How has anime changed in your time?

[KaiyaSaysHaiya]

Considering that this is a forum, there are lots of people on here with such varied experiences when it comes to the anime world. There are new fans and old fans alike! I'm curious, how has anime changed in your time? This applies to anybody regardless of how long you've been interested. These changes could be anything from the anime community to actual content in anime itself. What have you noticed? Do you like these changes or not, and why is that? Do you wish you could go back to a different era, or do you enjoy how things stand now? How do you think anime will continue to change in the future?

Edited February 24 by KaiyaSaysHaiya

[zeriiiclaire]

I like the way it goes now like better animation fps quality color depths vibrant color and etc but it doesn't mean I like all new anime! For now I'm waiting the continuation or new season of my favorite animes. 

To answer the title of this thread maybe it enhanced my time management by giving time and sched for anime. 

[Jellal]

The animation is better now but I don't feel like they put half as much effort into anime as they used to. Since it's so popular now I feel like they just churn out anime left and right and it isn't that good anymore in character development or story line. There's a few good ones here and there, but overall it's nowhere near as good as it used to be to me.

[Animedragon]

I think the trend away from 24 episode series to 13 episode has had the effect of reducing story depth and character development. While there are exceptions to this I find that with a 13 episode series I'm just getting to know the characters and the story, then WAM it's over and only rarely is there a second season. 

[Eris]

9 hours ago, Jellal said:

The animation is better now but I don't feel like they put half as much effort into anime as they used to. Since it's so popular now I feel like they just churn out anime left and right and it isn't that good anymore in character development or story line. There's a few good ones here and there, but overall it's nowhere near as good as it used to be to me.

5 hours ago, Animedragon said:

I think the trend away from 24 episode series to 13 episode has had the effect of reducing story depth and character development. While there are exceptions to this I find that with a 13 episode series I'm just getting to know the characters and the story, then WAM it's over and only rarely is there a second season. 

Those 2 really summed up my feelings about how it's changed. Animes used to be longer, have some depth, and good character development. Whereas now it just seems like they try to hurry up and mass produce them as fast as possible in hopes it'll be a hit and they'll get a lot of money. 

A lot of storylines give me a feeling of "haven't I already seen this just with different characters in a different anime"? because everything is the same in a lot of the genres. Don't get me wrong I do think there are still some worthwhile new ones being made it's just not how it was for me. 

[Zeta 001 星]

Anime wasn't that popular outside Japan so they didn't try to appeal to everyone , the stories and characters had more depth in older animes while allot of new animes are fast paced and focus more on animation less  depth and are generally very short ,  what i noticed too is some genres died or are fading away slowly like idols , racing , mecha  in favor of other genres like shonen action isekai.

i remember watching Megazone23 ova during pandemic  and i was blown away from how good the characters and story and animation are for the 80's.... we are not having ova or movies like that anymore now 

[Sarada]

There's much more to choose from now than when I was a kid. Maybe it's because it's more accessible but I could only watch what anime was on tv back then unless I convinced my mom to let me rent a DVD from the library. When I started watching it when I was 7 or 8 it was 2012-2013 and I don't remember being able to stream it on the computer the way you can now. Not that I even had unsupervised access to the computer then :v 

It's more mainstream too.. More people like it at my age than they did back then so I can talk with more people about anime and that changes the experience for me because you have friends to share it with. I hope it stays popular so more and more people get interested and we have that many more to chat with about it. 

[froggy]

Something that I noticed was how people talk about anime. When I was in middle school, it was not good to talk about anime. It was a little creepy... My whole family watched it tho, and I got jokingly called a weeabo by them. But it was never something I would bring up at school. 

I have a distinct memory in 6th grade. I wore a hidden leaf pin on my backpack, and no one thought twice about it. Only one boy recognized it, and it was a shock! 

Nowadays, when I bring up anime, people are much more inclined to say that they watch anime then not! I've had two interactions with coworkers that can help explain this. First is a highschooler, I brought up that I like it in convo, then she says "oh ya! I love anime! I watched MHA in covid"   How can you say u love that anime when it was completed after 2020.... or my 27 yr old coworker who keeps trying to flirt with me... very badly. He said something along the lines of, "I watched invincible..." INVINCIBLE ISN'T EVEN ANIME! 

It more sociable-ly correct to lie and say u like anime? That 27 yr old coworker eventually just gave up and said he doesn't like anime, after I said that its ok to not prefer watching it.... Its very strange how much watching anime has changed in terms of pop culture and social media. Ever since 2020, I've noticed a community of anime watchers that look down on overt anime nerds, like anime t-shirt wearing, dakimura plush, or even fat people. And in the comments its all about how much of a chud there are, or gem alert... Like now there's a hierarchy to enjoy anime, that somehow being a subtle fan is better than loving loud and proud. Or that a community that loves extrovert-ly, is autistic and unsociable. 

All in all, what I'm really trying to get across is that sometimes as someone who didn't have much friends, and now does. I feel a little bit like an animal in a zoo for it. Like I'm not weird in a quirky cutesy girly way. I'm just a weird anime lover, I think thats better than trying to act cool? Liking anime isn't about being cool anyways. 

[Shinzi]

When I was younger and in high school back in the early 2000's only the "nerds" liked anime and talking about it or watching it instantly made you one of the weird kids so I had to hide the fact that I liked anime. I've noticed these days that isn't an issue and it's considered mainstream and lots of people watch it, you don't automatically get beat up by someone for watching it anymore. 

4 hours ago, froggy said:

Nowadays, when I bring up anime, people are much more inclined to say that they watch anime then not! 

This right here is the same for me ^ I have several interactions with people who also have saw something anime themed I have on and say something like "cool shirt dude" or will start talking about the anime even if I don't know them so it seems to be something of a conversation starter anymore. 

[Ohayotaku]

I remember a time when most anime on American tv could be broadly categorized as science fiction, though divided into various other subgenres: Space Opera (Star Blazers), Giant and/or Combining Robots (Tranzor Z, Voltron), Alien Invasion (Battle of the Planets), Mecha (Robotech).

I remember a time when many isekai protagonists were female (and I don’t mean the Villainess archetype). Examples: Magic Knight Rayearth, Fushigi Yuugi & Vision of Escaflowne.

I remember a time when you only got 2 or 3 episodes of anime on a VHS tape, it cost $20-$35 & you had to wait a minimum of 2 months for the next tape. Now people complain if an episode isn’t available 2 hours after it was broadcast in Japan and around $10/month for all you can watch is too expensive.

A more recent trend, more anime are choosing to adapt arcs via movies instead of new seasons. And even when there is a new season, there’s an early theatrical release of the first couple episodes. And an increasing number of these movies get American releases. And not just popular shonen. For example, a couple years ago I saw the 2nd & 3rd Rascal Does Not Dream movies (sequels to Bunnygirl-senpai) at a cinema & I’m seeing Uma Musume: Beginning of a New Era at the movies this weekend. And I’m not living somewhere trendy like California or New York (SW OH )

Yes, there are way too many cut & paste isekai, OP MC & harem building series being made, but you also have series like the currently airing Journal With Witch (that I mentioned in the What Are You Watching topic) that I doubt would have been made in the past.

Edited February 26 by Ohayotaku

[Zariel]

A lot of the same reasons I'd say are already listed. It was always easy for me to talk about anime with other kids in school because nearly everyone watched it.. my older cousins told me before they were jealous of that because it wasn't popular when they were in school and didn't have anyone to talk about it with. The 1 thing I can say for sure for me is merch is easy to get now. When I was a kid (8, 9, 10 years old) I only saw anime merch at special shops at the mall like Game Stop or FYE but now I see it everywhere. I can even go in Walmart and find anime t-shirts so that's cool. 

[Ohayotaku]

24 minutes ago, Zariel said:

The 1 thing I can say for sure for me is merch is easy to get now. When I was a kid (8, 9, 10 years old) I only saw anime merch at special shops at the mall like Game Stop or FYE but now I see it everywhere. I can even go in Walmart and find anime t-shirts so that's cool. 

When I’m out grocery shopping or running other errands, I‘ve been noticing an increasing number of cars with anime window decals, bumper stickers or other accessories (like a jeep I saw with a Bakugo spare tire cover on the back)

Edited February 26 by Ohayotaku

[Zariel]

5 minutes ago, Ohayotaku said:

When I’m out grocery shopping or running other errands, I‘ve been noticing an increasing number of cars with anime window decals, bumper stickers or other accessories (like a jeep I saw with a Bakugo spare tire cover on the back)

My dad has One Piece stickers on the back of his truck and my mom has a sailor moon bobble head, plushie, car air freshener, and some stickers on the back of her car and even a sailor moon steering wheel cover. I don't have anything in my car yet but I recently was looking at some seat covers I was thinking about getting one of them for mine:

Spoiler

 

I guess the internet has made finding anime merch really easy for about anything you can think of. 

