Why modern anime sucks nowadays?

[Skykid]

Highschool of the Dead

I saw some art for this that I always thought looked cool, so I'll check this out next. Any particular episode or shall I just start from the top?

Thanks again.

[xris]

Start from the beginning, it moves rather quickly, and is only 12 episodes.

[devilmanozzy]

Start from the beginning, it moves rather quickly, and is only 12 episodes.

Only 12 episodes.... Sounds watchable. I'll have to get see it then.

[LtC]

Just finished this.

Yeah, it's horrible. I actually hate the character designs. Yuck. When did the Japanese forget how to draw?! Perhaps it's just flash that's totally soulless (it's so clean), but every character is a derivative of every RPG ever made. Even Yuffie made it in as the "25 year old midget" who was basically pedo fan service as she asked her squad leader "did I do well? Am I a good little girl? Will you pat me on the head because I'm 25 but look like I'm 12?"

What was good were the mecha scenes - to its credit the animation here was excellent. Unfortunately the CG backgrounds are disgusting for the most part and each battle was basically wedged between 20 minutes of flaccid soap opera guff between cardboard cutout characters spouting the same shit about being battle worthy, doing well, overcoming the odds etc, but they all look like they belong in a bed together licking each others pointy chins.

Really not for me, there must be better examples than this?

I like anime, particularly (but not exclusively) sci-fi. Stuff that takes you places. Ideas that are bursting with imagination to the point where there doesn't even need to be dialogue, it's just a visual feast.

Is there anything nowadays like that?

I'm welcoming any other examples. I don't like to sit here and talk stuff down if there really are fine examples of modern anime I haven't seen, so I'm willing to watch whatever you got. Just no more Broken Blade pls.

That's just how it is today, as sad as it is. Silly otaku pandering is almost everywhere in recent stuff, and in this case it was still extremely tame. Can't really think of any recent (Read; past year or two or so) that doesn't really do this. Mecha are being replaced with little girls and it's sad how it actually sells.

Animations and CG are the same. Watch VOTOMS (80ies TV series) and compare it to the most recent (2010 Fall, Case Irvine) and you can see the same phenomenon.

I can't really stand to watch any of the more recent stuff.

[Obiwanshinobi]

I want recommendations!

If 2007 (the year anime ran out of steam a bit in my opinion) counts as modern, I suggest Darker than Black and Seirei no Moribito. Neither is the very top drawer material (DtB comes close in places), but both are quite entertaining and Seirei no Moribito displays western influences in its manner of storytelling.
The only NEW (2007) actually GREAT thing I can think of would be 5 Centimeters Per Second (just watch the first part streamed online before the lot was out and make of it what you will).
Furthermore, (although it really belongs to my favourite 2001-2006 period, it's still alive and kicking), I couldn't recommend Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuuutsu enough. By this I mean the old DTV-rip hard-subbed by [a.f.k.], (none of the DVD or Blu-ray extended releases) in the original airing order. Do not dismiss it because of the über-generic artwork and quite confusing first episode (embarrassingly big share of internet people failed to realise it was a spoof). It's one of those shows difficult to pimp. Most credit-worthy stuff of the decade.

[Skykid]

5 Centimeters Per Second

That's the second recommendation for this now, so after High School I'll give it a look in.

I know of Haruhi of course (she's everywhere) but never saw the series. 2001-2006 is pretty old stuff now by todays standards, so I'm assuming no-one except for Apple Arcade and cstle actually think they make any decent anime currently? (As in 2011-2012?)

[Obiwanshinobi]

Well, I wouldn't call K-On! and Lucky Star "bad", but this kind of stuff is about to bite its own arse. Whether peeping at daily lives of girls on the threshold of adulthood is your thing or not, there's no fresh blood to it. I can enjoy films where nothing happens - not even a Japanese invention (Jim Jarmush comes to mind) - but if you make them all about crafted, ever-lasting mascots and not much else, it's going nowhere. You can only make so much pure fanservice. Good characters may be 90% of the success, but if remaining 10% or so boils down to petting them with the camera, it's an ill-boding fad.
Stuff as primordial (I mean it in a good way) as Dragon Ball appears once in a blue moon. It takes something most people lose when they grow out of being a child to come up with. Akira Toriyama had that sort of child-like imagination at some point, but very few adults have it and even less leave long-lasting influence on things. For every Shigeru Miyamoto there seems to be one Matthew Smith.

