I probably watch more old stuff than new. I look at it like this, if I've got a fridge full of food, and its full to the brim, some of its tasty, some of it's just fine, but all of it's in date, why go out of your way to buy more food? Maybe you crave something that you don't have in the fridge, but I've got this huge back-catalogue of shows, films and OVA's at my disposal and with so much diamonds in the rough it's almost fun in and of itself to just wade through it all. If a show comes out today and its good today, then I'm sure that it'll also be good in a few years or a decade, so why rush out to watch something as soon as it airs? I've got so much to eat as it is!
Truth being told there's many reasons as to why one would want to watch a show as soon as it airs, I mean it's fun to talk to people as something is airing, discovering it as others are and sharing the experience together as a community. It's the same reason I played Pokemon Go back when it released last year, I'm a big Pokemon fan and so I was always interested in trying it but the hype itself was intoxicating, and although people still play it today, nothing compares to how it was that summer when it was fresh, stampedes were common place, the news was talking about Pokemon in ways it hadn't since the 90's and if somebody had their head fixated on their phone screen, they were probably playing Pokemon Go. It's fun to watch something new, and when a show takes off it's nice to be a part of that movement. At the same time, time itself is valuable and so it's nice to have a curated backlog of titles.
People talk about how old shows were better, I don't think that's necessarily true, sure some of that hand-drawn goodness is amazing to look at, I still nevertheless think that there's more better shows being made today than ever before, or at least an equal amount, but due to the fact that the 80's was such a long time ago a lot of that content has been curated and reviewed to death and so the "trash" so to speak has been filtered because believe me, a lot of trash was made back in the day. Like with video games, everyone wanted a piece of the pie and so all sorts were being made with everyone following the Gundam train including Tomino himself, but as always we only remember the good stuff and the really bad stuff, rarely the mediocre stuff, or the okay stuff. In that sense its easier to find good stuff from the past, doubly so with the internet at your fingertips, and as with a lot of new shows the jury is out on whether or not it's any good until time has passed, sometimes, other times it's evident right off the bat.
Having said that the bubble economy was a real thing and so the late 80's lead to things being created that'd never be created ever again, be it the type of music, games or films being made, which makes it a unique time to look back on. Being a young medium a lot of creators were experimenting like crazy back then, Gainax was General Products, Oshii was going nuts, and so as somebody like myself whom is probably more interested in the business, history and creative side of things, spending more time reading and writing about anime than actually watching it, its a pivotal moment in time for me.
