Aged or Avantgarde? Which do you prefer?

cudwieser

cudwieser

Student Council President
Are you one for the old masters and the antiquated 'classics' or are you for the new and the daring?

Do you like anime that stick to tried and true tropes or go for something fresh and different?

I'm a fan of older anime and tend to like more traditional stories like comedy capers, a nice john wayneesque good over evil tale. I do like the odd daring anime like dead leaves, but equally a more 'mundane' story like that in Redline always finds a home with me, an anime that 'dared' to be simple yet brilliant on a sensory level. A simple yet advantgarde anime.
 
Bit of a loaded question. When I take look at my favorite shows, classics such as Patlabor and Space Cobra what I love about them and similar classics is just how comfortable and accessible they are, at the same time in typical episodic fashion they subvert expectations and go in strange directions which keeps them fresh and entertaining. In that sense these classic shows are safe to watch but surprise and keep you engaged along the way. Since this is bubble economy Japan we’re talking about the exuberant fashion and music of that era was at its height and so everything ancillary to these shows also appeals to me, from the synthy music to the puffy hairstyles. Of course it would be silly to go on without mentioning the animation in lots of those OVA's and films which were and still are a sight to behold. This however beings me onto my next point, the fact that the avant-garde shows, films and OVA's of yesterday are also some of my favorites, mainly because of just how reckless they were in regards to their budgets or lack thereof. OVA's like Angel's Egg, Robot Carnival and Gosenzosama Banbanzai and movies such as Belladonna of Sadness are reasons why I love animation in the first place. The nonlinearity that animation affords its creators is what makes it so interesting to me, creating and conjuring something out of nothing; a blank piece of paper that springs to life is what makes the medium so appealing. What makes something avant-garde is its desire and ability to innovative and experiment whilst breaking new ground whilst respecting the art and culture surrounding it. I love my classics, and it so happens that some of my favorite classics are the ones that were for all intents and purposes, avant-garde.
 
Well, Redline is simply awesome on every level anyway, never mind whether you call it 'new' or not.
As for getting bored of the same old tropes... nope, never. I like those tropes for a reason and eat them up like a starving wolf-pup after a ten year winter.
However, new and fresh is always good too.
 
I have no real preference. Old stuff has its beauty, new stuff has its beauty. So long as there are good characters and maybe a cool song or two, I'm golden.

R
 
I have a soft spot for the daring, crazy stuff we haven't seen before. I guess I would describe myself as more of a fan of storytelling, so I like the Baccano!/Durarara!! thing Occultic;Nine was attempting, and I even liked what I saw of The Lost Village.

That said, age is not really an issue to me. I prefer a nice clean artstyle to the scratchiness of something like JoJo's Bizarre Adventure. But, I wouldn't even not watch something just specifically because it was old.
 
I don't really have a preference if its good its good and if its bad its bad. I have grown very weary of battle Shounen which has to be one of the most stale genres in anime. I'm pretty sure most people could write a shounen story if they put their mind to it.

The problem with trying something new is that the risk of it being a train wreck increases (see lost village).When it works though you can get something wonderful like Steins Gate. I'm certainly not a fan on non linear stories but they seem to be popular within the community.
 
Rui said:
I have no real preference. Old stuff has its beauty, new stuff has its beauty. So long as there are good characters and maybe a cool song or two, I'm golden.
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Pretty much this. My general preference towards older shows is, similar to what @qaiz mentioned above, more to do with the aesthetics than anything else. Some newer shows, even some '90s shows simply turn me off immediately due to finding the character designs so unappealing. I admit it's a pretty shallow reason for writing something off, but I still love a lot of modern shows and some of my favourites (possibly some of the most interesting shows out there in my opinion like Kino's Journey and Haibane Renmei) are from the early to mid '00s.
 
Personally, I tend to steer away from old shows. The general aesthetics of anything before the mid 90s generally turns me off, in particular the character design. As you can probably tell, I'm more into the cute/moe aesthetics that became more commonplace in the new millennium. I don't even mean cute in just 'cute girls doing cute things' kind of way either, even if you look at most modern shows regardless of genre, the designs tend to be a bit rounder and less rough than stuff from the 70s and 80s. Hope that makes sense. Anyway, I'm not totally opposed to older series, I've seen 2 or 3, but I'd be far more hesitant to start one than a newer show.
 
I don't have a preference though I gotta say the new shows are not making me excited like they used to do until, let's say, between 10 and 5 years ago. Most of the animes coming out in the last years, they just not give me that click. Actually, the other day I was just checking this and from 2016, I believe I have only watched around 7 to 10 shows/movies. That pretty much says it all.

