(Vincenzo Averello has been an anime fan for as long as he can remember but would probably say that Toonami's run of Outlaw Star is what cemented him as an anime fan. Recently he has been writing and podcasts for his site All Geeks Considered. You can occasionally see him doing panels at conventions in the north eastern United States. You can also see what's on his mind through his Twitter account, @VinnieAveAGC.)
I don't want to start with saying that 1990 was a year of transition for TV anime. Yes, this was a time of shift from 1980s to 1990s, but that is only because of when the year was placed. In all honesty, TV anime was pretty stagnant at that time, and very little stands out as truly great. Where greatness lied at this time was in the OVA market, which in seven years since 1983 had grown and flourished massively. This was the year when cult hits like
Mad Bull 34,
Cyber City Oedo 808, and
Record of the Lodoss War began. With such releases as
Guardian of Darkness,
Devil Hunter Yohko,
The Hakkenden,
Patlabor: The New Files, and
Sol Bianca, this year had 42 different OVAs hit the market. However, this article is about the TV shows of 1990, not the OVAs.
TV anime has always been known for its long-running shows, and this time period is no exception, as shows like
Dragon Ball Z,
Yawara: The Fashionable Judo Girl,
Ranma 1/2, and
City Hunter 3 had premiered the previous year and ran into (and often through) 1990. Even with these pillars of anime covered in other articles and getting ignored here, there is still a nice list of things that make 1990 a year with at least a few good and memorable shows.
