I’m going to sound like an old ass, hating, “In my day things were better” gruff but anime before it got popular was better. I feel it’s gotten a lot more corporate. Themes in anime have gotten so safe and Shonen has completely taken over all other catogories. I feel you don’t get the popularity of anime like cowboy bebop, Ghost in the Shell, or EVA today because there’s no marketable character mascots or easily digestible story telling. It reminds me of music in the 90s. LeSs experimentation and creativity and more “WE NEED TO BE ABLE TO SELL MERCHANDISE!”
That being said I acknowledge how much merchandise EVA sold so it’s not completely black and white
Stories are trope filled and unoriginal most of the time (there’s a few that seem like they try). The art is lazy. There used to be complex mature themes and now there’s like 5 madlibs used to pump out generic crap. I feel like the last one I saw that felt like classic anime was Knights of Sidonia
You know, what you’re describing is probably why I mostly stopped watching anime. I was very into '80s and '90s anime, and some of the early 2000s as well. But somehow it all gradually seemed to become more generic or repetitive as it became more popular. Stories used to be weirder. Which… Okay, modern anime is very weird. But it’s sort of predictably weird. Silly weird. That sort of thing. Anyway, it’s definitely changed a lot and I feel that, despite the increase in content and content availability, the variety of stories has decreased.
You put it better, but I actually was watching some anime today and so felt the need to chime in.
I’m going to sound like an old ass, hating, “In my day things were better” gruff but anime before it got popular was better. I feel it’s gotten a lot more corporate. Themes in anime have gotten so safe and Shonen has completely taken over all other catogories. I feel you don’t get the popularity of anime like cowboy bebop, Ghost in the Shell, or EVA today because there’s no marketable character mascots or easily digestible story telling. It reminds me of music in the 90s. LeSs experimentation and creativity and more “WE NEED TO BE ABLE TO SELL MERCHANDISE!”
That being said I acknowledge how much merchandise EVA sold so it’s not completely black and white
Better music too…
Agreed.
Stories are trope filled and unoriginal most of the time (there’s a few that seem like they try). The art is lazy. There used to be complex mature themes and now there’s like 5 madlibs used to pump out generic crap. I feel like the last one I saw that felt like classic anime was Knights of Sidonia
You know, what you’re describing is probably why I mostly stopped watching anime. I was very into '80s and '90s anime, and some of the early 2000s as well. But somehow it all gradually seemed to become more generic or repetitive as it became more popular. Stories used to be weirder. Which… Okay, modern anime is very weird. But it’s sort of predictably weird. Silly weird. That sort of thing. Anyway, it’s definitely changed a lot and I feel that, despite the increase in content and content availability, the variety of stories has decreased.
You put it better, but I actually was watching some anime today and so felt the need to chime in.