Anime losing charm for anyone else?

Kuraokani said:
I hate these threads.

Maybe I'm not seeing the whole "anime is dead" thing because I just started watching anime 2 or 3 years ago, I don't know.

anime.

Energetic-Nova said:
Around the point you turn 20-21 is when most people get disenfranchised. If you stick with it and figure out what you actually like instead of following what other people are watching, you will end up much happier with anime. Watch old stuff you missed and just casually blip around. Never do those 20 show season binges like the young people and you will be good.

You could experiment with year, genre, ect. See if there is a specific year set you seem to like more from.

And no, after you fall out of unconditional love with anime and it becomes like work... you never get that true newbie feeling again.

And yeah, I hit 200 anime when I was around 20... it was at that point I started hating everything for a while. You just get more irritable about all the stupid tropes. And OP, your mean is about average.

North514 said:


Ironically I started getting tired in my mid to late teens and when I hit around 19-20 that's when the love started coming back especially when I started to just watch more stuff I normally wouldn't have it resurrected the newbie feel. These threads are either you are done with anime/manga for good which can happen to many hobbies in general or you still have some love for it but you have watched too much. Either way taking a break will indicate where you feel on it.

mochakawaiibear said:
Damn man when I said it feels dead I mean as in it's not lit anymore!!! Shit. I'm not talking about no "anime is dead" meme or whatever 💀

Energetic-Nova said:


No, I tried watching way more stuff. It didn't work out. I burnt out again. XD
I tried to do those 20 series a season things. Sure, I found things I liked and "flew high" but I dipped back down to haterville real fast.

I dropped so many anime. I felt like I hardly remembered anything of what I watched.

It is IMPOSSIBLE for me to go back to what I did to become a fan in the first place (walk threw blockbuster and rent random stuff). Picking at random on Crunchy isn't the same. nothing is physically in your hand. Also people don't meet up in anime clubs anymore, and people don't make their own cosplay if they don't have the skills, and they wont even try.


Also note: I got into anime as a cult film/b movie fan and scifi fan. There really isn't much like that anymore. Anime comes and goes in 5 year spurts of trends. We are switching the trends of 2011 now since 2016. And this has caused an upset in many people. 1999-2007 (but mostly with anime 2000-2004) is when I was most a fan. The typical time a person stays an anime fan is actually only 3 years. And I am going to guess... it is because the trends changed and they didn't like the change. I stayed through it. And even enjoyed things up to 2010. But 2011 came around and anime changed again. 2016 was the first year I really felt high enjoyment in a while.

When trends massively change, you see a large influx of new fans or even people coming back into fandom. Usually it comes from a pretty diverse year. Like 2006 or 2011 (but note, 2011 didn't have many series).

You know what year was responsible for 2006 prosperity? 2002. Naruto. Possibly 1998 pokemon. But hey, many people love Pokemon-Digimon-Inuyasha-Naruto. And what do you hear? First anime. In 1998 you also got Cowboy Bebop, but it didn't come to the states until the 2000's. And You also got Yu Yu Hakusho airing at that same time about.

So you got this little window. And then... eventually it just gotta bust neh? What busted the generation of anime I was born into? Bluray. Haruhi. Death Note. Mushishi (2005), Code Geass. This is an era ruled by Kyoani and Madhouse.

Then what busted them? well you could argue 2009 crash in the USA. But you could also argue the forming of Trigger studios and the final nails in the coffin of Gainax as a studio.

This event... effected a lot of people. The formation of Trigger studio and the death of Osamu Dezaki happened the same year. 2011. Kicking off a new age. Granted, Shaft becoming not just a niche Otaku thing and mainstream also happened that year.

Gainax brought in a lot of people 1990-2010. So the talent leaving it... basically was like the death of anime happened.

North514 said:


What I meant is I kinda ventured out of the many genres that I used to keep to and didn't just keep rewatching my favorite series. I actually watch probably less anime today than I did in the past but thats just due to the fact I am older.

Also it isn't like there have been a lack of major hits for the anime industry past 2009 with SAO, AOT and I remember Fairy Tail being quite popular around my high school (not arguing about the quality of those anime just that there have been continued hits past 09) so I wouldn't say from at least a financial or popularity area that it died with Gainax in 2010 I would even make an argument we might be on a period of revitalization though the concerns with animators pay is the one issue that may impact that if something doesn't change. Though I guess in a sense considering what you originally got into anime for I can see your plight as more hard sci fi aren't necessarily a common occurrence like say they were back in the 90's.

I also don't deny many anime fans only stay on for 3-5 years or just remain fairly casual and might only see like one popular series a year and also that following trends does occur. To be fair though hobbies or interest dying out isn't something unique or new to anime. I used to be a huge SW fan though with the EU dead and SW taking a direction with Disney I wasn't the hugest fan of I stepped out. I definitely could see that maybe those who were into anime maybe back in the 90's don't feel as at home these days. Though I would make the argument that I think we could see more of a return to that depending on how the Netflix experiment goes.

