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Answerman - What If I No Longer Like My Old Favorite Shows?


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CatSword



Joined: 01 Jul 2014
Posts: 1489
PostPosted: Mon Feb 12, 2018 11:34 am Reply with quote
Luckily, I had pretty decent taste as a kid. My first shows such as Deltora Quest and Sgt. Frog have stood the test of time for me.

I am going to admit I started Rosario + Vampire in 7th grade, gave it an 8/10 on my old MAL, but never finished it. My score would be likely be much lower if I rewatched/finished it or now.
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mgosdin



Joined: 17 Jul 2011
Posts: 1302
Location: Kissimmee, Florida, USA
PostPosted: Mon Feb 12, 2018 11:41 am Reply with quote
Oh the old cartoons, I'm one of those people that Boomerang was created for. Scooby Doo, Archies, Bugs Bunny / Roadrunner and - yes - Wacky Races which I understand was more popular in Japan than US. Some of those hold up pretty good, others not so much. I've still got to pickup the Speed Racer boxed set, that is one that I looking forward to revisiting after 40 years.

Mark Gosdin
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MarshalBanana



Joined: 31 Aug 2014
Posts: 5296
PostPosted: Mon Feb 12, 2018 11:55 am Reply with quote
There used to be this show I watched a very long time ago, called The Animals of Farthing Wood. Recently I watched a few clips of it on YouTube. Now I can not remember all the animals being killed or it never registered with me.

Is the reverse possible? I do not know if I would like Digimon Tamers now, I hated it when it first came out.
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Hiroki not Takuya



Joined: 17 Apr 2012
Posts: 2501
PostPosted: Mon Feb 12, 2018 11:58 am Reply with quote
Another factor to consider is that how we receive shows also gets colored by our emotional state at the time. Little Norse Prince/Hols Prince of the Sun was very special to me as an 8yr old as it resonated with my emotional state at the time. It is arguably a technically very good show and important in anime history in general, but re-watching it after ~50 years it didn't affect me in anywhere near the same way, because I've changed emotionally. Even though I've seen vastly more anime content since then, I can see and recognize how good it was, so not every show you loved as a kid was loved because you were unsophisticated etc.
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Lord Oink



Joined: 06 Jul 2016
Posts: 876
PostPosted: Mon Feb 12, 2018 12:11 pm Reply with quote
This has never been a problem for me. I've always been able to notice or admit that the 4Kids TMNT was way better than the 80s one, or Beast Wars was better than G1 Transformers, or modern Pokemon is way better than the first series. I grew up in the 80s, but recogonize the 90s and early 2000s were the peak of American animation, and the 80s and 2010s were/are pretty terrible.
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Animegomaniac



Joined: 16 Feb 2012
Posts: 4070
PostPosted: Mon Feb 12, 2018 12:27 pm Reply with quote
The shows and movies I liked 30 and 40 years ago I still like today but I've always had really complex tastes. Also, it's less "my tastes changed as I grew up" and more "the world's tastes changed to accommodate me".

My favorite show growing up was the Real Ghostbusters and what I love about it back then... horror, comedy and the skill to do both well... I still love today. The Peanuts specials, the Garfield specials, lot of Looney Tunes, all still golden. My 90s anime? Still love them, from the Patlabor movies to the Slayers and Tenchi OVA and even Dragon Ball Z.

If anything, I have a better idea of why I loved them. Always have been a fan of giant monsters movies, always will be as the concept of scaling has always fascinated me from the idea of going down the street as a six year old to imagining what the edge of the universe really is in college.
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7jaws7



Joined: 17 Aug 2013
Posts: 704
Location: New York State
PostPosted: Mon Feb 12, 2018 12:38 pm Reply with quote
Recently I binged-watched a childhood favorite (in English) that helped ferment my anime fandom when I was a kid: it was an old yet vintage CLAMP title called Angelic Layer.

Even though it didn’t hold up as well as it did back then, it’s a big reason why I still enjoy many things today like CLAMP, shoujo titles in general, and Jessica Boone.

I am finding myself harder to enjoy things pre-2000, just because of how much more integrated we’ve become through the consumption of all kinds of media. Still, nostalgia is not a bad thing every once in a while.
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Lemonchest



Joined: 18 Mar 2015
Posts: 1771
PostPosted: Mon Feb 12, 2018 12:56 pm Reply with quote
It's not just time that changes things, but the way one consumes the media. Watching an episode of Pokemon once a week with friends/family & then playing the card game or game boy games is very different to being a grown ass adult aware they're watching a 20 year old kids cartoon in multi-episode blocks, with nothing but nostalgia & residual memories for company... I'm so lonely Crying or Very sad
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dark_bozu



Joined: 03 Sep 2012
Posts: 208
PostPosted: Mon Feb 12, 2018 1:05 pm Reply with quote
It's hard for me to comprehend this problem. I remember how Aria the Animation wallpapers caught my attention and I start to search this anime (it was 2006, I was 13 years old back then). Sadly, there weren't any possibility to find it (it wasn't even licensed in my country and I had dial-up internet at that time). But when I finally were able to watch it (2008, if I remember correctly), I falled in love with it. It's still my favorite anime, that I re-watch once in a year.

