SUPAFLAVIN’s CORNER

How do you think anime (as an art form, and as a culture) has developed over the past few years? Also, do you think with the amount of young americans that love anime, that America might soon rival Japan in its production of anime (maybe not shows, but do you think America will have the same or more artists who draw anime)?

I haven’t been watching anime since about five years ago. Most of the new shows coming out just weren’t interesting enough for me, too much Moe and too much slice of life anime centered around characterization than storytelling. I’m old school, I grew up watching VHS tapes as a kid and having to buy anime to watch it, and that was also during a time where anime was all over the place in it’s approach. The OVA was an art form then, major motion pictures were being produced, and ambitious creators were walking around attempting to gain credibility for themselves. 

Those days are gone though, the Japanese economy has a lot to do with it, according to a Japanese friend of mine some years ago. Slowly, anime wasn’t booming anymore and budgets grew tighter for many studios, so eventually everything became tighter and more calculated on what would keep many of them from closing. Fan service takes more of the place of storytelling or in many cases the mature dialogue of a lot of older plots are gone or absent altogether. These are generalizations, but it’s why I got shoved out in the first place, Anime has gotten too concentrated in certain areas to stay alive and variety is limited in this response. I’m sure there might be a few shows I could like out there, but I’ve retired from anime in general, I just like the oldies nowadays. 

I don’t think America does anime in the way it is styled or approached. Animation in the U.S. is very much an all audiences affair still, it’s rare when anything is taken to the adult world or beyond. I’m not sure if there are more people animating than in the past, but it’s still very popular here, so I would assume the future is brighter than Japan’s right now, even with an otaku culture still in tact over there. Just don’t expect animation as a medium to garner as much respect as motion picture film-making, although I think anime has done a good job in it’s inception years ago to have it’s own audience for anything more unique than what has already been deemed acceptable here.