Sunrise Academic Certification Course
Anime
The intent of this stack is to provide a complete history of Sunrise animation in a single course, meant to fit inside the framework of a 3 credit class with an expectation of 90 hours of out-of-class material over the period of a 15 week semester.
Adaptions of manga, or novels will be mostly excluded unless the creators themselves worked at Sunrise like in the case of Dunbine, or Arion. This means extremely notable, and historically important series, such as Cyborg 009, Ultraman, City Hunter, Inuyasha, Planetes, Sgt. Frog, and Gintama will all be excluded, despite the critical artistic contribution of this works on Sunrise's style. A truly dedicated academic would, at the minimum, watch some of the City Hunter, Inuyasha, Sgt Frog and Gintama side content since they were incredibly important on influencing Sunrise studio direction.
This course would ideally be taken alongside a thrice per week hour long lecture, breaking down the lineage of Sunrise's works, and how they influenced one another to build what we have today. As a result, there may be a series you feel is critical, or exceptionally great, but it will be excluded in favor of discussing the series role and relationship to the studio due to the limitations watching long form weekly series made for weekly broadcast. Sunrise is unique in that many of their major series have movies, or OVAs that summarize or recap the main franchise to give viewers a soft entry to understanding the work. However, there are of course serious works like Giant Gorg, Vifam, Pazer World Galient, Ronin Warriors, Jushin Liger, the entirety of the critically influencial Brave Series, most alternative Gundam series (which would be left to their own "Gundam" course), Garasaki, Infinite Ryvius, s-CRY-ed, Big O, Tiger & Bunny or even Love, Live! that would be discussed in class even if they aren't going to be watched.
This is a developing experiment, so please contact me if you have any suggestions, or questions.
Adaptions of manga, or novels will be mostly excluded unless the creators themselves worked at Sunrise like in the case of Dunbine, or Arion. This means extremely notable, and historically important series, such as Cyborg 009, Ultraman, City Hunter, Inuyasha, Planetes, Sgt. Frog, and Gintama will all be excluded, despite the critical artistic contribution of this works on Sunrise's style. A truly dedicated academic would, at the minimum, watch some of the City Hunter, Inuyasha, Sgt Frog and Gintama side content since they were incredibly important on influencing Sunrise studio direction.
This course would ideally be taken alongside a thrice per week hour long lecture, breaking down the lineage of Sunrise's works, and how they influenced one another to build what we have today. As a result, there may be a series you feel is critical, or exceptionally great, but it will be excluded in favor of discussing the series role and relationship to the studio due to the limitations watching long form weekly series made for weekly broadcast. Sunrise is unique in that many of their major series have movies, or OVAs that summarize or recap the main franchise to give viewers a soft entry to understanding the work. However, there are of course serious works like Giant Gorg, Vifam, Pazer World Galient, Ronin Warriors, Jushin Liger, the entirety of the critically influencial Brave Series, most alternative Gundam series (which would be left to their own "Gundam" course), Garasaki, Infinite Ryvius, s-CRY-ed, Big O, Tiger & Bunny or even Love, Live! that would be discussed in class even if they aren't going to be watched.
This is a developing experiment, so please contact me if you have any suggestions, or questions.
![Seisenshi Dunbine](https://cdn.myanimelist.net/images/anime/1562/94955.jpg)
TV, 1983,
49 eps
Me:-
Author:9
Week 2 Class 3 Watch if you have the time, but it adds +20% more, or about 20 hours. I might personally edit a recap. Extra Credit.
![Seisenshi Dunbine Memorial](https://cdn.myanimelist.net/images/anime/2/55405.jpg)
Special, 1988,
3 eps
Me:-
Author:-
This appears to be unavailable online, but should be watched as a quicker version of Dunbine.
