XPost: rec.arts.anime.fandom   
   From: o4tq5mp02@sneakemail.com   
      
   Hello everyone,   
      
   	Please excuse the long post. I am really hoping someone can help me   
   identify a series of anime movies I saw on TV around 1989-1990. I was 9   
   or 10 years old at the time, and these films really helped me get back   
   into anime, which I had not watched much since I was 6-7 years old. I   
   think I temporarily lost my taste for anime due to one of the Gundam   
   series, which, while enjoyable, had a lot of long dialogue, and was just   
   too much like a soap opera for me to get into very much at that age. As   
   a young child, I just didn't really “get” this kind of thing, especially   
   in a cartoon. Additionally, whichever Gundam incarnation it was seemed   
   to have strong homoerotic undertones, which I REALLY didn't understand   
   at the time and which quite confused me =). So, while I loved almost   
   every anime show I saw until age 6 or 7, I lost my taste for it for 2-3   
   years in the late 80's, which is sad since that was  a Renaissance for   
   anime.   
      
   	But then, around 1989 or early 1990 (during which time my family was   
   stationed in West Germany), the Armed Forces Network (AFN), began airing   
   an anime movie every Saturday morning. It was great. For those not   
   familiar with AFN, it is the single television station broadcast on   
   cable at United States military installations and housing developments   
   in non-English speaking countries. Normally AFN programming is pretty   
   stale, the most mainstream programming from every major network, all   
   condensed into a single channel, and often shown a year or two after its   
   original airing in the United States. But for a while there, it was   
   almost like the Sci-Fi channel's old Saturday Morning Anime film series.   
   I think this was replaced after a few months with more conventional   
   children's programming... I think the old Super Mario Show (the live   
   action one with cartoon shorts) was put into part of this timeslot.   
      
   	The film opens (near as I can remember) on a family of 3 or 4 traveling   
   through space in a largish ship. We are introduced to Our Hero, who is a   
   young man with short brown hair, perhaps in his late teens, as well has   
   his father and mother (I think... I'm not entirely sure the mother was   
   on the ship). He may also have had a younger (teenage?) sister, but I'm   
   not sure about that, either. I think they are voyaging to a colony on a   
   faraway planet to start a new life, ala Swiss Family Robinson (or even   
   Lost in Space ;) ).  It's also possible that they simply live a nomadic   
   life, and the ship is their only home; I'm really not clear on the details.   
      
   	The ship undergoes some sort of critical failure, to the extent that it   
   can be steered somewhat, but cannot be slowed down, and cannot avoid   
   crash-landing on a nearby planet for whatever reason. Again, I don't   
   remember the details: this planet may even have been the family's   
   intended destination, in which case they may have already been in the   
   process of landing when the failure occurred. Our Teenage Hero (tm)   
   manages to pilot the ship through a rough crash landing, preventing it   
   from being completely destroyed. It crashes to the planet's surface,   
   plowing into the ground and leaving a huge swath of destruction. If I   
   recall correctly, a few of the planet's inhabitants witness the crash as   
   the ship passes directly over them and comes to rest, perhaps a mile or   
   two away. They hurry to the crash site to check for survivors.   
      
   	This part I remember vaguely but I am fairly certain it happened: while   
   he is attempting to land the ship, Our Hero hears a (probably female)   
   voice in his head. He may have been only partially conscious due to   
   G-force, so the voice has the quality of a hallucination. It seems like   
   we are shown his visual hallucinations as well. I think the Voice tells   
   the boy that he has been Chosen for something he doesn't quite   
   understand, and that some  great but vague responsibility is being   
   placed on him. He sees images of a beautiful, blue-green, glassy object   
   of oval shape. Some sort of circuitry surrounds the object. Then he sees   
   this image superimposed over an image of his own hand. The circuitry   
   works its way into the top of his hand, attaching the oval object, so   
   that his hand now has an elongated blue-green crystal dome between its   
   fingers and the wrist.  Somehow, even though Our Hero is semiconscious,   
   tripping out, and communicating with some unknown intelligence while   
   undergoing serious body modification, he is able to land the ship, more   
   or less in one piece, and survive (his family isn't so lucky). This may   
   be due to intervention from the Voice or even the dome thingy attaching   
   itself to his hand.   
      
   	When he awakes after landing, he thinks the Voice and the dome thingy   
   attaching to his hand were just hallucinations, until he looks down at   
   his hand, and sees that it is really there. But he has no time to   
   reflect on this yet, since, upon looking around, he discovers that his   
   parents (or maybe just his dad) have been killed in the crash. As I   
   mentioned above, he might have had a younger sister who also survived,   
   but after 16+ years, I really can't remember.   
      
   	About this time, the concerned natives who saw him crash arrive on the   
   scene, and discover what has happened. They try to comfort the young man   
   and offer him shelter and assistance. I'm not sure, but it seems like   
   these people might recognize the Dome Thingy and are very impressed by   
   it, and explain to Our Hero its importance and that it will give him   
   great power in times of need. Our Hero has been on the ground screaming   
   with grief and rage at himself, blaming himself for his family's deaths.   
   Then, once he's calmed down a bit, an older man, apparently in his late   
   30's or 40's, pats him on the shoulder and says something to the effect   
   of “It's gonna take a LONG time to live this down, kid. Just remember   
   that it wasn't your fault.” I think this man ends up being one of the   
   main characters, and a traveling companion to Our Hero. It seems like he   
   has brown hair and a beard.   
      
   	Of course, Our Hero is given some sort of Quest to perform, which may   
   or may not have involved the Dome Thingy on his hand. The result is that   
   he ends up traveling around this planet he just crashed on. Maybe he was   
   looking for another ship, or trying to get his own ship repaired, though   
   I think it was much more complicated than that. It probably had   
   something to do with the Dome Thingy. I have a vague feeling that he   
   gained the Dome Thingy because he squished or otherwise killed its   
   previous wearer during the crash landing ala Wizard of Oz, or perhaps   
   the owner died of unrelated causes at the exact same time Our Hero crash   
   landed, and no one else was nearby. This might be a product of my   
   imagination, though. I'm just including it in case it helps someone   
   identify this film.   
      
   	The next thing I remember clearly, the main characters (Our Hero,   
   Bearded Guy, and I think a girl, either his sister or his love interest)   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)