There’s just so much more atmosphere and mood in anime pre-digital era. There’s definitely a bias though where we only remember the most memorable/iconic shows. But, when I compare top current anime to top anime of the past, there’s something missing. Maybe this is the whole “anime now is based on previous anime, while previous anime was based on real life” that Miyazaki or someone talked about. Also there were more commies in anime back then
The 90s for me is considered the “golden age” because of the actors involved in the English dubbing scene and one company in particular which left a gaping hole in the industry. That was the fall of AVD Films. I will always remember ADV for bringing me Sailor Moon Uncut and I still have the sets in a box somewhere.
I don’t think the issue is the tools. I think the issue is that the industry previously was mostly marxists and the industry today is not.
The marxists were in-touch with humans and their connection with the world. The world was used as a character, and humans were grounded within it at all times. The world tells a story.
The modern artists aren’t doing this. World is often an afterthought, not really used for storytelling. The world isn’t used as its own character.
When it is… It works. Houseki no Kuni or any of Trigger’s works still manage to do this when they use digital.
Was 90s anime really predominantly made by marxists, lol
no, that was the 70s. but those 70s marxists were still making anime and had a lot of influence in the 90s, even if they weren’t the main creative forces in the industry anymore
60s and 70s marxists making anime, passing the torch to their socdem students in the late 80s and 90s and then their lib students in the 2000s and early 2010s… and chuds in the late 2010s and 2020s?
the libs took over in 1982 and ruined the entire industry forever because now we only get anime by people who liked anime by people who liked anime by people who liked anime
being genuine here, i think macross is functionally identical to the army of wish fulfillment ln adaptations we get every season
I’ve only seen the movie but thought it was hugely overrated.
The other big contributor to this being Evangelion, of course.
The really is this thing in modern digitally drawn anime where characters have a weird “sheen” to them, similar to how in the 360/PS3 era of games, everyone looked like greased up action figures.
i mean that’s true of many modern anime but it certainly isn’t universal. dungeon meshi is currently airing and it avoids that nicely in my opinion. masaaki yuasa never looks like that. the new urusei yatsura goes so far into the gloss look for everyone that it comes out the other end and looks like a completely different thing
i don’t watch much modern anime, and i agree that’s a weirdly prevalent aesthetic that i don’t like very much, i just think it’s important not to view the anime industry as a monolith. otherwise things get real racist real fast
The 90’s was the last time the traditional method of cell animation was used: nowadays they scan the drawings into a computer.
This isn’t to say that one method of production is superior to another: just that there is a material difference between the outputs.
Because you were young when you watched it, and you were experiencing something new and cool before life kicked in and everything started to look the same to you
(I also like 90s anime)
I mean yeah but I do also think the art was generally higher quality too
Ehhh, I dunno. I was in the age group to watch both traditional cel animation and digital animation when I was young, and even though some of the digital era anime I watched fucking slapped (Wolf’s Rain, etc) I still vastly prefer the look of traditional cel animation as an adult, including for shows and films I never saw as a kid.
Watch the Jojo OVA 👍
The darker and at the same time warmer colors are something I like about that era - it’s cozy no matter what is on screen.
The lighting makes a huge difference, I think.
Also the character designs, well said from the videomaker. The clothes, hairstyles? Modern shows rarely bother, except with gimmicks. Say Hitori Goto a.k.a. Bocchi the Rock - pink themed outfit and hair. It sticks out. The rest of the character design is fairly average, but she is still easily recognizable.
I have never watched anime until a few years ago, but I tend to mostly stick to older shows (even if I kinda slowly ran out) for no real reason than me liking my escapism a bit outdated - no need to be watching anime on American children’'s television in 2003 to like shows that were released 5 years before that to this day.
I found a YouTube link in your post. Here are links to the same video on alternative frontends that protect your privacy: