Anime Ground Zero

You knew it was coming sooner or later.

In another blow to the meme of Based Japan, I regret to inform you that anime did not escape the blast wave of Cultural Ground Zero.

H/t to author JD Cowan, whose post last week inspired this one.

To give an example of the "factory line" mentality of creation, let me bring up the ever-popular example of anime. This is a medium that has had its battles with corporatization and creativity for ages, and recently seems to be in a real quarrel with itself trying to figure out its path forward. Right now the industry is in a spot that will define where it goes in the future. But it also still has life in it, unlike in the west.

Currently the anime industry is doing battle with the nostalgia trend the entire world appears to be caught in, delivering new adaptions of classic anime like Spriggan, Bastard!, and even new City Hunter movies (the Spriggan one is made by the JoJo's Bizarre Adventure guys and is particularly good, by the way), while also carrying trends like moe idols and shonen adaptions on the other side of the spectrum. While some think the industry is at an all-time low, this is partially because there is too much glut and a lot more trash being produced than there once was. Back in the 1990s there was less being produced, but the quality ratio was a lot higher than it is today. If one focuses on the material outside disposable glut, you can still see the spark in the industry.

There's good reason for nostalgia in anime fandom. This infographic JD found says it all.

Your aesthetic preferences in the above aside, the first two are better character designs because you get a sense of the character's personality on her face with just one simple look. The facial features are more defined which lends to a resting face that allows personality on it by default. The character is built to have a character, at a glance. The remaining three designs don't say anything, and can be interchanged with any character to mean anything with what the animator wants to get across.

This makes it easier for the animators and designers, but it doesn't add more for the viewer.

The progression goes from 80s: good, 90s: perfect to mounting levels of hideous mutation as the fallout from Ground Zero multiplies genetic damage through the generations.

A cursory glance at the 90s and aughts images tells you right away that something horrible happened. The cancer hair alone speaks volumes.

In a tragic irony, the pursuit of efficiency took an art form at the height of its powers and laid it low with dull colors, absence of depth, and terminal overdesign.

Another factor I've heard from old school otaku is that one guy used to mix the paints for almost all anime studios back in the day. But he had a massive heart attack and had to retire in 1998.

The lack of an apprentice to carry on his craft is just one sad consequence of demographic decline.

Back to JD ...

As a matter of fact, one bigger trend that appears to be going by the wayside (slowly) is the corner cutting that once used to define the industry so well. the anime industry has always had a problem with being a content mill at the exchange of focus ...

For instance, a Shonen series like Naruto would go on weekly without breaks for years, even decades, suffering in animation and writing quality as oodles of terrible filler content had to be squeezed out while the manga was still going. It led to a rocky experience at the expense of quality. That's 52 episodes a year with no break, constantly

The wholesale switch from from cell-painted to digital animation was a mistake.

No need to say any more. I'll just show you.

File under: Portraits of Decline.

These many years I've grappled with why I went from a hardcore otaku in the mid-late 90s to leaving the hobby in the aughts and never looking back.

Now I understand why.

I didn't leave anime. Anime left me.

If you're fiending for mecha action in the vein of 80s and 90s Gundam, I've got your fix right here: