One of the most rewarding things about being an anime fan is that there’s endless gold to discover, regardless of what decade is in discussion. It’s easy to get caught up in the new and exciting anime that are released every year. There’s just as much value in revisiting the classics of the past, particularly if those titles have aged gracefully and taken on a new meaning after marinating for decades. The ‘90s were a significant decade for anime, helping the medium gain greater mainstream appeal internationally.
The ‘90s helped certain genres evolve while also introducing several evergreen franchises that continue to tell new stories today. Some of the most popular anime to come out of the ‘90s include Slam Dunk, Fushigi Yugi, Yu Yu Hakusho, and Gundam Wing. While these anime are all critically and commercially praised, they’re not exactly prescient or disruptively breaking new ground. Alternatively, there are a handful of ‘90s anime that aren’t just exceptional series, but titles that also tackle ideas and themes that are decades ahead of the curve.
Serial Experiments Lain Perfectly Predicts Society’s Addiction To Digital Worlds
Serial Experiments Lain is one of the most challenging and profound anime to come out of the ’90s. The anime follows Lain Iwakura, a lonely and sullen middle school student who becomes increasingly obsessed with an online global communications network akin to the internet, called The Wired. Lain’s fascination with The Wired deepens when a deceased classmate claims she’s found a new existence within The Wired and even found “God.” A psychological mystery unfolds across Serial Experiments Lain‘s 13 episodes, becoming an enlightening examination of cyberpunk storytelling and techno-horror.
Serial Experiments Lain is such a prescient masterpiece because of how accurately it predicts the internet’s evolution and the proliferation of social media, online avatars, artificial intelligence, and the parasocial relationships and identity fracturing that can result from all this. The internet was still in its infancy when Serial Experiments Lain debuted, but it’s hard to realize that, given how confidently it pushes technology forward.
Many of the deeper themes tackled in Serial Experiments Lain include hiding behind digital avatars, how the internet can immortalize people, and how easily the linesblur between reality and digital realms. Lain presents The Wired as a world of incredible possibilities and connection, but its dangers are just as real. Serial Experiments Lain could be released today without any changes, and it’d still be a relevant and accurate meditation on society’s increasing reliance and dependency on the internet.
Neon Genesis Evangelion Deconstructs The Mecha Genre Through An Abstract Apocalypse
Hideaki Anno’s Neon Genesis Evangelion is one of the most celebrated anime of all-time, let alone the ’90s. This essential mecha series deconstructs the genre by shifting from giant-robot rampages to more internal, psychological turmoil. Evangelion chronicles the exploits of Shinji Ikari and his mecha pilot peers as they attempt to prevent Third Impact — an apocalyptic endgame.
Shinji’s loneliness and frayed mental state become increasingly important as Evangelion continues and the anime eventually descends into an existential experience about the nature of happiness. Evangelion isn’t afraid to push its characters — and its storytelling — into pitch-black places that only more effectively underscore the psychic trauma at hand. Evangelion‘s surrealist approach to an action series helped it stand out from its peers, but it’s the anime’s experimental finale and the subsequent feature film that truly go for broke, elevating it to unimpeachable excellence.
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Evangelion‘s experimental tricks during its endgame were haunting and polarizing in the ’90s. They’re still a lot to bear, even now, but the audience has a greater constitution for such disturbing nihilism. Modern anime like Puella Magi Madoka Magica, RahXephon, and Darling in the FranXX are all examples of series that build upon Evangelion’s ahead-of-its-time existential apocalypse.
Revolutionary Girl Utena Bravely Subverts Gender Roles & Embraces Surrealist Storytelling
The ’90s were a formative decade for magical girl series, and there was a small sampling of series that attempted to redefine what’s possible in these fantastical stories. Cardcaptor Sakura is often praised for its ability to reinvent the magical girl genre, in particular to long-entrenched gender roles. However, it can’t compare to what was being done in Revolutionary Girl Utena. Utena Tenjou enrolls at the Ohtori Academy, where students engage in fierce duels to win the hand of Anthy Himemiya, the Rose Bride.
