Has Anime Changed Forever?
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 23 ก.พ. 2024
- Has Anime Changed Forever? It seems like it in some ways. Today Mike is going deep and personal on how he feels about Anime as whole and taking a step back to gain some perspective you might appreciate.
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Has Anime Changed Forever?
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Please treat every video like it's someone's first video, cuz i don't know wtf a isakai is?
Have you watched wolfwalkers. Dunno its a family movie, if dark, and i think from a welsh studio, but handdrawn.
You make an excellent point about how back in the day we Oldtaku appreciated the anime we got because we literally had to hunt for it. Back then, you had to know a dude, who knew a dude, who lived close enough to the one store that had a tiny section devoted to anime... or go to the local Blockbuster and pray they slipped a few in the animation section between the Disney movies and Don Bluth films. There was no official pipeline where you could get recommended titles. It was all word-of-mouth. And there were absolute gems scattered around during that time. It was hard, but often glorious.
That's just dumb lmao I swear old head anime fans are so annoying. Just because you're old as dirt and grew up in a era where you had to tape trade doesnt mean you appreciate it more than the new generation. For one you can't even really gauge that because you can't tell how people feel and there's millions of anime fans. And two I watch anime on streaming and i appreciate every piece of great anime I watch. Just because you're an old man doesn't automatically mean you appreciate it and we don't.
@@philo2189 Ok.
@@ryujisama lol punk
I like "oldtaku"
@philo2189 we got legitimately beat up for you. Watch your fucking mouth.
"Classic anime fans tend to be cool and nice and older than 25." TOOK ME RIGHT OUT. Its so true though, modern anime fandom feels like cess pool of people screaming "MID!" at each other and 15 y/os who think that the fiction you enjoy is a 1:1 ratio of your morals as a person. Not fun!
That's very true it always feels like a war between each Fandom saying their characters are the strongest even tho they are from totally different settings and they are very biased take for example any newer "best anime" list its very biased toward newer things like demon slayer or jujitsu kaisen while yes I think they're good anime I wouldn't say they're the best and put them over something like lupin the third or code geass or the many hidden gems of old anime
I've been watching anime almost my entire life and I'm in my 40s now. Anime _has_ changed. In some ways it's gotten better and there are things that just don't stack up to the "classics". I love how accessible anime is now, but when I look at what's available for the season I have to sift through a lot of trash to pick the ones that are actually worth my time. In the past you had to be thankful for whatever you got your grubby lil hands on whether it was good or bad...you were able to watch it, which automatically made it good.
Whether or not anime has changed or not may not be the right question. Everything changes with time. We can always watch the older stuff. I think that's great; to immerse yourself in a slice of time. I think a better question would be: Is anime still a medium for telling great stories; is it an art-form that has impact? Yes. Yes to both.
"you were able to watch it, which automatically made it good" - So you're telling me that if someone locked you up in a basement with no food and only water for 30 days, and then fed you a dog's turd...
@@vlc-cosplayer You like logical fallacies, huh?
It is definitely an art form
@@vlc-cosplayerwell seeing as the average human can only survive without food for 21 days he’d be dead…….maybe try to at least set up a good premise next time you want to be an ass
@@mookiestewart3776 " seeing as the average human can only survive without food for 21 days" skill issue + not me + I'm built different
Growing up in the 90s, we would go to the video store and based on the box art of the vhs decide whether or not buy it
O hell yeah. Even bad anime was enjoyable Friday night watch
And it was 22 bucks for one tape of an OVA 😂
@@TheHumanPurpleTape best 22 buck spend. Even better than in theaters
@@TheHumanPurpleTape was it? Don't know why that's so funny.
As someone in their 40's who grew up in the 80's & 90's, it warms my heart to see that these older titles are still getting recognition. I used to get fansub VHS tapes and bought Japanese manga using an online translation to read it panel by panel. I got introduced to DragonBall/Z when it aired on Kids WB on basic cable. Really got into anime heavily once Cinemax showed Dominion Tank Police and Vampire Hunter D late night. So many great old shows that don't get talked about (especially when many people think that isekai is a new genre, when really it's been around since the days of Magic Knight Rayearth, Fushigi Yuugi, and Escaflowne). Great write-up!
Hell, Narnia, Peter Pan, and the Wizard of OZ are Isekai, essentially. Stories of people getting transported to alternate worlds are pretty much as old as people telling stories. "But what if it was a transparent adolescent power fantasy that worked like the most generic MMO you've ever ignored ads for." is lame, but even then, creative minds can do something fun with it.
Also used to see some of those late knight titles and went through some of them and also went through a time when I got some rare anime like Samurai X and Riding Bean which later life Inflation got me and had a hard choice selling off along with times when Blockbuster had some cool anime like the Record of Lodoss War saw it and returned it back when it was still around. Cool times I can say sadly those times are gone and things changed.
You can't forget El-Hazard as a classic isekai
@nt Oh yeah also went through that in some other parts really don't make it like that anymore and now with Funimation going bust and dead, there was an AT&T outage and well plenty of bad news all around along with parts like FOMO and inflation including Lifestyle Inflation to worry it really is going to be a hectic anime season. Also there's the death of physical media to worry about then again anime itself isn't all what you can touch and hold since it's going in other forms though the most part that's it's using is in digital and in some forms but have to be careful since this season can come and go and have to get it while it's still hot.
@@Viscount Along with the scene way different than when that title was made I can tell you that.
I appreciate the YTV shoutout. For most Canadians, that was where we got a lot of our anime in the early 2000s. Gundam Wing, Inuyasha, Ghost in the Shell, Fullmetal Alchemist, and many more.
Bionix ftw
One of our editors is very Canadian 😂 it’s good to have that perspective
@@BonsaiPop koodos to the editing team, killed it in this video.
You guys got GitS!?
On YTV!?
I assume it was edited to shit.
@@KKAkuoku it was the Stand Alone Complex show so a little more friendly for tv. But still, it was on during the Friday late night block on YTV, similar to cartoon network's Adult Swim. But yeah, not edited down at all.
Fred Gallagher, the creator of Megatokyo webcomic used to help translate anime in the 80s, I helped him set up his VHS collection once, was about 450 on a table, great collection.
I'm still half asleep, I feel like I'm rambling.
☕🐝🇺🇸
What did happen to Megatokyo? Remembered it going on hiatus all time, and I eventually lost track of it.
It still comes out, maybe once a month or once every two months. I do think the story is almost finished though.
Did you ever meet Shirt Guy Dom
The Attack on Titan and Sword Art Online getting acquired by Netflix definitely helped change a lot. Something that not a lot of people consider though is professional basketball and football players started embracing the classic shonen animes around the same time. That might seem like some egotistical american thing to say or a personal bias, but I promise you, a lot of the "jocks" in america backed off the anime bullying train when they saw their heroes embracing it. Made high school a safer place for anime overnight.
This is a very good point!
hmm i see interesting
This is kind of funny as an influence.
The athlete point has a lot to do with anime having a pretty sizable following in the African American neighborhoods back in the day. I grew up in the east Bay Area in the 90’s (Oakland , Richmond, Hayward etc) and shows like dbz, yu yu hakushow and ghost in the shell were the “cool new thing” . Fast forward 10-15 years and us black kids were now adults and some of us went on to become athletes and you see why so many pros started to show the love of a medium they grew up with. It’s funny because we actually saw a similar phenomena in the 60’s and 70’s with the rise of king fu films breaking into the mainstream.
The friends I made growing up in the 90's and being into niche things are still some of my best friends to this day.
The thing about a lot of classic anime fans is that they have a heavy bias towards the shows they grew up with or are from their era, but a lot don't really even acknowledge older stuff outside of that. They rarely ever talk about anime airing from the early 80's or 70's.
There's actually a lot of great stuff nowadays too and if you put enough effort you can actually find more good shows due to sheer volume. Of course the 80's cyberpunk/mecha and 90's aesthetic will probably never be replicated, but it's not like there's no good new shows now.
Absolutely. We're currently in the same season that has Frieren and Apothecary Diaries, let alone Solo Leveling, Ninja Kamui, Delicious Dungeon, The Witch and The Beast, Shangri-La Frontier, even Ragna Crimson, JJK Season 2, One Piece's Egghead Island, and Chained Soldier or Hokkaido Gals.
And that's all just this season. There's a lot of shows that are consistently good lately and quite a few great shows that will be remembered for years (like Frieren or Apothecary Diaries).
Elitism from anime fans is genuinely toxic and self defeating for the community.
@@Serocco I think it's just human nature to hate the contemporary things, and then later on get nostalgic for what used to be "bad" a few years earlier. Gen Z thinks that Gen Alpha kids are doomed because of stuff like Skibidi Toilet, while conveniently forgetting that we also had our fair share of brainrot (TH-cam Poops, MLG montages, Gmod videos, edgy Flash cartoons...)
@@vlc-cosplayer ytp's are still a ting today and there are still new good ones being made!
Not enough people talk about Ashita no Joe. But at the same time all that's legally available is an awful mashed up version of it that I believe has an adverse effect on this masterpiece.
@@GreenTygurI'm so happy you mentioned that amazing anime/manga. I'm right now watching the 1970's anime for the first time, I'm in episode 71, I haven't seen too many 70's shows, but that Ashita No Joe already is one of my all times favorites, along with the likes of Fullmetal Alchemist, Monster, Evangelion, Berserk and Cowboy Bebop. Being a 20 years old mexican young man I didn't expect an over half a century old show to be that good.
Early in high school I was at a sleepover. The friend whose house we were staying at had a VHS on his bookshelf called Samurai X. I was intrigued by the 18+ sticker and asked about it. He said he got it from a Sam Goody because he thought it was hentai, but it turned out to be "just some historical samurai thing". When everybody else had fallen asleep, I gave it a watch and was blown away. It's still one of my favorite movies to this day.
Though it is true that the oldies are never going to disappear, there's some deep rooted sadness in the background of my mind when I enjoy them, that they're never coming back around again. There's no future in them. Outside of this channel, it's just me, sitting alone, quietly enjoying something that's o v e r.
It's happened to my games, as well. I'm an oldhead. In so many ways, I struggle to interact with modern media.
Same.
Indie/AA games: Are we a joke to you, guys?
Also, good thing I'm becoming a indie game developer.
@@keeganmcfarland7507 Excluding executive dysfunction dumb brain stuff, I'll be honest, I have largely avoided indie games for a long time. The vibe of like, weird quirky, milk gallon jar genie cruises the world on a camel selling memes, energy, really puts me off.
