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How's anime changed?


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The title pretty much says it. In what way do you think anime has changed?

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There are the obvious changes of the art styles getting different because of different technology and more people working on it. But I also think it has changed in quite a few other ways. Two things I've noticed is that in the last decade or so there seem to be more LGBT characters (or it is more accepted than in 80s/90s anime) and more fan-service for female viewers. Of course DBZ had a lot of guys without shirts, but I think that the main goal there was to show how strong they are, and not necessarily appeal to women.

It also seems, but I might be wrong, that there seem to be more shorter anime than before? Maybe it's just that I forgot most of the short anime of before 2000 though.

What have you noticed, and what do you think of this change?

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I have to say it's the art style that I really noticed. I mean take a look at Fullmetal Alchemist compared to Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood. From what I've read by the creators (from FMA & FMAB) was that more and more anime is becoming digital rather than paper and pencil which is why the art looks different. It's what they did with Brotherhood. 

 

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You can also see that the art is a lot clearer because of the switch from pencil and paper to digital art. I still personally like the older anime style but am still amazed by how dramatic it has changed over the years. I believe I finally started noticing it when I rewatched the original FMA then FMA Brotherhood. The outlines of the characters are cleaner, the eyes have more depth to them, the colors are a lot more vibrant and the character's movements are a lot more smooth as well. 

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I do prefer the old style. I'm not saying one is 'better' than the other, they just give off a different vibe. The old style looked more 'homey' in a way, maybe because they were drawn and you could in a way see and understand how it was made. The newer styles looks more professional and with that cleaner like you guys have said.

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I much prefer the older art style. This new hd-ifyng gives off a weird 3d but not 3d look that I just can't get behind. That grainy look from the older stuff is the bees knees.

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I can’t say I prefer one over the other in every instance. 

For example, The sketchy artwork of the older anime does make for some nice looking characters- I really prefer the drawn style rather than the purely digital style. I prefer a little muddle to my depictions when I myself draw.

However, when it comes to portraying action scenes or sports scenes, the difference is really phenomenal in the quality you’d get from more current, digitally rendered images over the old style of a few sketches put together.

Take Slam Dunk for instance

F4D75011-81C8-4F20-885E-228D7C6992A7.thumb.jpeg.9e39a8099898a7c03f8a351f5cc354ea.jpeg it originally aired in 1996 and shares a similar art style to Yuu Yuu Hakusho, the characters all look really cool 😎 But when you see a basketball scene, the images are very muddled, you can’t get the exact detail of what moves are going on. This is probably due to the fact that older anime used fewer drawings per scene, and of course none of it was strictly digitally drawn.

Now compare that to Haikyuu!

53A19B82-C46C-45A5-A26A-3685826A966B.thumb.jpeg.f5df5e890b1b1bb0e6a8a2a0e9e58e25.jpegWhich is a modern (2014) sports anime, and benefits of animation technology have been around for a few years by then. The characters are crisp, though they still manage to retain their sketchy charm. The big difference is in the Volleyball matches. Every move is shown in detail, nothing is muddled, you don’t have to guess what’s going on. And it makes the action that much more amazing. I’ve heard it explained that due to our new animation technology (and probably funding) that more detail is able to be given in each episode. This was harder to do in the 90’s, but certain advances have saved time and money and have enabled a much higher quality rendering of animation.

You can see the same thing happen with the OG DBZ fight scenes. When you watch a newer martial arts anime and their moves are clearly shown, then go back and watch fighting from DBZ, it’s almost lol worthy - much of it is just muddled kicks and punches and guesswork as to what actually happened. Compare that to the awesome fighting in HSD Kenichi or Hajime no Ippo, and you’d see how much of a difference there is.

All in all, they both have their differences and charm. But as we move forward, I can say I enjoy the detail that I can get out of newer anime.

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On 5/13/2019 at 3:01 AM, Illusion of Terra said:

It also seems, but I might be wrong, that there seem to be more shorter anime than before? Maybe it's just that I forgot most of the short anime of before 2000 though.

 

Aside from the art style in which a previous posters have already discussed, I agree that the average episode length nowadays seem to be 13.

When back in 2005 or so it was 24 - 26 episodes. So yeah anime has gotten shorter.

And there are more anime released nowadays. I checked Wikipedia.

And in 2018 there were 198 anime released. (Not counting OVAs or ONAs or movies)

In 2005 there were 32 anime released. (Not counting OVAs or movies)

Whether more anime released every year is good or bad I think is debatable.

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9 hours ago, Ryan Dave Jimenez said:

And there are more anime released nowadays. I checked Wikipedia.

And in 2018 there were 198 anime released. (Not counting OVAs or ONAs or movies)

In 2005 there were 32 anime released. (Not counting OVAs or movies)

Whether more anime released every year is good or bad I think is debatable.

Back in 05-09 the seasonal releases were so small, as you said roughly 30 new anime, I wasn’t able to get into many new anime at the time, sometimes waiting years for a new anime that I actually wanted to watch.

It seems that now that there are far more per season that I can get into. So I’m thankful for the change.

Also wanted to point out that Dub has gotten far better for anime since the 90’s...

I am watching Slam Dunk in dub right now and the voice actors are making it seem like half the characters are mentally challenged 🤣

What could be cool (and I’m sure in Japanese it does sound cool, because I’ve watched anime so long I can tell by the sort of facial expressions the characters are making how they were meant to sound) just gets dubbed so poorly that it makes it REALLY lame. It’s funny to watch still, so I’m just going to keep it on.

However, for most current dubs, I’m guessing voice actors are getting more seasoned, because they aren’t bad like this.

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@Seshi I agree about dubbing getting better, but watching some of the old dubs is hilarious and something special in its own way 😂

What I don't like about some of the current release schedules is something like My Hero Academia for which you have to wait a year or so to release a new season. Maybe it was worse in the 90s or 2000s but at that time I got an episode a day or week on TV, after they finished the season in Japan and dubbed it. Going from watching all seasons in a row, 1 episode a week/day to waiting a year was quite an adjustment 😂

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Technically all forms of media are a product of their time. Once upon time we relied on newspaper companies to deliver news, and now we relay on youtubers, or websites. Even Apple has a service now. Though one form of animation that is truly a product of its time is animation, and anime is by no means a exception to this rule. Things like culture, art styles, and even plot struture all change with the tome, or perhaps more accurately are aliened with the time period in which they are made. 

In the case of anime in particular I think overall attention span has shortened primarily for viewers. As a result we are now seeing much shorter series, and much more series releasing per season. The internet, and social media along with forums like this one certainly helped this, but it is just a product of our online culture. I think also now days quality has delectably decreased, but then that is largely a matter of opinion. It all comes down to what a individual likes. Overall I do think the anime world/fandom has become far better then it once was. There is also the fact that anime, and even JRPGs, and VNs have become far more excepted and mainstreamed in the west then they were even 5 years ago. I'd personally expect that to continue to grow. As such though that will influence anime, and manga to adept other aspects along with other cultures into their stories far more so then before. This is something we all should expect in the years to come.

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