movies/tv Is the state of anime decaying?

[TheMarkz0ne 962]

Not to offend many people who are big anime fans.... I'm an animation fan, whether a western or eastern cartoon, it's still entertainment and I have had about just as much a bigger involvement with anime, than I did with western cartoons. My main issues just so I can kick start this debate, is that anime is just lacking creativity and I have been turned off from anime for about 4 years. This will sound pathetic, but the ending to Negima's manga actually left some scars I never recovered from. The ending was bad, I discarded my entire Negima manga collection out of disgust( the series is 38 volumes long, I didn't buy the 38th volume.)

Negima was MY series, it is with DB/DBZ and Yu Yu Hakusho as anime that will never get old.

 

Granted when I was 12, I was obsessed with Naruto all the way up until early Shippuden. I was into Bleach, then things with Aizen and the Espada got tiresome. Also One Piece is simply extended to make money and I refuse to read Oda's work because the guy thinks long stories are instant gold. Naruto was the best out of these three juggernauts. Naruto had great writing and amazing fights and it even had decent filler that I didn't mind. The Kishimoto just ruined his story and everything became so contrived I dropped the series.

 

I have no anime or any manga to revive any love for anime that I once had. People will recommend Attack on Titan and I'm not going to. I remember going to my old friends house and he was hyping this anime up like the gods descended from platinum chariots and we became a human utopia(lol) People LOVE this anime and I see nothing insightful. I see giants running into buildings and dumb kids getting killed as some flashy wire riding happens on buildings.

 

Call me cynical, but I see nothing going on in anime that is of a big impact right now.

[Jammo 986]

Too much pedophilia and incest subtext.  I should not see a girl come up to a guy and think "Oh so that's his sister / love interest" but that is a safe assumption to have these days.  I'm right more than I'm wrong.

[Shift 4,274]

@@TheMarkz0ne,

 

So you HAVEN'T seen AoT? Don't judge a book by its cover, it's a great anime, has great characters, a great plot, it's original, creative and a pretty good idea. And have you watched Puella Magi Madoka Magica? It's fairly new, and it's my favorite anime. If you like anime with symbolism, that watch that.

 

Edited October 10, 2014 by Shift

[Art Thief 215]

So, you're not watching Unlimited Blade Works Fate/Stay Night? The fuck's wrong with you!?

In all seriousness the only anime i'm watching is Fate/Stay Night, and Attack on Titan. Nothing else has gotten my attention. Well, except for a couple Kickstater anime.

Little Witch Academia. 

and Under the Dog.

Edited October 9, 2014 by Art Thief

[ReverseFaller 2,484]

The state of anime is doing fine in my opinion. 

 

Too much pedophilia and incest subtext.  I should not see a girl come up to a guy and think "Oh so that's his sister / love interest" but that is a safe assumption to have these days.  I'm right more than I'm wrong.

 

I'm going to have to agree with this. It's funny though, because I'm actually watching Ore No Imouto at the moment, which is an anime that has incest in it. I also want to watch Koi Kaze, another incest related anime. 

 

Anyways, I think the state of anime is doing just fine. Here are some newer anime series I've enjoyed. 

• Psycho Pass
• Sword Art Online 2
• Black Butler 2

[Jammo 986]

 

The state of anime is doing fine in my opinion. 

 

 

I'm going to have to agree with this. It's funny though, because I'm actually watching Ore No Imouto at the moment, which is an anime that has incest in it. I also want to watch Koi Kaze, another incest related anime. 

 

Anyways, I think the state of anime is doing just fine. Here are some newer anime series I've enjoyed. 

• Psycho Pass
• Sword Art Online 2
• Black Butler 2

 

Oreimo and Koi Kaze do incest well for comedy and drama respectfully.  The main reason is it's a central theme and they are both well written enough to explore it without ever crossing into outright obscenity.  My issue is that it's creeping into other genres.  When I watch mecha I don't want his motivation to be "After beat this alien I have a sibling back home to bed."

[Chacobos 160]

Not really, anime has always had those random years its meh and other years there' a golden treasure worth foaming at the mouth over. Hell even my favorite anime(manga is still on going) Berserk had a terrible ending and that was the 90's. I know Fate/Stay Night Unlimited Blade Works just kicked off, haven't gotten around to it yet but should be good(Original Stay Night was good and Fate/Zero was...well I can only let others decide though I thought it was amazing, the first 15 episodes is debatable with a psychotic child murdering wizard). Like I said it really depends, anime has no good year and no bad year, just random. 