I have been getting more into them lately though. Just recently fell in love with Scourgebringer, coincidently.
I remember printing out a picture of Lum on an old dot matrix printer because I wanted to put a picture of my favorite anime at the time on my wall . That took like forever! Hahahah! Plus we got a phone bill for the effort of downloading the images! Oh, the hunt…. The hunt! Yes, the back room of some dodgy video rental shop just to watch an OVA! So nostalgic! I’m 55 btw. My first anime was Prince Planet! I loved it so much! I think I was like 6 at the time. Anime and manga has always been a singular hobby for me. I’m ok with that.
I'm 34 from Argentina, I really appreciate this kind of videos with no specific anime in scope, just a conversation. Good talk.
I truly appreciate the focus on older shows that you good have. It really is an underserved part of the fandom. Everyone seems obsessed with keeping up with the latest releases, but there's a lot of value in going back and watching older shows that don't get the attention that a new series gets.
I grew up in the 90's anime broadcasting infancy. I even remember the DiC Sailor Moon dub being broadcast on a local channel back when Moonies signed petitions to even have that privilege. Toonami picking up Sailor Moon was a real game-changer for me. My weekday afternoons were then spent watching Dragon Ball Z, Tenchi Muyo, Gundam, and every other anime on Toonami's block. Saturday mornings were spent watching the anime on FoxKids (Digimon) and WB (Pokemon).
Even though streaming has made watching anime more disjointed, confusing, and corporate, I am satisfied with the work being produced. With every Isekai deconstruction, there are animes with original concepts that stand out among them. I love Dungeon Meshi and The Apothecary Diaries; one starts as a fantasy cooking manga and the other a historical mystery web novel, respectively. I doubt either low-concept story would have thrived through the narrow curation of the American anime scene in the '00s. Curation did make anime easier to find, but the most hyped animes were usually action-adventure Shonen fare. It makes me giddy that my preferences for historical dramas and cozier character-centered stories can become mainstream, too.
8:09 I graduated highschool in '09. My dude is taking me down memory lane right now
I was a '90s kid, so my exposure to anime was Speed Racer, Voltron, Toonami, and KidsWB. Today, I'm much more of a Toku fan, but I watched Cowboy Bebop and Lupin III: The Castle of Cagliostro last year. I'm also watching a bunch of Studio Ghibli this year, but these are also old stuff. There's so many anime series today, most of which I've never heard of, it's overwhelming, and considering the time investment it takes to go through a series, I have to make choices.
I do agree on being able to sit on things you only get in limited quantites. I think it's affected my enjoyment of shows I've binged. I just saw a meme of The Good Place yesterday, and I'm like "Oh yeah, I watched that whole series last year." Don't get me wrong, I still love shows like King of the Hill, The Office, and Avatar: The Last Airbender, but I wish I could sit with them, one episode at a time.
I also appreciate you using Welcome to VA-11 Hall-A. I love that song.
: Core memory unlocked :
Remembering watching DBZ on old ass box top coaxial cable station Ntv (Nippon TV) with no subtitles back in '96.
Then a rebroadcast of WWF Raw is War on Saturday
: Nostalgia intensified :
FUCK, you just reminded me of the time, me my brother and his friend and our other friend pulled a all nighter watching toonami do a entire naruto marathon, and i didnt realize how many episodes i missed
I didn't really know this was a retro anime channel. I just thought you did well written video essays on cool anime.
I say that as someone who grew up in the 90s having to beg my parents to buy/rent VHS anime from blockbuster.
Getting in trouble randomly when i asked to rent wicked city not knowing what it was.
Remember when people who didn't know what anime was thought it was all cartoon pron?
Or Naruto or that other Dragon Ball thing. It was one of these 3 and it couldn’t be anything else. Everything was pron, Naruto, or DB. Every one of them some form of weird to the general public at large unless you happened to be a literal child in which maybe Naruto or DB would be okay. Sometimes people would level with you and live in the nostalgia for a moment long enough to relate with you on DB. Although, I think, at least in my experience, even DB was seen as weird to like past a certain age.
chinese* cartoon pron
This video is the perfect summation of why I love this channel. I'm not deep into anime-youtube, so this is the first time I've heard X-1999 mentioned. The deep cut that got me into anime as a kid in the late 90s/early 00s. Little rare mentions like that make me feel happy to be part of this community
I think it really is understated how what we have access to changes our perception of what's out there. It's pretty obvious in concept, but I think the influence of curation often goes under the radar. I started really getting into anime when streaming was just getting big (early 2010s) and at that point what was most easily accessible were the classics and the big hits. So my perception of that era of anime is shaped by those shows. Now every single mediocre isekai is just as accessible as the rare hidden gem of the season. So basically what I'm saying is that I think now we're just infinitely more aware of all the bad shows that exist alongside the good, so it feels like anime has gotten worse. And maybe it has to an extent, but I don't know that it's as extreme as some people make it out to be.
It's the same thing with manga. Now that Viz gives us simulpubs for every new series that starts in Jump, I've ended up reading tons of series that turn out to not be very good and get cancelled within 30 chapters. But when I think of Jump manga from the 90s and 00s it's like only bangers because I have no idea what else was in the magazine and just didn't succeed.
None of this is to say I'm immune to it, I just think it's a really interesting phenomenon that applies to a lot of media in the internet age.
