Forum - View topicDo you think the Anime golden era was between 88-98?
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cyberia_knight
 Posts: 14 |
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A Lot of greats were release during this time.
Dragonball Z Ranma 1/2 Neon Genesis Evangelion Rurouni Kenshin Tenchi Muyo! and the list goes on. What do you guys think? |
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The King of Harts
 Posts: 6712 Location: Mount Crawford, Virginia |
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I was actually thinking about this today.
I don't want to say I think 80's and 90's anime are better because it'll cause a shitstorm, but I do and will. I'm not dissing 00's anime when I say that (most my favorites are from this decade), but old school, hand drawn just makes me feel better when I watch it. I know that sounds weird, but even if it's a show I've never seen I get a strong feeling of nostalgia and that has to be one of the greatest feelings in the world. There hasn't been an oldie that I've watched that I didn't like or at least not make me feel happy. As I'm typing this out and thinking about it, I think a better way for me to phrase this is that I don't think oldies are better, but I like them more because of that happy feeling they give me. The Old School Fuzzies are a strong feeling indeed. EDIT: I think it should be known that I'm not some old timer longing for the old'n days. I've only been watching anime full time for less than two years. Last edited by The King of Harts on Thu Jan 21, 2010 6:12 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Blood-
 Bargain Hunter Posts: 23769 |
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...whereas I find the old school anime character designs and animation off-putting. Mind you, I am a recent anime convert and therefore have no nostalgic connection to the period in question. Doubtlessly, if I'm still an anime fan in decades hence, I'll be saying that the anime golden era was 2001 to 2010...
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Mushi-Man
 Posts: 1537 Location: KCMO |
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Short answer; no.
Long answer; no, because there have been plenty of great things released after this time period too. 99-now has had great anime titles like Gurren Lagann, Samurai Champloo, Paranoia Agent, Now and Then Here and There, all of Makoto Shinkai's feature films, Full Metal Alchemist, Darker Than Black, Soul Eater, Ghost in the Shell: SAC, Girl Who Leapt Through Time, Spirited Away, ext. These are all titles that have come out since 98 and are amazing. The list would have been longer but I'm just to lazy to type them all up. There hasn't been a decline in creativity or skill in anime production or anything like that, so I'm not sure how people keep getting this idea. I mean there was an OVA boom during the 90s but that should hardly be considered qualifications for the title of a "golden age". Maybe people think this because they see these titles as being "Old school" but that still doesn't do much for "golden". I love watching older anime, in fact I go out of my way to do this some times. But good anime is good anime no matter what time period it's from. A "golden age" would be eluding that it was a time of increased quality in the anime, but I have yet to see one era that sticks out above all others as being the best. They all have some good titles and some bad titles through out them. Also, the list of classic titles from 88-98 could also use Cowboy Bebop and Akira. |
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dtm42
Posts: 14084 Location: currently stalking my waifu |
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To me the most recent Golden Age of Anime occurred between the years of 1995 and 2005.
1995 Gave us Neon Genesis Evangelion - the first Anime to be discussed on the Internet as each episode came out - and also the Ghost in the Shell movie. Gundam Wing wasn't important at the time of its initial airing, but it would prove to very important once it got to America in 2000. Slayers also started this year. Basically, 1995 was the one where Anime came out of a six-year slump and regained vigour, starting off a new golden age. 1996 Vision of Escaflowne is possibly the most notable debutant, but it did pretty mediocre in Japan at the time. However, in time and overseas it would eventually play a much larger role. Rurouni Kenshin also debuts. Dragonball Z started airing in America, but didn't do so well. 1997 Can you say Pokemon? End of Evangelion? Princess Mononoke? Revolutionary Girl Utena? All of them notable titles, though for different reasons. The latter three proved that Anime isn't just for kids, while Pokemon would start a veritable empire. 1998 Another great year. Pokemon hit America, and Anime fandom overseas was never the same again. Dragonball Z started airing on Cartoon Network, and it too brought in a whole new generation of Anime fans. Cardcaptor Sakura began airing in this year, and we also saw the likes of "minor titles" like Serial Experiments Lain, Cowboy Bebop and freaking Trigun. Okay, not minor at all. 1999 Not such a great year, but still pretty good. Princess Mononoke reaches North America. One Piece, Digimon and Great Teacher Onizuka air for the first time. Samurai X: Trust and Betrayal comes out. 2000 InuYasha and Yu-Gi-Oh (2000 series) debut, Gundam Wing reaches Cartoon Network to huge buzz and even larger audiences, and Vision of Escaflowne is enjoying high sales in North America. With all the groundwork laid by Pokemon and Dragonball Z, it is shaping up to be a great time to be an Anime fan, both in Japan and overseas. I'm too lazy to keep on going, but, well. I'll finish it off if I ever get the time. |
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DuelLadyS
 Posts: 1705 Location: WA state |
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I think King of Harts summed up my thoughts pretty well. Blame on being a child of that era, watching the various cartoons that aired then... Japanese or not, there is a 'feel' to the material of the era (just as there is for any era.)
