Anime Annual Squeeze 4 (1994-1999)

1994

The Good (3)
Sailor Moon
Yuyu Hakusho
Legend of the Galactic Heroes

The Bad (5)
Macross 7
Tekkaman Blade
G Gundam
Key the Metal Idol
Dragon Ball

And the Meh (29)
(4 School Comedies)
(7 Sports)
(1 Sitcom)
(15 mindless action)
Pom poko

1994 was a terrible year; no new good titles and numerous bad ones. Two of them were terrible continuations of previous jewels, once again proving why you shouldn’t make sequels. One of them was the beginning of many awful alternative universes for the Gundam universe where they take a shit on the original themes and turn everything into mindless explosions. And I don’t want excuses of the sort it’s an alternative setting, so it’s ok. If it’s that different, it shouldn’t be called Gundam.

A very promising title that failed in the longrun was Key the Metal Idol. It had everything that could have made it a cult classic, a lesser Perfect Blue or SE Lain, but the handling of its themes was face palming. Slow ass pacing coupled with cheap resolutions make this one a big disappointment.

From mediocrities, there is Pom Poko, which unlike Key the Metal Idol, it handled its themes nicely and simply didn’t do that many things with it outside of a social commentary with talking animals.

1994 is placed second to last for at least having a few good titles, despite the bad exceeding them.

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1995

The Good (3)
Neon Genesis
Ghost in the Shell
Legend of the Galactic Heroes

The Bad (6)
Sailor Moon
Gundam Wing
Macross 7
Tekkaman Blade
Key the Metal Idol
Dragon Ball

And the Meh (30)
(4 School Comedies)
(3 Sports)
(3 Sitcoms)
(20 mindless action)

1995 was the year Japan gets out of the economic crisis and produces some pretty damn good psychological sci fi, such as Neon Genesis and the Ghost in the Shell movie. That’s as far as the good part goes, since everything else that was bad is still carrying over. And I have to include in the bad the 4th season of Sailor Moon, which is plain terrible and should be skipped completely. As a whole 1995 has the largest gap between good and bad so far and needs to go straight at the bottom.

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1996

The Good (6)
Rurouni Kenshin
The Vision of Escaflowne
8th MS Team
Sailor Moon
Neon Genesis
Legend of the Galactic Heroes

The Bad (4)
Gundam X
Gall Force
Key the Metal Idol
Dragon Ball

And the Meh (24)
(3 School Comedies)
(3 Sports)
(2 Sitcoms)
(15 mindless action)
Martian Successor Nadesico

1996 is a vast improvement with Rurouni Kenshin, another great fighting shonen of the 90s, The Vision of Escaflowne, easily the best Isekai anime ever created, the Gundam franchise finally making another wonderful spin off with 8th MS Team, and the final season of Sailor Moon making it watchable again. In mediocrities, Martian Successor Nadesico could have been an amazing subversion of mecha anime if it was taking itself more seriously. Something it didn’t, but it’s still ok to watch as a parody. With a difference of 2, 1996 goes above 1987.

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1997

The Good (6)
Berserk
Princess Mononoke
Rurouni Kenshin
8th MS Team
Neon Genesis
Legend of the Galactic Heroes

The Bad (5)
Cutey Honey Flash
Gundam Endless Waltz
Gall Force
Key the Metal Idol
Dragon Ball

And the Meh (30)
(1 School Comedy)
(3 Sports)
(2 Sitcoms)
(23 mindless action)
Revolutionary Girl Utena

1997 gave us Berserk, the best dark fantasy anime of all times. Yes, it had budget issues but it still covers the best part of the manga and it’s not CGI garbage with clang sounds. Miyazaki creates Princess Mononoke, his final action adventure movie before he settles for boring slice of nothing happens and kid stuff.

The bad part has to do with Sailor Moon ending and everybody else trying to cash in on the fad. Just like it happened with Macross in the 80s, it doesn’t work if you don’t have the talent. A big insult was Cutey Honey Flash, which some geniuses had the brilliant idea of rebooting as a typical magical girl show. They took something that was always mindless fun and mutated it into a generic show for kids. Yes, it’s a safe anime for girls, but it’s also doing the same bullshit as the stupid alternative universes of Gundam. If it’s that different, don’t use the same title just to sell on name and shovel out something inferior to the original series.

