Forum - View topicDo they still make them like they used to?
|
Goto page 1, 2 Next |
| Author | Message | ||
|---|---|---|---|
|
siegdubhy
Posts: 2 |
|
||
|
Hi, I'm gonna rant a while...
I've been watching a lot of anime back in the day... Most of what I've seen was pretty awesome, there was a lot of originality, a lot of serious/mature content, pretty much everything was unique... That was the 90s, maybe early 2000s... Then it gradually started going sideways... I've struggled to find anything new to watch. Pretty much everything I've tried felt generic... Series started being filled with silly/annoying female characters, usually spending half their screen time screaming at everything (same with male characters usually). Even though they had some moments, the awesomeness concentration didn't feel high enough... Often the first few episodes didn't even give me an idea what the heck the serie is going to be about and so I just gave up... And then in 2010 (after FMA Brotherhood finished) I just stopped watching anime (excluding Naruto)... Occasionally trying something new just to give up half-way through ep1, because it was either way too weird/heavy (or just felt boring because of it's seriousness, which usually means long stretches of silence) or too chaotic/generic/random/pointless. Recently I stumbled upon Utawarerumono False Faces (first series is in my top 5 sooooo I was intrigued)... Oh the disappointment... most episodes were utterly pointless, characters felt shallow and even more pointless (some of those episodes would make for fun bonus eps, like with series 1)... it did get better towards the end so I will most likely return for S2. So, I am kinda wondering if they still make animes that: - are not filled with females/kids - are original - the premise is outlined early on - are not chaotic/filled with randomness - don't have weak comedy content forcefully shoved in - are not overly weird - stick to a few subgenres at most (harem slice of life drama mystery sci-fi fantasy comedy - is way too many crammed together) - are prefferably finished (as in THE END, no open ending, no cliffhangers, no cancellations) For reference, what I considered great back in the day were series like: FMAs, Evangelion, Utawarerumono, Monster, Terra E, Dot-Hack, Higurashi, Slayers (despite all the screaming the characters were enjoyable and the humor was very decent), Mnemosyne, My Hime/Otome (despite all-girl cast...) I also liked typical shounen series as long as they were finished with a definite ending... So... Am I just very unlucky when selecting random things to watch or is there simply nothing that will quench my thirst? Should I try something specific or just start rewatching everything I have? tl;dr Are there any new animes that can compare in quality and originality to the ones from the 90s or the early 2000s? |
|||
|
|||
Alan45
 Village Elder Posts: 9840 Location: Virginia |
|
||
|
siegdubhy wrote:
Normally my response to such a request is that they are making so many different series that you should be able to find one or two each season you would like. However, in light of the detailed very broad list of limitations, I'm going to go out on a limb here as say No they are no longer making anything you would watch as you are simply too picky. You need to do some work yourself. Read the preview guide or last season's reviews or stream some random anime from Crunchyroll or Funimation then make your own decisions. |
|||
|
|||
Beltane70
 Posts: 3885 |
|
||
|
Anime pretty much tends to run into trends quite frequently. The 70s had quite a large number of super robot mecha shows with a pretty good sprinkling of space opera and a few shoujo titles sprinkled here and there. 80s anime continued a lot of the trends from the 70s with mecha shows adding the newer real robot genre. The late 80s and early 90s started to see a decline in mecha shows and more of what you see today started to become more frequent.
I didn't see the 90s and early 00s as being all that different from what I was seeing as a child growing up in the 70s and 80s. |
|||
|
|||
Joe Carpenter
 Posts: 503 |
|
||
|
I see a lot of cynicism about entertainment going around in the modern day, a lot of people have the attitude that "music sucks now" or "movies suck now" or even "video games suck now"
But while I feel like there's a grain of truth to some of those ideas, to be honest I feel like anime has, for the most part, been pretty consistent, I mean that's not to say everything that comes out is great, but that's never been the case, there's good stuff and bad stuff same as any era, while trends come and go and anime is very different today than it was in the past, different doesn't mean bad. |
|||
|
|||
|
Key
Moderator
 Posts: 18187 Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley) |
|
||
Did you notice that virtually every title you mentioned violated at least one (and usually multiple) of those standards you mentioned? As someone who's been following anime since the late '80s, I can assure you that titles are still being made every year which can match the quality and originality of the '90s and early 2000s, if not exceed them. We see this complaint often, but it's a case of cherry-picking; there was still an awful lot of dreck being produced in those eras, too, but it just didn't all make its way across the Pacific like it does now. One recent example that I think would fit your bill would be One Punch Man, a very different take on the super-hero genre which was one of the most highly-regarded series of 2015. To use other examples from last year alone, there's not really anything else out there like Maria the Virgin Witch, and Death Parade was also highly-regarded. Yatterman Night was also a surprisingly good series with a great concept. Go back just a little farther and you have Amagi Brilliant Park, a genuinely funny series with a (dare I say it?) brilliant premise, or Monthly Girls' Nozaki-kun. And I'm leaving out several series here that are high-quality entries but conspicuously violate one or more of your rules. (One example is School-Live!, which has the all-girls thing against it. If you do try it out, though, you absolutely must watch completely through the end of the first episode or otherwise you won't appreciate that what it appears to be doing isn't actually what it's really doing.) |
|||
|
|||
DuskyPredator
 Posts: 15462 Location: Brisbane, Australia |
|
||
|
One thing you might need to be aware of is that you could be a bit influenced by nostalgia bias, that because those shows were something you watched during a certain period of your time that they are more meaningful. There are trends where different things become more prevalent, but there are a large variety of things to watch, many of them may take you just finding something you can enjoy in them.
