To celebrate the enormous variety that science fiction (both Western and Japanese) has to offer, a group of amateur animators came together to create 8mm anime shorts to present at a sci-fi convention known as DAICON. DAICON stands for "Osaka Convention," with "dai" being an alternate reading for the first character in "Osaka." Their first short, entitled DAICON III Opening Animation premiered at the 1981 convention, and its sequel, DAICON IV Opening Animation was shown at the 1983 convention.
Conventions like these are the root of otaku culture, these particular events actually pre-dating the term "otaku" itself. Popular anime titles often took inspiration from existing science fiction works found in other parts of the world (Mobile Suit Gundam for example was based on the 1951 novel Starship Troopers). In these videos, we are treated to seeing both Japanese and American science fiction titles placed side by side, particularly in DAICON IV.