They don't make new Sci-Fi or Anime for me anymore

[commodore256]

I found this forum by searching for people that hate new anime and found a post from 2005 that says "What you like about anime is still here, Cowboy Bebop was made just 7 years ago" and I figure since this forum has been around since the late 20th century and forums in general attract an older crowd, I figure the community here knows what I'm talking about.

Anyway, I've come to terms that what I like about anime and sci-fi and especially sci-fi anime doesn't exist anymore. I like heroic adventurous vibes, but I hate the overly glossy looking colors of modern anime and I hate how the characters look cute and not cool or hot, they don't look mature to me and the few with mature designs don't emphasize heroic adventurous vibes of a savory pacing involving mature looking characters like how Late 20th century anime looked, but I don't want an old 20th century legacy and don't even like the ones in the early 00's like Planetes, I don't see an emphasis on heroic vibes. I thought Code Geass was going to be a spirited successor to gundam, but I hated the teenage cringe, that brings back bad memories of me making an idiot of myself.

I don't want just be recommended a 20th century anime or any anime made before 2010 because that's when I stopped watching anime and I don't even want to watch an anime of a franchise that started before 2010, I hate feeling like I'm locked into older legacies even when an anime delivers on their legacy and more often than not, it's just a cheap cash grab that disrespects the legacy.


There's no new anime themed around the wonders of a futuristic world, it's usually themed around it being dreadful and modern narratives are way better at emphasizing strong feelings of dread. Anime just isn't for Sci-Fi nerds anymore unless you count "I want toys with better graphics" like SAO, new anime doesn't give me a feeling that futuristic hardware can be spectacular.
 

 

Even Star Trek, the franchise I moved to in the mid 00's when I couldn't find good anime, since 2009, it became about fast paced spectacles and since Discovery, it's been about mean spirited partisan propaganda. Not to say politics is bad, it's about how you say it, it's not about what you say it and there's a big difference between having politics in it and making it about politics. I also feel alienated that when I search for like minded people, it's just culture war tribal sensationalist BS, I kinda want to escape from what I don't like about the world and I want to be around others that just want to escape. When older star trek talked about political topics, it wasn't always partisan and yeah, there's a copypasta meme that "debunks" the statement that star trek was less political, but the music and the cinematography  don't emphasize the visuals of the screenshots, like I think of more of the dilemma than the agenda, I also hate our narrative culture of way too much irony, self-awareness, metaness and bathos.


If what I liked about the world doesn't even have a recent past, what hope is there for a future?

Edited July 3, 2023 by commodore256
I said what I needed to say, I don't need this up

[Bolt]

Quite the bleak and pessimistic rant. But, i do get where you're coming from. The golden age of anime has long passed. And most sci fi is either a poor remake/reboot or just plain disappointing. However, there is always hope and a few gems do pop up , from time to time. That also goes for comics and novels.  I won't bother name dropping any , as taste and preference is really subjective. And what i might like these days , others might hate. My only suggestion is watch and enjoy what you love ( I do.) even if it's years old. And do keep a look out for something interesting , it's bound to come your way. But , most of all, try not to be too fatalistic about it all. Enjoy the ride. Don't get too hung up on the past. And keep your eyes open.

[mikeszekely]

I kind of feel you on the anime thing, but I never really considered myself a fan of anime any more than I'd say I was a fan of sitcoms.  Some I liked, some I didn't, though I can honestly say there was a lot more I liked in the '90s than I do today.

All hope isn't lost, though.  Occasionally Sunrise throws us a bone and gives us new Gundam in the Universal Century timeline.  I thought Gundam Unicorn was quite good, and I thought the first Hathaway's Flash movie was good enough that I want to see the sequel.  For something that isn't Gundam I've been enjoying the Ultraman series that's on Netflix.

Even Star Trek... yeah, agree on Discovery and I'd say it's true for Picard, too.  But have to watched Strange New Worlds?  It's the most Star Trek the franchise has been since TNG.

[commodore256]

6 minutes ago, Bolt said:

Quite the bleak and pessimistic rant. But, i do get where you're coming from. The golden age of anime has long passed. And most sci fi is either a poor remake/reboot or just plain disappointing. However, there is always hope and a few gems do pop up , from time to time. That also goes for comics and novels.  I won't bother name dropping any , as taste and preference is really subjective. And what i might like these days , others might hate. My only suggestion is watch and enjoy what you love ( I do.) even if it's years old. And do keep a look out for something interesting , it's bound to come your way. But , most of all, try not to be too fatalistic about it all. Enjoy the ride. Don't get too hung up on the past. And keep your eyes open.

When I watch old anime I like, I think "I'll never see anything new like this ever again" and that's so depressing, I can't finish it. I never actually seen Macross or Robotech or LOTGH, I hate feeling like the last time they made an original anime I like was 1998 and if I modified that to be 2006, that's not much different. I never thought when I first got really got into anime and self identified as an anime 23 years ago and saw a copyright date if 1998, I never thought that was the last hurrah, I never thought 20 years later, I would be watching an anime made in 1978 (Harlock) and loving it and felt disappointed that I could find anime like what I enjoined that came out in 1998, 20 years before 1998 and nothing 20 years after 1998.


