I was apparently so caught in gaming and other distraction that I have forgotten this blog.
Well, to be honest, there is also the fandumb on the part of both anime veterans and new guys to the hobby. This is the kind of discussion that makes me sick.
As a veteran (remember I started watching them when I was 4 or 6 years old) I am of the opinion that we are way too harsh to the “new” anime. A lot are pointing fingers to moé as the single cause of the decline that seems to be ongoing. How is it different from the situation of the 1970s where Super Robot reigned supreme, or the 1980s where it was mostly sport anime? I mean, I can get tired of the always angry, always impatient and ALWAYS SHOUTING mecha pilot or the sport prodigy archetypes, they did annoy me at one point of my life as anime fan. I was always more fond of the monolithic badass of few words (like Kenshiro, Guts or The Man with No Name in Sergio Leone’s movies).
When I think about, I can think of two reasons, even tho they are not the sole reasons. Until over 10 years ago, we relied on our local importers and localizers for our anime fix. They chose for the local market and demand of the local public. I insist on the local part because every countries are fortunately not the same. As a result, USA anime fandom is not the same as those from Mexico, France, Spain, Italy, Singapore and Philipine, to name a few countries. So, while the importers gave us a choice, it was a limited choice that catered to the taste of the fandom of the moment. If sport anime is in, like because of a world cup or the olympics, one could expect more sport anime, otherwise it is the action shounen and the romcom shoujo.
It was more rare to see an anime catering to another kind of audience. Onii-sama e created a lot of shock among the french parents associations because of its homosexual tone, let’s not get started on Hokuto no Ken. So our choice was limited by what taste our education gave us and what the moral guardians allowed. In this time of broadband internet, the importers and the moral guardians hardly matters anymore, you have now the choice to watch ultraviolent anime (Elfen Lied) and what people calls girly moeshit (Aria) and anything in between.A single click and at the cost of HD space and free time, here you have the lastest episode of… Bleach, yeah an example. Yes guys, this anime the importers took so long to license, you have already seen it months or years before every “casuals”. Here, you can chuckle when your friends are telling you that Death Note is the shit, “Yeah, right, Slowpoke.” Now think about it, you now have the CHOICE. And you can see ALL the bad, with the mediocre, average, the good and the potential classic that people may talk about for the years to come. But you are seeing the bad, really and think to yourself, “What the fuck is this shit?”. You need to remember what I said about the importers. Yes, they filtered out the bad shit for thirty years, and sometimes some of the bad shit of the 1970-1990s does get through. Those are the series that are lying somewhere in a closet, shamefully hidden by the guys who licensed it and collecting dust, those are the anime that gets a few episodes aired before being pulled out of air because of poor reception. Like, “what was that anime about a new sport mixing baseball with football (what USA calls soccer)?” And you have forgotten the title, and it may be better that way because it was that bad. This is one of those anime that makes you feel lucky if you have never wasted your time with.
Now the second reason, the anime netsphere, be it forums, image boards or blogs. Before them, you relied on anime magazines. They told you what is bad and what is awesome, but not anymore. Why? Well, you can look at blogs or forums to have a hot reaction over the lastest episode of Bleach. It’s easier now to voice your opinion, and easier to be listened. The thing is that, one complains, followed by another one and another one. See where I am going? One can go to youtube and read the comments about music or movies. “Music/movies used to be better in the 1960s-1980s”. How can 1990s be bad when music give us The Cranberries, Radiohead and more, and when we got Pulp Fiction, The Crow and Se7en? How could 2000s be worse than 1980s and 1990s when you got Muse, Masterplan for music, and Shaun of the Dead, Lord of the Rings, Gladiator, Hot Fuzz for movies?
Now extend this to anime and can you see how the whole “Things used to be better in the *insert decade here*” have become laughable and disgusting to me?
I do have hope in the creative and entertainment industry of nowaday, and I want to. I am not just going to sit on my ass and cry over how more anime should be like *insertgreatclassic* here. I do want to be surprised, nicely, by the likes of Gungrave, Durararara and Bakemonogatari. And if it meant to have to roll my eyes over yet another harem anime/mecha anime/Generic Light Novel, fine. That would not stop me from trying to search for the diamond, I mean, afte all, you DO have to dig through dirt and shit to find some, right?
But the current problem I meet is when I tell that modern anime is not as bad as veterans makes it out to be, and name the series I mentioned, I get the “Yes, but…” answer. What I am supposed to answer? What those modern anime have to do or have to hope to live up the classics? I have yet to hear a compelling answer regarding why those classics are untouchable standards that everyone should bow to and never criticize. But until, all those reasons belongs to the subjective realm and are therefore not acceptable for me.
I may see myself as a veteran, but I think that veterans are just way too severe to modern anime. Especially when they forget that their classics were aired among rubbish too.
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