Edited October 10, 2014 by Chaco

[CheeryFox 23,824]

My opinion as well...anime is okies by me. A lot of the older stuff does seem a bit more gritty. Anime now, there's just ample variety involved. 

 

I love anime now, more than ever. 

[Thuja 3,665]

Go on crunchyroll and give some random anime you haven't seen a try, you never know.  Attack on titan is a good anime and I don't think the state of anime is decaying. 

[ShyPie 164]

Like everything else anime has its up and down cycles. I think it's been slightly back on the up the last few years. I mean, Attack On Titan has been a huge (and I mean huge) hit, and there's still a likely 2nd (and probably 3rd) season of it to come. I don't think there's quite as many "moe" shows are there was say 3 or 4 years ago. I still think there can be a lack of top, top quality shows, but the fact is that not every show every year is going to be. If there's a couple of truly amazing shows every year then things are going well, and I think we can say that for the last few years.

 

As mentioned Attack On Titan is one of them (but if you're not wanting to watch or read it then fair enough), Puella Magi Madoka Magica is another, Tiger & Bunny, Steins;Gate, Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood, Psycho-Pass.

 

And there's a number of other shows that, whilst maybe not perfect, are still good and enjoyable that maybe you haven't tried. It might not even be a series from within the last few years, there might've been a show from a decade ago or even further back that you've missed but is right up your alley. But we're talking about current anime, I suppose. Maybe you should try a show from the new season that's just starting? Considering you liked DBZ, Naruto, etc. I'd say give World Trigger a shot. I'd recommend Psycho-Pass 2, but obviously watch the first season first. I've just watched the first episode of Parasyte and that was really quite good, maybe that might appeal to you.

 

In regards to the big 3, my ranking is One Piece, Naruto and Bleach a distant 3rd. One Piece does almost no wrong in my eyes, though it had been on a bit of a tough time since the time skip the current arc got it right back to where it should be. I don't think Oda's arcs are that much longer than the others, but when they are they're usually at least more entertaining. Hell, I read all 3 manga week to week and I honestly can't remember the last time anything actually moving the plot forward happened in Bleach. Kubo is such a hack it's unbelievable, the man is seriously going to struggle for another hit once the series is done.

[TheMarkz0ne 962]

Like everything else anime has its up and down cycles. I think it's been slightly back on the up the last few years. I mean, Attack On Titan has been a huge (and I mean huge) hit, and there's still a likely 2nd (and probably 3rd) season of it to come. I don't think there's quite as many "moe" shows are there was say 3 or 4 years ago. I still think there can be a lack of top, top quality shows, but the fact is that not every show every year is going to be. If there's a couple of truly amazing shows every year then things are going well, and I think we can say that for the last few years.

 

As mentioned Attack On Titan is one of them (but if you're not wanting to watch or read it then fair enough), Puella Magi Madoka Magica is another, Tiger & Bunny, Steins;Gate, Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood, Psycho-Pass.

 

And there's a number of other shows that, whilst maybe not perfect, are still good and enjoyable that maybe you haven't tried. It might not even be a series from within the last few years, there might've been a show from a decade ago or even further back that you've missed but is right up your alley. But we're talking about current anime, I suppose. Maybe you should try a show from the new season that's just starting? Considering you liked DBZ, Naruto, etc. I'd say give World Trigger a shot. I'd recommend Psycho-Pass 2, but obviously watch the first season first. I've just watched the first episode of Parasyte and that was really quite good, maybe that might appeal to you.

 

In regards to the big 3, my ranking is One Piece, Naruto and Bleach a distant 3rd. One Piece does almost no wrong in my eyes, though it had been on a bit of a tough time since the time skip the current arc got it right back to where it should be. I don't think Oda's arcs are that much longer than the others, but when they are they're usually at least more entertaining. Hell, I read all 3 manga week to week and I honestly can't remember the last time anything actually moving the plot forward happened in Bleach. Kubo is such a hack it's unbelievable, the man is seriously going to struggle for another hit once the series is done.

I had an anti Naruto phase and used to be involved in the show back in the day. Naruto's main issues for me was that Kishimoto was making Sasuke a type of character that dragged the entire show down. He only developed Naruto and many side characters.. Sakura and Sasuke are the worst supporting characters for Naruto and they were the worst team. I never read a series where everyone close to the main character treats him/her like they're nothing.

 

Bleach during the early stages of Aizen's plot had no clear direction and Aizen himself is just a really bad villain. 

[Heinz 83]

Just gotta look hard enough for decent anime.

And yeah I know, a lot of the recent anime has been generic, cutesy, high school life ones.

