Old Anime Better ?

[dropsmegamega]

idk but I sure as hell can't stand these modern super bright colors anime love to use nowadays

 

[X y b e r - S k u ll]

No, I don't think it's wrong to think older anime is better and I tend to agree tbh. I will acknowledge that yes, there is still good anime being released, but it's getting a lot harder to find really good stuff (For me it is anyway).

Obvious technical differences aside (Hand drawn cels vs. digital), I think when it comes to the argument of older anime being more "soulful", a lot of people tend to struggle to articulate what they mean by that, but I think I may have an idea.

The anime industry, much like Hollywood, the gaming industry and many other things, has become such a homogenized field in the sense that most anime being released now is solely being inspired by other anime. No longer are we getting series that present an author or directors unique ideas and worldview, or stories based on/ inspired by life experience, interests etc. we get stories from otaku who have no real life experience or interests outside of otaku culture and what surrounds it. All their stories have the same structure, same type of character archetypes etc. because they think that's how you have to do it because that's all they have to go off of. It just creates an all around insular industry with no real sense of growth like it once had.

I want to make it clear that despite what I just said, I don't think it's inherently wrong to be an otaku or take part in said sub-cultures. Some very open and unapologetic otaku have made some of the greatest works the medium has ever seen (Hideaki Anno and Hiroyuki Imaishi for example), but they still had their own unique worldview and ideas outside of anime that informed and enhanced their works.

I suppose at the end of the day it's kind of a reflection of the real world; most people are living mundane lives, no matter where you live or what you do, it's ronically one of the few things most people can relate to eachother with now. I think perhaps this bland era of media we have right now is a sideffect of this modern world we live in.

 

[Ikagura Ikagura]

I was thinking of Inuyasha, Fushigi Yugi, Escaflowne, The Twelve Kingdoms oh but the best reverse was I swear this guy who gets isekaied and ends up getting a husband after a duel and they adopt a daughter.

Oh ok.

I loved Yoko Leda too.

 

[MrPanda61]

Concerning the visual side, 80s, 90s and early 2000s anime where superior. They were a spectacle to behold and those that integrated computer graphics did it in a constrained manner that aged quite well (cowboy bebop, anyone?). Contemporary anime feel quite cheap on this regard especially when the story is good and that's a shame.

Concerning storytelling, I think today's anime have the same quality, it really depends on what and where you look.

 

[Dr.Kisaragi]

Well I'm more of old school anime fan because I like more adult protagonist like City Hunter LupinIII Cat's Eye Armored Hunter Mellowlink Gunsmith Cats they like a Noir gun action genre today is rare only I can think of is Buddy Daddies and Lycoris Recoil

 

[Sfjeov]

Is it me or is it that every episode in modern feel like 20 minutes or so? I always got the feeling that older anime felt longer per episode.

 

[Ikagura Ikagura]

Well I'm more of old school anime fan because I like more adult protagonist like City Hunter LupinIII Cat's Eye Armored Hunter Mellowlink Gunsmith Cats they like a Noir gun action genre today is rare only I can think of is Buddy Daddies and Lycoris Recoil

Hey, nice to see someone mentioning Mellowlink. I really should try watching Votoms.

 

[kamille]

Doesn't matter. If it's good it's good. If it's bad it's bad.

Post automatically merged: Jul 1, 2025

Is it me or is it that every episode in modern feel like 20 minutes or so? I always got the feeling that older anime felt longer per episode.

80s and 90s there was more money poured in the industry and thus there was funding for more episodes aswell.

 

[Mago]

The best anime imo generally came out in the 70s and 80s but theres still good more recent stuff, a large majority is just not for me at all though. A big thing is though, I just don't like the typical modern anime look, I find it very unappealing. Usually for me to wanna check something newer out it needs to have a more unique look that I find appealing like Odd Taxi which is probably the newest anime I watched.

 

[Morgana Veil]

Honestly, every decade has its good, bad, awful, and great anime. Even to this day, that varies depending on your taste. For example, some people see Ranma 1/2 as a classic, while others think it's garbage. It really comes down to your own taste in anime.

Personally, I hate the 3D anime that tries to look 2D. It just doesn't work. Anyway, I'm sure they'll figure out how to make it so you can't tell the difference, but for now, it's Shit.

On the other side of the coin, I'm sure there are people who watch old anime and think it's too blurry, isn't smooth enough, or has some other problem. Again, it really depends on personal preference honestly. Well, unless the story is just pure trash. No amount of great hand-drawn animation is going to save that.

 

[Dyne]

I just think good hand drawn artwork will always trump good computer animation.
There are good stories, action, characters, etc, now as well as from back then. But the artwork used to be better. The only reason they don't do it that way now is because its much cheaper to do it with a computer.

 

[Bluewyne]

I actually prefer modern anime, but mostly because I've already watched all the great old anime as it was coming out. Production value and visual effects are so much better nowadays, I swear the new gen is spoiled.

A similar number of great anime is still coming out every year roughly the same as it did in the past, it's just that there's a lot of crap to wade through now. I typically filter out isekai and school anime, although there are some exceptions that I enjoy (KonoSuba, ReZero, Red Ranger in Another World).

The only main difference nowadays is that anime can't run for hundreds of episodes like they did in the past and its a shame. Short seasons make a lot of new anime feel "unfinished" and I'm not a fan of having to wait 2 years for the slim chance that a new season actually gets made.

 

[Morgana Veil]

I typically filter out isekai and school anime, although there are some exceptions that I enjoy (KonoSuba, ReZero, Red Ranger in Another World).

I tend to filter those out as well as you said, aside from Konosuba and the like.
One series I really hold hope for a second season is Love After World Domination.
Though the manga is canceled now, from what I read, so it probably will never happen. I found the series genuinely funny and well done.

