I'm pleasantly surprised you covered this. I saw these back in 92' before an anime con in San Francisco. I was blown away. The anime genre wasn't really a thing in the US back then. I forgot about this. Thank you.
Yeah it's weird to think how much things have changed since 92' for the better and for the worse in the industry. (and the fact it's so much more of an "industry" now) That decade would see so much change truly it would open people's eyes to the mass appeal of anime and bring in the mainstream like never before. I forgot just how significant these two snippets of animation were. And how much they would change everything within the world of anime. A lasting legacy that endures well into the current day.
If you were into anime in the ‘90s you had to have someone in Japan make you VHS tapes and send them via snail mail. Subbers took Laserdisc recordings and superimposed the text. Anime was slow, so expensive and difficult to obtain. Also when we got US licensed anime the price for 1-4 episodes on a DVD was minimum of $20 to more than $80 for OVAs.
@@robertrazo1077 Yeah, i knew somebody that was sent tapes monthly with episodes of various shows. Mainly we were getting episodes of DBZ. I was in an anime fan club in Phx in 90 -92. We watched anime OVAs, shows & movies. We also subtitled anime before they were marketed. Of course everything was viewed through connections. Very few things were bought locally.
Red Lion San Jose, I was there too. A group of us rented a van and drove in shifts nonstop from Chicago. Good memories, except for the container of chocolate milk that was left in the van the whole weekend, and that one of the group is no longer with us.
Fun fact: Daicon III is debatably the first surviving AMV! The actual first was a now-lost video setting Star Blazers scenes to a Beatles soundtrack made in a form as old-fashioned as you expect from something that predates Daicon III. However, it's debatable if the Daicon films count due to being original animation. If the Daicon films don't count, then the first surviving AMV might be, of all things, the music video to Matthew Sweet's song "Girlfriend", made largely of clips from Space Adventure Cobra.
"Girlfriend" came out in 1990 and featured Space Adventure Cobra, "I've Been Waiting" also from 1990 featured Urusei Yatsura. The Daicon vid were about ten years before either.
My best friend and I were on the founding staff of the first Anime Boston back in 2003. I know it's cheesey, but your closing made me tear up thinking about how passionate and excited we all were getting that convention off the ground and keeping it running for those three crazy days. "Bliss it was in that dawn to be alive, but to be young (and an anime fan!) was very heaven!"
I first saw this about 24 years ago on a local public access program called "Anime Review." This was back in the days before access to Japanese animation was commonplace (or inexpensive). It sold me on the ELO album "Time", too.
Yeah it's interesting that my first true experience with uncensored uncut anime was on a PBS channel back in the 90s that would show various anime at midnight on Sundays. That experience truly changed my entire mindset of what anime was and could be. It should also be said that it was entirely Japanese with subs as far as I can remember. Which pretty much permanently made me always lean toward subs over dubs whenever possible.
Everything is great, the ending with Dan and the slow piano play of Twilight as he passionately sums up the effects of Daicon animation is so sweet and amazing.
Daicon IV might honestly be my single most favorite piece of animation of all time, it's just a euphoric experience that brings fandoms together and reminds us why we love the things we love in the first place
It's amazing how you guys put everything in place like you were a Daicon (Gainax) Fans since the 80's. In the mid 90s, a friend gave me a copy of a CD called Anitime. in it there was a lot of opening and endings of 80s and 90s Animes in Quictime format and also the Daicon 3 and 4 animations ... I loved. Later I bought the Otaku no Video VHS... It was awesome. Then in the 2000s the DVD. The make of Daicon 3 & 4 Videos and Gainax are one of the greatest stories in the Japanese Animation.
I saw this in 1989 at our local sci-if convention Omacon. It’s why I fell in love with ELO. The whole album Twilight is on “Time” is one of my all time favorite albums, great start to finish. And nice job skirting the copyright strike with the slow tempo piano solo version of twilight during the conclusion.
🤩 I can't believe you guys did this. I always wanted some sort od tribute to Daicon IV on Toy Galaxy but woldn't know how it would fit. Thank you so much! You guys are awsome! 💪
I cannot properly express how much I look forward to your videos. Every moment of these videos, regardless of what particular nostalgia nugget is being showcased, is perfect. The host, the backgrounds, the translations, the effects (when present), the information, the videography, the editing, the lighting… everything is utterly peerless.
My bootleg VHS copies of both of these movies are one of my prized possessions. Hell, I don;' even have a VCR to play it on, but I still keep the tape just for the memories. To this day just hearing the opening to "Twilight" gives me ASMR vibes.
After being blown away by Robotech (Macross) in 1985 as a 13 year old, I went all in on Anime (back then we called it Japanimation). I remember my friend had Daicon IV on VHS and we watched it dozens of times. I was blown away by the amount of characters and the fast paced animation. This brings back so many memories of that time.
Thank you for doing this. I especially appreciate the ending monologue where you immerse us in zeitgeist of the time when these highly influential works debuted.
I haven’t heard of Daicon _in a very long time._ I’m old enough to have visited comic conventions when they were held in churches in Midtown Manhattan though, and even further back when New York Comic Con was very large, just before it wasn’t and before it was again. Good times! Great Stuff, as always!
