So I just finished watching Golden Boy (1995), since I was curious about it and was very often recommended on various lists of retro anime to watch. It turns out that the show is obnoxiously horny, reaching "I can't believe it's not Hentai" levels in Episode 5 and that the show revolves around this seemingly incompetent dude that basically thinks with his genitals and always ends up getting the girl. The comedy is also basically 90% sexual and with such a setup, you can't really expect much else than objectification of women.
The animation quality is neat and the ED song is catchy though. 5,5/10
The above description might sound familiar if you've watched Great Teacher Onizuka (1999), which is similar in concept, except it includes a pretty good story and interesting characters. Unfortunately, it also is obnoxiously horny (which makes it creepier than Golden Boy due to the setting of GTO), is very ableist towards one of the students of Onizuka's to the point where episodes centered around them become unwatchable if you have a single ounce of liberatory ideology in your head and the show has some really bad filler episodes.
7/10? Sure. 8,69/10, like the MAL rating says? No chance in hell.
I don't really have examples of underrated shows or manga that are noteworthy enough to warrant me complaining about unfortunately.
Yeah iirc Tomino was depressed when he was writing it and it shows, it's pretty bleak but it does a fantastic job humanizing it's cast and really capturing the hell of war. The mobile suits are great as well and feel like the logical progression of the technology that late into the universal century.
As I understand it, Tomino has been struggling with depression since the 1980s, and it shows even in Zeta Gundam. By 1993, it reached dangerous levels iirc.
Turn A is after he sought out professional help, and it shows. Post-meds Tomino somehow turned into a Miyazaki-like lover of beauty and humanity apparently lol.
Didn't know it was that bad. Zeta is fantastic too, love the narrative of the earth federation turning into genocidal fascists and the zeon remnants becoming the new opposition, real grey show on morality.