I thought 1998 was just the beginning, not the end.

I'm also not a printed medium guy, I want to feel an atmosphere I can only get from an audiovisual medium. To me that is the only way I can experience the wonders of futuristic hardware.

[commodore256]

28 minutes ago, mikeszekely said:

I kind of feel you on the anime thing, but I never really considered myself a fan of anime any more than I'd say I was a fan of sitcoms.  Some I liked, some I didn't, though I can honestly say there was a lot more I liked in the '90s than I do today.

All hope isn't lost, though.  Occasionally Sunrise throws us a bone and gives us new Gundam in the Universal Century timeline.  I thought Gundam Unicorn was quite good, and I thought the first Hathaway's Flash movie was good enough that I want to see the sequel.  For something that isn't Gundam I've been enjoying the Ultraman series that's on Netflix.

Even Star Trek... yeah, agree on Discovery and I'd say it's true for Picard, too.  But have to watched Strange New Worlds?  It's the most Star Trek the franchise has been since TNG.

Yeah, but ultraman has been around since the 60's. I just hate feeling like there's nothing new-new in the spirit I'd like. I saw the first episode of Strange New Worlds, they showed a clip of what happened to the events leading up to WWIII and it was the Capitol Riot. I want to escape from being reminded about real world dreads. I think I might watch more of it, but I have Discovery homework to do and I'd suffer through Picard for the climax, but my problem is I hear it doesn't feel heroic or triumphant before the series climax. I hate seeing the person I look up to as a hero being as cynical, biter, disillusioned and as misanthropic as I am. He is acting realistically in character if the world changed in that way, but I don't want to see the world change in that way. I want to finish an episode and not feel like my curiosity is being exploited just to binge. I hate binge watching culture, I hate our culture of being up to date just so you can be a part of the conversation, I hate how our culture encourages FOMO, I hate. My culture also isn't nerdy anymore, it's normie and the soul of it that made me enjoy it isn't there anymore.


I used to have misguided optimism about the future of anime, in 2007, I thought people saying anime was dying were being hyperbolic and I thought with anime becoming cheaper, more and more anime was being made and even if the percentage of my corner of the greater anime community shrank, the raw number of anime I can enjoy would still increase, but the reality is if your interest is expensive to make and what you like about the interest becomes more niche, it dies. All I get is "Ok, boomer, here's another F***ing gundam", but I want something new of that heroic space lazer vibe that isn't cringe or a farce like Space Dandy, doesn't look Juvenile like Eden's Zero and has a mature, yet not Mind F***y atmosphere (I hate psychological as a genre) with heroic adventurous vibes and makes me feel technology is good for our heroes.

Edited June 28, 2023 by commodore256

[Big s]

I can’t really say anime is dead, just not for me anymore. It’s a lot of rehashed dialogue and stories for the most part. The other thing is the shift away from Sci fi and just being boring stuck in a video game again. The other issue is that when some start off cool, they lose focus towards the last third. I liked gundam Unicorn and even IBO, but they get so awkward at the end. Honestly unicorn had the worst ending of any gundam I’ve ever seen. It basically took a dump on everything by saying everyone was fighting over a stupid message and that’s what this complicated treasure hunt was for. I’m worried that I won’t like how attack on titan ends. I still want to watch, but ever since it felt like the last seasons have kinda undone what made the main character like able.

And then there’s shows that are super pretty like Violet Evergarden, but are so intolerable and boring.

the worst thing is the suicidal attitudes of many characters. The just let me die or kill me please speaches are too cringy.

 I try to watch Spy x Family and it’s the comedy isn’t very funny and the kids stuff is too childish even though moments try to be more hardcore with action, things just don’t work together. It’s a good premise, but just isn’t with it.

I never thought I’d miss space bounty hunter shows so much.

[commodore256]

It's dead in a sense of the people that liked the nerdy stuff of the 70's and 80's aren't really welcome anymore outside the context of old legacy franchises. Nobody trusts the spirit of gundam or the late 90's space westerns won't sell unless they're in a pre-established brand. and I got sick of this with Super Hero Films, I got sick of super hero films in 2008, when the MCU started. That reminded me of when I got sick of Isekai, I got sick of that before SAO came out, I saw MAR, Monster Rancher, Digimon, Kyou Kara Maou and Zero no Tsukaima and I got sick of it just before they became the new normal.

Japan could have only made anime I liked when Akihabara was a consumer electronics district and anime was a consumer electronics accessory for people that bought a cool lazerdisc player, they felt like they brought the future home when they bought the lazerdisc player and they brought it back everytime they watched an OVA.

Marty knows what I'm talking about.
 

Marty wasn't talking about Cartoons with a girl late for school and got toast with jam in her month and hoping her senpai will notice her.


Now, Japan doesn't sell consumer electronics outside of consoles, hell they don't even manufacture them anymore, hell, they don't even design them in Japan anymore. In fact, I know of a guy that worked on the PS5's GPU and he ain't Japanese, he doesn't even speak Japanese. Non-anime and non-Video Game exports of Japan have seen better days.