 

[smokeyviolet]

I think that older anime art is definitely better, but that doesn't necessarily mean that the stories are always better. I just find most modern animes are abysmal to look at (a good example is the new fruits basket)

 

[Coon]

I like both old and new, there is no point in thinking about what is better.

 

[pingugaming]

I like both old and new, there is no point in thinking about what is better.

i agree with this

 

[Cantarella]

I think that older anime art is definitely better, but that doesn't necessarily mean that the stories are always better. I just find most modern animes are abysmal to look at (a good example is the new fruits basket)

This is where I stand on it too.

It's easy to look at old anime thru a survivorship bias lens, but there was a lot of junk too. There's still a lot of really good writing coming out now, and also a lot of junk.

In the aggregate, though, I vastly prefer how most old anime is drawn to what is drawn today. Geometric faces, y'know.

in conclusion:

 

[Guilherme130]

Honestly, it depends

Yeah, of course there's a lot more cool stuff from back then than now, but that doesn't mean that there's only bad anime releasing nowadays

 

[werewolfx]

I think it's like games or films, the more you interact with it, the more you see trends and will find newer stuff derivative

 

[Big Finger Jim]

I think there's still some real good shit coming out, sometimes.. My problem is that the whole industry realized that their main source of revenue are degenerates, so there's a lot more shit that just panders to that crap. Like, back then they still used to do fanservicey shit, but at the end of the day, the main focus was still good story, characters, or action. Now the main draw to a bunch of stuff is just "WOW DONT YOU WANNA FUCK THESE TEENAGE GIRLS", and I don't care if they mask it as some slice of life bullshit, they are completely aware that these nasty motherfuckers are their cash cows.

Also, the low frame rate cg can FUCK OFF. The promotional art for that North Star remake looked so nice, but these cheap ass motherfuckers just HAD to make it all cg. The only time this shit looked good was in the couple JoJo intros, but that's because 1. those were intros, and intros always have higher animation quality compared to the rest of the show, and 2. Araki's has such a unique style that keeps the models from looking like ugly plain blobs, almost as good as the models in ASBR.

 

[Ikagura Ikagura]

Yes.

 

[Stingy Perry Stingy Perry]

I’m not sure if it’s better or not being a long time anime fan myself but to think that the used to draw every panel on a paper canvas and hand paint every single on of it is crazy. They used 30 fps instead of then standard 24fps.

 

[MagmaRam]

I don't think older stuff is inherently better. It does tend to look better when you compare it, but that's because you only tend to think about the stuff that stood out (both good and bad, but mostly good) from the past, and you're comparing it to everything today. In twenty years, people aren't gonna remember every bit of seasonal isekai slop from the early 20s.

I will say that I do tend to prefer the very best hand-drawn stuff to the very best digital stuff on looks, but once we got past that early era of weird-looking digipaint and artists learned how to work with the medium better I don't think it looked any worse on average.

 

[Sumea]

Its nostalgia talking, they still crank out good anime here and there.

The main thing that definitely is not nostalgia is the fact that older, even if crappy, anime was still hand drawn and could be enjoyed for merits in animation and such. Modern times have an infestation of CGI that already dulls the look and feel of anime especially when used as cheaply without effort. You can look at the "modern" version of Kino's Journey versus the 2003 original to very easily see the huge difference in quality between the two, "same" anime series. Using 3D rendering for a lot of distant shots, not frame stepping it to match the other animation styles, just looks bad, especially infamous CGI sheep.

While I myself always tout merits of really good anime CGI, type that Guilty Gear Xrd initialized in very good manner and was used in movies like Expelled From Paradise and series like Beastars which looks and feels absolutely fantastic, most 3D CG anime looks crap. Just look at the new Hokuto no Ken remake trailer and tell me it is just nostalgia to say the new ones does not hold a bar to what came before. Beastars was done by people dedicated to the type of CGI they developed techniques with and craft of anime in general, understanding different frame stepping for different stuff for authentic look while enabling them to do wilder stuff for cheaper when needed. You just know HNK Remake is using some really PS3 Jojo looking 3D models that have some toon shader slapped on that does not even move right with the characters to remember why is it OK to hate modern trends in anime. It is rare to see great CGI like Beastars, Summertime Rendering or such, additive and not experience subtractive uses.

Speaking of modern trends; other culprits are easy projects, especially large saturation in Isekai and other anime. The quality and reusing same basic ideas is so high in some of these genres, and animating a basic light novel instead of manga is very cheap if you just have characters standing around and moving their mouths. On other hand, the industry is already been over-exterting, exploiting and giving anime creators the worst living and working conditions in so many ways that why would it be a wonder things are this way? I am not assuming things were super and awesome in 1980's, 1990's, and 00's, anime was made to be cheaply done and cutting corners from the get go in 50's/60's, but the quality of some stuff, the dedication and absolute artistry in these years compared to 2010's and especially 2020's is extremely apparent. Summertime Rendering left me in absolute shock just because I did not believe something that good would be produced in current time. But after that, continuing to watch more anime, mostly modern stuff, I am struck how mediocre in general modern anime is still.

 

[Grumpy_Old_Man]

All I can say is that most of the anime that I enjoy, can be considered old newest I can think is the 2011 Anohana.
One of the things I dislike is the bad pacing, present in most modern ones i tried, they tend to go too fast, they don't linger in the world settings or the characters and as a result the development doesn't feel natural... character X suddenly wake up a better human being...
Really don't like most of the art, one of the biggest offenses I can "fast think" is the what I call the "boobs bigger than their heads", Macross delta come to mind in those regards.