Anime History In Perspective
I saw an article on Crunchyroll on Sunday. It talks about the fact that in judging the quality of anime and the anime industry, that a lot of people lack perspective and as a result there is the widespread derision of the industry as being on the decline in terms of quality.
You can see the story here.
I have to say that I think that is indeed the truth.
If you spend a lot of time on any anime focused blogs, websites, etc. where you have tons of comments and reviews, you're bound to see the same complaints over and over again. That applies doubly at times such as around now when the announcements of the series upcoming for the season are made on places like Anime News Network. It's always the same complaints; too much moe, too much shounen battles, too much perverted jokes and women with huge breasts...
I've always found myself pondering on whether or not that was really the case. I always sort of had the assumption that the person whose opinion I was reading was older than me, speaking from the perspective of having watched anime for at least a few more years than I have. That's just the way I tend to think.
But as I've grown older, I've realized that everyone continues to make the same complaints again and again... too much moe, too much violence, too much fan service, fewer masterpieces.
As the above article suggests, however, there isn't a whole lot of evidence that this is really the case. For the most part, the industry hasn't shifted a whole lot. It has moved on the margins to satisfy some of the shifts in the public appetite, but the "masterpieces of old" are only masterpieces because they survived to today.
Cowboy Bebop, Hellsing, Trigun, Evangelion... three of those are among my top favorite all time. But think for a moment about how many anime meet your idea of a masterpiece. Then compare that to the entire history of anime; how many shows ran while that one was on air, how many ran that year, how many anime have aired in the history of the industry. You realize quite quickly that the so-called masterpieces, much like the more modern masterpieces, were not instant classics when they came out and even if they were, represent only a very, very small percentage of all anime. even in a single year.
For a little perspective, on average there have been about, for the sake of mathematics, around 80 new anime every year (there may be closer to 100, but this is just a rough estimate). Evangelion (which I think is a terrible story) ran from late 1995 to early 96. Cowboy Bebop ran in 1998. Trigun was also 1998. Hellsing was 2001-2002. If you want to include Sailor Moon, that was first on TV in 1992. The Dragonball series started in the late 80s. The first Astro Boy series ran in the early 60s. You want to count Gundam, it depends on which exact series you want to count, but that one starts at 1979 at its earliest.
I just named probably what would comprise most people's list of the biggest masterpieces in the history of anime prior to 2005. You have mostly shounen battle-style stories. Each of them has their own share of moe or fanservice elements thrown in (except Astro Boy I imagine), and they cover a total of five decades.
In other words, what have become the hallmark masterpieces of anime all told can probably be summed up at less than 50, probably not much more than ten. Even assuming fifty, you are easily talking about 50 out of more than a couple thousand anime in the history of anime just before 2005.
Masterpieces are just that because they are rare. And they are very, very, hard to predict at any given time. Evangelion struggled to stay on the air during its run because no one seemed to like it. It had terrible ratings. But now you'll have people talking about how much of a fantastic series it is and how it represents the pinnacle of anime, blah, blah, blah. Even in the history of art and theater, the likes of Shakespeare and Van Gogh were thought of as not much in their fields when they were alive and still working. Now their names are known worldwide. No one has likely gotten through their educational career without having to stare at a van Gogh piece in some art appreciation class, or read, if not act out, a play by Shakespeare.
So, anime fans, rest assured that the industry is not any worse now than it always has been - it just looks slightly different. Upset that you aren't seeing any masterpieces? Don't worry, because by definition they are not something you are intuitively open to at conception. Watch what you can. Enjoy what you like. And in ten, twenty years, you can look back and see what stuff you watched and didn't watch only for it to turn out to be one of the very lucky few to attain immortality as a masterpiece of anime history.
History is viewed through rose colored glasses. The present is seen through beer goggles. We always tend to elevate the things most memorable to us, and we tend to remember the good times more so than the bad. It happens with life, there's no reason to think it's much different from the shows we watch.
You can see the story here.
I have to say that I think that is indeed the truth.
If you spend a lot of time on any anime focused blogs, websites, etc. where you have tons of comments and reviews, you're bound to see the same complaints over and over again. That applies doubly at times such as around now when the announcements of the series upcoming for the season are made on places like Anime News Network. It's always the same complaints; too much moe, too much shounen battles, too much perverted jokes and women with huge breasts...
I've always found myself pondering on whether or not that was really the case. I always sort of had the assumption that the person whose opinion I was reading was older than me, speaking from the perspective of having watched anime for at least a few more years than I have. That's just the way I tend to think.
But as I've grown older, I've realized that everyone continues to make the same complaints again and again... too much moe, too much violence, too much fan service, fewer masterpieces.
As the above article suggests, however, there isn't a whole lot of evidence that this is really the case. For the most part, the industry hasn't shifted a whole lot. It has moved on the margins to satisfy some of the shifts in the public appetite, but the "masterpieces of old" are only masterpieces because they survived to today.
Cowboy Bebop, Hellsing, Trigun, Evangelion... three of those are among my top favorite all time. But think for a moment about how many anime meet your idea of a masterpiece. Then compare that to the entire history of anime; how many shows ran while that one was on air, how many ran that year, how many anime have aired in the history of the industry. You realize quite quickly that the so-called masterpieces, much like the more modern masterpieces, were not instant classics when they came out and even if they were, represent only a very, very small percentage of all anime. even in a single year.
For a little perspective, on average there have been about, for the sake of mathematics, around 80 new anime every year (there may be closer to 100, but this is just a rough estimate). Evangelion (which I think is a terrible story) ran from late 1995 to early 96. Cowboy Bebop ran in 1998. Trigun was also 1998. Hellsing was 2001-2002. If you want to include Sailor Moon, that was first on TV in 1992. The Dragonball series started in the late 80s. The first Astro Boy series ran in the early 60s. You want to count Gundam, it depends on which exact series you want to count, but that one starts at 1979 at its earliest.
I just named probably what would comprise most people's list of the biggest masterpieces in the history of anime prior to 2005. You have mostly shounen battle-style stories. Each of them has their own share of moe or fanservice elements thrown in (except Astro Boy I imagine), and they cover a total of five decades.
In other words, what have become the hallmark masterpieces of anime all told can probably be summed up at less than 50, probably not much more than ten. Even assuming fifty, you are easily talking about 50 out of more than a couple thousand anime in the history of anime just before 2005.
Masterpieces are just that because they are rare. And they are very, very, hard to predict at any given time. Evangelion struggled to stay on the air during its run because no one seemed to like it. It had terrible ratings. But now you'll have people talking about how much of a fantastic series it is and how it represents the pinnacle of anime, blah, blah, blah. Even in the history of art and theater, the likes of Shakespeare and Van Gogh were thought of as not much in their fields when they were alive and still working. Now their names are known worldwide. No one has likely gotten through their educational career without having to stare at a van Gogh piece in some art appreciation class, or read, if not act out, a play by Shakespeare.
So, anime fans, rest assured that the industry is not any worse now than it always has been - it just looks slightly different. Upset that you aren't seeing any masterpieces? Don't worry, because by definition they are not something you are intuitively open to at conception. Watch what you can. Enjoy what you like. And in ten, twenty years, you can look back and see what stuff you watched and didn't watch only for it to turn out to be one of the very lucky few to attain immortality as a masterpiece of anime history.
History is viewed through rose colored glasses. The present is seen through beer goggles. We always tend to elevate the things most memorable to us, and we tend to remember the good times more so than the bad. It happens with life, there's no reason to think it's much different from the shows we watch.
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