This Week in Anime

Anti-Nostalgia

Coop
After going through last week's Isekai rundown and occasionally peeking into this season's preview guide, I was hit with a wave of "Am I too old for these shows?" A handful of our colleagues appeared to have the same idea, particularly in regards to this season's shonen heavy hitter, Gachiakuta.

All of this started to make me wonder: "What are some shows we've grown out of over the years?" Because I'll tell you this, Lucas, my preferences as a 31-year-old differ a fair bit from my tastes as a teenager. Minus a little overlap here and there.

Before we dive into the pit, it's worth mentioning that it is perfectly normal to have shifting feelings on any work—regardless of the field you work in. The series I found myself revisiting for this week's column were favorites of mine at one point or another. It's very much a classic case of "It's not you, it's me" when it comes to these titles.

Ga-Rei: Zero is a series that comes to mind right away for me. In the distant year of 2008, I'd discovered the series shortly after receiving my very first laptop for Christmas. I remember being thrilled by ingenious trick setup and the heartbreaking puzzle box of a tragedy that accompanies it. But after coming back to Ga-Rei: Zero for the first time in over fifteen years, I couldn't help but focus more on the cracks at play.

The puzzle box nature of the series' plot (primarily the twist opening that I'll refrain from spoiling) made it hard for me to reinvest myself into the story being presented. I know all the tricks, and my time away didn't exactly dull that knowledge. Additionally, Ga-Rei: Zero meanders for a while with "Yomi and Kagura fight the monster of the week" plots in its early stages before really getting into the meat of what initially made it memorable for me. The heart of this show lies in the tragedy that befalls these demon-slaying sisters, but the gag-esque supporting cast and some of the narrative pitfalls dull that momentum. But on a positive note, Ga-Rei: Zero could be seen as something of a stepping stone for director Ei Aoki's tragic magnum opus, Fate/Zero. Funny how "Zero" is in the title of these and another one of his works, Aldnoah.Zero.

Reminds me that I should check out Aoki's latest series, OVERTAKE! I've heard nothing but good things about it.

This one is definitely of its time... But, I'd say less than it's aged poorly, and more that I've realized that Ga-Rei: Zero's strongest elements (primarily the relationship between Yomi and Kagura) become a load-bearing beam that strains under the weight of additional cruft. I've made a point of treading lightly around the twists because I think this series might very well be worth checking out (perhaps academically) for those aforementioned strengths. However, it speaks volumes that I bought the recent Blu-ray release only to sell it afterward. That's not something I do often with physical media.

As far as puzzle boxes go, I don't mind them... After all, I do love me some Danganronpa

I'm right there with you, although I was a bit more of a GX kid myself. I'd chatted with Chris about that back when we covered a whole toy aisle's worth of product-focused kids' cartoons. Though I do wonder... As a fellow kid who probably spent way too much on cardboard, did you ever get the card of all cards? The very card Seto Kaiba would throw everything away to have three of?

You can't believe how frenzied I was about collecting every Elemental Hero I could get my hands on... It turned me into a Green-Eyes White Uncle. Which reminds me of another toy-based title that I found myself struggling to return to—Beyblade .

My love for Beyblading has been well documented in this column and social media, but returning to the show that sparked that initial love was rough. As I've mentioned before, watching the latest episode of Beyblade on ABC Family was all a part of my before-school morning ritual as a grade schooler. Flash-forward to a year ago and I figure "Oh, I'm getting back into Beyblades and the show's officially on YouTube! Why not?" Well, that Nelvana dub did not age well.

Also, Tyson, my man... Cutting apart two rip cords and gluing them together is a great way to quickly trash two rip cords AND the launchers they came with! I swear... I had this exact conversation with Beyblade X manga letterer Brandon Bovia not all that long ago. Probably right before we did this...

I finally ran into @brandonbovia.bsky.social again, so you know we had to let it rip

[image or embed]

— Coop (@riderstrike.bsky.social) May 24, 2025 at 6:53 AM

And yes, we drew a crowd.

Dude, that guitar riff near the very end kicks so much booty.

I want to say I fell off somewhere around the Ruby and Sapphire era. But you brought up some good food for thought about the budgets these product-focused series have to work with. Some might be flush with that card game money while others have to make do with what they're given in the case of Beyblade. And even though the modern incarnations of these toy vehicles aren't my bag of cats today, there's nothing like having your young nephew randomly call you in the middle of the day to tell you just how cool the cartoon he's watching is.

With many of these shows available for free, I can see plenty of them being just thrown on in the background to keep today's kids occupied before dinner. Perhaps as a more direct form of turning on the TV after school, like we did. Makes me feel old even though we're both pretty young, still in the grand scheme of it all. Just as official streams started to take off in the late aughts, I remember watching pretty much whatever I could get my hands on. I'd imagine that's probably the same case for teens today, though they're not hard up for choice at all. It's overwhelming how many series are available at times.

When it comes to my relationship with modern shonen titles, I find that I gravitate to titles that dabble in the spirit of what I grew up with, but wryly imply that they've grown up a little in execution as well. Dragon Quest: The Adventure of Dai would probably have to be my favorite example of that. The series tells a grand story, but realizes there are a few tweaks it has to make. Ain't nobody got time for a one-hundred-and-something episode series these days. Then again, there's a bit of my proclivities for the old in there. While Dragon Quest might pull on some nostalgic strings, I have a fondness for older titles that either worked within an earlier version of the anime production machine or completely outside it.

While many audiences may greatly resonate with these modern titles, they can come off as "the latest product" to me at times. That's a feeling I held way before I ever started writing about cartoons. However, if a title like Gachiakuta can truly grasp someone's heartstrings, that's still amazing! It just goes to show that I have my proclivities. For what it's worth, I can see how people relate to the series; I'm just tired of stories about young guys filled with nothing but piss and vinegar. That's part of why I've struggled to ever return to Attack on Titan past the mid-point of season one.

I generally agree with you, but let me tell you a little story. Back in 2016, I saw the School of Rock musical on Broadway as part of a field studies trip for my degree. I didn't dislike the show, but I didn't exactly love it either. It was as we were filing out of the auditorium that my professor, a Broadway veteran, told me, "There's got to be shows for kids, too." While not exactly 1:1 to our current conversation, I believe part of this sentiment can be applied to it. The amazing edgy entry points that we laud to this day are fantastic (and worth getting around to), but teens and college-aged viewers want titles they can call their own—not their mom's, their uncle's, or anyone else's.

I can understand wanting to have something you can completely call your own, even if it's far from perfect. That just might be what pulled us both toward anime in the first place.

Just you wait, the ANN executive editor of 2045 is most likely in grade school right now...and probably in absolute love with Pokémon: Horizons.

And as long as the anime flame keeps on burning for generations to come, I can't complain about that.