You hear it at the start of every season where there’s a vocal group of fans who once again proclaim that there’s nothing good out there this season and anime just isn’t what it is from its golden years, which almost invariably come down to when that particular fan got into anime. Having been watching various shows since the early 80’s, I’ve seen this pretty regularly with some variances over time of course, so it’s a common enough theme.
But there’s also the truth that over the years, everything changes and anime is no exception. We’ve had a lot of ups and downs since the 60’s with Japanese animation and the kinds of stories it tells. In this decade, we’re far more exposed to shows a lot quicker and sometimes you can see the trends earlier and more clearly.
So we want to posit the question of, in your view, what’s not working with anime these days that you’d change if you could? Is it the preponderance of focusing on middle school kids who are overly sexualized? Is it the type of series where there’s little going on and just light and fluffy material? Or is the growth of short-form anime becoming more of a problem in your mind?
Sound off in our comments section below or drop in to our forum for the subject and let us know. No registration is required for that particular section, though you can certainly register and you can connect via Facebook as well to post.
Questioning Fandom appears on irregularly with different topics where we want to know where the fans stand on them. Check the forum for past topics and join in the conversation. You can also suggest topics in there as well!
I myself find that over-sexualization of the female characters has gotten out of hand. I get that some of these shows are supposed to be that way. HOWEVER it does not need to be in 3/4 of the shows. I find it really hard to get into an anime with a really good plotline but has too much fan service to ignore. I’d like to be able to enjoy the anime without seeing boob shots, panty shots, and awkward girl bath scenes every episode.
The fact that so much of anime is set in middle schools and high school.
There is some cultural dissonance at work here. Western audiences tend to view a show set in a school as being targeted to that age group. Japan views the school setting as a nostalgic stage of life full of possibilities and personal freedom, and as such, aren’t as dismissive as adults as western fans are. The western audience seems to view College in the same way Japan views middle school and high school. Western “been there, done that” attitude about the middle/high school setting makes a lot of anime easily dismissible by adult viewers. Unfortunately, adults have the most disposable income to spend on these shows. Teens, — not so much.
I think that more people are aware of anime than before, and I think western perceptions of animation (in general) has become more positive. However, there is still and attitude that anime specifically is either “for little boys” (as in the case of shounen fighting series), or “for horny teenagers” (the ecchi rom-coms set in Middle/High school). An adult viewer may like shows such as Psycho Pass, Mushi-shi or Space Brothers but feel like those types of shows are so few and far between that they “can’t be bothered” to search through all the stuff they are not interested in to find them.
Of course, the existing fandom could help with that, but too often new fans are greeted with hostility when their tastes don’t match up with the existing internet community. To be honest, there is a segment of this fandom that is seemingly against new people entering it, for whatever reason. It’s a shame that newbie fans can get a bad impression and dismiss anime entirely because of that, but I see it happening way too often.
I think we, as fans, could do a better job.
Fanservice. Too much of it for guys, not enough of it for girls. How about a happy medium, here?
to me, its a combo of overly sexualized middle school kids (specifically on the female side), and that some of the best shows ive seen have great plots, but are only 2 seasons at most (if im lucky 3).