I watched
this and
this on TV, the latter in its first run. I watched the very first episode of
this on TV, learned the theme and sang it with my cousin. We recorded episodes on VHS and saw them a lot, back when they'd make you pay $20 for two episodes on a cassette. It was the first time we'd seen anything like that--a show that was really, fundamentally, about friendship. It'd make us cry, week after week. We were both kind of in love with Brock.
I watched
this when it first came on, too, and
this back when the only available materials were made to cut Sakura's role and make Li the main character. And the first run of
this, too.
I remember back when
this was such good, fresh, exciting animation, and the song style was new, and it just seemed perfect in every way--could listen forever.
Then it was
this, which seemed so insanely smooth.
Then
this.
And
this.
Then I watched
this and somehow it managed to seem cool.
Then
this and
this. Good lord, look at the difference in animation quality. How does Evangelion
and Gundam Wing manage to look and sound better than Gundam Seed?
Then
this and
this.
And now I'm watching
this (and also look at
this in comparison to what's up there), and I've got to say, I feel incredibly old. I kind of miss the slower OPs where there was this emphasis on clean, slow movement--like
this. You can still tell the difference between CG and hand-drawn. They're starting to work on things like line weight, which is hella cool, but. . . I dunno, I'm feeling old and I miss some of the old character design directions, hokey as they may have been.