I think dtm's summary of anime circa 95-2000 probably marks the closest we have to a universal 'golden age', simply due to that being the peak period for popular anime. More than anything else, though, I think anime's simply too new to really pin down a proper 'golden age'... we haven't even had TV anime for 50 years yet. (Movies are older, but not very prevalent until about the same era.)They say hindsight is 20/20... and we're arent far enough ahead to be getting very good hindsight yet. Maybe in 50 more years, we can call a 'golden age'. |
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vision1
 Posts: 30 Location: Charlotte NC |
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I don't agree with an arbitrary date range
But 12+ year old anime is absolutely better- OR what I mean to say is that there was more good anime, per the number of films released, than there is today. There are some really breathtaking shows out there, from the last 5 years. No need to list them. Most fans are onto them and all will argue of which are deserving of the accolades "best". But I would move the needle back a few more years and say 1985-95 was the best time period. It was an era of great experimentation thanks to the OAV boom. It was the time that animation from Japan went global and not just obscure comic book stores in NY. It brought some of the biggest titles that are still influential. Back then, when you put in your vhs tape, stuff actually happened. Big, noisy, cool stuff. I feel like now we live in a world where everyone is a 14 year old girl with huge eyes and purple hair. I don't want to watch a show about kids being dumb in school. I want cool mecha, motorcycle gangs, wars, blood splattering. Women that look like women and not little girls in school uniforms. I dont know, it just seems like if you're into less sexualized and more exciting action and plotting, you're most likely going to go for an older title, pre-1995. Before the time when Burn Up, Steel Angel Kurumi, and Sailor Moon came along and destroyed the great Action Hero with two of my least favorite words: bishoujo and kawaii. Now even some of the mecha series' have this fetishized 'jiggle' thing going on. Substance has bled out of the genre. (Not that there weren't stupid shows in the 80s, there were, but guess what? THEY'VE BEEN FORGOTTEN BECAUSE THEY SUCKED- Get the point?) |
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walw6pK4Alo
 Posts: 9322 |
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Are you me? Those are the exact dates I'd have said, possibly even in 1984 to include DYRL, and ending it with Gundam Wing, EVA, and Super Atragon. This is definitely when anime was pumping out the majority of awesome OVAs and movies, and the focus wasn't at all on TV series as much except for a few long running exceptions. Even if I'm wrong, I do think that digital animation has made the animators as a whole more lazy and even more profit driven since they can pump out a crap show and focus more attention on the merchandise. Not to say that wasn't happening before, but now the shows themselves are inconsequential compared to the stuff that they make. And the OVA market is pretty much gone except for a few things here and there. But the fanservice thing has existed for a very long time. Gunbuster is show that started the breast bounce, and I still think it's one of the best things in anime, ever. I pick the late 80's and early 90's not for a few breakout shows, but because of the density of good shows. Every single year, or even season, is going to have at least one amazing anime to offer, but what matters more is the overall trend. Watching anime in 87-90 specifically would have been mindblowing for a mecha and sci-fi fan, 88 probably being the best year for anime ever. |
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Niomo
 Posts: 516 |
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I agree. And I too was thinking about this today. 2000-2009 was probably the best decade for great shows. Sure, each decade has some great gems, you can't deny that. But just with the increase in technology, and the ability to record and make character models look good, CGI, etc, the most recent decade was probably the best. |
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vision1
Posts: 30 Location: Charlotte NC |
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Absolutely, 1988 the best year.. no doubt. The guys at that blog Colony Drop which I occasionally read mark a section of their website in dedication to everything from that year. A lot of the great Buried Treasures are from '88, year of the Akira. Back when I was being introduced to anime in 1997-98, those were the shows that were considered the top ranking, and they were not even considered old then. With fanservice, well, the fanboys own the blame for popularizing it- but what happened to the character ages? And why all these school shows? Wading through the mountain of garbage like Spice and Wolf, Kiddy Grades, Dragonaut, Negima, and I blame Love Hina for starting it, I don't understand why anyone wants to watch this stuff. There was a time when something was considered great because it told a solid, moving story. Not because you simply thought its characters were cute. Maybe this is what angers me so much these days... and it's even worse when reviewers are desperately trying to find ways to explain how it's good.. like they have to say something positive otherwize they'd scare all the fans away; "wahey! I didn't see that ending coming! And the character designs were great at least!" The expectations are that low now. Probably because now, making this type of anime is much cheaper and it makes a fast buck for its creators. All the anime distributors like ADV, CPM, Pioneer, Bandai and Animeigo made their money in the 90s and early 2000s selling the stuff from 1985-95 that nobody had ever seen. When it finally went out of style, and they had to sell new shows, look what happened. Three of the companies I just mentioned are now gone. And one of them is barely hanging on. If the studios in Japan kept churning out blockbusters like Gunbuster, Akira, BGC, Macross, anime wouldn't be in the decline it's in... |