I'm assuming no-one except for Apple Arcade and cstle actually think they make any decent anime currently?

I expect most recent Gintama episodes to be as good as the old stuff. Haven't seen them yet.

[Ruldra]

Highschool of the Dead has a good premise but it's ruined by shitloads of dumb fanservice.



As for the OP, just read Udderdude's post. I've given up on anime a long time ago.

[austere]

Have you guys noticed a pattern? It isn't just anime, movies (see Smurfs thread), games (see Kaiser's thread) or masculinity (Specineff's thread). Barring the apologists with their exceptions, poor taste or rhetoric (a.k.a the "rose tinted glasses" stratagem), can anyone propose a reason for this cultural decline?

5 Centimeters Per Second

That's the second recommendation for this now, so after High School I'll give it a look in.

The ultimate tale of unrequited childhood love. Idealised story of the life of the lonely otaku who understands his "potential" but never realises it. I guess the rendering is pretty cool though the character animation is non-existent as you might expect.

I only watched it because my friends forced me to.

2 / 5

[Skykid]

5 Centimeters Per Second

That's the second recommendation for this now, so after High School I'll give it a look in.

The ultimate tale of unrequited childhood love. Idealised story of the life of the lonely otaku who understands his "potential" but never realises it. I guess the rendering is pretty cool though the character animation is non-existent as you might expect.

I only watched it because my friends forced me to.

2 / 5

What the hell, that doesn't sound like something I want to watch at all!

[Ruldra]

...or masculinity

Oh dear, this one irks me to no end. I'm sick of seeing males in anime being almost exclusively average guys who are afraid of girls.

But then again, gct makes a good point in that thread. You shouldn't be looking for role models in television, video games, and comics in the first place.

[Siren2011]

...can anyone propose a reason for this cultural decline?

Actually, that question has been weighing on my mind for some time now! I've not found an answer. If you could meticulously explain the reason and how all of these things are connected (if they are), then I'm all ears, bro. You write some interesting stuff.

[apple arcade]

Skykid.

Try Ergo Proxy. I think there is a chance you might like it. You like things I find absolutely horrible (Dragon Ball, Hokuto no Ken) ...but I think this show is a middle ground.

For something a little more recent Kara no Kyoukai is a wonderful output.

I looked at my folder of in progress series I'm watching. Mostly from this year. They're almost all Moe/Slice of Life/Harem shows so I'm not going to use them as examples because you'll find them bad by default but keep in mind, that's what I'm into, what I like.

Kore wa Zombie desu ka
Gosick
Spice & Wolf II
Ookami-san to Shichinin no Nakamatachi
Kobato
Rin Daughters of Mnemosyne <----You might enjoy this
Shukufuku no Campanella
Puella Magi Madoka Magica
Yumekui Merry
Love Love
Astarotte no Omocha
Strike Witches 2

[Observer]

Skykid, did you watch Mushishi? I hope so, it's probably one of the few series of this decade I enjoyed thoroughly. However, hope you like slow-paced Miyazakiesque ambience (although a bit more serious business).

That and Bounen No Xam'd (another Miyazaki-inspired thing, but with mecha and cool stuff). Well, perhaps you already saw it but Macross Frontier is quite decent too.

I would add Baccano and Durarara to the mix. They are weird but at least quite enjoyable. Especially Baccano, which has a '30s ambience most of the time.

apple arcade> you mentioned Gasaraki and it's funny but the series was showed here in japanese with spanish subs by a long-gone channel I still miss. Pretty good series too, the opening is entrancing!

[Skykid]

They're almost all Moe/Slice of Life/Harem shows so I'm not going to use them as examples because you'll find them bad by default but keep in mind, that's what I'm into, what I like.

And that's fair enough. Why you like them I'll never understand because I struggle to find anything entertaining/artistic or of any creative merit in the themes at all - but if it floats your boat that's fair enough.

