Summer 1971 Anime

Ashita no Joe tells the tale of a wandering orphan named Joe Yabuki. He falls into one of Tokyo's slums and gets into a fight with a local gang and his street fighting skills gets him the attention of a washed up alcoholic boxing trainer. Until he sticks up for Joe when the gang comes back to finish Joe, Joe decides to live with the trainer. Despite the trainer's generosity, Joe is still committing money making scams and lands him in prison. While serving time, he meets another boxer named Rikiishi Tooru who gets Joe interested in boxing. Upon release, Joe then pursues a boxing career.

[Source: Anime News Network]

Tiger Mask (whose real name was Naoto Date) was a feared heel wrestler in America who was extremely vicious in the ring. However, he became a face after returning to Japan when a young boy said that he wanted to be a villain like Tiger Mask when he grew up. The boy resided in an orphanage, the same one that Tiger Mask grew up in during his childhood. Feeling that he did not want the boy to idolize a villain, Tiger was inspired to be a heroic wrestler.

The main antagonist in the manga and anime was Tiger's Cave, a mysterious organization that trained young people to be villainous heel wrestlers on the condition that they gave half of their earnings to the organization. Tiger Mask was once a member of Tiger's Cave under the name "Yellow Devil", but no longer wanted anything to do with them, instead donating his money to the orphanage. This infuriated the leader of the organization and he sent numerous assassins, including other professional wrestlers, to punish him.

[Source: Wikipedia]

Kozue is a highschool girl and enthusiastic volleyball player. Her dream is to play in the Japanese national volleyball team. During the series she makes it from the school district league up to the Japanese volleyball finals, step by step till the international volleyball championship. But the faster and higher Kozue climbs the career ladder up, the more she gets confronted with the dark side of success: too high expectations, self-conceit and envy are progressing towards serious problems.

[Source: Anime News Network]

The story is about Hyuma Hoshi, a promising young baseball pitcher who dreams of becoming a top star like his father Ittetsu Hoshi in the professional Japanese league. His father was once a 3rd baseman until he was injured in World War II and was forced to retire. The boy would join the ever popular Giants team, and soon he realized the difficulty of managing the high expectations. From the grueling training to battling the rival Mitsuru Hanagata on the Hanshin Tigers, he would have to take out his best pitching magic to step up to the challenge.

[Source: Wikipedia]

The main character is a mother named Sazae-san. She lives in a house with her husband, her kids and her parents. The show is the ultimate family program and tends to follow traditional themes. Think of this show as the Japanese equivalent to "The Partridge Family" and you'll get a good feel for this show's atmosphere. Don't expect to see things like violence, swearing, kung-fu action or magical girls. The plots are more like "Today, Sazae-san goes to the new mall and gets lost". Such "boring" plotlines and the simplistic art are often a turn-off to non-Japanese audiences, but most Japanese find the show incredibly good. As a result, it continues to be one of the top ratings grabbers on TV and is one of the few anime that is considered "acceptable" by adults.

[Source: AniDB]

Mako is a young siren and daughter to the King of the Sea. In a stormy day she rescues the young sport Akira from a wrecked ship, but ends up falling in love with him. So, with help from the Witch of the Sea, she's transformed into a human, and becomes a highschool student who helps everyone with her strong sense of love and justice and her magical pendant, the "Tear of the Mermaid."

[Source: Anime News Network]

Two baby girls were born in the same hospital: one of them is the daughter of an aristocratic family while the other belongs to a deprived household which lives in the slums of the city. However, the nurse-in-charge, Michiko, secretly switches the two babies due to a personal grudge, resulting in a change of fates of the girls from then on. Many years later, the lives of the two girls continue to be intertwined with each other, with the rich Miki ill-treating the poor Nozomi, yet both of them hold similar dreams to become a singer.

[Source: Anime News Network]

After his homeland is destroyed by a large swarm of wasps, Hutch, the Honeybee ventures into the world. He goes to search for his mother, the queen bee, from whom he was separated during the disaster. Through his wandering, Hutch grows to be strong and brave as he observes the lives and deaths of numerous other insects.

[Source: Tatsunoko Production]

This animated history of World War II in the Pacific deals with the most serious moments in the lives of Commanders as they make crucial strategic and tactical decisions. Since these episodes are based on true events, not fiction, viewers will be filled with more tension than usual.

[Source: Tatsunoko Production]

Adaptations of numerous stories written by Hans Christian Andersen.

A comedy about a country boy that travels to the city to study judo. He ends up meeting the daughter of a prominent dojo and her judo skilled cat. Each episode features 2 stories.

[Source: AniDB]

Based on a 1966 manga by Sazae-san creator Hasegawa Machiko.

This is another slice-of-everyday-life tale, centered around a spiteful old woman who causes trouble for neighbours with her constant bumbling and grumbling.

[Source: Anime News Network]