Anime becoming too mainstream

[Vanguard]

I was thinking for my self now when im getting older what happen to all the old great animes ?

I mean there is anime today that is good but anime has bacome so mainstream they rather become bad than good.

I mean I rarely see great anime´s today that is as legendary as Macross saga or Star Zinger or Galaxy express 999 or Mazinger Z or space battleship yamato and even Slayers.

Don´t get me wrong im not hating on todays animes but like the new Version of Macross the Frontier series compared to the old series this ones one looks great but is totally awful story vise.

Todays it feels like every one is doing money only for cash and making them look so shiny they forget what made anime Great.

Yes there are good animes out there today but noting legendary as Space Pirate Captain Harlock or am I just geting to told.

Tell me what do the rest of u think and please be serious.

[SeijiSensei]

There are still shows being made that will remain memorable for years to come. They're just not making the kinds of shows you're looking for. Science fiction, particularly space operas, is out-of-fashion at the moment. That's not just true of anime; Hollywood movies now focus on action-hero franchises from Marvel rather than shows set in outer space.

I suspect I'm a lot older than you, and I can still find shows to watch. For a show that harkens back to an earlier period in anime, try the "men-in-black" styled Level E. I'm also going to suggest Puella Magi Madoka Magica which is a mixture of sci-fi and fantasy. Yes, it's full of moe~ girls, but it also has a compelling story.

My favorite shows are represented by the icons in my signature. Maybe you'll find something there.

[Ithekro]

Well Space Battleship Yamato (2199) is back for what that is worth. It lives up to the original and seems to improve on it so far. Only Six episodes are out so far of the 26. The next four will be out in October/November. the show's main site is at www.yamato2199.net

There is talk of a Harlock CGI movie coming out next year and Matsumoto has some grand plan for a new show or film using a lot of his various space ships and character ideas.

[Tempester]

Too mainstream? Isn't the problem that people like you have with anime nowadays related to how niche it is? Most anime nowadays are targeted at either kids or hardcore adult fans. A lot of what makes anime appealing to me are the unique traits related to its targeting to a niche audience. Anime is far from "too mainstream", and thank goodness that that is the case.

[Kyuu]

I've feared anime becoming too "mainstream" well over a decade ago. But, it never picked up as fast as it did during the 90's. Instead, it's been a simple gradual growth since the 2000's.

From our perspective, it may appear that everyone and anyone has seen or heard anime these days. But, gotta remember that not being the case.

[DarkCntry]

I wouldn't say it's become too mainstream, but I do think that creators are catering to the demographics that watch and we're seeing a lot more 'reinvention of the wheel' moments.

I've been watching anime since the early 80s in various forms and, really, not much in general has changed overall. We still have our shoujo animes, our shonen animes, our mechas, and our hentais. We still have many gratuitous moments of ecchi, and our moments of melodrama. None of this has really moved from the general mold.

What we are seeing is a shift in the general demographic that watch anime though. With an emphasis on Western culture bringing in a more female presence and a lesser emphasis on strict shonen-related titles.

As far as 'great' titles go, you have to not look at things with those fabled 'rose-tinted glasses'. There were just as many 'not-so-great' titles back in the day as there were great, and the same can be said for today, it all just depends on what genre you want to stick them to. Yes, there are fewer space opera type animes but that's generally because they don't have a sticking power and sales slump for them in both Japanese and Western markets.

[gsilver]

Hell no.

The problem is that it's becoming too niche. The millionth bug-eyed girls pander to Otaku show isn't mainstream in the slightest... It's exclusively made for a very narrow, if big-spending audience.

When anime was more "mainstream" than it is now, we had late 90s/early 2000s "Cool Japan" and they were promoting shows like Cowboy Bebop and Ghost in the Shell Stand Alone Complex.

And the block that's trying to pull in mainstream, adult viewers? Noitamina. I'd much rather see shows like Kids on the Slope and Eden of the East than Kiss X Sis.

Ok, I love off the wall niche stuff like Penguindrum, but that's a very small portion of it.

[Vanguard]

Well I would rather take space-opera over Moe sex , harem or even incest dreams they have today thats for sure. and sure there where bad animes when I was young but also they where allot serous I mean rely dark. Must be im in the age where very little anime appeals to me.

[Archon_Wing]

It takes time to recognize a classic, so of course there are none today.

Also, the economy sucks, so it's only natural for business to cling to more reliant income streams then trying to take risks and expand. Still, I'm positive that the most junk was made just before the economic problems when there was a certain boom where any crap would sell.

But really, of course one caters to the customers that pay the most.

[relentlessflame]

Originally Posted by Vanguard

Well I would rather take space-opera over Moe sex , harem or even incest dreams they have today thats for sure. and sure there where bad animes when I was young but also they where allot serous I mean rely dark. Must be im in the age where very little anime appeals to me.