 

[Unikitty 1,212]

Not to offend many people who are big anime fans.... I'm an animation fan, whether a western or eastern cartoon, it's still entertainment and I have had about just as much a bigger involvement with anime, than I did with western cartoons. My main issues just so I can kick start this debate, is that anime is just lacking creativity and I have been turned off from anime for about 4 years. This will sound pathetic, but the ending to Negima's manga actually left some scars I never recovered from. The ending was bad, I discarded my entire Negima manga collection out of disgust( the series is 38 volumes long, I didn't buy the 38th volume.)

Negima was MY series, it is with DB/DBZ and Yu Yu Hakusho as anime that will never get old.

 

I'm gonna have to disregard the rest of the topic, for the highlighted area.

I 100% agree with you. It was(and still is) amazing. The whole series was a ride I never wanted to get off. And then it ended. It ended, and it ended the way it did. Suddenly, unremarkably, and leaving a hundred billion things unanswered.

 

Then I saw the anime... *shudder*

 

---------------

 

Back to the initial topic. I don't quite think that anime has gotten worse. It's more like most media. It's become more popular, and significantly easier to make. There are still great gems being produced, but there's just a lot more average-grade content that you have to wade through. There's also the in-built nostalgia factor that needs to be included. Like that first bite of your favourite food, nothing will be as good as what you first experienced.

In five to ten years, there'll be kids who are saying the same thing, whilst remembering how amazing and perfect Sword Art Online and Pokemon Season 10 were.

 

We're just getting old.

Edited October 10, 2014 by Unikitty

[CheeryFox 23,824]

 

Bleach during the early stages of Aizen's plot had no clear direction and Aizen himself is just a really bad villain. 

 

Sōsuke Aizen is probably one of the best anime villains I've seen.

 

 

Even [iNCOMING SPOILAGE] though he was unable to rule Soul Society, him and his team was pretty badass. Unlike Yhwach's, his team trumps Aizen's - but their personalities are very much (shall we say) lacking. 

[TheMarkz0ne 962]

Sōsuke Aizen is probably one of the best anime villains I've seen.

 

 

Even [iNCOMING SPOILAGE] though he was unable to rule Soul Society, him and his team was pretty badass. Unlike Yhwach's, his team trumps Aizen's - but their personalities are very much (shall we say) lacking. 

Kiske is stronger than Aizen and Kubo said so himself. We only had his plans dragged out so Ichigo can have a fight with Aizen, even though Kiske could have saved the world on his own. 

[ShyPie 164]

I had an anti Naruto phase and used to be involved in the show back in the day. Naruto's main issues for me was that Kishimoto was making Sasuke a type of character that dragged the entire show down. He only developed Naruto and many side characters.. Sakura and Sasuke are the worst supporting characters for Naruto and they were the worst team. I never read a series where everyone close to the main character treats him/her like they're nothing.

 

Bleach during the early stages of Aizen's plot had no clear direction and Aizen himself is just a really bad villain. 

For me Sasuke is set up almost with what should be a typical main character's backstory, yet I found it strange that the series was actually about this bumbling, childish, annoying idiot instead. However, I eventually came to see Naruto as an interesting take on the typical hero as he's a bit of a loser and not the best around so really has to scrap and fight his way to get there (still annoying at times though). And I suppose the series itself isn't actually about Naruto himself or even Sasuke himself, but the two together and what each represents. Sakura is pretty terribly written though.

 

Sōsuke Aizen is probably one of the best anime villains I've seen.

 

 

Even [iNCOMING SPOILAGE] though he was unable to rule Soul Society, him and his team was pretty badass. Unlike Yhwach's, his team trumps Aizen's - but their personalities are very much (shall we say) lacking. 

 

 

Kiske is stronger than Aizen and Kubo said so himself. We only had his plans dragged out so Ichigo can have a fight with Aizen, even though Kiske could have saved the world on his own. 

 

Bleach is great...up until the end of the Soul Society arc and

Aizen reveal.

Kubo just seems to want to make loads and loads of characters, regardless of whether he needs them or not. To be fair, some of them are very cool and you want to know more about them and have more focus on them...but we can't have that, instead Ichigo needs to go fight through 12 ranked villains to get to the big bad, but, oh wait, after those 12 there's actually another secret 5 to fight who are the real tough guys and not all those ones before.

[Darker 1,352]

I think anime was once famous because in Japan things don't work the same way so they can show as much blood to kids as they like.

Thank God my mother let me watch all those bloody (pun intended) horror movies from the 70s, 80s and 90s so that I could enjoy DB, DBZ and DBGT.

 

But even though that's a remarkable thing from anime as it has a very impressive amount of violence in most shows, the best thing about the animes once was the comedy. I remember a lot of very serious animes that had very good humor. Okay, it wasn't humor for everyone, but I feel like a few moments just made to be silly moments are still good humor. I can name a few of them that could still make me laugh a lot.

 

In educational animes, I'd say they also did a good job. The creativity I see in most japanese cartoons exceeds by far the creativity in most western cartoons, where the creativity is done in a random location or a very silly one. But of course, comedic animes take the win easily. Bobobo is by far the funniest, silliest, stupidest and most random thing I've ever seen. 

 

 

Nowadays, anime is repetitive in every way. Nothing is truly unique and japan has no creativity now. Even a few modern monster movies from Japan are obviously ripping off the classic Godzilla.

 

http://kaijubattle.blogspot.com.es/2013/12/creature-feature-deep-sea-monsters.html

Edited October 10, 2014 by Darker

[deadprofile 1,123]

The anime industry is becoming more hit and miss...with more misses than hits. This is due to the Japanese market. They are catering towards those who spend the money. Sadly, the most popular things involve romantic plots (with varying degrees of stupidity, irritation, and irrationalism), shonen up the wazoo, and high school....in anime, if it exists, it'll be set in high school....

 

@TheMarkz0ne, I see where you are coming from. However, I do not think it's the anime industry decaying. I believe it's you maturing. I have the same problem. Reading your first post was telling about myself with anime. I went through exactly what you went through with the big 3 (big Naruto fan here). I went to the manga after Shippuudden, but over time fell away from that as well as I went through college (I still say I am a fan because I really like the story as a whole, and maybe someday I'll read all the manga, but not watch anymore). The same happened with Bleach and One Piece.

BUT, I realized, as I went through college, my anime tastes were just changing. I found this out through t.r.y.i.n.g to find anime that would appeal to me (it was really hard at first), plus, being limited in my exposure to anime (I knew not of subbed anime until college), I had a LOT of anime to sift through. The anime that I found that I grew to love were more mature, with deeper storylines and not action centered, nor romantic centered. This thought solidified in 2011, when I found Stein's Gate and Princess Jellyfish. I was never a slice of life person (especially Shoujo and Josei, of which I am still not too much a fan of), nor was I ever into psychological and suspenseful anime. But I gave them a shot, and my hope in anime was restored. Now I am a huge fan of the more adult shows like Baccano, Psycho Pass, and even more analytical shows like Log Horizon and Madoka Magica. Sadly, these shows are far and few between in terms of what comes out of animation studios each season. Among all the high school romantic plot animes (the most cliqued I could think of), there may be one gemstone...It's just trying to find it.

Now that isn't decay, because if you look back 10 years ago...It was the same thing in terms of what animation studios offered. HOWEVER, when we were at that age, where shonen appealed to us, and high school anime appealed to us when we got into high school. You are in your 20's now, and there really aren't that many anime solely set in college or really much of any adult centered anime. We never noticed this until we matured beyond what is and has been popular....

[The Leafeon Pinkeh 3,603]

Nope, its fine d:
There are a bunch of good shows, but you just haven't found one you like yet! 

 

I recommend Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun! It's really funny and just ended a couple weeks ago, sadly.

don't question it, its wonderful.

 

    All the characters are wonderful and its really funny and so great and 10/10 would recommend

sorry this is the last gif i promise

 

 

[Castle Bleck 19,451]

@TheMarkz0ne,

 

Sadly, Kingdom Hearts has created its own "Aizen" in the form of Master Xehanort.

 

The only reason to like him now is because he's voiced by Leonard Nimoy.

[Jammo 986]

Sōsuke Aizen is probably one of the best anime villains I've seen.

 

 

Even [iNCOMING SPOILAGE] though he was unable to rule Soul Society, him and his team was pretty badass. Unlike Yhwach's, his team trumps Aizen's - but their personalities are very much (shall we say) lacking. 

 

I think he lost his one great quality when he moved away from being a cunning manipulator and turned into an ubermensch with god-complex lunatic.  Aizen fell to the same thing Albert Whesker did in Resident Evil.  Honestly my favorite villain was Ulquiorra Schiffer because his extreme Darwinian views of power made him a perfect foil for Ichigo's belief in the heart having value.  Also I kind of wish Barrigan Luisenbarn was the ultimate villain because the King of Hollows shouldn't bow to some arrogant fop like Aizen.  It's like the Devil being Hitler's lackey.

Edited October 11, 2014 by Jammo