My first ever fan convention was NecronomiCon in Tampa, FL; where they had one small room assigned for watching anime. To kick off the weekend of Sailor Moon, Dragonball, and other yet-unseen series to us Western fans, the room organizer showed off the Daicon IV opening animation. It became something of a tradition going forward, until the guy actually got enough support and capital to launch his own anime-themed convention -- MetroCon -- in Tampa decades later.
@Dr.Quarex the rush to commidify and mass produce everything has made us disjoined from the humanity it takes to create those things initially. At the same time, the democratization that allows everyone to participate in these things, no matter how small, has shown us how broad and deep the potential is.
ELO's entire "Time" album is, as you kids say nowadays, a banger. It's beautiful and sad and catchy and just SO. DAMN. GOOD. Haven't heard it? Go change that.
OMG! Thank you for doing such a deep dive on an iconic, yet obscure piece of anime history! I never knew that they actual used Twilight as the soundtrack. I always assumed some one added that later on the YT versions.
WOW! Thank you for bringing the Daicon animation shorts to your audience's attention! I learned about them several years ago and find them, especially Daicon IV, to be one of those very special things that any fan of anime, animation, sci-fi and fantasy, should experience at least once! It's a shame something like that on a modern scale probably couldn't be done LEGALLY these days, but maybe a fan animator will step-up and bring us something similar, a new celebration of the past 40 years of nerdy pop-culture! For those who want a more in-depth look at the Daicon IV animation itself, as well as its characters featured, check out the video by Mother's Basement.
I was a devout anime fan throughout the 80s and early 90s. Still, I had never heard or seen any of this. What an amazing, interconnected story. Thank you, Toy Galaxy.
In college I loved watching Densha Otoko, which a friend had torrented. I had to know about the anime in it, used for the opening. And that was my intro to Daicon, and ELO.
MUCH RESPECT for stepping out of the norm and covering these, Dan & Greg ✊😎 For us old-school fans of sci-fi & “japanimation” (as well as ELO 😅) these shorts were absolutely legendary. I first saw them playing at an import shop in Philly that i used to buy fansub anime VHS tapes at in the ‘90s (long since closed, can’t even remember the name of it) and was absolutely blown away. Thanks for bringing back some good memories yet again 🥹
The first three tracks of ELO's Time album come together. You should listen to Prologue, Twilight and Yours Truly 2095 continuously without stopping. One of the best openings to an album.
Wow, great episode Dan! Daicon is a thing that I think more anime fans and just geeks in general should know about. If you'd never heard the ELO song Twilight, definitely check out the entire album, called Time. It's a concept album, heavily laced with sci-fi themes. In other words, the geekiest and therefore (possibly) best of all Jeff Lynne's albums!
My hats off to you as a creator, Dan. This video contained so many recognizable names and creations that could've been name dropped in the title or thumbnail as click bait. But you let us click on this niche fandom thing instead. You left viewers curious as those of us not in the know wondered what this bunny girl and radish name had to do about anything. We got to experience the story and reveal genuinely. You may have sacrificed clicks, but you preserved the art and purity of the presentation. For that I thank you. And sure, you did put spoilers in the description, but we know nobody reads those.
I'm not ashamed to admit I shed a few tears when I watched the Daicon 4 remastered/upscaled version a couple years back. The nostalgia feels were just too much.
ELO's Time was my realisation moment: Music is a thing, a thing that is awesome. Dad had the record and was playing it, I was a small child who until that moment had not noticed music much. I had Dad record the album to tape so I could play it in my room and I wore out the tape!
ELO's Twilight works well with densha otoko. especially on the high points of the series. geez, I'm having goosebumps everytime I hear twilight's intro. ELO's twilight, is like ode to joy suddenly playing on the background everytime you feel successful. 🤭🤭🤭
Thanks for bringing this back to our conciousness, just like your other works, especially every time about Tokusatsu, as a long time fan, I really appreciate it. Thank you guys! ☺️
Back in the early days of anime fandom you'd see a fan with a shelf of nothing but anime soundtracks. Except for a copy of the ELO CD with the songs used in Daicon.
This vid made my night . I never heard of Daicon or the ELO Album "Time". Thanks for uploading this . What a great rabbit hole to go down with a kick ass sound track.
Just discovered these shorts a couple of months ago thought they were fantastic. I'm not even a big anime fan but I absolutely love this. I love the time period it comes from I like the early days of fandom in the late 70's and early 80s. Also a big E.L.O. fan to boot .
Another great video. Daicon IV might be one of my favorite pieces of animation ever produced. I saw it for the first time maybe a decade ago on a random website with next to no explanation or context and it was nothing short of mindblowing. Just pure creativity and love for science fiction, anime and all that good stuff in all the way only an otaku can express, completely unrestrained by the notions of "copyright" or "ownership". The fact that it's also the origin story of one of the all time greatest anime studios (a studio that went on to make some of my OTHER favorite pieces of animation no less)! is nothing short of poetic. And yes, "Time" by ELO is an incredible album. Look up the "Children of Daicon" AMV if you ever get the chance.