That’s true. Though, I think some older fans are aware of this as well. One person even said a thing was automatically good because you had access to the thing and it just used to be so difficult to access any anime at all. I remember feeling that way as well. Even though, I’m not that old. Only 28 and I got into anime just a bit before you in 2008-2009 through the sketchy streaming sites and manga scanlations. Just watching whatever my friends exposed me to. Lots of Ranma and InuYasha. Stuff like YYH, FMA, and Kenshin. All the popular shoujo stuff like Fruits Basket, OHSHC, Kimi ni Todoke, Nana, Fushigi Yuugi, Cardcaptors, TMM, Jeanne, Saint Tail, and Shugo Chara.
@@FullmoonPhantom-dn2sr With how easy it is to access everything now (be it on official platforms or otherwise), I don't think we really need others to expose us to stuff as much. Which is sad, because it's fun to share your passions with others and vice versa. But on the other hand, for someone like me who doesn't have many friends who are into anime/manga, I really appreciate being able to find new things on my own. That said, sometimes I feel like there's too much out there and I get decision paralysis. So maybe having someone personally recommend a series would be nice from time to time lol
You guys are spoiling us with the content rollout this year!
I grew up in a small town. Didn't have cable. Wasn't aware of flea markets or anywhere that would have anime. Caught a few episodes of Sailor Moon, Escaflowne, Pokemon, and Digimon. I spoke in movie, show, and book references to see if anyone else picked up on what I was talking about, and often didn't get responses.
Then I moved away, and found friends and groups that I could hold deep conversations with. Was introduced to classic anime series, and the fascinating twists that they would come up with. Got married, had kids, still stayed in touch with my community that I'd found. Good times.
Then I had to leave, and since then I've felt isolated again. The lockdowns happened, and the depressing part was that it hadn't affected my routine at all.
Was about the time I stumbled across your channel. I'm not deeply steeped in the anime scene, but you guys have passion for a topic, and that's what I love about this channel. You guys are awesome, and I want to thank you for sticking around.
Hope you have a great day, and I'll see you on your next video.
I miss the curated content from people who like anime and did the research. We had in Barcelona an amazing tv program like your funimation and we had so many amazing anime, that's what got me in to the medium. Now they are trying to revive it but it hits different
The Glass Casket EP made me actually gasp because I totally forgot about that. I had to pause the video and go listen to it real fast and yup its still awesome. Specifically the breakdown at the end of For the Living with the choir. Soooo good. Thank you for reminding me!
My earliest memory of anime was early mornings with Sailor Moon. Didn't know it was anime at first, only that it was different. Toonami gave me Yu Yu Hakusho and Rurouni Kenshin in the afternoons. Outlaw Star was a banger as well.
I remember during the early 2000s where we had to watch partial episodes of anime on TH-cam. Crazy days.
As for the industry, I'd say that it caters more to the isekai crowd but there are good anime out there. You just have to dig. Thanks for all the work you guys put into these videos.
6 am on upn (I believe) for me with sailor moon as well. Then onto dbz and toonami when that popped off in 98 , then the BIG ONE adult swim in 2001. Those were the days man lol
Same, sailor moon was my introduction to anime,
Longtime viewer. Have always appreciated what you guys do. This video really hits home with me man. I'm 38, and I have a huge nostalgia for the past, especially anime. And I think that so many things rang true here. I would like to add that the oversaturation in what was once a niche subculture can grow resentment. Some of it is just plain entitlement and elitism. But some of it is actually a subconscious reflection of the fact we wanted these subcultures to amalgamate into our peraonal culture and define us. Because it helped set us apart, gave us unique status. And as anime grew more mainstream it made what we once felt gave us this unique status is now comodified for easy consumption. It's unfortunately the same as punk rock, what it once stood for is more or less dead. And we either need
to accept it and move on, or look for what is still beats with the heart of yesterday's creative passion
90's kid here, Sailor Moon, Detective Conan and a few others were my daily watches in Italia. Personally i prefer how anime is now, i found so many new faves over the years including isekai. The accessibility is something i appreciate among stores that pick up and sell DVD's & Blu-Ray of anime from across Europe and the USA. I seriously appreciate that they import so we can buy an anime that may not have gotten a UK or other territory release. What should improve though is anime streaming & simulcast. Some anime still require Piracy argh to watch weekly so we definitely need upgrades there. But overall i love how many anime they are to choose from and that there is always something to check out of both old & new :)
Video title had me clicking here faster than a bat out of hell!
I started watching anime as a younger kid, but I never really got into anime until I was a young adult. I would catch random episodes of Zatch Bell, Yu Yu Hakusho, Duelmasters and the GOAT Bobobo Bo Bobobo. Growing up in a household that was kind of repressive made it difficult, but I still have fond memories of turning on toonami, seeing what was on, not knowing what was going on but still having a good time
As an anime fan who grew up in the 90s, but much closer to Japan, in the Philippines, i think accessibility was simultaneously easier and harder. TV shows were easier to come by in the form of Filipino dubs or Chinese ones on cable. But movies and subs with japanese audio were things you needed the scrounge from hookups with fansub bootlegs just like in North America. Music had to be from sketchy SM cds (which, not knowing any better, everyone thought was legitimate since it was professionally packaged) and later from kazaa/limewire/edonkey since they were rare in napster too. The closest places to usually get legitimate goods were in Hong Kong,
So the hunt was real in many fronts.
