Current State of Anime...

Voivodian said:
The animation is better (usually), a lot of things are better rendered and drawn and there are a lot more colours... but. It just lacks something. With older anime, they were very strategic about the palettes they used and would use colour contrasts to good effect. Cell shading also helps, it adds a subtle but nice texture to the frames. Animation is undisputedly superior in new anime, with tv shows being capable of depicting more dramatic scenes that in a retro context, would only have only been possible in an OVA or a movie. They never really exploit this however, what with the overall decline in story writing and concept designs being put into todays anime. A huge amount of non children's anime these days is that slice of life, highschool moe stuff that makes me think that anime has toned down just as rock music has gone all poppy and started pandering towards teenagers. Though in this case, this sort of moe stuff supposedly pander mostly to horny 20+ males.
There isn't a lot of truly unique anime being made these days, even the ones with good storylines owe a lot to retro anime forerunners; that is if it isn't a reboot of a classic anime franchise in the first place. I don't know, a lot of newer supernatural stuff seems original enough but this where my own subjectiveness comes in. I love fantasy/supernatural but new fantasy anime always comes off as too Japanese or weird/mythical to me. I guess I prefer sticking to that 80s D&D style of Japanese fantasy anime.

And finally, the designs and ideas. Whether its characters, setting, premise, otherworldly universe rules or mechanical, old usually comes out on top.

With characters, its really subjective for me. While the occasional moe girl or modern anime girl is cute/hot, retro character looks always come out on top whether its cause the thicker lines, the aforementioned colouring, the crazy curly masses of hair and better character designs and proportioning. And of course, a lot of the retro characters are people of far more initiative, passion and action; but could also pull through serious themes and philosophical messages if need be.

Setting, premise is closer between old and new but there are undisputed gold standards that new anime cant even hope to reach when it comes to retro anime classics.

Mech design is also dominated by the old; of course it would be. A lot of real life machines made back then were done so under either the pressure of the cold war while the more civilian side of things were handled with at the very least, some killer stylings and aesthetics. With all this going around, there'd be some sweet stuff that tech directors could draw influence from.

And well some other things I don't like as much about newer?
-It uses of ALOT of brightness at times
-A lot of anime is more toned down in terms of dark themes and violence, just slice of life stuff etc
-Conversely, you can't have a psychological anime these days without it being overly dark and violent. Shizz man you don't always need uber violence to create moral conflict! What happened to imagery and setting the mood?
-Guitars and Synth
-Fantasy anime doesn't seem to follow boundaries anymore, you need to follow at least some to make it more relatable and compelling. They didn't go overboard with the supernatural in the older stuff; and it made sense.
-What happened to really badass anime male characters? You cant find a lot of male leads in anime these days that aren't total pussies.
-No more real boobs, just panty shots and bouncing sideboobs.

Though I admit, I prefer these things about newer anime.
-They bother animating the whole thing and not, yknow, using time cuts or still frames.
-Dubs are usually better
-as much as I like contrasting colours, its nice to have mechanical stuff be fully coloured and you definitely see that more in newer anime
- New anime has additional ability to employ CG with potentially great effect
-Azumanga Daioh, the best anime ever created XD

Feel free to tear me apart for any of my more subjective thoughts on old vs new