Edited June 28, 2023 by commodore256

[Mog]

I’m not a big anime guy, but the only sci-fi one I’ve seen that’s post-2010 is Eureka Seven:  Ao.  But that thing was utter dog-poop and a frustratingly bad sequel to the original.

In terms of live action sci-fi, The Expanse is easily one of the best series to come out in a long while.  Yes, it can be slow sometimes, but the world-building is pretty damn top-notch.  There is politics, but it’s politics that pertains to the world and cultures of that series itself.

[Ignacio Ocamica]

Have you watched Obsolete? 14 minutes free episodes on YouTube (Emotion channel). It's CGI and it's well shaded, does not look bland.

https://youtu.be/LzqPSoMXAig

[Stampeed Valkyrie]

I understand the sentiment @commodore256 but I do not believe statements like the Golden Age of Anime,  or Anime is dead are true.    Everything is subjective and anime much like any other medium adapts in order to keep selling.      I don't disagree that there have been many changes to the modern Anime style that I could live without,  but there are still the breakthrough titles (to me at least) and while rare are still out there.    I think I will eventually age out of modern Anime,  and that is probably sooner rather then later,  but so long as there is still 1 show every couple of years or so that really stands out...   I'll watch.

As for SciFi..   I haven't followed anything mainstream in years.   I would recommend short stories or some of the independent lesser known content.    Hell some of the best examples I have found for this are old Radio Shows from the 30's and 40's.      I am 100% right there with you about not wanting to be preached at when I go to be entertained, but this goes for all current things.  Not to pick on Star Trek,  but Fan content (Axenar anyone?) is more of my speed then anything Discovery and post Discovery.

 

[Seto Kaiba]

11 hours ago, commodore256 said:

I found this forum by searching for people that hate new anime [...]

Then you have come to the wrong place.

While some older fans here might not find new titles entirely to their taste, this is not a community that hates new anime.

 

11 hours ago, commodore256 said:

Anyway, I've come to terms that what I like about anime and sci-fi and especially sci-fi anime doesn't exist anymore. I like heroic adventurous vibes, but I hate the overly glossy looking colors of modern anime and I hate how the characters look cute and not cool or hot, they don't look mature to me and the few with mature designs don't emphasize heroic adventurous vibes of a savory pacing involving mature looking characters like how Late 20th century anime looked, but I don't want an old 20th century legacy and don't even like the ones in the early 00's like Planetes, I don't see an emphasis on heroic vibes. I thought Code Geass was going to be a spirited successor to gundam, but I hated the teenage cringe, that brings back bad memories of me making an idiot of myself.

I don't want just be recommended a 20th century anime or any anime made before 2010 because that's when I stopped watching anime and I don't even want to watch an anime of a franchise that started before 2010, I hate feeling like I'm locked into older legacies even when an anime delivers on their legacy and more often than not, it's just a cheap cash grab that disrespects the legacy.

Anime, like any other artistic medium, develops and changes with the times... both stylistically and thematically.

It sounds like the issue here is that anime as a medium has simply left you behind as it grew, developed, and adapted to the changing times and new audiences.

"Cute", "cool", and "hot" are all subjective... so is "mature looking" considering the massive variance in art styles.

"Heroic adventure" is a bit vague, but there are plenty of action/adventure type shows out there even today, though stylistically and thematically different from what was popular in the 80's and 90's because the times and tastes of the primary audience have changed as people age into and out of the primary (teenage) demographic.  Several of the industry's very biggest titles are "heroic adventure" type stories (e.g One Piece), though the distinctive art styles can be somewhat hard to get used to.

Your choice to compare Gundam and Code Geass to complain about teenage cringe is an odd one to say the least, given that Gundam's Universal Century (and many of its other timelines) seem to have a mandatory policy of the protagonist being an angsty, moody, occasionally cringeworthy teenager who is (rather realistically) not exactly thrilled to become a child soldier and is frequently accompanied by several other awkward teens.  Code Geass was very much a spiritual successor to Gundam not just overall, but in that specific sense as well.

The TL;DR here is that you might find more to enjoy in modern anime if you removed the rose-tinted glasses you're clearly wearing while talking about "the old stuff".  There's plenty of compelling entertainment on offer from the anime industry today.  Of course, it's also possible that the medium is simply no longer for you.

 

11 hours ago, commodore256 said:

There's no new anime themed around the wonders of a futuristic world, it's usually themed around it being dreadful and modern narratives are way better at emphasizing strong feelings of dread.

So you have watched literally every anime title to verify this claim?

Admittedly, there are a lot of titles that do feature a "bad future" and that's been true since at least the late 70's.  Yamato and Gundam are two excellent examples there, both being long-runners with consistently pessimistic futures and they set the tone for their genres for decades into the present.  Macross is kind of the odd child of that family in that it's consistently optimistic.

Of course, if we want to examine why media is less optimistic about the future... well... look at the present.  There is a reason that reading the news online is called "doomscrolling", the ugliness of the world has a much better press agent than it did in the 80's and 90's and that's reflected in contemporary entertainment.  On the plus side, that also means there are a lot more people taking notice of the world's problems and agitating to fix them, even if it's negativity that's driving clicks and views.

