Anime Eras: Which One Do You Prefer?

Which, of the following do you prefer and why?

  • Old (Pre 2000)

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Present (2000 - present date)

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Future

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Total voters
    0
Tachi

Tachi

Mushi-shi
Due to recent talks about styled generations of anime....there's the older style (like ranma 1/2, Inu Yasha and ninja scroll) then you have present style...like FMA, Naruto. Bleach. you know the current mainstream stuff. then you have the future (?) the digital Cell shaded anime..... Do you think it's a step in the right direction or should the current style be called the best style?

Me personally...i prefer the present style.

Why? Because i personaly find the older era of anime distorted, faded and struggle to watch it without thinking "why's the quality to poor compared to modern day anime?" over all it ruins the reason for watching it for me. However some anime....such as Trigun and cowboy bebop are aside from this ruling and are in my opinion masterpieces.

Present day anime has the colours spot on, its crisp and of good quality.
As stated above, such programs as FMA, Naruto and other well known mainstream anime.

The future. now it cell shading and CGI is the future then although i've watched some anime and thought it looks kinda wrong. the picture is too sharp. the colours too perfect. maybe just me but i prefer near perfect, never perfection itself. Kakurembo (hide and seek) is one anime i'd say does justice to this type of anime.....but regardless, it's just not for me.
 
Overall I do prefer the present stuff, and my anime collection proves that. But there are some anime that were pre-2000 that I absolutely love. These include the Studio Ghibli collection, Akira and Ninja Scroll.
 
I think I like a mix. I like some of the animation style of modern anime as it looks crisper or more realistic at times. Although often I prefer the stories of older anime as the newer stuff is becoming very cookie cutter story wise.
 
I do get bored with the current lot, I look at something and actually know it got done the previous season or something. Its boring. Moé, I guess is the current fetish of otaku, whereas mecha and space operas were back in the day. Out of them two, I think I'd rather the space-y thing, even if I'm not that keen on mecha. It's the character designs that sometimes draw me into a series, but the writing is what makes me stay.

Animation honestly doesn't concern me much, unless its out of this world crazy "Look at this" stuff. HD is probably the only advantage I see of this current - cleaner/crisper - look. Cel animation just has a charm to it that digital just can't match. No idea about this future bull.

In the end, though, I like a mix as well. Early 00 stuff is fun to see, because its definitely a transitional stage but some things really benefit of the budget that certain series' now have. Death Note would have been really, really, really boring without Madhouse and its music.
 
If we're talking visuals, I don't really have a favourite era. In some cases the newer digital animation is too clean and clinical for my liking, lacking the detail and warmth of hand painted cel animation. But then some of the most visually striking anime I've seen--Stand Alone Complex, Mushi-shi, Gankustuou--has been produced this decade. What's most important, I think, is a decent budget and/or good art direction.
 
80s-90s is my favourite animation era by far. An OVA or film of this era can't be bettered in terms of visual quality. Newer animation is certainly well directed, and developing some interesting ideas, but it looks too... clean, too sanitised. Too flat.

This is one of the reasons I really enjoy seeing old cel animation in high definition. I love to see the strokes of the paintbrush, the dust and scratches on the cels - you can even discern layers sometimes. That leaves me with a grin a mile wide, I'm just odd like that. The best way to describe it is like looking at a painting in the flesh - you'll never see that in modern anime, because someone just clicked with a fill bucket tool.

I do think character design plays a big part in shaping my opinion too though. I much prefer most 80s designs over some of the ones we're getting today. Some are still great - Black Lagoon and SAC I love the designs for, but they're more stylish than the kind of... I dunno, does friendly sound weird to describe 80s designs?

If you're just watching for the visuals why not watch something from Pixar?
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Because one: Anime ja nai! And two: Because this thead is about visuals. Tachi just forgot to put that in the title.
 
Project-2501 said:
If you're just watching for the visuals why not watch something from Pixar?
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I must have missed where someone even suggested that they watch anime for the visuals alone.

