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G-Force and Robotech were revolutionary in the animation world, and mind-blowing to those of us raised in the '70s and '80s. Well before CG, the "camera" in those shows could do things we'd never seen before: A long shot of battling spaceships would suddenly zoom in on one craft, bringing us inside the cockpit and coming to focus right on the pilot's eyeball, his widening pupils reflecting explosions.

And the aesthetic was so distinct. Insanely detailed line-dense drawings, though the lines themselves were never crisp, looked to be hand-drawn with a blotting pen; the shading was never achieved by smooth gradations but by abrupt juxtapositions of solid colors; the low framerates called on our juvenile minds to fill in the animation blanks, coloring in how a tumbling spaceship managed to flip and soar across the screen in just a few frames.

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UK-based Paul Michael Johnson was apparently a student of these shows. The talented animator has spent nearly half a decade creating this TIE Fighter short that completely nails the '80s anime aesthetic, right down to the sound design and the wailing electric guitars. It has to be seen to be believed:

Johnson, who goes by the handle MightyOtaking on Deviant Art, has spent his weekends for the past four years drawing and animating the project. It was a complete labor of love, and as he writes:

Don't support me on Patreon, because I don't have one! And don't donate to my Kickstarter, because I don't have one of those either. Instead, if you enjoyed this, give someone at your workplace, uni, school or whatever a random bar of chocolate or can or Coke or something. Seriously, it'll probably make their day. That would totally make my day.

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