 

11 hours ago, commodore256 said:

Anime just isn't for Sci-Fi nerds anymore unless you count "I want toys with better graphics" like SAO, new anime doesn't give me a feeling that Even Star Trek, the franchise I moved to in the mid 00's when I couldn't find good anime, since 2009, it became about fast paced spectacles and since Discovery, it's been about mean spirited partisan propaganda. Not to say politics is bad, it's about how you say it, it's not about what you say it and there's a big difference between having politics in it and making it about politics.

Granted, Star Trek has put more emphasis on spectacle since the failed 2009 attempt to reinvent the franchise as a generic sci-fi/action series.  This is partly a product of it being a streaming exclusive now, and streaming properties are competing very heavily on visual presentation.

Its politics really haven't changed, though... and yes it was always political and it was frequently EXTREMELY unsubtle about it.  Quite a few of the topics in older Trek that might not seem partisan now still are, and quite a few more were HEAVILY partisan at the time the show was made.  TOS was conceived as a sci-f spin on the kind of morality tales that westerns were infamous for.  What's changed is that, in Discovery and Picard, the writers shifted from the franchise's usual MO of making alien cultures the vehicle for the sociopolitical allegory and commentary to the Federation being the vehicle for the allegory and commentary.  This, combined with current events, led to a certain dark tone.  Strange New Worlds is very much a course-correction back towards the older, more successful formula and optimistic outlook.  I suggest you give it a try, you will likely find it a very welcome breath of fresh air.

 

11 hours ago, commodore256 said:

I also feel alienated that when I search for like minded people,

Have you considered that might be a "you" problem?  Especially if you're searching for like-minded people on the basis of what you hate.

Edited June 28, 2023 by Seto Kaiba

[azrael]

Welcome to "Gettin' Old". We ALL get there eventually.

Anime and any other TV show or movie is made to reflect modern audiences. The anime you watched was made for people like you, at that time. The TV shows you watched were made for people like you, at that time. Shows today are made for audiences of TODAY. And you've grown up/tastes have changed/other gettin' old stuff/etc. "Stuff isn't like it was". Yeah, and neither are you. You can whine, complain, throw hissy fits, etc. about the modern stuff all you want. Or you can accept the fact that maybe you've outgrown it and no longer appeals to people of your age group.

I long ago abandoned the idea that I am part of any core audience of most current shows. But that doesn't mean I can't enjoy it for what it is or what it can offer me NOW. Everyone wants la vie en rose, but as others have said, you have to take off the nostalgia glasses eventually.

[Big s]

8 hours ago, Ignacio Ocamica said:

Have you watched Obsolete? 14 minutes free episodes on YouTube (Emotion channel). It's CGI and it's well shaded, does not look bland.

https://youtu.be/LzqPSoMXAig

I do love that one and really hope for more. The kits are fun as well. It is a rarity though and very few shows these days have characters in war that aren’t just children weighing the struggle of going to class or fighting a battle 

[DewPoint]

There is absolutely nothing wrong with how you feel. And I believe it is exactly for the reasons that azrael has stated.

I grew up watching Voltron. I loved that show. I can't watch that show now. It was made for elementary school kids and totally doesn't apeal to me anymore other than nostalgia. I also 100% agree with Seto Kaiba. And I do not like all the new shows that he likes.

I also went through a phase where I watched a bunch of popular shows from the late 70s and early 80s. Gundam was OK. Its a kid's show. Harlok I actually didn't like. The poor girl was in an abusive situation and crying out for help and he constantly blew her off and forced he back into that abusive situation. And his special tactical move is just to ram everything.

As for what I could recommend... Your tastes seem very specific. I would say for old school, try Space Adventure Cobra. For something more modern, Yamato 2199.

Edited June 28, 2023 by DewPoint
added stuff

[Big s]

1 hour ago, DewPoint said:

Space Adventure Cobra.

That’s some old school manly anime. Maybe too male fantasy at times, but even then super fun. It’s like the attitude of James Bond blended with Magnum P.I. In space. Not the type of show that could be made nowadays and easily accepted stateside 

[commodore256]

kufhdt

12 hours ago, Ignacio Ocamica said:

Have you watched Obsolete? 14 minutes free episodes on YouTube (Emotion channel). It's CGI and it's well shaded, does not look bland.

It doesn't look like anime. to me, I never got used to CGI in anime, the only time it was acceptable was in Cowboy Bebop when while it stood out, I felt they knew their limits and they didn't heavily rely on it. I can tell when CGI is trying to fake the hand drawn look and I can spot it like Kyle Reese can spot the T-600 Terminators with rubber skin.
 

 

12 hours ago, Stampeed Valkyrie said:

I understand the sentiment @commodore256 but I do not believe statements like the Golden Age of Anime,  or Anime is dead are true. 

 

Everything I loved about anime, the whole package doesn't exist anymore.
 

8 hours ago, Seto Kaiba said:

Your choice to compare Gundam and Code Geass to complain about teenage cringe is an odd one to say the least, given that Gundam's Universal Century (and many of its other timelines) seem to have a mandatory policy of the protagonist being an angsty, moody, occasionally cringeworthy teenager who is (rather realistically) not exactly thrilled to become a child soldier and is frequently accompanied by several other awkward teens.

