labsenpai wrote: ↑Fri Apr 27, 2018 8:43 am
I think this video is what happens when a young otaku brain tries to reconcile loving Urotsukidoji and K-ON
I'm not much the connoisseur of
hentai but I'd be willing to pay (a little bit) in order to see a well-done crossover.
I'd say the meager existence of those trying to live as an artist/studio hand today has a silent effect on quality. It isn't easy to draw when your eating bread crust trying to save for a Wacom tablet.
I would like to see data on what conditions were like in the 1960s through the 1980s. While we have some very revealing insider looks into the industry today, the tight-lipped nature of Japanese culture toward exposing negativity in a pre-internet age makes it difficult to get an accurate picture, I'd suspect. I've found very little on the subject of late 20th century studio conditions in Jonathan Clements' book
Anime: A History, which is a shame because I think we really need to get a more comparative look.
One thing I strongly suspect today is how computer techniques and software like Adobe Illustrator (which I think they're using in
Shirobako) has--instead of making anime production cheaper, faster, and more efficient--resulted in heavier schedules, more shows being commissioned and produced, and more difficult workloads in general upon staff. In otherwords, computers didn't make things easier but became an excuse to increase productivity demands. However, that's just something I suspect, I've no evidence for certain.
gaijinpunch wrote: ↑Fri Apr 27, 2018 9:57 am
To play devil's advocate: I am trying to find new, good stuff that entertains me, and I fail. This is after living in Japan for 15 years until a few years ago. So lack of exposure would be ironic. It's a given there that I was inundated with the garbage on TV (as I am here, with western TV) but also ran in some geeky circles (albeit, games). I know I'm not the only one that feels very little, if anything quintessential has been made in the last 15 years.
I think part of the problem is our age--as we get older, our brains get less flexible, less impressionable, because we are less impressed by that which is "new" like when we were young. To us, that stuff
was new.
I think another part is that it sometimes takes years to determine if something is really good enough to stand the test of time. Although it may still be too early to say, I'd venture to guess that
Madoka Magica may be an example of a classic. We have the advantage of over twenty years of perspective on films like
Ghost in the Shell and shows like
Evangelion, at least, when we're not letting nostalgia cloud our vision, that is. Looking at some of the debates on Usenet Newsgroups from the mid-to-late 1990s, there was not enough evidence at the time that
Evangelion would be such a cultural juggernaut, nor that it may have truly deserved that status and reputation.
I have a few recs I'm going to try out soon, but not a lot. Another friend states that "95% of everything is crap (not just anime) and there's so much anime produced that 5% should keep us entertained". It's finding it that's the problem, in my case.
That friend is riffing on Sturgeon's Law. Theodore Sturgeon was a mid-20th century science-fiction author who (according to folklore) replied to a comment that 90% of science-fiction was crap with, "90% of
everything is crap, its in the remaining 10% where life is to be lived." I hear the actual quote differs a bit from the folklore version, though.
I am currently watching a number of anime, both past and present, for the first time this season. For example, I've just finished
DNA^2 and
DNA^2 and I'm starting
Saint Seiya all on Crunchyroll. Thus far, I'm also enjoying
Golden Kamuy and
Megalo Box, both of which started airing this Spring. There are shows out there, you just have to really dig and they might not be the popular stuff most kids are watching.
The one thing that is certain is that Japan's economy has no doubt afflicted everyone of it's major industries, so nobody (including me) should be surprised with a dramatic change in output. Also keep in mind, I hold 2000-2009 as some of the crappiest years of western film. I'm an equal opportunity hater.
You may be interested in reading this five-part series of articles by W. David Marx (
http://neojaponisme.com/2011/11/28/the- ... -part-one/) on the "Great Shift in Japanese Pop Culture." I must say, however, that Mr. Marx admitted in personal correspondence with me that he considers this series quite outdated and some of his conclusions erroneous in retrospect, but I still think it is a very interesting and insightful look into the economic and cultural situation that undoubtedly influenced anime shortly after the first decade of the 21st century had just ended.