When Anime Was Simple
Curtis Newton’s adventures on the Comet were just another Tuesday afternoon on German TV. The ship, the crew, the general sense that someone had cobbled together a space opera from spare parts and optimism. I didn’t know then that this stuff had been edited and remixed, re-dubbed into something barely recognizable from the original Japanese. It was just space opera, simple as that.
The odd thing is watching people now act like anime is some niche obsession they have to apologize for. Back then it wasn’t shameful—it just existed on ZDF like anything else. I watched Mila Superstar, Sailor Moon, Captain Future between homework and dinner. Nobody called it immature. Nobody had to frame it as ironic appreciation.
What’s stayed with me about space adventure anime, especially the older stuff, is that it didn’t try to be cute or clever. No overexplained systems, no seventeen layers of character archetype and fanservice calculation. Just a crew, a ship, whatever problem was waiting out in space. The newer shows can’t help themselves—they’re designed by committee, every moment justified to death. This stuff was simpler. Probably worse in some technical sense, but more honest.
They’re re-releasing it on Blu-Ray now—the German dub alongside the original uncut Japanese episodes. The ones that never made it past German TV censor scissors. I’m curious what we were missing, what ZDF cut away. But I’m not nostalgic for the original in some purist way. The dubbed version is what I watched. That’s the real memory.
I wonder if any kid now actually picks up Captain Future and watches it, or if it’s purely a product for people like me. Space adventures without irony are a hard sell these days. Everything’s overstuffed with references and in-jokes and carefully calibrated appeal. These old shows don’t know how to do that. They just move forward, ship and crew and problem, episode after episode. That directness is either going to feel refreshing or completely boring.