âThereâs never been a more exciting time to be an anime fan, and we are strategically feeding a pipeline of anime content and experiences that fuels that fandom, deepens the love of anime, and exposes more audiences to the medium,â the company said. âThe Crunchyroll business is outperforming our financial expectations, and the company is well positioned to continue to grow alongside the rising global demand for anime.â
We live in interesting times. ~20 years ago I would have never imagined such a statement.
Iâm going to sound like an old ass, hating, âIn my day things were betterâ gruff but anime before it got popular was better. I feel itâs gotten a lot more corporate. Themes in anime have gotten so safe and Shonen has completely taken over all other catogories. I feel you donât get the popularity of anime like cowboy bebop, Ghost in the Shell, or EVA today because thereâs no marketable character mascots or easily digestible story telling. It reminds me of music in the 90s. LeSs experimentation and creativity and more âWE NEED TO BE ABLE TO SELL MERCHANDISE!â
That being said I acknowledge how much merchandise EVA sold so itâs not completely black and white
Agreed.
Stories are trope filled and unoriginal most of the time (thereâs a few that seem like they try). The art is lazy. There used to be complex mature themes and now thereâs like 5 madlibs used to pump out generic crap. I feel like the last one I saw that felt like classic anime was Knights of Sidonia
You know, what youâre describing is probably why I mostly stopped watching anime. I was very into '80s and '90s anime, and some of the early 2000s as well. But somehow it all gradually seemed to become more generic or repetitive as it became more popular. Stories used to be weirder. Which⌠Okay, modern anime is very weird. But itâs sort of predictably weird. Silly weird. That sort of thing. Anyway, itâs definitely changed a lot and I feel that, despite the increase in content and content availability, the variety of stories has decreased.
You put it better, but I actually was watching some anime today and so felt the need to chime in.
I generally prefer 80s/90s anime, but there is some really good stuff from the 2000s as well (havenât really watched anything from last 10 years).
Michiko to Hatchin (2008) Ergo Proxy (2006) Texhnolyze (2003) Kaiba (2008) The Sky Crawlers (2008) Ghost in the Shell: Innocence (2004) Blame! (2003) Howlâs Moving Castle (2004) Paranoia Agent (2004) Planetes (2004) Samurai Champloo (2004)
Not saying you have to like all of them (these are my favourites after all), but there is good stuff from the 2000s.
20+ years ago I was hiding my love for anime because back then watching âcartoonsâ would get you mocked, bullied and possibly ass kicked.
Iâm glad things have changed for the better.
You still get people who think anime is âcartoonsâ, but they tend to be older.
I feel like around ~20 years ago is when anime started entering the mainstream.
Generally, people credit Akira with bringing anime into the American mainstream, which would have been 1988, but by 1997, Princess Mononoke had a national release in theaters in the U.S., with Billy Bob Thornton doing a voice a year after Slingblade, i.e. when he was one of the biggest celebrity actors in the U.S. (Almost the whole cast was famous, which was really unusual at the time for animation.)
I was 20 when that came out and I donât remember a lot of people saying that they wouldnât go see that silly kidâs cartoon because it was very clear by then that anime wasnât just for kids.
So I would say closer to 30 years.
Been watching a few crunchy roll shows. After a while you see a pattern:
- Insert interesting idea for story.
- letâs add a protagonist
- add some monsters and a near death event in episode 5
- donât forget to add sweet innocent girl
- now add women with barely concealed breasts.
- add some flirting
Mix for 12 episodes and never schedule season 2