There's a difference between what Amuro went through and the stupid cringe antics in code geass.

 

 

Here's FMP for reference

Did Gundam have handlebars on Sela's hips like in Darling in the Franxx? This is the kind of cringe I can't stand. It's so idiotic and it kills the atmosphere I'm looking for. Those cringe clips are an embodiment of what I hate about teenage cringe in 21st century anime. Yeah, I know Eva had stuff like that too, why do you think I hated Eva? (That and I hate a strong emphasis on dread, I hate having our so-called "heroes" feel hopeless)

 

 

8 hours ago, Seto Kaiba said:

Of course, it's also possible that the medium is simply no longer for you.

What do you do when your greatest pleasure in life is ruined for you? What do you do? I look at other things and I think "It's not as good as finding a new classic anime", so what's the point?
 

 

8 hours ago, Seto Kaiba said:

 

Admittedly, there are a lot of titles that do feature a "bad future" and that's been true since at least the late 70's.  Yamato and Gundam are two excellent examples there, both being long-runners with consistently pessimistic futures and they set the tone for their genres for decades into the present. 

Yeah, but those were made when media was less engineered to emphasize feelings of dread. We've got emotional and psychological engineering down to a science in cinematography and music scoring, but back then it was more of an art coupled with now everything is competing for eyeballs, so it has to be as sensationalist as possible. We're living inside of a stimulation.

 

8 hours ago, Seto Kaiba said:

There is a reason that reading the news online is called "doomscrolling", the ugliness of the world has a much better press agent than it did in the 80's and 90's and that's reflected in contemporary entertainment.  On the plus side, that also means there are a lot more people taking notice of the world's problems and agitating to fix them, even if it's negativity that's driving clicks and views.

That stuff happened in America 100 years ago. Imaging walking to work and hearing "Extree, Extree, read all about it, Early Edition News bad thing happened, only 5 cents, read all about it" and you walk home and you hear the same Newsboy and he's selling the evening edition of the news paper. How do you think Alcohol was made illegal? Media propaganda.

And looked at what happened from that hasty emotionally frantic solution? The Mafia got involved and we still haven't recovered from that hasty solution, before prohibition, it was socially acceptable for a 10-year-old to have a beer or a glass of wine with dinner. In America, you start drinking at age 21, in Europe, you stop drinking at age 19. America is a culture of people in their 20's that don't know how to drink responsibly and it's all thanks to media propaganda.

Maybe what I like about anime was STEM propaganda, it looked like it inspired people to study robotics.
 

 

8 hours ago, Seto Kaiba said:

Have you considered that might be a "you" problem?  Especially if you're searching for like-minded people on the basis of what you hate.

I want to find like minded people from the bases of my frustrations and alienation. I don't hate new anime because I hate new anime, I hate it because it's antithetical to everything I liked about anime and I figure it would be easier to find people that share the same love for what anime used to be in a forum and forums have way more people of my generation and older, I'm sick of always being the oldest guy in the anime discord group and nobody knows what the hell I'm talking about. I also figure since the forum started in 1999 and the base franchise started 40 years ago, I figure a good number of people remembers the anime club days of sharing VHS tapes and most anime was themed around my interests and sensibilities
 

 

6 hours ago, azrael said:

Anime and any other TV show or movie is made to reflect modern audiences

In 1984, there was a new TV show staring a main actress that was 55 years old at the time and it's about a widowed retired school starting a new life and becoming a best selling author. A show like that sends a positive message of "It's never too late to start something new". I'm not even 40 years old and I feel more alienated by modern culture more so than somebody that was 55 in the year 1984 felt in the culture of 1984.

 

 

6 hours ago, azrael said:

And you've grown up/tastes have changed/other gettin' old stuff/etc. "Stuff isn't like it was". Yeah, and neither are you.

I have the same taste in media I had in 2000, the only difference is I don't like shounen and I don't like strongly emphasized feelings of dread or cringe. I was bullied a lot in high school, it was hell for me and I don't like things that bring back unpleasant feeling of a time when I started feeling helpless.

I also don't see things as they were as "nostalgia", I see it as the natural order of things, I feel a sense of normalcy for that time, not a sense of happiness because I wasn't happy even back then, but anime was the highlight of a horrible day at school, not I have a horrible life and I just want to relax.

Edited June 29, 2023 by commodore256

[Bolt]

You wanna relax. Give up on anime and move on. I'm a good bit older than you. And i share some of your sentiments. I get where your coming from. Most of us do. So you did find like minded folks here. But I'm not gonna encourage you to continue to lament the past. Cut off the emotional mullet you're wearing. And toss aside that cross you seem to enjoy carrying around. And relax bruv.

[Big s]

I’m not as hopeless as I was a few years back. Anime may have changed, but I do have hope that it can be good again. I felt that way about music in the 90’s. The grunge thing got overdone, rap was just reusing great rock songs of the past and tried passing it off as a new song and I had a hard time getting to tolerate NU metal. The early 2000’s I started finding bands I liked again and I think that’s what gives me hope that other mediums can be good again 

[Vifam7]

I don't know, perhaps he's being a bit close-minded to just write-off everything recent without even looking into what's out there.  He might want to expand his horizons too?  Rather than just sticking to sci-fi/robot action anime, perhaps check out some of the sports or slice-of-life anime?  Heck, even the much (unfairly) maligned isekai stuff too.  

I'll admit that many of todays' anime are not my cup of tea. But, I've always found something worth watching across all sorts of anime genres. And some of them have been truly exceptional. I would suggest to keep looking. There's a ton of stuff out there. Not everything is the same. You never know what you'll find.

 

That said, of recent sci-fi animes, I think one of the better ones was the 2014 one-shot movie Expelled from Paradise. Despite the fact that the main protagonist is a walking fanservice, the story is solid and touches upon some interesting themes. And it does have an optimistic view of humanity/future. There's some good mecha action too (including Macross-style Itano circus missiles)

 

 

Edited June 29, 2023 by Vifam7

[Big s]

3 minutes ago, Vifam7 said:

Rather than just sticking to sci-fi/robot action anime, perhaps check out some of the sports or slice-of-life anime?  Heck, even the much (unfairly) maligned isekai stuff too.

I’d say stay away from slice of life. And as far as sports, the only one I liked has been megalo box.

[commodore256]

  

38 minutes ago, Bolt said:

You wanna relax. Give up on anime and move on. I'm a good bit older than you. And i share some of your sentiments. I get where your coming from. Most of us do. So you did find like minded folks here. But I'm not gonna encourage you to continue to lament the past. Cut off the emotional mullet you're wearing. And toss aside that cross you seem to enjoy carrying around. And relax bruv.

Yeah, but all I love and all I know has been ruined for me. How do you relax like that?

 

 

23 minutes ago, Big s said:

I’m not as hopeless as I was a few years back. Anime may have changed, but I do have hope that it can be good again. I felt that way about music in the 90’s. The grunge thing got overdone, rap was just reusing great rock songs of the past and tried passing it off as a new song and I had a hard time getting to tolerate NU metal. The early 2000’s I started finding bands I liked again and I think that’s what gives me hope that other mediums can be good again 

Music is a whole other story, Music can be made with half a dozen people or even one person, there is no such thing as super expensive music, there is for audio visual mediums such as television and cinema. It's a lot easier to get niche music than it is to get a niche movie of acceptable production values.


 

 

19 minutes ago, Vifam7 said:

.  He might want to expand his horizons too?  Rather than just sticking to sci-fi/robot action anime, perhaps check out some of the sports or slice-of-life anime?  Heck, even the much (unfairly) maligned isekai stuff too.  

It feels like I'm being lied to when I'm told Moe and Iyashikei is "Anime". My brain believes you, but my heart thinks that's a lie. I just want to go where my heart wants to take me.I self identified at a very young age as being that guy that will develop the revolutionary technology of the future and the anime I liked really appealed to that sense of identity. But now, the technological paradigms while having way higher specs than the late 20th century and I love really high specs, I hate the paradigm, I like PC gaming, but I hate how since 2008, PC games sold on removable media are worthless without telemetry. Technology was better when it didn't assume the user had internet. I want our specs, but I wanted to be a part of the consumer respecting paradigm, in the late 20th century, it was possible to get a tech job that doesn't involve using telemetry to abuse the general populous like data mining that google and facebook does, or working for a car company that locks away heated seats behind a monthly fee or Video games that nickel and dime you with DLC and micro transactions it. Now all the tech jobs involve doing things I find to be morally objectionable.

This is antithetical to the world I wanted to be a part of.

I like anime when it was technologically themed before telemetry abuse bullshit ruined everything I loved about technology. There's no new anime of my perspective that takes for granted that technology doesn't abuse people and if it does, the resistance movement feels like someone you can cheer for, someone that's strong, that you can believe in, someone that you can trust.

Edited June 29, 2023 by commodore256

[DewPoint]

A great man once said "the good ole days weren't always good and tomorrow ain't as bad as it seems."

 

Its not like you don't know that there's no going back.  And you know the world was a mess back then too, just a different kind.  A lot of it you never heard about.

 

You want to expand your "happy place" and your requirements make that very difficult.

 

You are looking for a place to vent.

 

While we can't be your mental health expert, we can recommend stuff you may have not seen.  That's about it.

 

Try watching Black Lagoon?

[Seto Kaiba]

46 minutes ago, commodore256 said:

Everything I loved about anime, the whole package doesn't exist anymore.

Then why come here and whine about it to us?  Like I said, this ain't a hatedom site... contemporary anime is enjoyed here and Macross is a thriving franchise with new shows and movies on a regular basis.  Got another one in the pipeline for later this year and early next, in fact.  

 

 

46 minutes ago, commodore256 said:

There's a difference between what Amuro went through and the stupid cringe antics in code geass.

Not nearly as much as you'd like to think... there are plenty of moments of levity, goofiness, and fanservice in even titles as old as Space Battleship Yamato and Mobile Suit Gundam.

