[Triple_R]

In fairness to relentlessflame, it's not hard to get annoyed by how some still haven't accepted that yes, like it or not, moe is a big part of modern anime and is here to stay.

If you're going to be a content modern anime fan, I think you need to at least accept the predominance of moe. You have to "make peace with it", so to speak. You can like it, or you can dislike it, but there's little point in arguing against moe itself. The problem is that some people really thought it was just going to be a passing fad. Well, it's been clear for awhile now that it's not a passing fad, and it's time for the Zac Bertschys of the world to learn that no matter what they say, it's not going away.


OTOH, the argument of 'If someone says "Anime was better a few years ago" then that person is just a crusty old-timer who rants against "kids these days" and hence isn't to be taken seriously' takes us down a path that I find pretty troubling.

As a Star Trek fan, and as a comic book fan, I know that entertainment industries really do decline sometimes. It can happen. There's no question it happened with Star Trek - The proof is in declining ratings, declining movie success (until the recent movie reboot), and Enterprise failing to achieve the 7-season standard set by TNG and DS9.


New isn't always better. The veteran critic isn't always wrong.

Originally Posted by Ledgem

I agree with relentlessflame. It's a generational dispute,

No, I really don't think it is. And I think it does a disservice to people like syn to argue that it is just a generational dispute. People can have legitimate reasons for preferring one era of anime over another. It's not always just a matter of nostalgia or "refusing to keep up with the times".

Also, it's been my experience that for most long-term anime fans, their favorites list changes fairly frequently, which indicates an openness to new shows.


When I first saw Madoka Magica in 2011, I had already been an anime fan for a few years. It obviously wasn't something I would regard highly because it was one of the first shows I saw. But after a year or so, I decided that Madoka Magica was one of my five favorite anime shows of all-time. It had aged well for me, and earned that status, imo. (By the way, I'm pretty sure syn herself has spoken highly of Madoka Magica, which also contradicts what you're arguing here).

I also watched Steins;Gate in 2011, and it's now amongst my Top 10 list of all-time.

Even though Mari-Mite is an older show, I myself only watched it this past Fall. It skyrocketed into my Top 10 list.


People are able to fairly judge and assess new shows. If they favor older shows over newer shows it's not necessarily due to nostalgia. They may have perfectly valid reasons for their preferences. I think it undermines good discussion and debate to casually dismiss such preferences to generational divides.

I've heard of elderly people waxing nostalgia over events and places from decades prior, but with the "digital age" I've heard young people in their teens doing the same thing.

How does a teen wax nostalgic over events and places from decades prior? By definition, a teenager wasn't even alive decades ago.

If teens are "waxing nostalgia" over events and places they enjoyed only a few years ago, then maybe it's not just nostalgia. Maybe it really was that great. Is such a conclusion really so unimaginable?

Perhaps nothing has actually changed and I'm experiencing observational bias, but it makes sense: trends and developments move and shift faster today than they used to.

Yes, and trends and developments can be good or bad which has always been the case.

Sometimes a trend or development really is bad.