Dan, the sum-up at the end was amazing! It's so nice that these two video's get the love and recognition they deserve. They really did kick start the birth of modern anime and so many brilliant staff with genre defining shows came out of these 'little fan films'. I'm 48 yrs now and it was so different back in the 80's and 90's getting anime in the west, how times have changed. This video made me so happy, thank you :)
Holy smokes this... this episodes resonated with me so much lol... Gainax was so influential on me growing up but I had no idea about its origins, I just assumed it was just another anime studio slapped together in the 80s, but nothing like this. What a crazy story, indeed! Thank you for making this episode :)
The only thing that's truly sad is how gainax petered out essentially disbanded going their separate ways and starting their own companies. It was probably the best for everyone involved but it's still sad that it had to come to that.
Thank you, thank you for this. I was in love with Daicon IV the first time i saw it. Knowing at least there was some appreciation to the Daicon videos really surprised me, i know a lot of people knew about Daicon 3 and 4, but to make a whole video about it is something else. You guys rock!
Talk about being surprised to see a video covering these two hidden gems. My Father was involved with a bootleg anime trading group in the 80's and one of the VHS tapes we collected had Diacon III and IV on it. I always loved the ELO soundtrack paired with the amazing visuals of this incredible short. Thanks for bringing more awareness to this amazing piece of anime history.
The fate of Gainax in the modern era is sad. They just kinda petered out after Panty and Stocking and the remaining people split into Studio Trigger and Studio Khara.
That's just the nature of the industry, the same drain has happened with other studios like Shaft. Which is why it's important to emphasize and pay attention to the individual creators involved, and not on a brand they happen to be working under (especially in an industry where so many are freelance). Because we're still seeing great work from the people who made Gainax great back in the day. Now what's really sad is how Gainax has actively interfered with said creatives. Like when Anno was promised the rights to FLCL and Gunbuster by Takeda in exchange for a 100 million yen loan, only for Takeda to shunt the rights off to one of Gainax's many shell companies and sell the rights to others (like Production I.G for FLCL).
Gainax was on the decline as early as the production of Neon Genesis Evangelion, with their infamous scandals regarding underpaying animators, bad investments and the chairman of Gainax allegedly trying to pursue sexual favors from an underage VA, Hideaki Anno denounced Gainax in the late 2010s and now Studio Trigger and Studio Khara have basically absorbed the talent and legacy that made Gainax legendary without the baggage. Though I personally think Anno just wants to make Tokusatsu now.
I wondered about exactly what happened with Gainax especially that panty and stocking was their last official product. I also wondered why FLCL went forward even though the company was no more. (The fact production I.G. took over makes a lot of sense especially when you explain the context) I'm glad that there should be new panty and stocking coming cuz that was always sad to me is it the series just kind of petered off a decade ago. But yes the legacy of Gainax besides the controversies are the people who work there and that's as it should be. What's in a name the people who work there are much more important than the name the company goes by.
@@JohnDoe-wq5eu Gainax actually made a few more shows over the next several years after that (ending with the Houkago no Pleiades TV series in 2015 as far as I can tell, which is an odd note to go out on), although most of their best talent had been syphoned away into Trigger, Khara, etc. by then.
@@otakubullfrog1665 I mean that's just it they went out with such a whimper not at all with a bang. (Which is probably why most people think/assume they went out with panty and stocking as that was their last big project I would say) As you said they lost all their important talent at that point so it was just a skeleton crew and I have a feeling the most relevant stuff was probably in Japan anyway so to an outsider looking in even an okatu it's just not as relevant unless you're living in the country and directly part of the culture. I have a feeling Gainax demise hit way harder in Japan has anyone who followed that and the culture knew it's relevance.
Very pleasantly surprised to see Toy Galaxy cover this. After watching and becoming obsessed with Evangelion in the late ‘90s, (anime fan/psychology major) I got into Anno’s other work including his live action movies and Daicon animations. I own a copy of Otaku no Video and watched Densha Otoko as it was coming out back in the day. Early Gainax animation exudes love of animation media and other popular culture, much like your channel. Keep up the great work!
要点がわかりやすく、あなたが実際にガイナックスのメンバーと作品にも言及しているのが、良かったです。 あなたのチャンネルの発展を通して、人々が創作への理解が深まることを願います。 It was nice to see the point and that you actually mentioned Gainax members and their work. We hope that through the development of your channel, people will have a better understanding of creation.
I remember watching this via some... Sketchy souce and just being blown away, I loved how you explained the excitement this carried in a time before things instantly in your hands, you had to scower find find any souce of animation in America. I had no idea the Kanji had so many play on "words" wrapped in it!
Man I remember downloading those 15 ago and being so moved. The passion is so palpable it really made me feel something special. Soo cool
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Hell yeah. I discovered the Daicon shorts in high school at the height of my Sentai/Tokusatsu obsession and was completely blown away by it and I’ve had ‘Twilight’ stuck in my head ever since. Such an awesome tune and an awesome story. Glad you could cover it.
I probably speak for all tokusatsu fans when I say we are *very* hype to see what Anno has up his sleeve next. Shin Godzilla was incredible, Shin Ultraman's receiving a lot of acclaim in Japan (stateside release coming...eventually), and we're all understandably stoked to see what Shin Kamen Rider will be like. ........I'm also wondering if Shin Super Sentai will ever be a thing since that's the natural place to go next but we'll see I guess
I'm so happy you covered these! I've been a big fan of Gainax since I first saw Eva in high school. It really takes me back to the days of watching fansubs in my friend's basement.