You mentioned Dot-Hack, what is in it that you think you might like? The video game fantasy world setting has practically become a genre. You have the stuck in a virtual reality world anime Sword Art Online, harem aspects included. If you want an MMO fantasy where there is more thinking and talking involved, you have Log Horizon. If you want the serious melodrama of misfits with video game like mechanics, you have Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash. Although being the same genre, they do tend to have they are pretty original in their own ways, although maybe there are other reasons you liked it. Similarly you mentioned Evangelion, why is it something you like? Is it the giant robots? There are still a lot of giant robot anime that do their own thing, like Argevollen, Gargantia, Knights of Sidonia, Muv-Luv, Valvrave, and Heavy Object. Or perhaps it is because it was a bit of a deconstruction, in which case you have to accept a bit of weirdness for the symbolism, the most famous fairly recent one was Madoka Magica which similarly deconstructed the magical girl genre, but there others, another was of what Key mentioned of School-Live. Asking if they are still made like they used to. Two great things about dot-Hack and My-HIme was its music, that produced by Yuki Kajiura, and she similarly worked great in shows I mentioned above like Sword Art Online and Madoka Magica. Good shows are still being made around the same level and arts on the whole are improving, but your tastes might really have changed despite still liking those shows you liked before. You might enjoy more mature series like Shōwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjū, or be interested in something introspective of the industry of Shirobako, or a single father (figure) story of Usagi Drop, or who knows what. Really it is going to be Impossible to with certainty look at what you like, what you think like you don't like now, and tell you the sort of thing you are going to actually enjoy. Honestly, half the time I cannot pick what I am going to enjoy, because I tend to actually be surprised. I started watching Kill la Kill thinking that it is being too crazy/random, that its animation was of low quality, that it was using dirty tricks like breasts to shamelessly sell itself and kind of being disrespectful to its characters. Now Kill la Kill is one of my favourite series as I caught on that all of its crazy elements were intentional, that paired with its unique use of animation that it was actually very well put together and aspects that seemed shameless there was a respect to the character types. I really could not see myself liking it, but I found myself finding something after watching a little bit. My brother often falls out of being find out something he likes, but it can be pretty surprising that I told him to check out something he thinks is a little weird and end up enjoying it quite a bit. Chances are he won't like shows that he used to like that there was a show similar to it that he still talks about being a fan of because it was early in his viewing, but will find something new. |
|||
|
|||
Hikari14
 Posts: 1040 |
|
||
|
I'd recommend Baccano! in earnest
|
|||
|
|||
Touma
 Posts: 2651 Location: Colorado, USA |
|
||
It is not just the modern day. I have been seeing the same thing for over 50 years, and what I have read makes me believe that it has been happening for as long as there has been entertainment. My personal philosophy: They don't make 'em like they used to, but then again they never did. and: The good old days were more old than good. As for current anime, due to my personal circumstances I have not watched anything that has been made in the last few years. But from what I have been reading it certainly seems like there should be something for everybody. |
|||
|
|||
Cyberd1
 Posts: 106 |
|
||
|
First my condolences. I have been watching anime longer than you have (first US airing of Astro Boy on a B&W TV with only 3 channels) and frankly everything has been done to death, if your criteria is if it is original or not you can just stop watching anime all together.