That said, i think we should acknowledge that the one thing that is the end goal of all Anime productions is selling merch. It was the case then, and it is the case now. It just happens that the tastes they tried to pander to became clearer and less grungy, much like blues gave way to rock, then pop. There are still gems, but harder to weed out from popular/mainstream stuff, rather than the gems being the mainstream
This winter season has been filled with so much more degenerate ecchi goodness than we've had in a long time also anime streaming has definitely changed more than anything to me and hopeful it gets better for all of us.
Actually it’s just mostly isekia stuff though with some exceptions I mean frieren
@@watchforever1724 Yeah Frieren is just an amazing fantasy story and journey while we still got plenty of isekai unfortunately though like you said exceptions very few of them but still good stuff out there.
@@SamTheGumMan117agreed I saw delicious in duegon anime on Netflix and the audience talking about it as small
I don't understand that logic. Why enjoy degenerate ecchi with no substance.. only to be forgotten next year
@@Watch-0w1 some are exactly good but some aren’t honestly
I'm subscribed to your channel but I don't really know how it happened cause I don't remember seeing anything from you before this. Anyway, I would love to get more into the old and crazy anime you talked about and I hope I'll find some recommendation on your channel. I just turned 30yo but I started watching anime only around 2011, on the internet. I kept up with it pretty well I would say, but lately I found myself longing for the retro style.
Hi, I'm your typical 30-ish year old (ex?) emo kid isolated otaku. I live alone, my friends have all left me and gone on to have kids and I mostly spend my time stuck between work and a lonely anime tinged home life with my cat and I feel this video so hard that it hurts. It's nice to feel seen though so thank you
Watching raw anime bootleg vhs’s was a rough time lol or staying up till 2am to watch 18+ anime on the sifi channel. #ninjascrollsismyjam
Great video. Glad the break perked you up. Well deserved and needed.
I grew up on Voltron and Robotech and Voltron and while I adore the early years, curated is a perfect description. It’s easy filter out some of the trash from the era and even harder to realize that much of it was only good in comparison to things like the Mortal Kombat cartoon.
If anime has benefited from anything, it’s never developing a mainstream filter like videogames. There’s tons of great weird stuff out there every season to find. The main issue these days is just that a lot of the trash dresses itself up like the treasure.
When you said "people who like old anime" over the backdrop of Samurai Champloo it hit me right in the kokoro. :) That's the show that got me back into anime after an early 80s childhood spent watching cartoons like Mazinger Z, Heidi and Rose of Versailles on Italian TV without having any perception it's anime or that anime is something different. :)
"They want you to CONSUME, mother fucker!" That really hit me. Actually, a bunch of stuff you said hit me, especially that sort of shock of finding one's nerd hobbies suddenly popular and mainstream. And the restaurant with the favorite thing, just gone. This is rambley, sorry.
I'm closing in on 50 (end of this year), and in the late 80s and early 90s, i was the person with the weird interests - table top games and music and anime and video games - and the person who knew the niche knowledge. But job and life and kids - i haven't had time to really indulge my hobbies in a long time, and while it's cool that now there are so many people who like the things i like, it's like my hobbies have run past me , and people who are into the same hobbies are so young and have already consumed and moved on from things in my backlog that are a couple years to a decade old.
i mean, i just finished the first Nino Kuni which i had to repurchase for Switch because i don't have a PS3 anymore and am trying to decide between Xenoblade 1, Mass Effect 3, and Persona 5 as my next thing that will take me two years to complete. With anime, anymore i don't even know what i don't know.... There's too much, i don't have the time, people are talking about other stuff, and I'm out of the loop. I mean, I'd love to become more involved in the BonsaiPop community, but ultimately I'd just be lurking as my time to meaningfully participate is null. Sometimes, it's easier to avoid my hobbies because only being able to dabble once in a while makes me sad.
I'm not complaining about my life, because it's great and i love my partner and our kids and i don't hate my career as much as others. But i have nostalgia for my life when i had time to dedicate to just enjoying stuff and knowing the arcane lore. And i think the thing i really value about your channel is that it's kind of short form (compared to watching the entire run of an anime, not for TH-cam content) consumption that gives me a taste of things i don't have time for but still want. So thanks for that. And i, at least, do really appreciate these "pause for real talk" type videos. When you're isolated from the peers you want (and used to have) and have nothing but family who doesn't know your shit and coworkers who are great but all very much straights, that little bit of parasocial relationship is itself a connection to the things you love. I'm down for more of these types of videos, whenever there's something on you're mind.
I'm up in the middle of the night typing a manifesto to people who don't know me instead of sleeping because they like stuff I like. Shit, my partner's right. I do need therapy.
Im over 30 yrs old, I hate gatekeeping, I also grew up being part of niche counter culture groups and I used to cheer when these things blew up in popularity however.... As I grow older I realized that that kinda sucks man, you keep seeing all these wonderfull niche passion projects becoming soulless cash grabs, you see all these diverse franchises start to blend into each other and become the same thing... It's especially true for me with videogames, I love the current indie scene and triple still has some bangers, I love some the new stuff coming out today, anime or games, but eveytime I see a trailer for a new final fantasy focused on cinematic action or a monster hunter more interested in graphics than challenging boss fight... it just kills my soul a little.
Best thing to do is let new people enjoy things and let us oldies become creators ourselves to keep our passions alive, so everyone wins
Fantastic as always! I always look forward to seeing your new videos!
really bumming me out how so many people are talking about being isolated now adays. It seems like it's been a topic of every podcast I have listened to recently.
Loved this video. Glad you took a break and got the fire back!
As a 90s kid (91) I got into anime at the hype of shone. I am from Brazil, so a bit different than the experience in the US, but almost a proxy. And I love how more mainstream it has become. I do agree with the premise that we now need to dig a bit more to find the ones that we enjoy more, but it comes with the popularity. There are so many good titles that I can follow now, more recently Dungeon Messi, that I am unsure that I'd find out about at the 90s era. The 90s/early naughties animes still resonate in my heart and they are my favorites for the most part, but plenty of good recent titles came out recently.
Said that I still abhor the serialisation of some of it. Just putting out more and more episodes and such without soul is counterproductive, it may lead to a saturation and a wrong feedback from the market (on top of just being the capitalist way of doing things and burning everything to the ground while doing it)
I started watching anime, as a pretty small child, back in the late 1970’s and early 80’s. Growing up in Atlanta we had a handful of shows on PBS and Turner’s cable channel (which was available to everyone in the area as a standard station as our family couldn’t afford cable). Then even the term “anime” wasn’t something I was aware of, but I always admired Japanese animation as something that didn’t treat me like I was fragile. Watching Captain Harlock and Space Battleship Yamato (I knew it as Starblazers) was something that I didn’t have a lot of friends to talk about it with. Over the years though, I feel like my exposure and the availability of anime came in waves. In the late 80’s and early 90’s there was a bit of a splash with Akira and Robotech floating through my peripherals and it was a pain in the ass to find translated anime (I didn’t have the dedication to watch in-subbed stuff, but I did watch a lot of what turned out to be painfully poorly translated stuff). I felt like Toonami and its copycats at least offered some access and kind of served to normalize the love of the art. I do miss the high strangeness of the golden age stuff for sure, but find that the trade-off has been more of the common place offerings of our mass streamed services and appreciate the curations of yourself and other creators. Demand always changes the culture of art, as popularity and the capitalism of funding creators channels output to where profit lies. I still see Japan as one of the greatest sources of storytelling per capita though, and think that, perhaps, there will be a renaissance of weird and funky material in the future. Either way, I am grateful to have many options that are relatively accessible though, and my punk ethos has softened over my many, many, many years to a point where I’m glad that there are fewer people that look at me with bewilderment when I mention an anime I’m enjoying and I don’t have to explain what anime is over and over. lol. Great thoughts tho and love the musings, we do need more discussion of the state of the culture and not just “watch this” material (though keep doing that too) ❤❤❤
Beck still has amazing music from 1994 until today. I recommend checking out his discography.
I'm in my 40's but only got into anime proper about 12 years ago, and more so in a big way in 2019 and then during the pandemic. I found my way into older anime and love the nostalgia hit I get from retro shows like Ranma, City Hunter, Dirty Pair, Project A-ko, Gal Force, Tenchi, Slayers etc. That's how I found this channel and so glad I did. every time I looked up retro/classic anime on youtube there were hardly any videos about them, except yours, so thanks for all the love for older shows.
In 2010 TBS played a small venue for us in Germany at the army base I was stationed at. They were amazing and for the 50 or so of us there it was such a down to earth and personal experience. Went to a TBS concert over this past summer and holy shit was it a let down. Breaks my heart.
To your point about anime then and now having or not having a "throw everything at the wall" dynamic, I looked at it more as a bigger variety of things in the past having a chance to find an audience opposed to the impression that modern series often have their audience predetermined at conception. I think this is mostly a result of the passage of time affecting our perspective rather than a real thing, I believe the biggest thing that has changed about anime is the people actually making it. We don't see projects like we used to in the 80s and 90s because those people are not the ones making the material. The computer animation is a close second to me personally as far as why I barely watch anything new but I would still feel disconnected from most everything modern because I myself have too much past context shaping what I want to see in something new.
Unrelated, but thanks again for being able to articulate so well the experiences of your elders. I was one of those you referenced as having to literally hunt for new content, scouring comic book shops and Japanese grocers for something I hadn't seen, often unsubbed and no idea where in the particular series I was coming in. We did that because we DID love the stuff that much, but I choose now to be glad that young people have the whole scope of it available rather than resentful that they don't have to work for it.
You’re truly inspiring I love watching your videos keep doing your best of your ability to creating good content
I love appreciating things in depth and I kinda hate the consuming society that has been becoming prevalent.
that is why I love rougelikes, repeating anime and watching film analysis on youtube.
having more than just the single watch through makes me happy
Dude, your positive attitude about community is so inspiring, and it actually changed the way I look at anime in a good way! Love all your content man, thanks for all your hard work!! :)
One thing I’ve learned with anime/manga over the years (I’m 32) is to find what you like and enjoy it. Don’t feel the need to consume everything that’s pushed upon you, and go at your own pace. That’s where the true appreciation comes into play. That’s when you begin to truly value the art form
I like everything you had to say. This video is well put together and easy to watch. Keep up the great work pal!
21:17
what is the name of this Anime ?