Keep in mind that there are ton more anime made each season now than were ever made in the past (more in a single season now than were often made in a year or more). Plus, chances are that your anime experience was filtered to only include the sorts of shows they figured would be most palatable (i.e. things that were "serious" and "dark" and generally appealed to whatever teenage boys thought was cool at the time which, incidentally, isn't the same as what teenage boys in Japan today think is cool).

Nowadays, anime is a lot cheaper to make and there is a lot more of it (plus a lot of it is airing in the middle of the night), so you're going to have a whole lot more shows from a much wider range of styles that can serve smaller niche demographics. Plus, we have basically unfiltered access to everyone on the air as it airs, without the benefit of time or hindsight to pick and choose the best and most palatable. So nowadays, just because it's all anime, and you liked some anime before, doesn't mean that there's a good chance you'll like any given show. To you, "good anime" has a specific set of qualifications, and those qualifications don't apply to everyone. You'll have to apply those criteria to find the shows that match your tastes.

We do have a Suggestions sub-forum, and perhaps if you post a list of your favourite shows you could get some recommendations of modern shows that might match your tastes. That aside, this topic has been done a lot of times before on this forum, and I don't think there's very much to add at this time. It's inevitable that market demand will shift over time, and you may have to do a bit more searching to find what interest you most... but there's a wide world of entertaining choices out there, whether it comes from modern anime or not. I don't think anime has gone more mainstream, but it does appeal to a wider variety of niches, and your particular niche may only be one small part of today's market.

Am going to close this thread shortly... just give a bit of time for the remaining responders to get out their thoughts.

[Goggen]

Originally Posted by Vanguard

I mean there is anime today that is good but anime has bacome so mainstream they rather become bad than good.

I'm sorry, I don't follow. Basically, you're saying anime of today aren't as good as "legendary" anime of yesteryear. That's fine. That's your opinion.

But what does this have to do with "mainstream"? How does the question of whether or not anime is "mainstream" factor into this at all?

[DarkCntry]

Originally Posted by Vanguard

Well I would rather take space-opera over Moe sex , harem or even incest dreams they have today thats for sure. and sure there where bad animes when I was young but also they where allot serous I mean rely dark. Must be im in the age where very little anime appeals to me.

And there lies the problem, what you would rather take is not what the vast majority want.

That said, just because there are themes that you don't like, such as the Moe or incest, doesn't mean that they cannot be great shows. Hell, I'd consider Koi Kaze to be the antithesis to that comment and many would consider it not mainstream.

[Vladrave]

Originally Posted by DarkCntry

And there lies the problem, what you would rather take is not what the vast majority want.

Are you actually saying that moe,incest and harem are what the majority wants?

[Kaioshin Sama]

Am I the only one that feels anime has slowly been working it's way back to the types of shows that the OP describes. I mean ask me this question a few years ago and I'd say absolutely it felt like animes roots had been completely disregarded for the flavor of the season, but lately I don't feel that way. I think a big difference has been the very noticeable resurgence of Sci-Fi and Fantasy in the past year as well as a willingness to take risk...at least on the part of the bigger studios. Sci-Fi/Fantasy is mainly what I got into anime for in the first place, but it felt like school life was kind of becoming the dominant style for anime and that just isn't my thing so I was definitely pretty disinterested in anime for a while there (thank god for 2010-2011 Hockey that's all I'll say). Now we're getting all kinds of varied settings, tones and types of stories for characters and the OVA market isn't having make up for what I felt was a really lacklustre time for TV anime anymore.

Maybe I'm just becoming more forgiving, but it feels like even the obvious moe-pandering shows are trying a little hard to at least be somewhat interesting to someone like me. For example take Steins;Gate, Accel World and SAO. I expected to dislike all of the above because lets face it, they do bank pretty heavily on the appeal of their character designs and the female characters are pretty much describable as being of the moe variety, but all of three of these shows make up for it by giving them surprising complexity given the nature of their designs and also places them in a high stakes setting where they are able to grow and play off of each other as the situations frequently take a turn for the more dire.

I think what the key x-factor is here is that their are actual stakes in what is going on. Speaking personally it's hard to develop any sort of connection to a show when it feels like there is nothing really at stake and it's hard to have characters truly grow without having to deal with some level of adversity. The characters in the above shows are of the moe stock, but it's not just them going about daily lives and just a constant string of "comedic" and sexually charged situations with a bit of light drama sprinkled on near the end of the series, but rather tension and drama comes to visit the storyline throughout and where appropriate. In this respect I don't see these shows as very different from the sci-fi/fantasy shows of the 80's and 90's save maybe for being less gritty overall.

[Chaos2Frozen]

...What does any of this have to do with mainstream ? Do you know what kind of hobby you've signed up for?

The kind that have secret handshakes and language. The kind that have closed off meetings with faceless and voiceless individuals. The kind that worships false idols.

The kind that nobody talks about the fight club.

This stuff would never be mainstream.

[relentlessflame]

Okay, as mentioned previously, I am closing this thread due to there already being a lot of similar threads on this forum, and I think most of the major issues here have been addressed. For suggestions, please visit the aforementioned Suggestions Forum.