Reply to Viriathus
@TransferUser you didnt like it? Or thought it was great? Even if you didnt like it, you must had acknowledge the quality.
| @Viriathus It was enjoyable, but not the best I've seen in the past twelve months. |
| I don't see much change in quality over the last 40 years. What changes is technology and by this visual bang per buck production budget. But directorial talent and good writing (manga and novel) is almost constant over time, and can not be changed much by throwing money at it. Looking at you, Netflix & Co. I'd agree with @alshu that " alshu said: , for whatever reason. 2023 surely was a very good year, as was 2006. Good anime come in waves - sometime there's abundance, sometimes there's drought. Here's my stats, from the mid 80s to 2000 it is based on ca. 20-30 shows per year, afterwards on 50-100 per year watched, 2023-today incomplete. Data before 1985 is probably too small a sample size, and I only watched top shows from that era. So the peaks are a bit more extreme than they are later. The sharp decline in the early 1990s is the Japanese financial crisis, they had no budget for anything decent back then and it shows. After 1995 (Evangelion) studios invested in new ideas and it clearly shows in constant (writing) improvement unti the late 2000s, when the moe blobs flooded the room with cheap shit again. For a recent few years I feel we have an upswing again, less ecchi-harem-moe-isekai and more one-of-a-kind shows. I also notice that the 26 episode format is on the rise again, improving character development options and allowing for more complex stories. Almost a flat line at 5.x/10, as expected. One actual problem I find for myself is that I have almost exhausted the shows from the last 50 years which raise my interest, so after all I am back to kind of an "englightened seasonal watcher" after my journey.  tl;dr The limiting factor is talent, mainly writing talent. Anything else is just fashion, technology, and recency bias. The total amount of watch-worthy anime is quite finite and nearly equally distributed over the decades. But that's just my 2 boomer cents. |
inimFeb 10, 8:37 AM
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| No you're right just about everything used to be better before modern phones, not to say they're the leading cause of anime getting worse, but its pretty easy to pinpoint the downfall of a lot of things from the moment smartphones were in everyone's pockets, anime included, I'd say we peaked in the mid 2000's and start going downhill hard around 2011-2012 |
| Love can sometimes be magic. But magic can sometimes...just be an illusion... |
| Anime used to be better, and it has the potential to be better. But the industy is unfortunately only interest in making money, and the current state of the economy make matters worse. |
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| Nah I feel the same. It could just be a nostalgia thing or maybe that we're desensitized. While some classic tropes are favorable to watch, other tropes are boring or tasteless to me (aside from parody and satire) |
| 🐷 |
TransferUser said: @Viriathus It was enjoyable, but not the best I've seen in the past twelve months. To me it was. But what was it in your opinion? |
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| I think it is a little of nostalgia, some anime will bring you back to times were life were simpler. But fear not, think about how new great memories will be created. Many things are getting really crappy these days like Hollywood movies and to a big extend gaming (tho, there are really awesome games every year), but I think anime is one of the elements it is as good or even sometimes better, there are bad seasons with nothing new worth a watch, and there are others were you become a slave of the anime girls because each series is good. |
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Reply to Viriathus
TransferUser said:
@Viriathus It was enjoyable, but not the best I've seen in the past twelve months.
@Viriathus It was enjoyable, but not the best I've seen in the past twelve months.
To me it was. But what was it in your opinion?
| @Viriathus I already mentioned it earlier in this thread: Boku dake ga Inai Machi (2016) was the best I've seen in the past 12 months. |
Reply to chibuki
Perhaps there's something to the "boomer" angle. As we get older, there's a good chance our priorities shifts, our free time becomes luxury, and our palate evolves. If you think there are less "good" anime, it could simply mean we became much more selective on what we watch based on the premise given as our time is too valuable for this 1-cour series or 2-cour series. One look at my list and I'm seeing many titles I used to enjoy that I now wouldn't give the time of day. I believe there are still plenty of great anime being produced but there are also slops coming every season, but that's also true in other entertainment mediums.
| @chibuki exactly. Im around your age, and im the same thing. We have less free time, tastes change. But, im actually in a streak of shows i probably wouldnt watch as a teen/young adult, like maybe a comedy slice of life romance, and now i watch because it feels good in the end of a long day. But indeed tastes change, but the love of the medium is always there. Doesnt mean we watch everything we watched back then. And there was also bad anime back then, diference is, there is today more anime, because of its sucess and there is also more generic trash out there. |
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Reply to Viriathus
@chibuki exactly. Im around your age, and im the same thing. We have less free time, tastes change. But, im actually in a streak of shows i probably wouldnt watch as a teen/young adult, like maybe a comedy slice of life romance, and now i watch because it feels good in the end of a long day.