It’s space runway Gideon, specifically the movie “space runway Gideon: be invoked”
It’s totally insane lol
@@BonsaiPop thank you very much for the answer👍
@@DragonBall-Manga-1984Space Runaway Ideon was made by the creator of Gundam and was the biggest influence for Neon Genesis Evangelion.
You can watch the entire series and then instead of the final episode the "Be Invoked" movie
that Puu plushie is so cute!!!
I started watching anime in the late 1970s from a NYC UHF channel that shared time on Sat Nights with Nippon tv titles like Galaxy Express 999 and Iku san the little monk as we got well into the vhs era I bought bootlegs from vendors in chinatown also in to the dvd era
I just posted that as a kid from the 80s/90s in Lower East Side Manhattan, I always had access to anything Japanese by just going to Canal St.
Most of the displays and toys were Gundam, but I was never interested.
Watched the Witch of Mercury as my 1st ever Gundam, and finally understood the hype.
I now live in Tokyo, lol
A trend I like in recent years is rereleases of older anime movies in theaters. I was born in the mid 90s, so I was too young to watch Cowboy Bebop The Movie and Paprika in theaters, but I'm very happy that I could finally do so in recent times.
Much Respect to the channel, yer vids our awesome! As an older head I can remember going town to town or into the city, & into every Video & CD store looking for used or new Anime! In those days mostly movies or u would have to buy 8-10 VHS 📼's for 1 season. Bck then u bought wut u could find, be it tape or DVD! Keep up the good wrk.👌
I remember the days when the Sci- Fi channel was the go-to source for dubbed anime every Saturday. Project A-ko, Project A-ko vs. Grey Side and Blue Side, Tank Police, Vampire Hunter D, Robot Carnival, Eyes of Mars, Venus Wars, and Cassahan Robot Hunter started my dive into anime.
I would say the curation helped a lot back in the day. When I first got into anime in 2002 there was a lot of people who kind of road mapped anime fandom for newbies like “you need to watch Evangelion and Cowboy Bebop”. Now there is just too much anime and you kinda have to just jump in and see what you like. I still watch a fair bit of new anime, but 90s and early 2000s anime just hits different for me.
I just watched Darryl Talks Games video discussing liking/disliking things that are popular, and I feel like this video was a good way to follow it.
I appreciate you guys and your videos so much. Your Kenshin coverage was amazing and beautiful. That is also the single biggest reason that I’ll forgive you for reminding me that AFI exists as it does today. I’d forgotten… I was free…
Toonami changed my childhood. I was hooked after that. I found the Ninja Scroll and Akira videos at the local movie store (think blockbuster but mom and pop). Then me and my friends went around Chicago looking for any anime we could find with english subs or dubs. The dubs back then are legendarily bad and that was half the fun. I'm a bit older then you, but I completely understand this video. The internet allowed the nerds and geeks to finally take over and all the stuff they liked became mainstream. Very strange time, but then again, all these times is strange now a days.
“Time and the earth do not stand still. Change is the law of life. Those who look to the past or the present are certain to miss the future.”
Of course, Toonami and Shonen Jump-level fare will always be my go-to!
Love this channel!
4:3 cel animated Anime will always hold a special place in my heart
Man just knowing this corner of the intermet exist keeps me grounded, please never stop, i know im a lurker but im fixing stuff outside, but know you are apreciated
Cheers from México
Love what you guys do. The passion for anime of yesteryear is clear and invigorating. Thanks for making the effort to share that passion. (also based Chibidoki enjoyer)
I remember that switch up in 2008 after Batman Begins and Iron Man blew up and suddenly everyone thought comics were cool, I felt robbed of my trauma of being an outcast for years.
On another note I've also been craving that old anime feeling for a while and I've seen most of them but one I watched recently that really got me that I had not watched was Ghost Stories, it was old school but funny as hell. If you love team four star dragon ball go watch Ghost Stories, I've never laughed so much I thought I'd been sent to the shadow realm until that show.
i'm only 5 minutes into your video but everything youve said is resonating with me so deeply. Good vibes and wishes comin to you from a fellow 90's kid brother. Have a great weekend!
Thank you for this video, I was having such a a bad day and I'm crying as I write this. I appreciate you guys. Definitely giving y'all a Patreon sub as well 🙏🏼🙏🏼
The toonami era of course but born in 1987 by the way missed you glad you’re making videos again and in my opinion physical media matters wish i could go on the hunt in my opinion actually bc physical media matters in my opinion love your videos ❤❤❤❤
Dude, right there with you. You nailed it you're amazing
I'm so old as an anime fan--my earliest memory of it was Marine Boy. I was 6 years old, and it came on syndicated TV (WPIX ch.11) in NYC around 1971 I think. From there it was Speed Racer (Mach Go, Go, Go) and Gigantor (Ironman #28) on the neighboring channel (WOR ch.9) that had the ball rolling for me. Then mid-decade it would be the phenomenal Star Blazers (Space battleship Yamato) and Battle of the Planets (Gatchaman Force) all around the time of Star Wars emergence onto the world. I always knew of the difference between American animation styles, comedy, and action, like what Hanna/Barbera or Filmation produced. Anime was something totally different even when brutally edited for American TV standards. However, my first real education on the history, production, and creators behind Japanese animation did not occur until I picked a special "fanzine" in 1980 called FanFare with Captain Harlock on the cover (that's the main reason why I bought it--"Who was this cool looking guy?"). Most of that issue was devoted to Anime, both tv, and film, and its intricate history and surprising connection to American animated shorts from Disney and Warner Bros. It's one of my treasured possessions tbh, even though the cover is long gone and the pages are yellowing and brittle--it has to lead me to my current knowledge and nearly 60-year love of this particular form of art.
