History Main / OriginalVideoAnimation

-->''"If you've never heard the term before, OVA is short for Original Video Animation, and refers to anime that were released straight to VHS and Laserdisc, usually one or two episodes at a time. These should not be confused with the American concept of straight-to-video animation -- cheap, lazy Creator/{{Disney}} sequels and stuff like that. [=OVAs=] were expensive, and made to get the most out of fancy home theater setups of their era. They sold at around 70 bucks per hour of content to a niche market of AV enthusiast otaku and video rental shops who craved quality first and foremost, quantity be damned. Where the vast majority of anime are designed to sell you some other product, be it books, figures, or [=CDs=], [=OVAs=] of this era were made mainly to sell themselves. It's the one period of anime industry history where the profitability of releases was more or less directly tied to their percieved quality, and that rare economic space was a playground for animators looking to flex their creative muscles and push artistic boundaries, particularly when it came to violence, sex, and the myriad ways in which they can interact."''

-->-- '''WebVideo/MothersBasement''', [[https://youtu.be/z9wyny0Ij-0?si=TwyTd9qUUZm-_yPh "Invincible and the Power of Cartoon Violence]]

* ''Anime/AmadaAnimeSeriesSuperMarioBros: The series was released on VHS in the 1980s.