Skykid, did you watch Mushishi? I hope so, it's probably one of the few series of this decade I enjoyed thoroughly. However, hope you like slow-paced Miyazakiesque ambience (although a bit more serious business).

I watched the live action Mushishi movie and it was so boring rigor mortis started setting in. It was a Japanese live action film though, so I knew the odds on the gamble I was taking.

No doubt in my mind the anime is better than that, but hell, it ain't hard to beat.

[Blackbird]

I see where you are coming from about "mascot" shows. There are a lot of recent shows where I feel like there is little real content, and most of the effort is put into developing marketable characters to sell other things. Not everything new is like that, though. You guys just haven't seen the right anime.

One Piece is still ongoing, and is still enjoyable if you like the manga.

Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann is amazing on a lot of levels.

Higurashi is a pretty interesting horror/suspense/mystery show.

Madoka was pretty solid and subverted the cliches of a magical girl show in interesting ways.

Akagi is about a gambler with a deathwish. It couldn't be further from a moeblob slice of life show.

[TrevHead (TVR)]

I too think anime in general has declined in this age of panty shots, weak male characters and cliche plotlines. However not all the new stuff is crap there are a few gems, inc Code Geass, Texhnolyze, Time of Eve, Basilisk, Fooly Cooly

Anyone watched Deadman Wonderland? Does it live up to the manga original?

I think it can be hard to find the good stuff especially looking on the internet which is filled with moe fans which quickly get fan subbed. I really should go back to watching OVAs but they seem to be thin on the ground nowdays. Im finding myself beginning to turn to darker anime nowadays in an effort to avoid pantyshots

BTW anyone care to tell me the titile of an popular family anime? Its a movie / TV set in the near future where a school kid gifted in maths goes to his crushes house for a wedding, where he ends up fighting an online AI

[Ebbo]

BTW anyone care to tell me the titile of an popular family anime? Its a movie / TV set in the near future where a school kid gifted in maths goes to his crushes house for a wedding, where he ends up fighting an online AI

Summer Wars

On topic: While I can't deny that my own interest in anime has decreased quite rapidly in the last few years, I don't think it's a matter of quality... Does modern anime suck simply because the mainstream of it doesn't satisfy my delicate taste?

[apple arcade]

I see where you are coming from about "mascot" shows. There are a lot of recent shows where I feel like there is little real content, and most of the effort is put into developing marketable characters to sell other things. Not everything new is like that, though. You guys just haven't seen the right anime.

One Piece is still ongoing, and is still enjoyable if you like the manga.

Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann is amazing on a lot of levels.

Higurashi is a pretty interesting horror/suspense/mystery show.

Madoka was pretty solid and subverted the cliches of a magical girl show in interesting ways.

Akagi is about a gambler with a deathwish. It couldn't be further from a moeblob slice of life show.

This is the problem. People recommend stuff like to Skykid when it's clearly the stuff he doesn't like. I know you're trying to help but suggestions like don't help, they make things worse.


There is this one show, I can't remember the name. It's something like 100 stories or 1000 stories, that I think skykid would like. Anyone know what I'm talking about? It's very dark and deals with demons and stuff like that.

Trev, the title is Summer Wars.

[apple arcade]

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclo ... hp?id=2765

It's called Hundred Stories.

[Domino]

My beef with computer animation that to my eyes it makes it too light and colorful. I like my animation more in the dark side of things and you can only do that with old-fashion by-hand animation. I watched the new Cobra OVAs and while they had the Cobra charm, the animation was too weird for my taste. Even the Space Adventure Cobra TV anime was better drawn with more detail than the new OVAs. Computer animation can go suck it.

I watched many new animes like Gurren Lagann (which was ok, overrated to be honest), Lucky Star (moe meh, good jokes but I'm not the target audience), Claymore (more meh) and etc. and just about all of those shows don't interest me at all.

I like MD Geist, Cyber City Oedo (or anything Kawajiri directed), Bubblegum Crisis with the three episode OVA AD Police files and etc.

I like my anime with more of the dark look of hand-drawn animation back in the 80s.

