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How has Anime Changed?


Hmzzz

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So Anime has been around for ages now. There have been new shows coming in every year. However, naturally, anime has significantly changed in the past decade or so. There are many changes that have occurred. So in your opinion, how has anime changed? Do you still enjoy anime? What things do you like/dislike about anime now?

We decided to make a video on this topic if you are interested in our opinion.

 

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Personally I feel that anime has slightly degraded over the years, where many studios are opting for cheap thrills to sell titles versus meaningful storylines. They've seem to take a cookie cutter approach to production values using garbage source material which was clearly produced in order to boost sales. This results in quick profits but no long term viability and can actually cause some people to migrate away from anime thus reducing sales substantially. I'm not saying all studios are like this, nor are all titles relative junk, but the majority are. When one has to look at a hundred turds to find the gem, eventually they'll stop looking.  

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The problems come when other groups - such as advertisers - insert themselves between the fans and the creators and start distorting the story.  In the worst case (a lot of network TV for example) the shows are pretty much created for the advertisers as a means of pushing their products.  As a result a lot of situations and characters are off-limits because they would alienate the advertisers.  Even if they might make for good stories or be popular with the fans, the prospect of advertisers not buying the show means they don't happen.  You can also get things inserted or manipulated for artificial reasons.  Think Jar-Jar or ewoks in SW just to appeal to a certain demographic and sell more tickets.

There will always be sellouts.  The thing I like about anime is that it is one of the few media where it is still possible for there to be a relatively small separation between the producers and the fans.  Books are also like this.  Small-scale cinema is getting back to it now that equipment and other costs of production are falling.  The author of a book still (mostly) has control over what goes into the finished product.  In fact, in the case of books a single person can even still make a living writing, producing, and distributing a story all by themselves.  Sometimes that's not a good thing if the writer is crap.  :)  But it does mean that the overall vision can be delivered more or less intact to the reader, for better or worse.  The bigger the production the more "executive producers", beancounters, and other non-creatives get a say.  More meddling means more distortion, and the worse the outcome tends to be.  This is true of all media.  Anime is no exception.

Like (sf writer) Theodore Sturgeon once said, "90% of everything is crap".  The trick is to find the other 10%, and judge the industry/media/genre on that.  On that basis I think anime is still doing just fine.

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On 2/13/2018 at 9:07 PM, efaardvark said:

Jar-Jar

On that note, and slightly off topic but hey...ADD...my personal belief was that Jar-Jar was actually a sith. ¬¬

 

On 2/13/2018 at 9:07 PM, efaardvark said:

The author of a book still (mostly) has control over what goes into the finished product.  In fact, in the case of books a single person can even still make a living writing, producing, and distributing a story all by themselves.  Sometimes that's not a good thing if the writer is crap.  :)  But it does mean that the overall vision can be delivered more or less intact to the reader, for better or worse.  The bigger the production the more "executive producers", beancounters, and other non-creatives get a say.  More meddling means more distortion, and the worse the outcome tends to be.  This is true of all media.  Anime is no exception.

Couldn't agree with that more. I enjoy a story that the writer/author has control over much better than one that has been chopped, edited or changed by everyone who didn't write the story. 

Then there are trends which will come and go and influence media as they do. 

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I feel like a lot of the original animes were, as their names suggest, original. Many of the animes coming out now, whether intentional or not, just lack the originality that many of the older animes carried and can be very predictable. I do think that overall though anime has changed for the better over the years. The quality of the art, animation, and dubbed voice acting is usually much better than it used to be. I also feel like I can connect with most of the characters better in newer animes because they're usually more realistic in the way they act and feel (but I guess that depends cause some are totally not!) Also I like newer animes just for the fact that they're up to date on modern things. I don't know if it's just me, but for some weird reason I hate seeing flip phones used in animes and other shows. It's really weird, I know! But every time I see one I'm like AHHHH GET A SMARTPHONE!!! 

I think the best animes probably came out from 2003-present even if the early 2000's did still have flip phones lol 

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Hm, well for me, I got bored of anime a few years ago...but not just anime a lot of things. Anyway, imo, I feel some anime is just too flashy now...but maybe it's my age too. I'm still mostly drawn to 70s - 90s stuff.

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More anime is being created at a rapid pace so you get a lot of garbage coming out and good ones at the same time. The stories feel like they're cut from the same material too which is annoying at times.... Or you get anime based on light novels but dont pursue finishing the series.

In addition to all this, animators and their companies receive more money from merchandise since people just watch online nowadays. There is also a debate on whether anime should be on sites like kissanime/gogo because the animators are not making money (but free advertising).

I can guarantee that there is more good anime out than before, its just when you are churning out more theres bound to be more garbage out there as well as the good stuff.

Edited by HydrateStandby
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Anime hasn't changed. They've been using the same tropes so often for so many decades, that we've been trained to praise anything that deviates from the tropes even a little bit until that deviation becomes the norm, and we have to wait for that cycle to repeat. The only other anime that get popular are ones that reach fame because of people who are new to anime liking something and not knowing a better version of it exists, and they refusing to watch the better version when that's pointed out, like SAO as an example. This is a cycle that's been repeated for years and will continue to be for many more as that cycle repeats because anime doesn't change. It doesn't grow with it's medium, and the best shows from the 70's to early 2000's have already come and gone, so we continue to repeat the cycle of mediocrity. It's quite a sad state for the medium to be in. If there are any changes to anime, it's in the films, be they stand alone or not, because they do deviate and change far more often than shows ever try to.   

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