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It blows

Not really, but it’s surely getting there at a wondrous speed. See, the thing with anime is that it takes liberties most western shows wouldn’t dream of, and the few that do are remembered because they have an edge. There was a time where you could pick a set of random shows and find unique and endearing characters or plots that would blow your mind, to the point where you realize that anime could be classified as adult entertainment. Not because of the gore and partial nudity, but because of its complexity (plus the gore and occasional partial nudity, I guess).

Some titles gave the vibe of, “We don’t care about the dough, we are here to shine,” and fans chased after them in droves, giving their love back through loads of cash. The stories were wild and out there, but some still made sense and those that didn’t either packed enough action or goofiness to balance it out, making it a well rounded experience.

Sure, some shows dragged off beyond their potential and died horribly while others crashed and burned so badly that anything they did before ceased to be “good”, but others lived on as pinnacles of the genre. I’ll say that most of the anime from the 80’s and 90’s was enjoyable, each having enough to stand on its own and spark a nice conversation about it later. Some people could say the 90’s was the golden age of anime, but it was also when it began to decline.

You used to be cool, man

My main issue with anime nowadays is how it seems to be centered on fan service. Let’s make something clear first, though. I am aware that most (if not all) anime studios seem to be put under a clause that states, “You shall have at least one episode where they go to the beach for some arbitrary reason. You will also have a moment where a popular female lead takes a bath, be it at a bath house, a hot spring or a tub.” But it was alright, it’s not like the show was driven by the solitary moment when they said, “Here you go folks, this is for you.” We call it fan service for a reason, or at least most people do. I call it the main culprit behind the current state of affairs in the anime world.

I’ll admit that there are EXCELLENT (or at least good) titles out there from the last few years, but show any regular person a modern day anime and they’ll give you a weird look. Most anime seems to gravitate heavily towards fan service, and that’s a problem.

Why? Because we are forced to put our suspension of disbelief in overdrive to justify that a girl gets slimed, attacked by tentacles, has her clothes torn or an idiot she’s in love with pull her skirt down in some kind of a misunderstanding.

Why is it hard to justify? Because it happens every other episode across an entire week’s worth of shows, week after week. We are forced to see bits and pieces of a tattered plot that serves no other express purpose than to showcase as much innuendo and half-assed nudity as they can fit into the time slot.

I think you are an elitist jerk

Well, let’s say you get to eat chocolate every day of your life for years on an end. At first it’ll be wonderful, then it’ll start to get boring and then you’ll want to stop eating it all together. Anime is kind of like that. It was awesome to be in my teens and watch an episode where the entire cast of girls gets in a bath tub for no discernible reason, now it’s just kind of annoying since these episodes seem to come at arbitrary points in the plot…and at risk of losing half my readership (like two guys). But some of the animes that made the round nowadays just seem to glorify over-sexualized stereotypes, and this comes from a guy who genuinely enjoyed Strike Witches.

It’s not that I want to play the sexism card, but there’s something wrong with anime when many a show revolves around magical breasts. Hell, I could be a jerk and say how it’s not that sexist when you consider that most male characters of today are wimps, leaving most of the hard toil to the girls.

I can also be a huge jerk by saying that the censorship craze and bad rap given to anime is entirely the industry’s fault. They jammed the market so hard with fan service centric anime that they had to start one-upping each other. This in turn turned some heads, and before you know it the average anime line up looked to be three steps shy away from being full blown hentai. So the industry faces a dire situation, but it’s entirely their own fault.

Anime filled niches, but the, “let’s sell mildly perverted titles,” and the, “Sell the show re-mastered three different times,” camps were where the money was at. Now, the industry is stuck in a whirlpool of titles that make it seem bad, while the good ones wither away under the mantle of “Mainstream Titles” that all seem to depend on the same demographic.

And that’s my Two Cents

What is yours? Because in all honesty I got to the point where I find myself digging through time to find old shows to re-watch, or old ones I never got to see. Maybe I’m growing out of this, maybe it’s just that it ain’t what it used to be.

Maybe I can just blame the fan-base, which has become a parody of itself that sometimes makes it shameful to acknowledge myself as a part of it. Maybe I’m just a jerk, who knows?

Next, we shall discuss the current state of affairs for anime fans!

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