I still try watch a few every new season but the feeling its not the same as it was in the 00's. I do enjoy lots of 90's and I believe that's where's the golden age of anime is to be honest. Nowadays, 80% of the stuff is just recycled ideas. Of course there are still some really great shows but the amount of outstanding shows per season, its far from being as good as they were years ago.

Or maybe its just me getting tired of anime after watching it for so many years.
 
Maybe this is getting away from the original point, but I find that I have trouble appreciating the aesthetics of anime and manga from before the 1980s.

Perhaps it's partly down to availability or other inability to compare like with like, but I find the quality of animation in TV anime tends to be noticeably lesser in the 70s series I've watched and there are definitely far fewer shows I can point to and say I really like the artwork for.

Most of the time I can persevere, but the only time it's really stopped me outright is when I've tried to read manga by Go Nagai. I feel like I would enjoy a lot of his stuff, but I just can't get used to the look of his art. I know it's iconic of its time, but it just always strikes me as crude and unappealing. Maybe that was the idea...
 
bakum4tsu said:
Or maybe its just me getting tired of anime after watching it for so many years.
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Nooooo!!! :(

I can remember Manga Video's earliest releases first-hand, so I guess nothing feels that "aged" to me. I have my old favourites like Akira, Ninja Scroll and R.O.D OVA, but also newer favourites such as Patema Inverted, Expelled from Paradise and The Case of Hana & Alice. And I've seen Redline more times than I can count.

Also, to also take avant-garde in the sense of "experimental", I like mould-breaking stuff like The Tatami Galaxy. That's one of my all-time favourite series.

I'm currently enjoying a recent discovery of mine, Gantz from 13 years ago. :)
 
In theory not that bothered, although I have a slight preference for newer stuff (or rather, the newer the better in general). In practice... Well, the fact that it's been over 4 years since I last watched even a single episode of a pre-2000 anime speaks volumes.
 
I have no preference as long as the show is solid. One of my top 5 is Legend of the Galactic Heroes, so I definitely can't say I dislike older anime. I do also generally like the character aesthetics on shows from the 80s to early 2000s more than current ones. They seem to have more personality and unique features to them, whereas there is a lot of current anime where they all have the same face, but with different hair. That's not the case for all of them of course, but I've noticed it in quite a few shows.
 
I've always taken the view that anime from different eras is to be taken like music from different eras. The production methods that were popular at that time don't necessarily equate to 'better' or 'worse' looking shows. They just have a different aesthetic, sometimes different storytelling values, and an appreciably different character.

I do have a bit of a problem when folks start making statements like 'all the new aniem looks horrible' or 'old anime always looked so much better.' That's HIGHLY subjective.

I've been looking at a few shows recently with a view to covering them on my Youtube channel. One of them is Boogiepop Phantom*, which dates back to the '90s. Ever seen folks rave about how great everything produced by Madhouse looks? This is the show to disprove that notion. Studio house styles, as far as I recall, have never been especially rigid. So there's an awful lot of visual diversity at every point in anime history.

What I think is entirely right and proper is that folks will naturally develop tastes regarding how they prefer their anime to look. But it's good to look beyond those tastes if you can. That can break down a barreir between the individual and some really beautiful entertainment.



*Note for anyone following my channel - don't expect a review of this show anytime soon. I'm going to have to watch it again just to make sense of it.
 
I'll honestly watch any show from any time period. I'm far less subjective than some when it comes aesthetics as I just love Animation and can find strong appreciation in all eras of Anime. For me the most important factor is story, and second to that is it entertaining in any way. If it can tick either of those boxes then I'm good to go.

Must be said I tend to appreciate the art form of Anime back in the traditional cel era before Digital a tad more. The craftsmanship was much more apparent back then but I certainly find love for alot of Digital shows as well, especially those that push the envelope in style. For along time a majority of modern shows looked very similar. Though this decade that has changed quite alot.

But yeah ultimately it should always be 'does it have a good story or is it entertaining' and the time period it was made shouldn't factor into that at all for me. When I see others write off older shows based simply on looks I find it incredibly frustrating because everything is new and modern at some point and similarly everything is old hat eventually.

The single roadblock I have for enjoyment of something old is the Audio options. I cannot stomach really old US dubs of shows, I mean dubs that would have aired in the 60s, 70s and the 80s. They are like fingernails on a chalkboard to me so unless something is subbed or has a more modern dub like Gatchaman then I can't watch it.
 
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