Also with the shows I like I can make people who don't watch anime to like anime (I show them just about anything from 80s to pre-NGE).

[TrevHead (TVR)]

Thx chaps

People recommend stuff like to Skykid when it's clearly the stuff he doesn't like

He might enjoy what I listed, but I 2nd Ergo Proxy ill add Texhnolyze and possibly Basilisk

Katanagatari was another anime I enjoyed recently, has a great plot twist

[JoshF]

...can anyone propose a reason for this cultural decline?

Rise of the internet allowed Japanese shutins to create a religion (ie collective hallucination) were it's acceptable to fantasize about raping your little sister, since non-children/family members are so hard to talk to. Then these unremarkable specimen become animators and writers.

It even infected the masters. Pre-internet shutinnery gave us the Appleseed and Berserk mangas. Post-internet: Shirow draws nothing but girls with greasy pig skin and Miura, a middle-aged man, can't stop playing Idol Master.

Buichi Terasawa and Yoshiaki Kawajiri are the only two men left in Japan.

[Obiwanshinobi]

Recommending One Piece to somebody who likes Dragon Ball makes sense.
Mushishi is the Psychonauts of anime in my book - both want to make you their bitch, but fail quite badly in very basic aspects. Psychonauts' most rampant flaw is the character animation (pretty much lack of thereof). As for Mushishi, cheap character design breaks my suspension of disbelief. Minimalistic my butt. The show hardly has ANY character design. Nice backgrounds, though.

[lift]

* Seirei no Moribito was very good, it deserves more recognition for its quality choreography and detail. Fight scenes were top notch. Low key fantasy grounded in a classical Japan with many gorgeous landscapes of the spirit world, the "Nayug".
* Texhnolyze is a psychological cyberpunk thriller. It starts off really, really slow with almost no dialogue, only dark imagery, but quickly speeds into a high powered struggle to survive in an underground, gang-dominated dystopian city. It puts heavy focus on minimalistic storytelling which makes for some profound philosophical moments and head-scratchers near the end.

At least Hellsing Ultimate VIII is being released and Towa no Quon doesn't look half bad, maybe even a successor to Eureka Seven.

[Obiwanshinobi]

Towa no Quon doesn't look half bad, maybe even a successor to Eureka Seven.

Wouldn't that be all sorts of rad? The likes of E7 (or Last Exile, or even Escaflowne TV) seem to be most sorely missing in this day and age.
Another kind of anime I'd like to see back in town is proper anti-hero stuff: Gokudo, Sunabouzu...
P.S. Just watched Towa no Quon trailers and I must admit Tatsunoko-style costumes and vehicles put me into a cheerful mood.
One 2007 title I forgot to mention - Oh! Edo Rocket - was the last new TV show where I had absolutly no reservations regarding the graphics (even the backdrops have hand-drawn looks and the animation greatly increased my respect for Madhouse). A bit too long for its own good (it's a 26 episodes adaptation of a stage play - they obviously had more time and money than story to work with), but it's a marginal flaw.

[Danza]

As much as 5cm Per Second was really slow, it was beautifully animated and I still teared up.

Kaiji is one of my favorites from the last few years. Have yet to start the new season though.

Welcome to the NHK was also pretty good (I was a shut in for like 8 years so I could relate to it in some ways I guess )

I used to sit down and marathon anime for hours and hours. I'm finding it harder and harder to find series I like. I prefer visual novels and stuff nowadays. Muv Luv saga was crazy.

[TrevHead (TVR)]

Oh gawd! thats bad, really bad.

It even infected the masters. Pre-internet shutinnery gave us the Appleseed and Berserk mangas. Post-internet: Shirow draws nothing but girls with greasy pig skin and Miura, a middle-aged man, can't stop playing Idol Master.

I wonder just how unrealistic jelly tits are gonna be one or two generations from now :roll

[cstle]

You guys should watch Mononoke, Kuuchuu Buranko, Tatami Galaxy, and Kemonozume.

[Never_Scurred]

I miss the days of tentacle rape, unrepentant violence, dark mature themes, black humor, misogyny, nihilism, and gratuitous nudity and gore.

Anime, RIP

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