Like Kai messing about with a pistol and it coming apart comedically in his hands, Frau Bow chasing the kids around the ship during bathtime, the entire White Base corps simping for Matilda, full or partial nudity on the part of Char, Sayla, and Mirai, Amuro's many tantrums, pratfalls, and the sheer amount of buttmonkey antics Zeon grunts go through... the kids are a vehicle for a bunch of just full-on late 70's cartoon physical comedy.  The simple reality is that things really haven't changed that much.  That content was pretty typical from that entire era.  The prototypes of everything you're complaining about are from that very time.

Those occasional lighthearted moments are pretty essential to the darker shows, to avoid darkness-induced audience apathy and viewer burnout.

And FFS that Full Metal Panic! clip you picked as an example is literally from a comedy-focused spinoff and not the actual series proper.  It is over-the-top goofy ON PURPOSE.

 

 

46 minutes ago, commodore256 said:

Did Gundam have handlebars on Sela's hips like in Darling in the Franxx? This is the kind of cringe I can't stand. It's so idiotic and it kills the atmosphere I'm looking for. Those cringe clips are an embodiment of what I hate about teenage cringe in 21st century anime. Yeah, I know Eva had stuff like that too, why do you think I hated Eva? (That and I hate a strong emphasis on dread, I hate having our so-called "heroes" feel hopeless)

The problem with your argument here being that those older shows you're putting on a pedestal had the same kind of fanservice and cringeworthy behavior from their teenaged characters as the shows you're complaining about.  You seem to have just mentally edited those moments out.

You'll find a fair few of them in here, for instance... especially once it gets to the Double Zeta section.

 

It shouldn't be a surprise that teenage characters in shows for teenagers occasionally do cringeworthy things... teenagers do cringeworthy things.

 

 

46 minutes ago, commodore256 said:

What do you do when your greatest pleasure in life is ruined for you? What do you do? I look at other things and I think "It's not as good as finding a new classic anime", so what's the point?

Find something new to take pleasure in.  It's a big world.  Lots of good stuff out there worth being passionate about.

I'd imagine if you stopped putting these old shows on a pedestal, took off the rose-tinted glasses, and watched them for what they really are you'd have a Not So Different realization about them and find the newer stuff easier to enjoy.  A lot of good stuff is getting made both by established franchises and new properties.  

 

 

46 minutes ago, commodore256 said:

Yeah, but those were made when media was less engineered to emphasize feelings of dread. We've got emotional and psychological engineering down to a science in cinematography and music scoring, but back then it was more of an art coupled with now everything is competing for eyeballs, so it has to be as sensationalist as possible. We're living inside of a stimulation.

Dude, we're literally using Gundam as an example here... the quintessential "war is hell" series.  The one where half a dozen spinoffs seem to exist to do nothing except break the hearts and souls of the viewer.  It is all about hammering home the dread of war and senseless death.  It was engineered to maximize the sense of dread to get its message across.  

Also, everything was competing for eyeballs back then too.  That has NOT changed.  It's arguably less cutthroat now than it was back then thanks to streaming and on-demand that supplements or has supplanted broadcast and home video rentals.  Shows lived and died by their viewership shares, and several major titles like Gundam nearly bit the bullet before becoming sleeper hits in reruns.

 

 

46 minutes ago, commodore256 said:

I want to find like minded people from the bases of my frustrations and alienation.

Put bluntly, this isn't the venue for it. 

Like I said before, some people might find your position a bit relatable but the angst you're freighting it with looks pretty silly as others have already told you.

 

 

46 minutes ago, commodore256 said:

I don't hate new anime because I hate new anime, I hate it because it's antithetical to everything I liked about anime and I figure it would be easier to find people that share the same love for what anime used to be in a forum and forums have way more people of my generation and older, I'm sick of always being the oldest guy in the anime discord group and nobody knows what the hell I'm talking about.

I think your problem might be that the anime you remember never really existed...

I see this a lot in Robotech fans who, as they've gotten older, have mentally edited out parts of the shows and reinvented them in their minds with things that weren't even in them to begin with.

These old shows had blatant fanservice and goofy moments of comic relief and characters doing dumb stuff.  It's just a part of the Japanese sense of humor and, yes, a part of what made them enjoyable in the first place.

 

 

46 minutes ago, commodore256 said:

I also figure since the forum started in 1999 and the base franchise started 40 years ago, I figure a good number of people remembers the anime club days of sharing VHS tapes and most anime was themed around my interests and sensibilities

There are absolutely folks from that era here, but by in large their memories of what these shows were like is a lot closer to the objective reality of them.

 

 

46 minutes ago, commodore256 said:

I have the same taste in media I had in 2000, the only difference is I don't like shounen and I don't like strongly emphasized feelings of dread or cringe. I was bullied a lot in high school, it was hell for me and I don't like things that bring back unpleasant feeling of a time when I started feeling helpless.

I also don't see things as they were as "nostalgia", I see it as the natural order of things, I feel a sense of normalcy for that time, not a sense of happiness because I wasn't happy even back then, but anime was the highlight of a horrible day at school, not I have a horrible life and I just want to relax.

