Quote:
Originally Posted by Dextro
Personally I'm more saddened by the apparent lack of proper space operas lately. Sure we've had Space Brothers and Moretsu Pirates recently but aside from that I can't seem to recall anything since Banner of the Stars III in 2005. And besides that having happened 8 years ago it was also criminally short. 
Mecha, by comparison, has had at least a few Gundams in between and of course heavy hitting shows like Code Geass and Macross F. I will however concede that we are starting to reach the point were another hit like those is getting overdue... or at least the fan in me is eagerly awaiting such a show. |
For upcoming space opera's Yamato 2199 is the high profile one. A retelling of the classic 1970s space opera with new animation and it's amazing.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Folenfant
I have to ask, if sci-fi and mecha are dying out then how is it possible to explain the likes of the Amazon preorder chart right now:
http://www.amazon.co.jp/gp/bestselle...rsr_d_1_3_last
Looking at the sheer number of sci-fi and mecha related titles new and old that appear to be charting well it seems more popular a field than ever to stake a bet on. |
Mostly boxed Blu-ray sets of the top-franchises (Evangelion, Gundam, Yamato) in that list. Those titles are, together with Ghibli movies, in a league of their own. They have a large seperate fan-base outside of the anime scene. Their sales hide the large drop off of new material in the last decade. You're going to struggle to find more than a dozen new mecha series since Geass.
Mecha centric shows and sci-fi are not major genres in the late night market and there have also been fewer prime time youth mecha/sci-fi shows. In that sense there has been a decline.
You could say there is an evolution as character centric shows have increasingly started to use elements like mecha or a sci-fi setting. In that sense variety is increasing.