I’m just going to say that if you’ve never listened to the entirety of ELO’s album “Time” (Prologue and Twilight open this concept album)) you should fix that as soon as possible.
WOOO! this video been floating around for a long long time. I remember watching it during the VHS tape trading days back in the 90's. You can see the start of 'Otaku no video' in this animation.
Thank you for the Twilight needle drop at the end. Gainax has been a testment to budgetting your productions since Gunbuster ran out of money for paint for the last 2 episodes, and had to be released in Black and White. While Evangelion the final episode is done as almost an animatic using markers because they ran out of money in the final 4 episodes.
I not only knew of the shorts, but actively searched for them online. I first encountered the name Daicon a few months after my first Norwescon nearly 20 years ago. I was absorbing Japanese culture the only way I could legally afford, by watching the Saturday late night on Adult Swim.
Sometime in the mid to late 90s before anime became at all mainstream and incredibly expensive a local PBS channel would show uncut episodes on Sunday nights around midnight subbed of course. That really opened my eyes as completely as they could. As a teenager of 14-15 when I first found it I was immediately all about it. Never lost that sense of wonder of finding that long after they stopped playing it. A true defining moment of my life.
Can't belive you covered The Daicon Opening Animation. I pop in my copy from time to time. With all the Daicon References from Train Man & FLCL, you missed Cassette Girl
I had heard of Daicon III and IV, but I had absolutely no idea of their significance. I also didn't watch them when I had the chance because I couldn't figure out where Daicon and Daicon II were and I am the type to watch things in order. Obviously now I know thanks to you.
Wow. I'm not the only one who knows all the songs on the Xanadu soundtrack. I'm not alone! Trust me, I didn't have a choice. My aunt really liked the movie and she'd have it on a lot when she babysat me.
Thank you so much for the video. I love the channel as I love to find treasures that I've never seen here on TH-cam. This is a great channel to find hidden gems and treasures, which then I can go look for or buy from places like Amazon. Wish Daicon 3 & 4 was given a DVD or Blu-ray release.
These two pieces of work are masterpieces on so many different levels. Their impact on sci-fi and anime communities alone cannot be overstated. The art, the story telling, the music and sci-fi/anime referrences blending together to make a perfect storm, all while being made on a shoestring budget with a handful of people.
Can you please do a video on Chojin Sentai Jetman? It was the show that Haim Saban at one point considered for Power Rangers and is also the darkest entry in the Super Sentai series as well as one of the best!
So fun fact, the sword that girl was riding in Daicon 4 was apparently Stormbringer, from Michael Moorcock's Elric Saga.
or Mournblade... 😄
Blood and souls for my lord Bunnygirl
I just learned this and it blew my mind!
I'm pleasantly surprised you covered this. I saw these back in 92' before an anime con in San Francisco. I was blown away. The anime genre wasn't really a thing in the US back then. I forgot about this. Thank you.
Yeah it's weird to think how much things have changed since 92' for the better and for the worse in the industry. (and the fact it's so much more of an "industry" now)
That decade would see so much change truly it would open people's eyes to the mass appeal of anime and bring in the mainstream like never before. I forgot just how significant these two snippets of animation were. And how much they would change everything within the world of anime. A lasting legacy that endures well into the current day.
If you were into anime in the ‘90s you had to have someone in Japan make you VHS tapes and send them via snail mail. Subbers took Laserdisc recordings and superimposed the text. Anime was slow, so expensive and difficult to obtain. Also when we got US licensed anime the price for 1-4 episodes on a DVD was minimum of $20 to more than $80 for OVAs.
That sounds like the first Anime Expo, July 1992 at the Red Lion San Jose... I was there!
@@robertrazo1077 Yeah, i knew somebody that was sent tapes monthly with episodes of various shows. Mainly we were getting episodes of DBZ. I was in an anime fan club in Phx in 90 -92. We watched anime OVAs, shows & movies. We also subtitled anime before they were marketed. Of course everything was viewed through connections. Very few things were bought locally.
Red Lion San Jose, I was there too. A group of us rented a van and drove in shifts nonstop from Chicago. Good memories, except for the container of chocolate milk that was left in the van the whole weekend, and that one of the group is no longer with us.
Fun fact: Daicon III is debatably the first surviving AMV! The actual first was a now-lost video setting Star Blazers scenes to a Beatles soundtrack made in a form as old-fashioned as you expect from something that predates Daicon III. However, it's debatable if the Daicon films count due to being original animation.
If the Daicon films don't count, then the first surviving AMV might be, of all things, the music video to Matthew Sweet's song "Girlfriend", made largely of clips from Space Adventure Cobra.
I think you’re mistaking Urusei Yatsura on the video
I Found This Comment Incredibly Interesting!!!...THANKS!....I Watched Space Adventure Cobra Again Recently Too, So Now I'm Off To Goggle The Video!
A friend of mine Jim Kaposzas created a Star Blazer AMV in 1982.
