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Zach | Bluesky
Transcript
4 Panel Comic
Panel 1: an Apple Tree saying βThe apple doesnβt fall far from the treeβ
Panel 2: an Apple saying βAnime is trashβ
Panel 3: the tree winds upβ¦
Panel 4: β¦and throws the apple as far as possible with a FWOoOSH
Speaking as a fan of anime. Anime is trash.
But boy howdy, do I love me a good dumpster fire.
Some of the best shows are straight trash. Such as Domestic Girlfriend
Correction, most anime is trash. Yes, even the one you're thinking of. In fact, especially that one.
I mean most any media is trash. Why is anime any different than, let's say, TV shows? The medium doesn't make it better or worse, it's the actual quality of the particular series that's important.
Look at the synopsis of all of the isekais and then tell me. A large portion of them feature harems, slavery, glorifying slavery, incest and more.
Nah, Cowboy Bebop is awesome, as is NG:E, Trigun, Hellsing, and Darling in the Franxx. But yeah, there's so much that it's basically just a lot, and it's certainly reductive to just call it "trash."
Well yeah. Tell someone to not think about ducks and where do their brains go? Duck boobs.
Of course I'm thinking about trash anime. It's my favorite kind.
There is a logical dilemma here, in that Cowboy Bebop is an anime. Avatar we got away with because it's Western, but Bebop is anime.
Most of it is, though. The best recommendations I've received over the years were from people who weren't anime fans.
That makes sense tho. They would recommend stuff that's more accessible, whereas anime fans might forget which ones have 2000 year old dragon children in them and that really needs a disclaimer or something
This goes for a lot of genres. Metalheads are like, "dude listen to this ultra black metaldeathcore album my favorite bad just dropped!" and it's nails on a chalkboard, but also incredibly technically impressive with shifting time signatures and somehow if you play it backwards through a filter it sounds like Flight of the Valkyries. If you enjoy that, power to you, but most don't.
A lot of it is unfortunately, you can only tolerate the repetitive cringey trope filled teenage focused shows for so long, and it seems those are most of the ones getting made, seinen and Josie anime seem to be much fewer, Iβm kind done watching teen characters getting objectified and getting into battles that they win through the power of friendship.
You know, power of friendship is boring when it's done stupidly and it becomes the only answer to every problem...
but to me the worst kind of shounen degeneracy is when they stop caring about the human aspects at all. And instead they just do endless power level fights where heroes keep winning by ass-pulling new strength from nowhere.
I've abandoned several series that I thought started well over that.
IMO the only show that does "the power of friendship" well is My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, and that's because friendship is a literal magical superweapon being developed by the State in order to achieve geopolitical domination.
Yup just endless slide shows of character XYZ screams and does power blast repeated 10 times and then the episode is over
Miyazaki was right when he complained that the only people getting in to the anime industry were people who only consumed anime/manga. The tropes got out of control.
You know, I've been trying to put a finger on why I grew out of anime for a long time and I feel like what you said here makes a lot of sense to me. The tropes really are out of control. When I think about animes I like, it's generally because they dialed them waaaay back (or I have really powerful nostalgia glasses for them from when I was young).
A lot of all entertainment media is garbage. Maybe anime has a lower barrier to entry, so the signal to noise ratio is worse, but then again, the big movie studios are so risk averse that they mostly pump out boring, focus-group-tested sequels and reboots. Wait maybe there's a barrier-to-entry vs financial-risk sweet spot that produces the greatest share of good stuff? Hmmm...
What makes you think animation has low barrier to entry lol, it takes a large team of skilled artists to make, most of whom are underpaid and overworked, and it takes time to hone these skills. The reason most media is garbage is that studios want to make low cost low risk content, and they want to make lots off it in the hopes that if even one or two become viral hits then they can coast on the profit from that while taking losses on the others, instead of taking big bets on an anime that is beyond the cliched norms and that might cost more time and money to make.
A lot of the traditional anime tropes exist explicitly to lower the cost of production. The artists may be skilled, but there's a reason you see a lot of still frames where only the character's mouth moves and stuff like that. It was necessary in the 90's. Now it's what you expect from the genre.
Exactly; the issue is that writing and animating are separate concerns.
So if an anime studio wants to pump out 30 Isekai, they NEED 30 animators working 24/7. But a genius writer? Meh, thatβs optional.
