America, Japanese shows like Kimba The White Lion, Gigantor and Astro Boy were a common sight on television in the 1960s, yet it took until the late 70s and 80s, and a string of European-Japanese co-productions, before anime finally began to find a hold on UK television.

As a youngster at the time, I didn't necessarily know...

Harmony Gold, an American production company, has created a Kickstarter to gauge how much of a new Robotech series they can produce.

Carl Macek helped the original Robotech series capture the hearts of American citizens back in 1985.  Now Harmony Gold wants to see the late producers vision come to life again with Robotech Academy.  He was working on the series before passing in 2010.  With your help we can bring the series back to life.

The new series follows several new cadets in their adventures around the universe.

A note from Harmony Gold:

The Robotech Academy Kickstarter will allow us to gauge how much of a new Robotech series we could actually produce based on Carl's original premise. We are setting our initial goal at $500,000 which will allow us to create an entire 24 minute pilot episode. This will help us cover character design, mecha design, 3D modeling, 3D animation, 2D animation,...

Harmony Gold announced over the weekend at Anime Con that they have plans to bring back the classic 1980s animated series Robotech. Back in 2008, Robotech creator Carl Macek had a new idea for a Robotech animated series called Robotech Academy. After working on the project in secret for two years, Macek unfortunately passed away before finishing it.

Harmony Gold is now looking to bring the unfinished project to life, and they are going to do it will all of the notes, outlines, and scripts that Macek put together when he was working on it. They are funding the project through Kickstarter, and they are asking for $500,000 to produce a 22-minute pilot episode.

$500,000 sounds like a lot of money for a 22-minute pilot episode, but it will cover the complete design and production costs. Any funds that are raised beyond the original goal will go directly into developing more episodes. Those...

(Cbr) Fans of the 1980s anime "Robotech" can help bring a new generation of mechas to the small screen through a new Kickstarter that launched yesterday. Announced by producers Harmony Gold at the Anime Expo in Los Angeles, "Robotech Academy" is based on an idea by Carl Macek, producer and story editor for the original "Robotech," who passed away in 2010. The new animated series would follow several new cadets in their adventures around the Robotech universe. “We’re thrilled to finally be able to tell the world about 'Robotech Academy',” Tommy Yune, president of animation for Harmony Gold, said in a press release. “Over the last few years, Harmony Gold has been working hard to answer fan demand for a new Robotech project. The next step involves fans, who will be instrumental in supporting a crowdfunded Robotech project and making series creator Carl Macek’s original vision for Robotech Academy a reality.

DVD Playhouse—November 2011

By Allen Gardner

Tree Of Life (20th Century Fox) Terrence Malick’s latest effort is both the best film of 2011 and the finest work of his (arguably) mixed, but often masterly canon. A series of vignettes, mostly set in 1950s Texas, capture the memory of a man (Sean Penn) in present-day New York who looks back on his life, and his parents’ (Brad Pitt, Jessica Chastain) troubled marriage, when word of his younger brother’s suicide reaches him. Almost indescribable beyond that, except to say no other film in history so perfectly evokes the magic and mystery of the human memory, which both crystalizes (and sometimes idealizes) the past. Like Stanley Kubrick’s 2001, this is a challenging, polarizing work that you must let wash over you. If you go along for the ride, you’re in for a unique, rewarding cinematic experience. Also available on Blu-ray disc.

Your Weekly Source for the Newest Releases to Blu-Ray Tuesday, September 20th, 2011

Boccaccio ’70 (1962)

Synopsis: Four legendary filmmakers direct some of Europe’s biggest stars in Boccaccio ’70, a landmark anthology film. Mario Monicelli (Big Deal on Madonna Street), Federico Fellini (8½), Luchino Visconti (The Leopard) and Vittorio De Sica (Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow) direct Sophia Loren, Anita Ekberg, Romy Schneider and more through four stories of unashamed eros. Modeled on Boccaccio’s Decameron, they are comic moral tales about the hypocrisies surrounding sex in 1960s Italy. Monicelli’s “Renzo e Luciana” (cut out of the original American release) is a frothy tale of young love and office politics in the big city. Fellini’s notorious “Le tentazioni del dottor Antonio” features Ekberg as a busty model in a milk advertisement whose image begins to haunt an aging prude. Visconti’s “Il Lavoro” stars Romy Schneider as a trophy wife enduring her husband’s very public affairs,...