"Girlfriend" came out in 1990 and featured Space Adventure Cobra, "I've Been Waiting" also from 1990 featured Urusei Yatsura. The Daicon vid were about ten years before either.
@@thebaron512 Yep. Sadly, Jim passed away in February.
The Daicon animations are still a technical marvel considering the circumstances of what the team had to go through
My best friend and I were on the founding staff of the first Anime Boston back in 2003.
I know it's cheesey, but your closing made me tear up thinking about how passionate and excited we all were getting that convention off the ground and keeping it running for those three crazy days.
"Bliss it was in that dawn to be alive, but to be young (and an anime fan!) was very heaven!"
I first saw this about 24 years ago on a local public access program called "Anime Review." This was back in the days before access to Japanese animation was commonplace (or inexpensive). It sold me on the ELO album "Time", too.
Yeah it's interesting that my first true experience with uncensored uncut anime was on a PBS channel back in the 90s that would show various anime at midnight on Sundays.
That experience truly changed my entire mindset of what anime was and could be. It should also be said that it was entirely Japanese with subs as far as I can remember.
Which pretty much permanently made me always lean toward subs over dubs whenever possible.
These shorts are iconic. Just the equivalent of a jam session on film.
Everything is great, the ending with Dan and the slow piano play of Twilight as he passionately sums up the effects of Daicon animation is so sweet and amazing.
Twilight should have been the song for Ready Player One’s trailer. The lyrics describe the movie.
Daicon IV might honestly be my single most favorite piece of animation of all time, it's just a euphoric experience that brings fandoms together and reminds us why we love the things we love in the first place
I always loved the part from Daicon IV where she speedruns past every single Ultraman kaiju.
She’s trying to survive
Never expected you would talk about the Daicon shorts. Great stuff!
Me either. Toy Galaxy rules.
It's amazing how you guys put everything in place like you were a Daicon (Gainax) Fans since the 80's.
In the mid 90s, a friend gave me a copy of a CD called Anitime. in it there was a lot of opening and endings of 80s and 90s Animes in Quictime format and also the Daicon 3 and 4 animations ... I loved.
Later I bought the Otaku no Video VHS... It was awesome. Then in the 2000s the DVD.
The make of Daicon 3 & 4 Videos and Gainax are one of the greatest stories in the Japanese Animation.
I saw this in 1989 at our local sci-if convention Omacon. It’s why I fell in love with ELO. The whole album Twilight is on “Time” is one of my all time favorite albums, great start to finish. And nice job skirting the copyright strike with the slow tempo piano solo version of twilight during the conclusion.
🤩 I can't believe you guys did this. I always wanted some sort od tribute to Daicon IV on Toy Galaxy but woldn't know how it would fit. Thank you so much! You guys are awsome! 💪
I cannot properly express how much I look forward to your videos. Every moment of these videos, regardless of what particular nostalgia nugget is being showcased, is perfect. The host, the backgrounds, the translations, the effects (when present), the information, the videography, the editing, the lighting… everything is utterly peerless.
Transitions, not translations.
Insane. Wings of Honneamise is a masterful anime that honestly needs a theatrical rerelease.
I miss going to Cons in the late 80s and 90s, Ahhhhh the good old days of Anime in VHS, and trying to order Live action from Japan on Lazerdisc
My bootleg VHS copies of both of these movies are one of my prized possessions. Hell, I don;' even have a VCR to play it on, but I still keep the tape just for the memories. To this day just hearing the opening to "Twilight" gives me ASMR vibes.
After being blown away by Robotech (Macross) in 1985 as a 13 year old, I went all in on Anime (back then we called it Japanimation). I remember my friend had Daicon IV on VHS and we watched it dozens of times. I was blown away by the amount of characters and the fast paced animation. This brings back so many memories of that time.
These are a perfect encapsulation of the joy that pop culture can bring. I had never seen nor heard of them before this episode. Thank you!
put it in simple words
everyone participated in the making of Daicon opening are legends, and their legends all start with that single 5min video
Thanks, for the IMMIEATS commercial tie in, nothing goes better with old school anime than Ramen
Thank you for doing this. I especially appreciate the ending monologue where you immerse us in zeitgeist of the time when these highly influential works debuted.
I haven’t heard of Daicon _in a very long time._ I’m old enough to have visited comic conventions when they were held in churches in Midtown Manhattan though, and even further back when New York Comic Con was very large, just before it wasn’t and before it was again. Good times!
Great Stuff, as always!
I was today years old to know that was the origin of Gainax… amazing!!
I grew up near Grand Rapids Michigan and i remember that commercial as a kid. They still hold these Con's there every year.
My first ever fan convention was NecronomiCon in Tampa, FL; where they had one small room assigned for watching anime. To kick off the weekend of Sailor Moon, Dragonball, and other yet-unseen series to us Western fans, the room organizer showed off the Daicon IV opening animation. It became something of a tradition going forward, until the guy actually got enough support and capital to launch his own anime-themed convention -- MetroCon -- in Tampa decades later.
That last segment hit hard, it must have been such a treat to see the Daicon animations in person back then.