Speaking about popular series like DBZ, HxH, Card Captor Sakura, Utena, Initial D - I weren't able to watch it in my childhood, so I watched it while I was studing in university and enjoyed it despite being 22-23 years old. What I want to say - if anime is really good, it won't become bad later.
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Triltaison



Joined: 03 Jul 2011
Posts: 717
PostPosted: Mon Feb 12, 2018 1:13 pm Reply with quote
There's the reverse, too. Try watching something you hated as a kid or from a few years ago. I've found that a lot of things that just plain didn't appeal to me as a burgeoning fan have now become some of my favorites as an adult. Some shows I found dull simply got better when I got a few years older. I didn't much care for slower-moving fare as a youngster, but now I love that sort of atmosphere. Certain subject matter also hits a bit harder when you have a few years under your belt and that much more worldly understanding. War and political drama stories once used to bore me to tears, but now I can't get enough of that jazz.

Personally, I also love rewatching things as an adult and realizing "Oh, they're just ripping off Alien" or whatever movie. Since I was a kid that hadn't seen whatever movie yet, a lot of that was lost on me and I could enjoy the pale imitation with no problem. It was pretty amusing/delightful to realize that I loved the world of Blade Runner for over a decade before I ever saw it because I fell in love with all those '80s OVAs that "borrowed" its aesthetic/plot.
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Ouran High School Dropout



Joined: 28 Jun 2015
Posts: 440
Location: Somewhere in Massachusetts, USA
PostPosted: Mon Feb 12, 2018 1:13 pm Reply with quote
For an old-timer like me, it's going back and watching old '80s/'90s OVAs--very shocking, in-your-face, and above all, novel at the time, back when I was flush with excitement about this strange foreign medium that kicked butt and took names. I go back to them today and it hits me how badly animated--and written!--many of them truly were. Having said that, I still have a few sentimental favorites from those days, for whatever reason.

Last edited by Ouran High School Dropout on Mon Feb 12, 2018 1:16 pm; edited 1 time in total
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katscradle



Joined: 05 Jan 2013
Posts: 469
PostPosted: Mon Feb 12, 2018 1:14 pm Reply with quote
Justin pretty much said it all.
Change happens it’s not really something to be afraid of.
My tastes have changed from trying just about anything when I was younger to sticking to certain genres. I definitely do have less patience since I have less time and energy now. I’ve revisited some titles even while I still might like the genre (Outlanders is an example) and decided I just don’t care much about them. But those memories of discovery or friends you made in the process still stick around. There is no reason to feel bad or like you lost something. There will be things you’ll still care about or be energized with. One constant for me has been that I still love shows with magical girls or women. Sailor Moon, Cardcaptor Sakura, Creamy Mami, Minky Momo are classics to me. I should put Devil Hunter Yohko here too since that was one of the first anime I sought out on purpose. It doesn’t hurt me if they have some flaws. I found American shows again like Jem and the Holograms a few years back or She-Ra last year and still enjoyed those too. I know things were often tailored for merchandise since I had a load of the toys as a kid too, but I can still sit there and unwind and have some fun. Plus these days it seems like everything gets rebooted or revived or whatever because of nostalgia so new perspectives can be a good thing. It can’t ruin your childhood, really. And if you’re fortunate those years are only going to be a small part of your life.
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Alan45
Village Elder



Joined: 25 Aug 2010
Posts: 9812
Location: Virginia
PostPosted: Mon Feb 12, 2018 1:29 pm Reply with quote
Lets see, my first anime ever was Ranma 1/2 first season and the Oh My Goddess! OVA. These were followed by Bubblegum Crisis, the first Ghost in the Shell movie, Evangelion and the Tenchi Muyo first two OVAs. Most of those have held up fairly well as far as I can tell though I do have some reservations about EVA. Of course I was enough of an adult that my tastes haven't changed much in the last 20 years.

As to cartoons I saw when I was a kid, those were mostly recycled movie short features. I recognized those of being of varying quality even then. Lines of dancing animals with pipe cleaner limbs singing Ain't we got fun didn't do it for me even then. I did see a made for TV cartoon called Crusader Rabbit. I wonder if it is available anywhere.
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Parsifal24





PostPosted: Mon Feb 12, 2018 1:39 pm Reply with quote
I tend to not revisit series I liked when I was younger because it's too prohibitively expensive to get a hold of all of it. Or I know on reflection that it does not hold up to my memories of the series. I remember Dragon Ball Z less for the story and more for the fact that it was my first taste of the good and the bad of fan community.

Occasionally I'll buy something I've seen before just to have it in my collection like when I bought all the seasons of Ikki Tousen just to see all of it because I only finished half of season one. Although I will say revisiting Sekirei by reading the Manga feels like revisiting some strange the past that while fun has aged horribly.
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Ralph Snackshi



Joined: 27 Jan 2018
Posts: 23
PostPosted: Mon Feb 12, 2018 1:42 pm Reply with quote
I guess it all depends on where you are in your life and what kind of entertainment you're looking for/speaks to you at the time. Like Justin said, the best stories are the ones that stick with us throughout our lives. Some only stick with us for a short time and that's ok; it's not something to feel sad about. That being said, I worry about this happening to me as much as anyone else.

Thankfully the few times this has happened to me haven't been devastating, but rather a gradual understanding that my tastes have changed or matured. One example I can give is Rugrats, which was one of my favorite shows on Nickelodeon when I was a kid. Nowadays I find it pretty boring, but I can still see why kids enjoyed it and appreciate what it did for me at the time.

There have also been cases where I find myself liking a show for different reasons than I did in the past. The first anime I ever watched front to back was Urusei Yatsura, and while I still love it for its pure zaniness, I don't find myself rooting for Ataru and Lum's relationship as passionately as I did when I was 17.

And I won't lie, there are some things that I know in my adult brain don't hold up that I still love anyways. *cough* Kingdom Hearts *cough*
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