What matters is the story, everything in the anime can be a rehash of everything before it but if the story is told well I can watch it and ignore that which has been done to death. But if your are stuck I am sure that you have missed a lot of the 70's & 80's anime like: Dirty Pair Kikou Ryohei Mellowlink Soukou Kihei VOTOMS MD Geist RAMA 1/2 Galaxy Express 999 Space Pirate Captain Harlock to name a few Some more resent: Rurouni Kenshin Tenchi Muyo Ryo Ohki Enban Oujo Valkyrie Shura no Toki: Age of Chaos Mōretsu Pirates Well happy hunting, but unless you change your mindset you will just have to stop watching anime. |
|||
|
|||
|
Errinundra
Moderator
 Posts: 6525 Location: Melbourne, Oz |
|
||
|
I think the problem with being an anime fan today isn't the quality of the content but the effect created by the medium we use to access it. There is so much anime available via streaming that watching it no longer has the cachet of being for the initiated only. All new anime is easily available, therefore no new anime is important. Anyone can watch it, therefore nobody is the possessor of esoterica. We risk becoming consumers instead of keepers of the flame.
There's no way I'd go back to the old ways, but there's a price to pay. Last edited by Errinundra on Fri Jul 08, 2016 9:27 pm; edited 1 time in total |
|||
|
|||
|
Alan45
Village Elder Posts: 9840 Location: Virginia |
|
||
|
@Errinundra
I think you are on to something here. Back when I got my first computer, Windows 3.1 was just becoming common. It was obvious that some of the people who used DOS based computers were upset. What they learned to do with substantial effort and time we were doing by simply pointing and clicking. When I got into anime in the late 1990s it was expensive and it was difficult to keep up with what was coming out. In most cases we saw what was licensed a couple of years later. Now we get most of it immediately. I wouldn't go back. It occurred to me after I posted this that some of our more obsessive collectors, those that import from other regions or from Japan, those extremely critical of any commercial release or who buy the legal release and watch fansubs are trying to restore or retain that feeling of knowing or having something others don't. We seem to have lost our original poster. 
Last edited by Alan45 on Thu Jul 07, 2016 8:51 am; edited 1 time in total |
|||
|
|||
|
Touma
Posts: 2651 Location: Colorado, USA |
|
||
|
@Errinundra
I have never had that "I watch anime therefore I am special" mentality, but now that you mention it I can see how some people might be thinking that way. And it might account for some of the differences of opinion I sometimes have with others here. More to the point here it could explain why some people are getting disillusioned, if that is the right word. |
|||
|
|||
|
Animegomaniac
Posts: 4082 |
|
||
I would say the problem- and there is a problem- is that anime isn't being vetted these days. It isn't that what we're getting is bad compared to past shows- which were the cream of the crop in the first place- but we're getting it even before the company who's making it knows it good. When was the last show licensed that the licensing company knew what they were getting 100%... that anime viewers cared about... that wasn't a license rescue? "OMG, they licensed that" is very rare, usually it's more "why did they license that? Who wants that?" Also, we're not getting shows or even adaptations of fully realized concepts, we're mostly getting commercials for mediums we may not even care about, like light novels and mobile games, not the best breeding ground for lasting products. Every now and then, when the stars align, we get a show with a beginning and an ending but it turns out to be Oriemo. Or it could be Toradora. Or Shakugan no Shana. Or Hellsing... I hated the OVA series from the first episode but it has its fans and it is complete...or so I guess, I'm not going to watch the last few episodes to find out as I was already had enough with the first 8. In other words, toss a coin to find out if you'll like the ending you get. But those are the rarities. If it's a early manga series, ongoing manga series, a one season adaptation of a LN series or based on a non story video game then you can figure out ahead of time that the show will usually bail on you. Even anime original shows are not immune to this because it's hard to make a sequel out of a complete story so companies are better off not doing one. So do they still make them liked they used to? Yes. It's just harder to find them because every year, more and more get licensed every year, plus more and more get made every year. But here's the ultimate truth: It's a medium, not a genre. You have to do more work yourself to find the stuff you like. You can't take other people's suggestions as being your kind of anime. And when you find the shows you do like, do searches about director, writer and possibly company- but only as a last resort; I think of them more as mercenaries than anything else- in order to find more shows that have the potential to be as desirable. I found a number of great shows I never would have known about otherwise. Also, try everything with an open mind. Last edited by Animegomaniac on Thu Jul 07, 2016 10:23 am; edited 1 time in total |
|||
|
|||
|
Cyberd1
Posts: 106 |
|
||
Amen! Never want to go back having to go to cons and watch them on film or waiting 6+ months to buy the next 3 episodes. |
|||
|
|||
|
xyz
Posts: 243 |
|
||
|
I'm not a fan of anime from 70 and older but I think anime during 1980-2010 are the best. And after that things went downhill and I haven't seen anything impressing. They're all around the mediocre range.
|
|||
|
|||
 |
All times are GMT - 5 Hours |
|
|
|
Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2005 phpBB Group