@Dr.Quarexgran reflexión ❤
@Dr.Quarex the rush to commidify and mass produce everything has made us disjoined from the humanity it takes to create those things initially. At the same time, the democratization that allows everyone to participate in these things, no matter how small, has shown us how broad and deep the potential is.
one of my favorite channel's talking about one of my favorite pieces of film. Wow, thank you so much
ELO's entire "Time" album is, as you kids say nowadays, a banger. It's beautiful and sad and catchy and just SO. DAMN. GOOD. Haven't heard it? Go change that.
OMG! Thank you for doing such a deep dive on an iconic, yet obscure piece of anime history! I never knew that they actual used Twilight as the soundtrack. I always assumed some one added that later on the YT versions.
WOW! Thank you for bringing the Daicon animation shorts to your audience's attention! I learned about them several years ago and find them, especially Daicon IV, to be one of those very special things that any fan of anime, animation, sci-fi and fantasy, should experience at least once! It's a shame something like that on a modern scale probably couldn't be done LEGALLY these days, but maybe a fan animator will step-up and bring us something similar, a new celebration of the past 40 years of nerdy pop-culture!
For those who want a more in-depth look at the Daicon IV animation itself, as well as its characters featured, check out the video by Mother's Basement.
I was a devout anime fan throughout the 80s and early 90s. Still, I had never heard or seen any of this.
What an amazing, interconnected story. Thank you, Toy Galaxy.
In college I loved watching Densha Otoko, which a friend had torrented. I had to know about the anime in it, used for the opening. And that was my intro to Daicon, and ELO.
MUCH RESPECT for stepping out of the norm and covering these, Dan & Greg ✊😎 For us old-school fans of sci-fi & “japanimation” (as well as ELO 😅) these shorts were absolutely legendary. I first saw them playing at an import shop in Philly that i used to buy fansub anime VHS tapes at in the ‘90s (long since closed, can’t even remember the name of it) and was absolutely blown away. Thanks for bringing back some good memories yet again 🥹
Saw the whole Diakon saga just recently and was blown away with the whole series the ELO Twilight was just...omg.
The first three tracks of ELO's Time album come together. You should listen to Prologue, Twilight and Yours Truly 2095 continuously without stopping. One of the best openings to an album.
Wow, great episode Dan! Daicon is a thing that I think more anime fans and just geeks in general should know about. If you'd never heard the ELO song Twilight, definitely check out the entire album, called Time. It's a concept album, heavily laced with sci-fi themes. In other words, the geekiest and therefore (possibly) best of all Jeff Lynne's albums!
This was unexpected, but great! Please keep up the excellent job guys! Thank you!!
I’m currently building the wave model kit of that power armor from Starship Troopers that they show in Daicon 3 fighting that little girl.
Remember being enthralled by these in the early 90s and then buying some ELO albums.
My hats off to you as a creator, Dan. This video contained so many recognizable names and creations that could've been name dropped in the title or thumbnail as click bait. But you let us click on this niche fandom thing instead. You left viewers curious as those of us not in the know wondered what this bunny girl and radish name had to do about anything. We got to experience the story and reveal genuinely. You may have sacrificed clicks, but you preserved the art and purity of the presentation. For that I thank you.
And sure, you did put spoilers in the description, but we know nobody reads those.
I'm not ashamed to admit I shed a few tears when I watched the Daicon 4 remastered/upscaled version a couple years back. The nostalgia feels were just too much.
ELO's Time was my realisation moment: Music is a thing, a thing that is awesome. Dad had the record and was playing it, I was a small child who until that moment had not noticed music much. I had Dad record the album to tape so I could play it in my room and I wore out the tape!
Daicon is concentrated love and adoration. It still brings tears to my eyes every time I see it.
ELO's Twilight works well with densha otoko. especially on the high points of the series. geez, I'm having goosebumps everytime I hear twilight's intro. ELO's twilight, is like ode to joy suddenly playing on the background everytime you feel successful. 🤭🤭🤭
Great deep cut here. Nice work Dan!
Thanks for bringing this back to our conciousness, just like your other works, especially every time about Tokusatsu, as a long time fan, I really appreciate it. Thank you guys! ☺️
Back in the early days of anime fandom you'd see a fan with a shelf of nothing but anime soundtracks. Except for a copy of the ELO CD with the songs used in Daicon.
A friend introduced me to these years ago. I still watch them time to time just to be inspired
9:41 wow. Mind blown. I never knew they got started this way
This vid made my night . I never heard of Daicon or the ELO Album "Time". Thanks for uploading this . What a great rabbit hole to go down with a kick ass sound track.
Now the anime girl cameo in the Transformers fan film "Arcee: Dreams of Daicon" makes total since.
Gainax would always reference themselves (same with trigger) kinda like an inside joke!
Just discovered these shorts a couple of months ago thought they were fantastic. I'm not even a big anime fan but I absolutely love this. I love the time period it comes from I like the early days of fandom in the late 70's and early 80s. Also a big E.L.O. fan to boot .
Another great video. Daicon IV might be one of my favorite pieces of animation ever produced. I saw it for the first time maybe a decade ago on a random website with next to no explanation or context and it was nothing short of mindblowing. Just pure creativity and love for science fiction, anime and all that good stuff in all the way only an otaku can express, completely unrestrained by the notions of "copyright" or "ownership". The fact that it's also the origin story of one of the all time greatest anime studios (a studio that went on to make some of my OTHER favorite pieces of animation no less)! is nothing short of poetic. And yes, "Time" by ELO is an incredible album. Look up the "Children of Daicon" AMV if you ever get the chance.
