XPost: rec.arts.anime.fandom   
   From: $ecret$am@$am$ecret.com   
      
   On Thu, 15 Sep 2005 20:03:03 -0500, Meursalt   
    wrote:   
      
   >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   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)