But indeed tastes change, but the love of the medium is always there. Doesnt mean we watch everything we watched back then. And there was also bad anime back then, diference is, there is today more anime, because of its sucess and there is also more generic trash out there.
But indeed tastes change, but the love of the medium is always there. Doesnt mean we watch everything we watched back then. And there was also bad anime back then, diference is, there is today more anime, because of its sucess and there is also more generic trash out there.
| @Viriathus can i ask why a lot claim they don't have time or free time is a "luxury" when they have time to make posts or even log into MAL? Sounds the opposite for me lol. |
| BANZAI NIPPON. Nippon is the Land of freedom. Nippon is the Land of Peace. Nippon is the Land of Justice and Prosperity. In Nippon, we trust. We love Nippon, we love Anime. Anime love us, Nippon love us. 日本 I believe in freedom of expression. |
Reply to Viriathus
@chibuki exactly. Im around your age, and im the same thing. We have less free time, tastes change. But, im actually in a streak of shows i probably wouldnt watch as a teen/young adult, like maybe a comedy slice of life romance, and now i watch because it feels good in the end of a long day.
But indeed tastes change, but the love of the medium is always there. Doesnt mean we watch everything we watched back then. And there was also bad anime back then, diference is, there is today more anime, because of its sucess and there is also more generic trash out there.
But indeed tastes change, but the love of the medium is always there. Doesnt mean we watch everything we watched back then. And there was also bad anime back then, diference is, there is today more anime, because of its sucess and there is also more generic trash out there.
| @Viriathus Glad to see someone can relate. Yeah back then in mid-20's I'd watch just about anything, about 10-12 weekly series every season. Those were the days! I'd watch a show just because my favorite seiyuus were in it haha. @Nurguburu Just a part of becoming an adult I guess. I left MAL a while ago and only recently decided to log back in after seeing some people leaving profile comments over the years lol. Might as well check the forums too. |
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| With the Anime industry getting more and more familiar and settled with already proven and tested formulas, Anime being mass-produced yearly, and modern animation technologies advancing further than it was decades ago, it only makes sense that the quality would go down. Also, studios didn't use to have many titles on their hands, and it used to be 2-cour or longer shows, meaning they tend to go all out on a single work unlike nowadays where they can focus on some short series that sells the most and kind of compensate on the less-selling ones. Not to mention, there are now lots of studios that just produce something for the sake of having an entry in the Anime market. It's basically just a 'Modern times' issue in general; It's an issue in the gaming industry too. |
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chibuki said: @Viriathus Glad to see someone can relate. Yeah back then in mid-20's I'd watch just about anything, about 10-12 weekly series every season. Those were the days! I'd watch a show just because my favorite seiyuus were in it haha. @Nurguburu Just a part of becoming an adult I guess. I left MAL a while ago and only recently decided to log back in after seeing some people leaving profile comments over the years lol. Might as well check the forums too. Yap, i get it. Your criteria to watch a show wasnt big i see haha but makes sense, i enjoy when in watching a Anime and recognize that voice. Makes me gingle. But i feel these days i watch stuff that makes no sense like it, but its the oposite. |
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| All things considered, anime was absolutely better before LN adaptations became a plague on the industry. |
| If you reply back to me and I never respond, I lost interest and don't care. Sorry about that. |
| While I personally disagree (and I've been watching anime since the 90s), it's pretty normal to think that way, and that goes for all media, not just anime. It seems to be a normal thing for most people. |
Bum Bum Dum Dum |
| I feel like this is one of those questions which exposes the lack of professional anime critics to put things into perspective (at least on the English-speaking side). Most people simply haven't watched enough anime to talk about the overall trend and are primarily influenced by their small corner of genre interests. For instance, if I were to just look at all the trashy RPG isekai shows coming out, I would be tempted to conclude anime has absolutely degenerated. But I simply ignore those shows, albeit acknowledging their toxic influence on the stuff that's likely to be greenlit. On the other hand, my personal interest is seeing engaging female characters, and there's a lot of recent stuff that's actually better than some of my nostalgic faves from the 90s/00s. Heck, Cute Girls Doing Cute Things was a genre I was pretty leery of back in the mid 2010s, but much like horror movies, simply having space for female leads has allowed it to evolve to the point where it's now normal for girls to have compelling ambitions and character growth arcs. Over decades, I guess the one thing that I can say has definitely degenerated are character designs, which have become increasingly homogeneous compared to the more diverse styles of pre-2000 anime in particular. |