Dan, the sum-up at the end was amazing! It's so nice that these two video's get the love and recognition they deserve. They really did kick start the birth of modern anime and so many brilliant staff with genre defining shows came out of these 'little fan films'. I'm 48 yrs now and it was so different back in the 80's and 90's getting anime in the west, how times have changed. This video made me so happy, thank you :)
Holy smokes this... this episodes resonated with me so much lol... Gainax was so influential on me growing up but I had no idea about its origins, I just assumed it was just another anime studio slapped together in the 80s, but nothing like this. What a crazy story, indeed! Thank you for making this episode :)
The only thing that's truly sad is how gainax petered out essentially disbanded going their separate ways and starting their own companies.
It was probably the best for everyone involved but it's still sad that it had to come to that.
Wow. I recall seeing parts of these videos but never knew where they came from or how they were made. Thank you!
Oh yes 😲...never of this and looking for the shorts now
Great video Mr Larson, Producer Greg MP 👍🏽✌🏽
I’ve never seen the first one, but the second one!! Classic for real. Plus that ELO song Twilight just made it amazing.
Thanks for covering this!
Wings is Honneamise is one of my favs. Sort of my intro to anime after Robotech/Macross is a US kid. This, Ninja Scroll, Patlabor. Good times.
Good Job!! Man, you guys did your research on Daicon and the resulting anime that was spawned by it.
The Daicon IV video is one of my favorite things ever, I'm glad you're covering this.
Thank you, thank you for this. I was in love with Daicon IV the first time i saw it. Knowing at least there was some appreciation to the Daicon videos really surprised me, i know a lot of people knew about Daicon 3 and 4, but to make a whole video about it is something else. You guys rock!
Talk about being surprised to see a video covering these two hidden gems. My Father was involved with a bootleg anime trading group in the 80's and one of the VHS tapes we collected had Diacon III and IV on it. I always loved the ELO soundtrack paired with the amazing visuals of this incredible short. Thanks for bringing more awareness to this amazing piece of anime history.
Amazing work Dan! This was randomly suggested to me today and the video quality was *chef's kiss*
The fate of Gainax in the modern era is sad. They just kinda petered out after Panty and Stocking and the remaining people split into Studio Trigger and Studio Khara.
That's just the nature of the industry, the same drain has happened with other studios like Shaft. Which is why it's important to emphasize and pay attention to the individual creators involved, and not on a brand they happen to be working under (especially in an industry where so many are freelance). Because we're still seeing great work from the people who made Gainax great back in the day.
Now what's really sad is how Gainax has actively interfered with said creatives. Like when Anno was promised the rights to FLCL and Gunbuster by Takeda in exchange for a 100 million yen loan, only for Takeda to shunt the rights off to one of Gainax's many shell companies and sell the rights to others (like Production I.G for FLCL).
Gainax was on the decline as early as the production of Neon Genesis Evangelion, with their infamous scandals regarding underpaying animators, bad investments and the chairman of Gainax allegedly trying to pursue sexual favors from an underage VA, Hideaki Anno denounced Gainax in the late 2010s and now Studio Trigger and Studio Khara have basically absorbed the talent and legacy that made Gainax legendary without the baggage. Though I personally think Anno just wants to make Tokusatsu now.
I wondered about exactly what happened with Gainax especially that panty and stocking was their last official product. I also wondered why FLCL went forward even though the company was no more. (The fact production I.G. took over makes a lot of sense especially when you explain the context) I'm glad that there should be new panty and stocking coming cuz that was always sad to me is it the series just kind of petered off a decade ago.
But yes the legacy of Gainax besides the controversies are the people who work there and that's as it should be. What's in a name the people who work there are much more important than the name the company goes by.
@@JohnDoe-wq5eu Gainax actually made a few more shows over the next several years after that (ending with the Houkago no Pleiades TV series in 2015 as far as I can tell, which is an odd note to go out on), although most of their best talent had been syphoned away into Trigger, Khara, etc. by then.
@@otakubullfrog1665
I mean that's just it they went out with such a whimper not at all with a bang. (Which is probably why most people think/assume they went out with panty and stocking as that was their last big project I would say) As you said they lost all their important talent at that point so it was just a skeleton crew and I have a feeling the most relevant stuff was probably in Japan anyway so to an outsider looking in even an okatu it's just not as relevant unless you're living in the country and directly part of the culture. I have a feeling Gainax demise hit way harder in Japan has anyone who followed that and the culture knew it's relevance.
Very pleasantly surprised to see Toy Galaxy cover this. After watching and becoming obsessed with Evangelion in the late ‘90s, (anime fan/psychology major) I got into Anno’s other work including his live action movies and Daicon animations. I own a copy of Otaku no Video and watched Densha Otoko as it was coming out back in the day. Early Gainax animation exudes love of animation media and other popular culture, much like your channel. Keep up the great work!
要点がわかりやすく、あなたが実際にガイナックスのメンバーと作品にも言及しているのが、良かったです。
あなたのチャンネルの発展を通して、人々が創作への理解が深まることを願います。
It was nice to see the point and that you actually mentioned Gainax members and their work.
