What are the “Grand-dads” of Americanized Japanese Anime?

Astro-Boy (63), Speed Racer (67), Battle of the Planets (late 70's), Star Blazers, Voltron (84), Transformers (84), and Robotech (85) were the first really successful anime.

But Akira in 1988 is what started the anime craze that persists today, followed by Dragonball Z (Dragonball in the 80's was a failure), and Sailor Moon.

ETA: Crap, just read the post 1985 bit and realized that I had skipped over that. I'm leaving he rest because it's relevant for what it is. You could add The Mysterious Cities of Gold for the earlier stuff, though.. similar timeframe to Robotech.

In terms of early release movies and OVAs that were more widely available (and accessible through the SciFi Channel Animarithons), there's an A Tier (Venus Wars, Vampire Hunter D, Akira, Ghost in the Shell), a B Tier (stuff like Robot Carnival, LilyCAT, Lensman, Dominion Tank Police, Appleseed), and a C Tier (stuff like Ninja Scroll, Demon City Shinjuku, Urusei Yatsura: Beautiful Dreamer, Grave of the Fireflies, Wings of Honnemaise). The range of years here is kind of wide, but this is mostly what people beyond the tape traders would have seen first.

The other post covered TV shows and series pretty well, and to add a few more in that same early 90s timeframe there were some episodes of Urusei Yatsura (brought over as Those Obnoxious Aliens), Sailor Moon, DragonBall, DragonBall Z, Fist of the North Star, and one-off movies from the Leijiverse from Galaxy Express 999, Captain Harlock, and Queen Esmereldas.

I absolutely hated Speed Racer, but was pretty obsessed with the original (US version) Voltron.

I do have very explicit memories of some anime movie from the 80s though, and I can never remember what it was. I've even had dreams about it over the years, to the point where I can't decipher if my memories of this movie are real or from my dreams. There was like this gigantic structure that was involved at one point, and the characters were running around it and on it (or maybe even flying around it?) and shite like that. I remember it was very dark (both in color/brightness and the plot IIRC).

The animation was similar to Grave of the Fireflies, so I assume it was anywhere from early 80s to late 80s. But if I had to guess I'd say more early (mid at most).

And I have thought about this movie for literally decades and have no idea what it is. I assume it will either randomly jump into my head one day and I will do a happy dance, or I will just die of old age having never remembered it. But I'd love to go back and watch it now. And yes, I realize I haven't given much info on it, so I don't expect anybody to know what the frick I'm talking about.

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C Tier (stuff like Ninja Scroll, Demon City Shinjuku, Urusei Yatsura: Beautiful Dreamer, Grave of the Fireflies, Wings of Honnemaise)

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Shut your whore mouth. Ninja Scroll is a masterpiece.

Plus, without Urusei Yatsura, there would be no "Girlfriend" video by Matthew Sweet.

Project A-ko was hokey, but I loved it. There was a time when Suncoast Video special orders were your only outlet to get anime in the metro Atlanta/N GA market, it would seem.

Golgo 13 probably deserves to be in the discussion, too.

In the 1960's, Gigantor was the shite.

Grave of the Fireflies in C tier?

Urotsukidoji

These are a little after your time frame, and they are movies and not shows, but I think my first exposure to them was in a tiny little one room video store in our town. We came across and rented My Neighbor Totoro, Princes Mononoke and Spirited Away. Started my daughter on a long term interest in anime and manga and I enjoyed the movies as well.

I absolutely loved Marine Boy. I was crushed when I found out that aqua gum wasn't real.

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When I say “Americanized”, I’m just talking about dubbed in English, shown on American TV. This is pre-VHS and cable tv(or at least before there was a VHS or cable in every home)

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Vampire Hunter D 1985

it also still holds up very well today.