1986: We are the Plastic Heroes

Patrick is a long time anime fan that loves robots and crazy action. He has written for a bunch of blogs in the past and currently he can be found blogging about his love for mecha over on www.the-cockpit.net and still occasionally shows up guest blogging other places. Whenever he isn't blogging though you can find him on twitter (@PatzPrime) where he will no doubt be going on about anime, video games, and pro wrestling.

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As we have already seen so far, the '80s were a very interesting time for anime. A whole new frontier began to grow as animators were given a chance to work on titles not just for television, but for direct video sales as well. This new market led to many new and unique titles that really stood the test of time. While this was happening, some of the biggest franchises in anime history were introduced to television viewers for the first time.

Really that is what drew me to 1986, a year that had quite a contrast. On television growing franchises like Gundam were continuing to gain a foothold while new kings of the industry like Dragon Ball had their television debut. Meanwhile on home video, shows like MD Geist just didn't seem to care what expectations were and just wanted to have fun. Interestingly enough, these titles that were so significant in Japan also ended up being very important internationally.

It was also the year that Transformers: The Movie hit theaters.

Transformers is a strange franchise as it is managed by two separate companies, Hasbro and Takara. For some reason, the decision was made not to release the film domestically in Japan in 1986. This is an interesting twist for the franchise, mainly because 1986 was when the continuity split between the US and Japanese cartoons got started. Comics were released to cover the hole between the two, but following the third season of the show, new seasons were produced in Japan that completely split the stories up. Honestly it is one of my personal favorite movies, so I would be remiss to not bring it up before diving into what made 1986 really special for anime.