[Sasuke]

On 2/25/2026 at 11:15 PM, Zariel said:

My dad has One Piece stickers on the back of his truck and my mom has a sailor moon bobble head, plushie, car air freshener, and some stickers on the back of her car and even a sailor moon steering wheel cover. I don't have anything in my car yet but I recently was looking at some seat covers I was thinking about getting one of them for mine:

  Reveal hidden contents

 

I guess the internet has made finding anime merch really easy for about anything you can think of. 

I didn't know they made those for cars, that would be cool to have. 
There is a lot more anime merch nowadays than I remember as a kid. You can get just about any product you can think of with anime characters on it. You could probably decorate your entire house from top to bottom and when I was little I just remember there being plushies, Keychain, bags, and a very few other odd things. 

[Shinzi]

On 2/25/2026 at 10:36 PM, Zariel said:

A lot of the same reasons I'd say are already listed. It was always easy for me to talk about anime with other kids in school because nearly everyone watched it.. my older cousins told me before they were jealous of that because it wasn't popular when they were in school and didn't have anyone to talk about it with. The 1 thing I can say for sure for me is merch is easy to get now. When I was a kid (8, 9, 10 years old) I only saw anime merch at special shops at the mall like Game Stop or FYE but now I see it everywhere. I can even go in Walmart and find anime t-shirts so that's cool. 

Good point, there is a lot available now and it's nice. 

[Zeref]

I notice that the animation has changed a lot but sometimes I'm not sure that has been for the better in the way I see it. I liked a lot of the older styles better than what some of the more modern are. 

A lot more of them too as some said. There's no shortage of anime to watch when before I was just limited to what was on TV now there are hundreds I can access. 

[Moxie]

I don't know exactly, I am just enjoying. 

[KookyKonata]

One major thing I've noticed is the way that you actually obtain anime. I really began getting into anime (when I found out it was anime and not just cartoons) in 2003, and it was right at the start of the early 2000s anime "boom". 

I remember back then going to Best Buy, Sam Goody, and Suncoast Video and spending hours looking through the anime DVDs, finding different shows that you might not have heard of from the community at the time and just enjoying "the hunt". Anime DVDs were also pretty different, too. Whole seasons were pretty rare back then, too. Typically, you would see a show sell DVDs with only 3 or 4 episodes on it, but each DVD would have some interesting side content like a commentary with the voice actors, concept art, or some other random stuff. The problem, though, was that each DVD was around $20 to $30, meaning your longer shows, like Fullmetal Alchemist '03, could cost an upward of $300 to $350 for the full series compared to around $50 nowadays. There were pirate sites back then, but I was a dumb teen and didn't really have a computer until about 5 years later, so I didn't partake until much later. Anime took a bit of a nose dive around 2010-2013, and it was reflected in stores's selections around that time. Things got pretty tough to find, and it just wasn't as fun as it used to be. 

Turn to today, anime got another big boom around 2020, so things are bigger than ever. However, the way that we access it has changed drastically. Nowadays, you can't go to Best Buy to buy anime DVDs or Blurays anymore, they are more of an internet order type thing or a specialty store. You could buy a little bit of the more famous stuff at Walmart or Target, but its not anywhere near the same as it used to be. Now everyone streams their stuff on places like Crunchyroll, Netflix, or Hidive, and don't actually own anything. While it's more convenient, I feel that you aren't likely to pick out or stuck with any new shows. There is no real commitment, and people wind up missing some possible hidden gems. I will say, though, that the manga section in book stores is absolutely fantastic right now, though! 

[Clayton]

When I was young, we used to think Pokemon was just another "cartoon". Just like Sonic the Hedgehog. Ah but the art work, the effects... I remember before they used CGI. 

 

 

 

 

 

[tsumi]

My first anime was Fairy Tail, and I liked the manga even more in second grade. I made the mistake of being super open about it, but when my classmates caught a glimpse of one of the manga pages I was reading (I believe it was Mira in a bikini or something) and it just so happened to be one of those fan service pages, I was bullied for it for the following years of my life, and this resulted to me not telling a soul about my interests from that day on (but that was probably my fault since I was reading something like that in the public in school).

 

anyway, all I can say is that many people have a more positive view on anime(?) and people who do enjoy anime are no longer more often considered weirdos/otakus as they were b4.