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At the time, 80's anime was mind blowing for me, since it was novel and far different from any western animation. At that time, you would buy bootleg fansubbed VHS tapes from dedicated booths at western comic book conventions (anime conventions just weren't a thing here in the US yet). Things like Macross, Gundam, Bubblegum Crisis, etc. were really fun for me. When the movie Akira came out though, that's when I remember anime finally started to grab more than fringe attention in the west (outside of re-worked children's shows).
The 90's saw higher budget animation becoming more frequent, and actual licensed series becoming available through companies like AD Vision (later ADV), and this when I started exploring more genres. The 2000s is probably when I became most obsessed with Anime as both licensed and fansubbed anime became widely available. I feel like some of the better stories and tropes still used to this day came from this era. As we moved on into the era of including CGI into anime, the early integration of it was really jarring and I wasn't a fan, but most studios use it well now.
Looking back now at the older anime 80s anime really feels dated and is nowhere near the quality of modern expectations. The 90s was better, but still often feels dated. From the 2000s onward, I feel like the animation quality of most series holds up well against today's animation.