The Sailor Moon aftermath is also seen in Revolutionary Girl Utena. There was a time when I really liked it for the music, the themes, and the gay vibes, but that time is gone. Lesbian bears made me stop appreciating Ikuhara’s constant masturbation and lack of an on-going plot. Take out the kinky themes and you are left with nothing. It’s not a bad show, it’s just empty of an actual story. Nothing much happens throughout the series, which leaves you with no reason to revisit it.

With a difference of 1, 1997 goes above 1985.

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1998

The Good (7)
Trigun
Cowboy Bebop
Perfect Blue
Serial Experiments Lain
Kare Kano
Berserk
8th MS Team

The Bad (7)
Brain Powerd
DT Eightron
Gasaraki
Generator Gawl
Rurouni Kenshin
Cutey Honey Flash
Gundam Endless Waltz

And the Meh (47)
Outlaw Star
Legend of the Galactic Heroes
Card Captor Sakura
(and 44 others)

1998 gave us 2 of the best space westerns, Trigun and Cowboy Bebop. It also gave us Outlaw Star, which I have no idea why people keep mentioning it as a trinity with the other two, when it barely does anything with the story or its characters. The success of Neon Genesis and Ghost in the Shell began a new fad of very psychological series, which was sometimes producing amazing shows, such as Serial Experiments Lain, Perfect Blue, and the first half of Kare Kano, but usually it was shoveling out dark and edgy sci-fi that had no idea of what the hell they were doing with the story. Once again, talentless hacks were over-saturating the medium by trying to imitate actual talented people.

Another negative is Rurouni Kenshin going into filler mode before ending without fully adapting the manga, because fuck you fans, we just want your money and you pay us for making filler.

In the mediocrities go the prequels to Legend of the Galactic Heroes. They are not bad but are unnecessary and don’t add anything substantial to the core series. Who wants to bet they will still be better than the upcoming remake?

Card captor Sakura was a cult hit as a magical girl show but the truth is most of its appeal was the endless cocktease of its kinky themes and a world shaking catastrophe that was resolved in a most anti-climactic way. Who wants to bet the upcoming sequel is going to suck?

1998 has the same amount of good and bad, goes above 1991.

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1999

The Good (7)
Trust & Betrayal
Great Teacher Onizuka
Blue Gender
Hunter X Hunter
One Piece
Cowboy Bebop
8th MS Team

The Bad (3)
Kare Kano
Now and Then, Here and There
Gasaraki

And the Meh (51)
Crest of the Stars
Legend of Black Heaven
Dai-Guard
Turn A Gundam
Infinite Ryvius
The Big O
(and 45 others)

Ending this video with 1999, when we got Trust & Betrayal, a prequel to Rurouni Kenshin and the best animated samurai drama. Great Teacher Onizuka bothers to explore the problems of youth instead of being another generic school comedy, Blue Gender becomes the first and still best “humanity in the verge of extinction” action thriller, laughing at modern garbage such as Attack on Titan imitating Shamalamalan. The older version of Hunter X Hunter came out, which despite not being as good as the remake is still one of the iconic fighting shonen of the 90s. Also, One Piece begins, and for several years remains a great action adventure, until a time skip happens and everything goes to shit.

From bad shows, the second half of Kare Kano loses everything that was making it so good in the beginning and becomes a running joke of Gainax always running out of money in later episode. Despite most fans considering Now and Then, Here and There, to be a masterpiece for showing the suffering of children in a cruel world, I find it to be the beginning of a long line of victimizing children through 1D asshole adults for maximizing the feels instead of telling a good story. Everything is this show is wrong and deserves to be hated for opening the gates for the dreaded feelfags to run towards my animu.

And in mediocrities, we got several titles, which just like pretty much everything else I am placing here, had a lot of untapped potential. They could have been great, but refused to take the extra step.

With a difference of 4, 1999 goes above 1992.