Carl Macek was a pioneer in the field of anime, serving as producer and story editor for the popular Robotech series from the mid-1980s.

Macek was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on September 21, 1951. He worked at California State University Fullerton as a librarian of popular culture, and co-editor of 1979’s McGill’s Survey of the Cinema and Film Noir-An Encyclopedic Reference to the American Style (1979). He also wrote the book The Art of Heavy Metal: Animation for the Eighties. He became involved with anime in 1985 when he revised and edited three separate Japanese anime series, The Super Dimension Fortress Macross, The Super Dimension Cavalry Southern Cross, and Genesis Climber Mospeada, into a three-generation Robotech Wars storyline. The popular series was produced in 1985 by Harmony Gold in association with Tatsunoko Prod. Co., Ltd. Macek also produced Captain Harlock and the Queen of a Thousand Years (which combined Space Pirate...

We've just been informed that American anime producer and pioneer Carl Macek died Saturday of a heart attack. He was 58.

Carl created Robotech out of editing and redubbing three separate anime series Macross, Southern Cross, and Mospeada, co-founded Spumco with John Krickafalusi (Ren & Stimpy) and co-founded Streamline Pictures (Akira, Vampire Hunter D, Fist of the North Star, Laputa, My Neighbor Totoro) with Jerry Beck. Jerry remembers him here.

His history with comics was long-standing, as he directly wrote some of the Robotech comics for Comico, the books that pushed that company well into the black. Gerry Giovinco, publisher of Comico, has his own remembrance here. In later years, he was also responsible for the animated movie of the Chaos Comics character Lady Death, and had been working on translating episodes of Bleach and Naruto.

It could be argued that he was the most influential man in animation that never worked at Disney or Warner Brothers.

Jason salutes Carl Macek, who died at the weekend. For he was the man that introduced him, and many others, to anime through Robotech...

I found out this morning that a pioneer in Japanese Animation passed away over the weekend. Carl Macek died on Saturday at the age of 59. Mr. Macek isn't a name many would recognize in the anime world, but if you live outside of Japan, he was very instrumental in introducing you to anime.

He is most famous (and sometimes hated) for his work on the series Robotech, which itself was a work created from three separate anime series: Super Dimension Fortress Macross, Super Dimension Cavalry Southern Cross, and Genesis Climber Mospeda. His task was hardly simple, as he needed to, essentially, take three separate and unrelated series, and create an arc between them, to enable the show to have a long enough run for syndication, at the same time localizing it.

"Kick-Ass" and C2E2 tweets dominated Saturday and Sunday for the Twitter Report feed. Some familiar faces like Jimmy Palimotti were disappointed with the film's performances, while others, like Tim Seeley, were snapping pictures of the sketches with were making in Artists Alley in Chicago. Christopher Mintz-Plasse, meanwhile, caught a screening of his new movie at the Playboy mansion and posted a picture for posterity.

Animation and giant robot appreciators alike got some bad news, meanwhile, as "Robotech" producer Carl Macek passed away over the weekend. Rob Liefeld and Lea Hernandez both pointed out his importance. Check those retweets out after the jump along with commentary on the volcanic ash problem in Europe and Jonathan Hickman's World Cup prediction.

It's all in the Twitter Report for April 19th, 2010.

"Kick-Ass" pt. 1: @jpalmiotti how the hell did Kick-ass not be the #1 movie. loved the hell out of it!!!

-Jimmy Palmiotti,...