We hope that through the development of your channel, people will have a better understanding of creation.
Am I awake or do I dream?
The strangest pictures I have seen
Night is day and twilight's gone away
I remember watching this via some... Sketchy souce and just being blown away, I loved how you explained the excitement this carried in a time before things instantly in your hands, you had to scower find find any souce of animation in America. I had no idea the Kanji had so many play on "words" wrapped in it!
Man I remember downloading those 15 ago and being so moved. The passion is so palpable it really made me feel something special. Soo cool
Hell yeah. I discovered the Daicon shorts in high school at the height of my Sentai/Tokusatsu obsession and was completely blown away by it and I’ve had ‘Twilight’ stuck in my head ever since. Such an awesome tune and an awesome story. Glad you could cover it.
Daicon!! Didn't think I'd see this here. Glad I was wrong. Fascinating subject and episode!
I probably speak for all tokusatsu fans when I say we are *very* hype to see what Anno has up his sleeve next. Shin Godzilla was incredible, Shin Ultraman's receiving a lot of acclaim in Japan (stateside release coming...eventually), and we're all understandably stoked to see what Shin Kamen Rider will be like.
........I'm also wondering if Shin Super Sentai will ever be a thing since that's the natural place to go next but we'll see I guess
I first saw Daicon III and IV on TH-cam less than a year ago. Gotta love that 80's anime aesthetic.
Daicon IV was how my GF was introduced to ELO and I couldn't be happier :)
I'm so happy you covered these! I've been a big fan of Gainax since I first saw Eva in high school. It really takes me back to the days of watching fansubs in my friend's basement.
And then I became a fan of ELO’s album Time….
I never thought this channel would review the very thing that not only exposed me to anime, but also to the sheer notion of crazy af crossovers
I’m just going to say that if you’ve never listened to the entirety of ELO’s album “Time” (Prologue and Twilight open this concept album)) you should fix that as soon as possible.
WOOO! this video been floating around for a long long time. I remember watching it during the VHS tape trading days back in the 90's. You can see the start of 'Otaku no video' in this animation.
This is a pleasant surprise, I love the Daicon shorts and I feel they need to be known more.
Grew up right along with the daicon IV legends works absolutely loving and beings completely inspired by them every step of the way.
So happy you covered these! I was a huge fan and remember watching Otaku No Video back in those days. Man the memories. 🤣
Great job Dan and crew... now I’m crying! T_T
A well researched and produced video. This answers many questions I've had for decades!
Thank you for the Twilight needle drop at the end. Gainax has been a testment to budgetting your productions since Gunbuster ran out of money for paint for the last 2 episodes, and had to be released in Black and White. While Evangelion the final episode is done as almost an animatic using markers because they ran out of money in the final 4 episodes.
I not only knew of the shorts, but actively searched for them online. I first encountered the name Daicon a few months after my first Norwescon nearly 20 years ago. I was absorbing Japanese culture the only way I could legally afford, by watching the Saturday late night on Adult Swim.
Sometime in the mid to late 90s before anime became at all mainstream and incredibly expensive a local PBS channel would show uncut episodes on Sunday nights around midnight subbed of course. That really opened my eyes as completely as they could. As a teenager of 14-15 when I first found it I was immediately all about it. Never lost that sense of wonder of finding that long after they stopped playing it.
A true defining moment of my life.
Definitely a touchstone moment in anime, a clarion call heralding a new age that changed the course of animation and pop culture history forever.
Can't belive you covered The Daicon Opening Animation. I pop in my copy from time to time. With all the Daicon References from Train Man & FLCL, you missed Cassette Girl
Thank you thank you thank you for covering this beloved portion of my youth I can’t believe how much I did not know about this thank you again
I had heard of Daicon III and IV, but I had absolutely no idea of their significance. I also didn't watch them when I had the chance because I couldn't figure out where Daicon and Daicon II were and I am the type to watch things in order. Obviously now I know thanks to you.
Wow. I'm not the only one who knows all the songs on the Xanadu soundtrack. I'm not alone! Trust me, I didn't have a choice. My aunt really liked the movie and she'd have it on a lot when she babysat me.
I loved this. Well done. I remember seeing an anime music video at Otakon ‘98 done to “Dare to be Stupid” that used clips from these.
Thank you so much for the video. I love the channel as I love to find treasures that I've never seen here on TH-cam. This is a great channel to find hidden gems and treasures, which then I can go look for or buy from places like Amazon. Wish Daicon 3 & 4 was given a DVD or Blu-ray release.
These two pieces of work are masterpieces on so many different levels. Their impact on sci-fi and anime communities alone cannot be overstated. The art, the story telling, the music and sci-fi/anime referrences blending together to make a perfect storm, all while being made on a shoestring budget with a handful of people.
Can you please do a video on Chojin Sentai Jetman? It was the show that Haim Saban at one point considered for Power Rangers and is also the darkest entry in the Super Sentai series as well as one of the best!
Though Gazillionare/GTV did a video on it recently, I'd love to see this channel's take on the property at some point.
Had no idea Hideaki Anno worked on these, so cool seeing his animation roots.