Big colored eyes,
Crazily designed hair,
Accentuated features,
This is the type of stuff I live for! It pretty much comes to no surprise; but if you are still wondering, I'm a big fan of anime. I grew up on the Toonami block watching heavyweights like Dragonball Z, Gundam Wing & Yu Yu Hakusho. (My personal favorite)
As I got older I graduated to the adult swim line-up where shows like Bleach, Fullmetal Alchemist, and Code Geass quickly grabbed my attention. Going into college I started watching old school stuff like the original Mobile Suit Gundam, and the much loved/hated Neon Genesis Evangelion that still remains a staple of the medium to this day. Being a big fan of anime in this day and age does lead me to ask myself alot of questions bout the direction its going. The most pressing question for me: "Is anime now even worth caring about?"
It seems most people are divided among old school & new school otaku; old school fans praising old animes for their meaningful stories and creative ideas, and new school fans pretty much in love with how cute the characters look and act. But there's also another problem to consider, an over saturation of the market in the numbers of series that get produced. Even for someone like me, there is way too many animes out there to really devote a day to watching. Though most of these animes are barley spared thanks to certain circumstances in the writing process, (Taken from an already existing source) shows within the slice of life/harem genre usually suffer from using the one or more of the same tropes in every series.
For example in most harem shows; where multiple partners will compete for the affection of another, its usually common for to have two of the partners fight about which one will win the affection of the other partner. (Think Ryoko vs Ayeka from Tenchi Muyo!)
Some Slice of Life animes centered around schools have episodes that take place during various school activities such as school festivals or enterance exams. Though they're usually fun it tends to repeat the same old stuff we've seen hundreds times over and done way better before, and yet oddly enough there's not alot of protest from either generation. Old school otakus do make some comments that despite a better budget to create more fluid animation and an extremely cute (or "Moe" as Otaku call it) character designs, the anime that's airing now is very generic and unimaginative.
Many folks have expounded on the state of anime as it is today; such people like Youtuber ForneverWorld, and That Guy With the Glasses' Bennett the Sage who have shared some of their feelings as I am right now. I don't have a problem with old or new anime, I have my own opinion on certain series regardless of its appeal to fans. But I do want to see something new from the industry, something revolutionary; much in the same vein as Akira or Ghost in the Shell. I wish to one day see something so mind-changing, so foundation shattering, that it will change the way all people (anime fan or not) perceive the medium in a new light.
God so help me live to see that day!
Credits:
The First Picture is from a Blogpost from AstroNerdBoy Check out his blog by clicking the link below.
http://astronerdboy.blogspot.com/
Second Picture: http://fc04.deviantart.net/fs70/i/2013/075/e/e/toonami_2012_and_beyond_by_marcotte-d5y825k.png
Third Picture: http://www.angelfire.com/anime5/beckywi0/ryokoaeka2.jpg
Fourth Picture: http://i713.photobucket.com/albums/ww132/Fayrra/Akira_3_p262-p263.jpg