Do you have a music channel? Your essays are so thoughtful that I kinda wanna see your music.
So glad yall are back.
Thanks for the vid
I was born in Manhattan in the 1970s, lived in the Lower East Side, so I always had access to all Japanese products that were sold in Canal St.
I started watching anime in the late 90s/early 2000s. And I’ve been watching anime ever since. A lot of the things you said made sense to me. Nothing beats an anime classic for sure. Thank you.
Our hero brother always returns when we need him the most. much love man💪🏾💪🏾
I started in 1979-1980 with reruns of Astroboy on CBC (Canadian BBC) and Star Blazers when I got into WA state from Alaska.
i think the best era of anime is now, you can watch good new anime or dig some to find hidden old gem, its win-win for me
Speaking of Dragon Half, I was surprised to discover that the manga got a full official translation a few years back. It's fun and charming and goes way past what the old OVA covers. It's three omnibus volumes and I recommend it for anyone who anyone looking for a fantasy comedy (who's also not allergic to pervy stuff, if you are then steer clear, you *will* have a bad time) with that 90s aesthetic.
we still have gundam at least after all these years ☺️
My first contact with anime was in the mid 90s, watching on TV Saint Seiya (It was a real fever here in Brazil during that time, surpassing some soap operas sometimes). And I saw other animes on TV and later on cable TV. I rented some VHSs that time, including Akira. I was a child and had some fun with that stuff
I was extremely lucky and in the early 2000s my mom would let me order dvds from one of the only places in Canada that would ship to me which I believe was called C&L and from ordering dvds and watching trailers from the DVDs would be my only exposure to anime that was not mainstream such as sailor moon or dragonball z. I was lucky enough to watch ninja scroll, Akira, lots of gundam series(I’m one of those guys), and many other classics. Your channel has been great as I am also a huge fan of this channel and since been lead to a couple other anime’s I was unaware of since following and I appreciate that since I am also an oldie(gonna be 33 in July) so it is honestly refreshing to see that there is a community out there that is so likeminded as myself 🤟🏻
Its amazing how different the anime scene was as a new yorker. In the mid 90s all i had to do was go down main street in queens which was queens chinatown and there were 2 stores a block apart that sold anime tapes, subbed too. I would flex on friends that wasnt put on game and tell them what was going to happen in dragonball MONTHS and i mean MONTHS before toonami showed it. I was also blessed to have premium cable so stuff like vampire hunter d, akira used to come on all the time on cinemax and showtime late at nignt. It wasn't really hard to get my fix.
Anyone got a read on what anime Mike was talking about at the 21:09 mark? That selling point has me totally intrigued and I can't figure out what it is (not Galaxy Express 999 or Macross).
Thanks for putting into words something I struggle to put into words myself
In the 90's we got anime at certain shops that had imported VHS tapes. Shop I went to also had imported Japanese games, and I had my playstation chipped so I could play them.
Action Replay ?
Hell yes to PS piracy. I had tons of burned ps disks.
My experience with anime was always limited. I never had money to invest so I always looked for movies or something that didn't run for a lot of episodes but was completed.
The one anime that probably impacted me the most was called: El Hazard: The Magnificent World. Pretty standard Isekai, all things considered, but it was gorgeous and still impacts my world building some 25 years later
I love this channel not only because you guys make me feel nostalgic for older anime but it takes me back to the days of watching anime from 5 to midnight or wake up saturday mornings when I was 6 or 7 and loved it and it's funny about being called weird or a nerd when you read comic or watched anime I'm 31 and I have a good friend who is 40 and we talked about how we didn't tell people that we watched those or played games because you would be a loser
I grew up watching anime in the late 90s early 2000s and I remember my first adult anime was pink lol my cousin had it and I didn't know what it was I remember my first anime was sbz at the age of 5 or 6 and I remember my first I guess mature anime that wasn't a hentai was inuyasha and cowboy bebop
This is such a fun format. If you listen to the podcasts you know one thing. Mike can talk. Forever. But I feel like if this kind of video gets views then we should get more in between major releases 👍
Like to prove it to the boys
I'm old. And I don't have the time nor the disposition anymore to just sit and watch stuff like I used to, so a show doesn't just have to be good to keep my attention, it's got to feed those particular niches I so desperately enjoy. Not much does that these days, but I'm going to shout out a show that seemingly has done the impossible by feeling both incredibly fun and fresh while at the same time representing all I love about the 70s and 80s eras of anime:
Bang Brave Bang Bravern.
I can't even begin with this show. It's funny, painfully honest, and completely wears it's giant super robot heart on its sleeve. I can't praise this show enough, and more people should be watching it.
yeah, you're a cool dude. Keep doing what you love, and i'll support you. However, i can. Also, I feel you it's nice having a comfort bubble be it anime, games, or music
I remember those years being the only one that like anime. I felt like an alien and my friends that, like anime, I met online, and the only time we met was on anime convention.