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dtm42
Posts: 14084 Location: currently stalking my waifu |
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Well, let me put it this way. If there was a golden age in the last two-and-a-bit decades, it would either have had to stop in the late eighties (like 1988 or 1989) or mid noughts (2005 or 2006). Those years are centred around definite events. Akira, released in 1988, was the most expensive Anime movie ever made till that point. Though it more than paid back its production costs (US$10m to make, grossed US$70m in Japan alone), it still marked the end of an Anime era. The collapsing of Japan's bubble economy probably had something to do with it too. And as we know, there was another crash of a different kind, when DVD sales started declining after about 2005. It took a few more years, but the number of new shows began to decline as well. The rise of digital fansubs obviously played a big part, but anyone who thinks that was the sole reason for lower DVD sales is dreaming. Although great titles are still being released (more per year than back in the nineties, I reckon), it still feels like we are in doom and gloom mode. Anyway, the point I was trying to make is that although it might be a tad hard to find out when a golden age started, the ending is almost always notable. At least when you are dealing with an economy or industry, that is. Yes, it took a while for The Simpsons fans to realise that season eight (possibly nine) was the last truly great season. But everyone knows when the stock market crashes (1929 ring any bells?). So I don't quite believe that it will take fifty years to figure out the dates for a golden age. Several years at the most after the event, to pin down the precise events and to postulate on the probable factors.
1995 was when Anime picked up again, so I totally disagree with that.
I used to believe that, until someone introduced me to the "GAINAX bounce". Mecha has been sexualised a lot longer than I had realised. The only difference nowadays is how much of it is being sexualised, and even more worryingly, the "fetishisation" of Mecha. Instead of having old-school fanservice we know have prepubescent girls (or at least girls who look that way) wearing skimpy costumes and fighting in giant robots. It makes me sick, honestly. |
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FaytLein
 Posts: 1260 Location: Williamsburg, VA |
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I view the entirety of the '80s as anime's golden age, not so much due to quality of programming, but due to the Japanese bubble economy going on at the time, which may not have produced extremely good anime, but laid the groundwork for the future successes we experience today.
It was the economic atmosphere going on then that allowed for many experimental anime, that allowed people to buck the system currently in place, and produce not only much better animation quality compared to earlier years, namely through the creation of the OVA, but allowed people outside of established circles to stake a claim in that environment, which would lead to an influx of new talent for future projects. The 80's might not have been the best time, but they were an IMPORTANT time, so they get my vote of "golden age" by proxy. |
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vision1
Posts: 30 Location: Charlotte NC |
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Well, to disagree is 100% your right, but just wait a sec- I was answering "golden age" more in the spirit of what the topic starter was suggesting, which was where he thought the best titles came from. He thought 1988-98, I thought 1985-95. This is not making any commentary on the economic health of the industry in general- which absolutely was in it's prime in the 1990s and early 2000s, for reasons as that I explained at the end of my last reply- the distribution of these 1985-95 shows (including Sailor Moon actually) across VHS and Television; and that once those fizzled out, the available current content was not as profitable. But again, it's just my opinion and I don't have the financial data nor the knowledge of volume sales to prove this. On the mecha and jiggle/fanservice thing, we seem to agree almost exactly- it's been around for awhile, but has increased in quantity; shows seem to be more reliant on it, and the apparent age of the characters has gone down. |
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PiercingArrow
 Posts: 193 |
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i would say that those year u mentioned was just the "Beginning of the Golden age of animes". This is what i believed. What inspired the animes today to be so epic? Thanks to the people who worked so hard in the past. i truly believe that animes will keep on developing in some ways in the near future.
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Randall Theil
 Posts: 10 |
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There might not be a qualitative difference between the eras, but I do think that each decade has had less creativity. This last decade has been the king of remakes, re-imaginings and throwbacks. |
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