Utada Hikaru gave fans a glimpse of her manga collection in a recent post on her blog, and I just couldn’t help noticing her copy of Ghost in the Shell, amongst others like BioMega and Hunter x Hunter. ( The photograph shows only part of her collection.) She also mentioned that she hardly buy new comics these days and some of her old favorites are titles like Ranma 1/2, City Hunter and Slam Dunk - she definitely enjoy the classics alright. :]
Utada is now in New York working on her new English album. I’m looking forward to the release of her latest video collection UH5, though I think the embarrassing Kiss & Cry PV that gave Freedom a bad name will be on it too. :[
Photograph courtesy of Utada Hikaru.
“Ranma 1/2, City Hunter and Slam Dunk - she definitely enjoy the classics alright. :]”
Those are what you consider classics!?! Our age difference really shows in that comment
Oops ! I must have said something silly.
What would qualify as true classics ? :]
“Ranma 1/2, City Hunter and Slam Dunk” definitely are classics though I have no love for sports manga. (I hate sports drama. period)
I thought Hunter X Hunter would outdo Yuyu Hakusho - but it appears that I was a little too old for Hunter x Hunter when it came out.
I remember buying the first weekly when Ranma 1/2 came out and “read” cityhunter when it was first released too. That was waaaaaaay back in the ’80s. So I don’t really consider then classics.
I suppose it’s a subjective label depending on what era you grew up in, but I’ve always considered something that is groundbreaking or pushing its artform to another level as worthy of the “classics” label regardless of how old they are.
Personally (no offense to taste), I don’t consider any of those manga you mentioned classics. In fact, I would go as far to say that the series before them by those authors were classics. I’m referring to Urusei Yatsura and Cat’s Eye, of course.
What do Japanese consider classics in Manga? I can take a stab at it and list a few.
Genma Taisen
Touch
Glass no Kamen
Cipher
Cyborg009
Galaxy Express 999
Urusei Yatsura
Maison Ikkoku
Akira
Q-Taro (had to include that one)
Dr. Slump
Devilman
GeGeGe no Kitaro
etc etc
And while I’m at it, why don’t I list what I think are classic Anime? I hope you have seen all in my list. Here they are in no particular order:
Crusher Joe (first movie)
Be Forever Yamato
Gundam (it’s a given)
Zeta Gundam
Getta Robo
Great Mazinger
Grendizer
Combattler V
Mach GoGoGo (Speedracer)
Megazone 23
Evangelion
Nausicaa
Lupin 3rd Cagliostro
Genma Taisen (movie)
Macross Episodes 1-4,18,27
Macross Do you remember love?
Project A-ko
Robot Carnival
Puss ‘n Boots (yeah, that really old one)
Wings of Honneamise
Daicon IV Opening Animation (by Gainax)
Youju Toshi (Beast City - this is the movie that put Madhouse on the map, btw. Amazing for it’s time)
..well I could keep on going into the other genres but I better stop…
:] Thank you so much for the informative list. I definitely haven’t seen all the anime titles that you have mentioned, in fact there’s even a couple that I have never heard of before. How embarrassing that is for someone working in the industry ? :p
I must admit my memory of older manga and anime go only as far as the middle 80s,( I was born in 79 ), beyond that, and I’m pretty much lost. As a kid growing up in Singapore those days the availability of manga and anime was fairly limited, I’m sure Zero would agree with me on that too.
Man, that list of manga classics really brings back memories.