Utena’s tomboyish appearance initially leads people to perceive her as male, but she reveals that she’s a passionate girl who longs to be a prince. Utena’s quest to take down the Ohtori Academy’s rivals and liberate Anthy helps Revolutionary Girl Utena eschew the genre’s expected gender roles and rebel against a patriarchal perspective, favoring an LGBTQ+-friendly approach. It may not seem like a big deal to subvert gender roles and embrace queer relationships and storytelling in a magical girl anime, but it was a bold breakthrough in the ’90s.
Revolutionary Girl Utena‘s ambitious themes and character development are also steeped in dream logic and heavy symbolism that’s open to interpretation. Revolutionary Girl Utena is a masterpiece in every sense of the word. However, its feature film retelling, Adolescence of Utena, presents an even more challenging and surreal narrative. Adolescence of Utena was polarizing upon its release and it’s gained an infamous reputation for being a film that continues to mystify and challenge anime fans. Its unconventional construction is the kind of creativity fans are now looking for in their anime, and it’s become increasingly accepted.
Excel Saga Is Absurdist Satire That Applies A Post-Modern Edge To Genre Storytelling
Gag comedy anime are rather plentiful, but it’s a difficult tone to successfully perfect. There’s always the risk of jokes falling flat or of an anime being so focused on stylistic satire that the storytelling and characters suffer. Excel Saga is an ambitious experiment that helped close out the ’90s, yet its chaotic post-modern comedic sensibility feels much more in line with today’s landscape of gag comedies and parodies. Excel Saga tells a relatively simple story about Across, a resistance organization that seeks to take over and liberate the corrupt world, albeit one city at a time.
The basic Excel Saga episode looks at the efforts of Across agents, Excel and Hyatt, as they attempt to rock the boat and gain control of the city. That being said, Excel Saga is such a delirious experience because of its meta commentary, which frequently engages in dialogue with the manga’s creator, Koshi Rikdo. This leads to every Excel Saga episode being reinvented as a different anime genre, whether it’s a mecha series, a sports show, a Pokémon clone, or even a critique of America’s obsession with “Japanimation.”
If these drastic genre makeovers weren’t enough, Excel Saga’s titular protagonist moves at a mile a minute with a relentless speech pattern. Excel Saga bombards the audience with a wealth of information that can be overwhelming at times, but it always amplifies the anime’s sense of humor and creates endless replay value on subsequent rewatches. Excel Saga‘s daring comedy that gleefully breaks the fourth wall was incredibly rare during the time of its release. It’s the type of comedic approach that’s been embraced more recently by other gag comedies like Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo, Osomatsu-san, Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt, and Pop Team Epic.
The Vision Of Escaflowne Ambitiously Combines Isekai, Mecha & Romance Tropes
Isekai anime were beginning to reach new heights during the ’90s, but it was quite rare for these series to embrace other genres and attempt to break new ground in this space. 1996’s The Vision of Escaflowne is a bold blend of fantasy, science fiction, and mecha storytelling that wasn’t fully appreciated upon its release. There’s a lot going on in this subversive series that resonates with many modern anime fans who are used to hybrid series that combine seemingly disparate ideas together.
The Vision of Escaflowne begins like a fairly traditional isekai fantasy. Hitomi, a high school student, is transported to the fantastical world of Gaea, where a bitter war between kingdoms is underway. Despite being an outsider, Hitomi becomes a pivotal player in this war and someone who could even be the key to peace. Where Escaflowne differentiates itself from its many isekai peers is the anime’s use of mecha elements to push the fantasy and romance genres to unprecedented places.
Escaflowne‘s wars are fought with enormous mecha resembling knights in shining armor, complete with huge swords. This mecha can also transform into an aerial mode that resembles a dragon. The intent with Escaflowne was to bridge the gap between mecha storytelling and diving magic, just like how previous anime like Macross attempted to combine mechas and the power of music. It’s an exciting blend of ideas that should crumble under the weight of its ambition and yet it all beautifully comes together.