I think the worst thing you could do though is force yourself to keep with a hobby especially if it continues in a direction you dislike. Thats why ultimately taking a break is the best way because if you checked out whats new a year or two after and still don't like the trend ultimately you made the right decision. You need a sense of excitement or enjoyment otherwise whats the point?

North514 said:


What I meant is I kinda ventured out of the many genres that I used to keep to and didn't just keep rewatching my favorite series. I actually watch probably less anime today than I did in the past but thats just due to the fact I am older.

Also it isn't like there have been a lack of major hits for the anime industry past 2009 with SAO, AOT and I remember Fairy Tail being quite popular around my high school (not arguing about the quality of those anime just that there have been continued hits past 09) so I wouldn't say from at least a financial or popularity area that it died with Gainax in 2010 I would even make an argument we might be on a period of revitalization though the concerns with animators pay is the one issue that may impact that if something doesn't change. Though I guess in a sense considering what you originally got into anime for I can see your plight as more hard sci fi aren't necessarily a common occurrence like say they were back in the 90's.

I also don't deny many anime fans only stay on for 3-5 years or just remain fairly casual and might only see like one popular series a year and also that following trends does occur. To be fair though hobbies or interest dying out isn't something unique or new to anime. I used to be a huge SW fan though with the EU dead and SW taking a direction with Disney I wasn't the hugest fan of I stepped out. I definitely could see that maybe those who were into anime maybe back in the 90's don't feel as at home these days. Though I would make the argument that I think we could see more of a return to that depending on how the Netflix experiment goes.

I think the worst thing you could do though is force yourself to keep with a hobby especially if it continues in a direction you dislike. Thats why ultimately taking a break is the best way because if you checked out whats new a year or two after and still don't like the trend ultimately you made the right decision. You need a sense of excitement or enjoyment otherwise whats the point?

Energetic-Nova said:


I think, I find watching very old anime to be satisfying. Like I am studying a medium like it were school rather than just a fan anymore.

Like there are many anime from before I was born. There are many anime that I didn't get to watch because everything was so constrained to just whatever was on TV. I also can find DVDs and VHS online and buy them that way. Or find stuff in my local thrift shop.

I think my space of facination is now equivalent to when a gamer misses the "good days" and gives up and starts playing single player experiences and even abandonware. And I find something satisfying about that.

It feels like the excitement of archaeology or being a paleontologist.

Before I was watching anime to the exclusion of most other things, I was watching and loving stuff like Twilight Zone, Star Trek, and Dark Shadows. Finding something with this same kind of melodrama feeling has been very thrilling.

But it isn't the same as... when I was new and knew nothing about the medium and oh I have to catch that show at 11pm or I will miss out! I mean, that was very thrilling. Introducing my friends to the medium with stuff like Inuyasha, Full Metal Alchemist 2003, Wolf's Rain. I had taped so many episodes off TV and handed them to friends. My friend lending me Gravitation manga. Me lending back the Loveless DVDs I had at a later date.

Anime as a whole was very mysterious. And that mystery is gone for the most part. And hearing about mythical anime you just can't even watch because to watch all of it is to pay $15-$30 per two episodes.

And I think more what I am doing now, is closer to that explorer feeling from before I guess. Maybe this is why old fans come off elitist. They actually do know things about the medium since they have been around so long... and that presence of someone who still strives to find something new and strange was at the very heart of their love in the first place. It is easy to feel disenchanted with the community when your whole reason for joining the community was to watch weird stuff and now the #1 genre is slice of life. XD And people fault you for wanting weird stuff and that watching unpopular things is somehow bad.

I find it, like most other older fans, to be exciting to watch something nobody else is watching. A lot of the thrill was in knowing things other people didn't know. This doesn't mean I hate all popular anime or some stupid stuff like that... but yeah you are right when you say the hits are not nearly as large in scale as the early 00's. Or at least how they felt. Like nothing is as big as Pokemania. Or Naruto. Or Death Note. Or the daily amounts of fighting you can still get with Evangelion.

People would agree with Cowboy Bebop being best anime and Evangelion as most artistic anime for people who are anti-coolness. XD And Naruto was for people who knew nothing about anime. And Inuyasha was for squeeling fangirls who shouldn't be allowed to have opinions. XD (I was an Inuyasha fan lol). Even before that, the big upsetters for anime were Ranma 1/2 and Sailor Moon as people (rightfully) saw those anime as disintegrating to the base. Which was filled with scifi anime. But lets face it, more anime are "like" Sailor Moon or "like" Ranma than are "like" Captain Harlock in modern anime.


I saw Yuri on Ice bring back fans who hadn't seen an anime since Fist of the Northstar was "popular". XD Why? Because it has a lot of throwback tropes. Hotspring, cheesy lines, and tournament hell. And it had a strong connection with reality too.


I told one person who came back to watch Doukyuusei- and she said "wow, that is closer to the art I remember being around in manga..."

I think some of this might have to do with character designs being well... Kyoani for so long. Even SAO feels more Kyoani. I note that OPM brought in a lot of the old DBZ base and actually got them to watch another anime. I told them about Space Dandy and they loved it. <---- note the throwback nature of it and the unique character design and it being in space and a play on Cowboy Bebop which I said previously was... considered best anime by default.