So, yeah... you have two problems:

1. You have to contend with your own skewed and inaccurate recollection of what those older shows were like.  This happens, it's a normal part of aging.
2. What you're looking for is stasis in a changing market... which is not something you're going to get anywhere.  You were never in the target audience to begin with, and even if you had been you've been out of that demographic for decades.

Anime has LOTS of feel-good, mindless entertainment... cute romances, funny romcoms, heartwarming and hilarious slice of life shows, unsettling horror, heart-pumping action, unusual rethinks of classic stories, bizarre premises, the kind of variety you just can't get anywhere else.  It's one reason I love it so dearly... it always has something new to show me.  I could bury you in recommendations if you'd let me.  Thanks to streaming services like Crunchyroll and HiDive, we have an embarrassment of riches now.

A little objectivity about those old shows you remember so fondly and you can unlock a world of enjoyment in the here and now.

 

To give you a couple examples of the diverse tastes on offer that I'm currently sampling:

• Mashle - a comedy series riffing on Harry Potter about a magic-less young man attending a wizard school who has to fake it 'til he makes it using his supreme physical fitness in order to settle a bet with a man blackmailing his father.
• My Love Story with Yamada at Lv.999 - a cute little romcom about a girl whose boyfriend dumps her for a girl he met online, who then falls for a taciturn pro gamer she met at a live event.
• Birdie Wing - an absolutely insane sports anime set in a world where golf is Serious Business starring a golf prodigy who made a name for herself in underground mafia-run golf gambling.
• Requiem for the Rose King - a drama that reimagines the story of Richard III with the titular king being male-presenting intersex.  (Where but anime do you get a premise like this?)
• Zombie Land Saga - an idol anime about a deranged producer who, by means unexplained, revives five dead young girls from different eras of Japanese history as zombies in order to form a regional idol group.
• Saiyuki RELOAD Blast - a continuation of Gensoumaden Saiyuki, a warped retelling of Journey to the West in which a chainsmoking, gun-toting monk Sanzo and his party of demons make a trip to India to prevent the ox demon king from being revived.
• Sengoku Basara: End of Judgement - an over-the-top take on Japanese history based on the musou game series.
• Kongming of the Party People - legendary chinese military genius Kongming is revived in modern Japan and uses his strategic nous to help a young girl make it big in the music industry.
• Lupin Zero - a prequel to Lupin III about the titular character in his youth.

[commodore256]

To me, the Enterprise is the star of Star Trek, there's no new anime where hardware feels like the star of the show.

[DewPoint]

That there is a statement that says a lot.  I'm out! 

I'll be back if you decide you would like show recommendations. 

[commodore256]

What did that statement say?

[azrael]

2 hours ago, commodore256 said:

A show like that sends a positive message of "It's never too late to start something new". I'm not even 40 years old and I feel more alienated by modern culture more so than somebody that was 55 in the year 1984 felt in the culture of 1984.

It just means you're getting older if you feel alienated by modern culture. I get that feeling every time I have to look up phrases on Urban Dictionary. There are things I did in my youth that people 10-20 years older than me would find alienating at that time just as I find things people 10-20 years younger than me doing stuff that alienates me. You're just going through the same thing and it's a normal part of aging.

Take your own advice, "It's never too late to start something new".

3 hours ago, commodore256 said:

I also don't see things as they were as "nostalgia", I see it as the natural order of things, I feel a sense of normalcy for that time, not a sense of happiness because I wasn't happy even back then, but anime was the highlight of a horrible day at school, not I have a horrible life and I just want to relax.

"It's never too late to start something new".

[commodore256]

I meant in the 80's, they made TV for people who were old in the 80's. They don't make TV for people like me now even though I'm younger than the old people of the 80's.

[Big s]

55 minutes ago, commodore256 said:

I meant in the 80's, they made TV for people who were old in the 80's. They don't make TV for people like me now even though I'm younger than the old people of the 80's.

I think we’re getting near the end of a cycle where things were getting a little overly politically influenced,since many of those projects in tv and film failed. I’m still thinking some good entertainment is around the corner. As far as anime, it might be a little bit before this generation of things gets closer to what came before story wise, but the look most of the time will probably be more modern. I’m still holding out hope and if I’m not satisfied with anime, there’s other ways to be entertained.

[commodore256]

10 minutes ago, Big s said:

I think we’re getting near the end of a cycle where things were getting a little overly politically influenced,since many of those projects in tv and film failed. I’m still thinking some good entertainment is around the corner. As far as anime, it might be a little bit before this generation of things gets closer to what came before story wise, but the look most of the time will probably be more modern. I’m still holding out hope and if I’m not satisfied with anime, there’s other ways to be entertained.

They had 25 years to make a better Outlaw Star, (I liked that 1998 space western more than I liked Cowboy Bebop) they had 15 years to make a successor to Gundam that didn't suck like Code Geass. Also, I don't understand how this is political, if anything I'm anti-political. I don't watch new Star Trek (Well, at least Discovery) because I don't like partisan propaganda and I don't like watching the pundits like Critical Drinker and the Channel formally known as "Computing Forever" because they too are partisan propaganda. I kinda want to escape from the dreads of the world and escape into a better future. Can the future have war and still be better than it is now? Sure, we have war. Older anime had less of an emphasis on mind frakkery.