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| I've been watching anime since 2018. At first, I picked any title to watch, enjoying it or not. I think until 2023 I didn't have a problem to pick any title to watch, even knowing it could not be that great. From 2024 on I can't tell if I became more tired of anime or just more selective. After watching almost perfect or perfect anime for my taste, I don't feel like I need to watch anime that aren't that great just to put one more title in the completed list. I'm only watching 3 anime of Winter 2025 but I'm enjoying them all. I had some expectations for Sakamoto Days, but the adaptation is lame for me, so I'll keep reading the manga and forget about the anime. At this moment I'm prioritizing quality over quantity, and when I talk about quality it's not about a unique plot, great characters etc. For example, Zenshuu from this season is just a generic isekai but with awesome art style and animation by MAPPA, so I'm ok with it because at least I'm watching something with a good production. I don't think anime used to be better, at least for me it only became better from year to year. The problem is we have lots of anime with mid/lazy/bad production and just a few anime with amazing production like Sousou no Frieren, Kusuriya no Hitorigoto, Oshi no Ko, Dandadan. |
| Imagine how boring this world would be without Japan - a comment at youtube |
| It was never good to begin with. You are crazy to think otherwise. |
| Here is my Pixiv account of my hentai drawings..... https://www.pixiv.net/en/users/104739065 Here is my blog.... https://theendofindustrialcivilization.blogspot.com/?m=1 |
| To be honest some announcements from 2020 period were super tantalising for me. Madoka Magica movie 4, Fate Strange Fake, Hathaway Flash part 2 in production, Watanabe's back with Lazarus airing in April. A bunch of other stuff. I will say sparse years of interest was the Isekai boom but now there seems to be some genuinely interesting shows coming out. |
Sometimes it takes a real man to be best girl. Gilgamesh is also chad.   |
| It depends. I do think there was more variety back then. Though I also maintain that modern anime is more nitpicked. If a lot of the older series released today with leak culture and all that jazz, they'd be lower scoring and nitpicked to death. |
| This is perfectly normal, most of my favorite anime are from the 2000s or older. |
| If I had to choose between One Piece and a girlfriend...I think I'll go with One Piece |
Reply to malvarez1
While I personally disagree (and I've been watching anime since the 90s), it's pretty normal to think that way, and that goes for all media, not just anime. It seems to be a normal thing for most people.
| @malvarez1 me too, watching since the 90s. its normal with the older we get, we start having "boomer" behaviour about current things. There is alot of great gems still being made and also alot of trash, why? They produce more Anime now. But my boomer take is that, the Aesthetic of the 90s of high budget series, cant be beaten haha (there is great looking shows around, like Violet). |
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| As much as I hate to admit, I've been feeling the same way... recently, I've been watching a lot of old shows and it feels better than the new ones... Maybe we are just getting old and feeling nostalgic idk lol |
MALoween 2025:           x7 |
Modern Anime are being Tailored for a Younger Generation and their general Sensibilities... Regretful as it may be for us older Weebs... |
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| I don't think anime is in general worse, there's just a lot more of it to dig through than years past. The excellent stuff is just as, if not more, excellent as before, but you have to dig through more slop to find it. It's also just. Different. Trends are constantly changing, and I suppose in the absence of nostalgia goggles the trends of the 00's just appeal to your tastes more than what's out now. I bet you a nickel that in 10-20 years after Isekai's run it's course, there will be fans saying their current anime is trash and they wish things were good again (aka back when Isekai, the thing they like, was more bountiful). |
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Reply to BubblegumPatty
I don't think anime is in general worse, there's just a lot more of it to dig through than years past. The excellent stuff is just as, if not more, excellent as before, but you have to dig through more slop to find it.
It's also just. Different. Trends are constantly changing, and I suppose in the absence of nostalgia goggles the trends of the 00's just appeal to your tastes more than what's out now. I bet you a nickel that in 10-20 years after Isekai's run it's course, there will be fans saying their current anime is trash and they wish things were good again (aka back when Isekai, the thing they like, was more bountiful).
It's also just. Different. Trends are constantly changing, and I suppose in the absence of nostalgia goggles the trends of the 00's just appeal to your tastes more than what's out now. I bet you a nickel that in 10-20 years after Isekai's run it's course, there will be fans saying their current anime is trash and they wish things were good again (aka back when Isekai, the thing they like, was more bountiful).
| @BubblegumPatty You might be more convincing if you had watched more than 55 anime and not just registered in January. |
Reply to JoeChip
@BubblegumPatty
You might be more convincing if you had watched more than 55 anime and not just registered in January.
You might be more convincing if you had watched more than 55 anime and not just registered in January.
| @JoeChip If you're gonna bring someone's watch count up to ad hominem, it'll be worth having more than the person your dismissing. But Noted. |
BubblegumPattyMar 3, 9:45 AM
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