Depends. Some of them had episodes that were completely separate from one another, but yeah, most were completely serialized, as I think the '80s was when adapting Anime from Manga became a big thing.Wasnt most anime (even in the 80s) more serialized as opposed to the more episodic feel of most 80s cartoons? That may have been problematic as if someone misses some episodes they may get confused (this was before streaming, or even dvd collections of shows), and while the VCR could have solved that problem, one had to still make sure to set the timer to record it.