So heβs right that writing is low barrier - and then it sucks when I see fantastic indie animation work on YouTube and think βI almost think I couldβve written and VAβd this better by myselfβ.
When I was in 8th-9th grade I was obsessed with anime. Used to get the fansub VHS mailed to my house to watch them. These were the days of 28.8 and 56k modems. You weren't watching full episodes of any quality. LOVED anime. Now I can't stand it. It's unbelievably cringey to me. I'm 43 but I feel like it's been very difficult to watch for a long time. I remember in college people were watching Naruto and I was just bored to tears. Voice Acting, writing, etc really is trash for the most part. There's some exceptions, Studio Ghibli, Akira, maybe a movie or two. But just can't get into it these days. Anyway that's my story, tune in next time on old man rant.
Edit: so exceptions supposed to be some exceptions
The vast majority of anime is aimed at minors, not a huge surprise that you aren't as interested anymore at 43. It also seems pretty repetitive nowadays, though IDK whether that was already an issue 30 years ago.
I've only recently realized how weird a lot of anime is when you think about it. Slavery, child soldiers, pedophilia by proxy of being reborn, racism, anime is filled with so many morally questionable tropes that you sometimes don't really think about because it's presented in an entertaining and comedic way most of the time...
Overlord is an anime I enjoy, but if that regime existed in real life they'd be comparable to the NAZIs with the amount of death and destruction they bring
Weird to think about, still enjoy watching anime though
PokΓ©mon is basically just cockfighting.
I feel like the industry as a whole refuses to innovate and modernize and is just stuck in a rut of appealing to 15 year olds with slide deck level animated content and dated and frankly in 2026 offending characteristics, forgetting all of us 30+ people with disposable income who want stories with depth and animation with quality. One thing I always liked about Ghibli is that even if the protagonist of a movie is a young kid it, they never made the movie itself childish or pandering to a younger audience, if anything they were willing to take the risk of gently exposing adult and even difficult topics in such movies like Totoro for example, that one scene of the big sister coming across her little sisters shoe by the pond is seared in my memory.
I'm close to 40 and I have some modern, mature, suggestions if you're open to it.
Sure but I don't want overwhelming options. Maybe one or two. Something where they act like humans might actually act, and no underage grossness please.
Not sure what your style is but my most recent suggestion has been Dorohedoro. Sorcerers rule one side of the world, and shove non sorcerers into The Hole. They hop in and out of The Hole whenever they want, experimenting on people as they wish. Main character doesn't know why he has a lizard head, and is immune to Sorcerer magic. Gritty, unpredictable, great world building.
Another: Under Ninja. Japan is full of ninjas, and of course undercover ninjas as well, hence the title. Can't say much without spoiling it, but the main character is in a high school trying to out ninja a rival clan that is undercover. Surprisingly serious, great animation, and a few gags.
In both, IMO, the characters are fairly grounded and act like real people would.
I thought I'd seen dorohedoro and that is not what I remember at all. Gonna have to watch it (again?) I guess
I keep chasing that feeling from watching as a kid and nothing delivers.
I mean most of it is, only the stuff I like is good.
He's not wrong. Most anime are low budget, gets cancelled or takes 10 years for season 2, and most likely you will never see the end before it's cancelled.
They're also heavily value engineered and animators are extremely overworked... even artsy anime shows don't have the movement or detail of ye olde hand drawn shows.
Now this is a memeable format if I've ever seen one. YoooOOOOOINK**!**
I like to think I'm pretty open minded, especially when it comes to media preferences. I've found something I enjoy in pretty much every genre there is, whether that was video games, movies, TV shows, music, books, etc. but I have never seen an anime that I could stand to watch for more than a couple of episodes. Maybe I haven't gotten far enough in to get hooked or maybe I've just been recommended some shows that don't fit my tastes but I'm pretty confident it's just not my thing.
That's perfectly fine of course. I don't care if people enjoy different things than me. I just find it odd that with most other things I can at least see the appeal even if it isn't something I enjoy, but with anime I don't at all. It's an outlier in that respect.
I love Japanese animation, there's some very good stuff, however, the absolute majority of "anime", and the anime/otaku culture per se, ouch, I cringe hard at it
Tree whipped that shit like it was the womping whillow
Should cut the last panel.
The apple is not wrong.
