I didn't watch a lot of cartoons in the 80s, mainly because my parents strictly regulated what and how much I (and my four brothers, of course) were watching. Of a lot of them I merely caught glimpses at friends' houses, like He-Man, BraveStarr, Real Ghostbusters, or TMNT. Some I only saw as toys, like Dino Riders or MASK. Some of those I rediscovered as an adult, but a lot of them are a real slog to get through nowadays. Some I really appreciate for their basic concept potential rather than the actual cartoons. He-Man, BraveStarr and Dino Riders could be fantastic movies (if done right, of course).
What I was allowed to watch was the Hanna Barbera adaptation of the Lucky Luke comics:
And the Disney cartoons, like DuckTales, Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers, Gummi Bears, and they kind of mixed with the 90s ones like TaleSpin and Darkwing Duck (still my favorite).
I watched Space Battleship Yamato as an adult, though English fansubs of the original Japanese version, and that was a 70s show, so I wouldn't count it.
One Japanese show that actually was from the 80s I discovered and became a huge fan of as a kid (though it was in the 90s) was Cat's Eye (which apparently didn't air in North America until 2007):
It's a show about three sisters who run a café by day, but by night are high profile art thieves known as the Cats, with Hitomi aka Cat's Eye as their leader. The art they steal, however, is all the creation of their long lost father, and they steal the items in the hopes to discover clues as to what happened to him and where he is now.
The detective who is leading the Cat's Eye investigation just so happens to be Hitomi's fiancé, though he swore to only marry her after he caught Cat's Eye (a wonderful vehicle for drama).
What I was allowed to watch was the Hanna Barbera adaptation of the Lucky Luke comics:
And the Disney cartoons, like DuckTales, Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers, Gummi Bears, and they kind of mixed with the 90s ones like TaleSpin and Darkwing Duck (still my favorite).
I watched Space Battleship Yamato as an adult, though English fansubs of the original Japanese version, and that was a 70s show, so I wouldn't count it.
One Japanese show that actually was from the 80s I discovered and became a huge fan of as a kid (though it was in the 90s) was Cat's Eye (which apparently didn't air in North America until 2007):
It's a show about three sisters who run a café by day, but by night are high profile art thieves known as the Cats, with Hitomi aka Cat's Eye as their leader. The art they steal, however, is all the creation of their long lost father, and they steal the items in the hopes to discover clues as to what happened to him and where he is now.
The detective who is leading the Cat's Eye investigation just so happens to be Hitomi's fiancé, though he swore to only marry her after he caught Cat's Eye (a wonderful vehicle for drama).