![Kidou Senshi Zeta Gundam](https://cdn.myanimelist.net/images/anime/6/11153.jpg)
TV, 1985,
50 eps
Me:-
Author:10
Watch the full series, or the movies if you are lazy
![Juusenki L-Gaim II: Farewell My Lovely + Pentagona Dolls](https://cdn.myanimelist.net/images/anime/1119/94289.jpg)
OVA, 1987,
1 ep
Me:-
Author:2
Week 7 Class 1
![Soukou Kihei Votoms: Red Shoulder Document - Yabou no Roots](https://cdn.myanimelist.net/images/anime/5/24535.jpg)
OVA, 1988,
1 ep
Me:-
Author:-
Week 8 Class 3
![Kidou Senshi Gundam 0083: Stardust Memory](https://cdn.myanimelist.net/images/anime/13/26654.jpg)
OVA, 1991,
13 eps
Me:-
Author:8
Series preferable, but the movie is for the lazy and essentially acceptable.
![Kidou Butouden G Gundam](https://cdn.myanimelist.net/images/anime/1187/133654.jpg)
TV, 1994,
49 eps
Me:-
Author:-
Optional and historically important (+20% longer, 20 hours) Extra Credit.
![Shin Kidou Senki Gundam Wing](https://cdn.myanimelist.net/images/anime/1884/114414.jpg)
TV, 1995,
49 eps
Me:-
Author:-
Optional and historically important, watch if you have the time (+20% longer, 20 hours) Extra Credit.
![Shin Kidou Senki Gundam Wing: Endless Waltz Tokubetsu-hen](https://cdn.myanimelist.net/images/anime/1907/139447.jpg)
Movie, 1998,
1 ep
Me:-
Author:-
Optional and historically important, watch if you have the time. Extra Credit.
![Seihou Bukyou Outlaw Star](https://cdn.myanimelist.net/images/anime/7/28848.jpg)
TV, 1998,
24 eps
Me:-
Author:-
One of Sunrise's best series, and quite an important one, but takes about 10 hours extra to watch, or a week and a day worth of class time, so we will be forced to skip this one. Extra Credit.
![Cowboy Bebop](https://cdn.myanimelist.net/images/anime/4/19644.jpg)
TV, 1998,
26 eps
Me:-
Author:10
Week 11 Class 3, Week 12 Class 1+2 Lynchpin in Sunrise's animation history and arguably the most important directional shift in animation ever created. A culmination of decades of Sunrise's work that requires an entire week dedicated to watching.
![Code Geass: Hangyaku no Lelouch](https://cdn.myanimelist.net/images/anime/1032/135088.jpg)
TV, 2006,
25 eps
Me:-
Author:8
Another critical work in Sunrise's history, but an extremely long series. As a result, the OVA summary version will "technically" be placed here, but the full series is a much watch, and the extra time should be dedicated to watching.
![Code Geass: Hangyaku no Lelouch Special Edition - Black Rebellion](https://cdn.myanimelist.net/images/anime/6/23532.jpg)
OVA, 2008,
1 ep
Me:-
Author:-
Week 13 Class 1
![Code Geass: Hangyaku no Lelouch R2](https://cdn.myanimelist.net/images/anime/1088/135089.jpg)
TV, 2008,
25 eps
Me:-
Author:8
Realistically, in 30-50 years it is highly unlikely anyone has the time, or cares enough, to watch all 50 episodes, and thus the summaries are essentially sufficient to understand Sunrise even if they aren't the preferred way to consume Code Geass.
![Code Geass: Hangyaku no Lelouch R2 Special Edition - Zero Requiem](https://cdn.myanimelist.net/images/anime/7/15968.jpg)
OVA, 2009,
1 ep
Me:-
Author:-
Week 13 Class 2
![Soukou Kihei Votoms: Pailsen Files](https://cdn.myanimelist.net/images/anime/4/5264.jpg)
OVA, 2007,
12 eps
Me:-
Author:-
Yet again another series that is a tad to long to watch, but preferable to the summary movie. However, to save time the movie can be watched instead unless one particularly enjoys Votoms.
![Kidou Senshi Gundam: Suisei no Majo](https://cdn.myanimelist.net/images/anime/1440/127624.jpg)
TV, 2022,
12 eps
Me:-
Author:-
Extra Credit, and the future of Sunrise.