I dunno, does friendly sound weird to describe 80s designs?
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Heh. I think I know what you mean. Older designs seem softer and rounder, while more modern designs are more sharp and angular.
 
The majority of new series are garbage, I much prefer older, sure the stories aren't of the highest quality all the time, but I appreciate hand-drawn animation far more than I do all this CGI business. Also remember when Shounen anime had GAR openings like this and this now it's all flashy and sparkly with songs you feel guilty for liking like this and this.
 
ayase said:
Because one: Anime ja nai! And two: Because this thead is about visuals. Tachi just forgot to put that in the title.
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They why did Tachi ask about 'style'? Style and visuals are not the same.

You can have crap visuals with ANY style of anime. And you can have good visuals in any age of anime. The original GITS movie cannot be classed as faded or distorted.

Like I said, if you just care about visuals go watch Pixar.
 
gotta say present as thats what ive been watching most of, though the anime ive seen from pre-2000 have all been great so far (Neon Genesis Evangelion series and Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke films)

Ill almost certainly watch more pre-2000 anime soon, so my answer may change

:)
 
Project-2501 said:
ayase said:
Because one: Anime ja nai! And two: Because this thead is about visuals. Tachi just forgot to put that in the title.
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They why did Tachi ask about 'style'? Style and visuals are not the same.

You can have crap visuals with ANY style of anime. And you can have good visuals in any age of anime. The original GITS movie cannot be classed as faded or distorted.

Like I said, if you just care about visuals go watch Pixar.
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Oh, go and have a drink. Or get laid, or something. I don't resort to this kind of argument often but you're just being needlessly pedantic here.

Dictonary said:
style
n.
1. The way in which something is said, done, expressed, or performed: a style of speech and writing.
2. The combination of distinctive features of literary or artistic expression, execution, or performance characterizing a particular person, group, school, or era.
Click to expand...
 
Project-2501 said:
If you're just watching for the visuals why not watch something from Pixar?
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To add two other points apart from what has already been said:

1) Because Pixar's visuals, whilst technically stunning, can be a little "one note", and lack the foibles of hand drawn animation. Also, having not seen Up yet, they haven't been able to capture human characters all that well so far.

2) The real appeal of Pixar's films is that they're fantastic films, first and foremost, not the visuals.
 
ayase said:
Dictonary said:
style
n.
1. The way in which something is said, done, expressed, or performed: a style of speech and writing.
2. The combination of distinctive features of literary or artistic expression, execution, or performance characterizing a particular person, group, school, or era.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...

Still nothing about crappy visuals.

Tachi focused on image quality being a reason not to watch older 'era' anime. I doubt the animators set out with the intent of making it look awful. It is possible that some did and then you could class it as a 'style of artistic expression'. But loss of quality due to aging, poor transfers etc. isn't a style.
 
I love both.

I feel more for the older stuff (so I voted for it) because the thought of every laboured, hand painted cel being filmed has always impressed me. There are some seriously impressive old-style shows which have yet to be topped IMO. A lot of love went into some of those older OAVs.

However, a lot of the new stuff is great too in a completely different way and some of the tricks they can do now blow the traditional special effects out of the water. Since the dodgy phase in the late 90s where everything looked terrible/cheap/motionless most studios have really mastered digital painting.

I don't care for 3D as much, though there are some good ones out there.

R
 
I like both the newer and older series. Then again when it comes to anime I seem to be able to watch any old crap :lol:

Newer anime is more cleaner, crisp, but there's just something about the older animation style that draws me in...also being a slayers fan. And of course it actually being drawn by hand, an extra layer of effort to create the series. Outside of Ghibli films I haven't watched much 80s stuff, but I have picked up some 90s stuff (Eva, Escaflowne, seemingly every slayers DVD).

However it can be annoying watching some 90s stuff where fights may result in epileptic fits and the use of still images with sounds can be a bit OTT compared to newer stuff ;)
 
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