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nbahn wrote:

For me, Robotech is the genesis of my attraction to anime.

I did watch Robotech (and Tranzor Z) on over-the-border syndicated television plus Belle and Sebastien and a few other literature-based anime series on TV Ontario as a tween in the mid-1980s, and, going back even further in time, I watched Battle of the Planets/G-Force as a little kid, and, as a teenager, I rented Akira and Warriors of the Wind (bowlderized Nausicaa) plus I watched Samurai Pizza Cats on YTV, but I really peg 1994 as being the year I got into anime as a serious interest because I was interested enough in it to make the effort to watch more of it than the small amount I was able to see in heavily-edited form on TV and it's been more or less constant interest of mine since then, whereas I watched and enjoyed Robotech and was vaguely aware that it was dubbed from Japanese but it didn't really lead to me watching more shows like it, if that makes any sense.

jymmy wrote:

Tenchi wrote:

When The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya gets the Blu-Ray release, it will rocket to the top of my anime "must buy" list (whenever I have enough money to spare). I also have Lucky Star and Cowboy Bebop on DVD but I'm fine with the DVD quality of both.

But Haruhi was produced in SD, the 2009 episodes were sub-720p and Cowboy Bebop was a cel anime, so it looks vastly superior to Haruhi. You're sort of got that backwards. Have you seen BD screencaps of Haruhi and Cowboy Bebop at all?

I know all that, I just happen to enjoy Haruhi Suzumiya a lot more than I enjoy Cowboy Bebop these days so I probably would re-buy it assuming it would look any better on Blu-Ray even if it's really just an upscale.

I wouldn't know how Robotech holds up for people who watched it as kids in the 80s and 90s, but SDF Macross is still a landmark anime.

Know the thing about not liking as much as you get older. Back when I was young, I loved Silverhawks. When CN aired it during my senior year of high school, didn't go for it as much. Theme song was still awesome, but not so much the show. And lots of folks aren't as keen on the Great Wakkorotti sketches as they were in elementary school.

Zac wrote:

So instead you tell me how I'm supposed to react to it. The internet. I love it.

You interact with me all the time here and on Twitter. I would've laughed it off or ignored it if it had been someone I didn't know at all but you've been following my work and engaging with me for years. I know who you are, I've had you on the podcast before. It's different.

Anyway. Consider it laughed off.

Okay, Zac, I get it. I'm sorry. I never told you how to react to it. I said how I would react to it. To go any more into why I would take it like that would be going into my own personal history, which I'm sure no one wants to read.

I f***ed up, simple as that.

roxybudgy wrote:

But now, with access to the Internet, where I can read the opinions of hundreds/thousands of other people who did not like the series I liked, I feel like some of that has tainted my opinion of the series I once loved so much. I mean, some of those opinions have valid points which I may not have considered the first time I watched.

Sometimes ignorance is bliss. I watched the second season of Psycho Pass, and initially I thought "this is awesome, can't wait to see what happens next!", but I had also been reading ANN's episode reviews, and as the series progressed, the reviews painted a negative picture of the series. Yes, some of it may be valid criticism of the show, but I can't help but feel that when it seem the whole world is saying a show sucks, it makes it harder to enjoy it.

I think it's worth keeping in mind, at least as far as Psycho Pass 2 is concerned, that your approach to enjoying PP2 doesn't have to line up with Hope's, even if she does have valid points about it. I find that Hope tends to--what is the film equivalent of a close reading? Close viewing?--go into shows with a more analytical mindset. It's not that she's on a manhunt for flaws; it's just that those kinds of flaws (plot holes, themes, etc.) tend to jump out at her more. (And I tend to be the same way when I go to the movie theater with my family, much to my mother's dismay.)

For example, I wholly agree with her Gatchaman Crowds review; it's a fun show with some nicely progressive touches, but it is also damnably naive in its "mo' info = mo' betta'" philosophy, especially when we've seen what kind of cruel craziness "mo' info" leads to in real life.

Do I still enjoy Crowds? HELL YEAH!

Does that invalidate or minimize Hope's points? Nope! I can still enjoy my shows even while acknowledging (and sometimes even disagreeing) with those flaws.

I honestly have never got the Love Hina criticism. Was it ever my favorite, no that will always be Tenchi, but its a classic harem, one guy a bunch of girls, no silly dragons or magic, or other nonsense (yes I know the little blonde girl was some kind of magical princess or something like that, but it was never really focused on), just a simple played straight harem in a "semi-realistic" setting. Its not a perfect show, but I still find it enjoyable. I think this is just one show that is has become "cool" to dislike just like its "cool" to think Cowboy Bebop is God's gift to the world.

Regarding shows that I went back to watch. I started rewatching Naruto, and the show actually did keep me entertained through the Chunin exam just like it did backing mid 2000s. I always think it was just a show that went on for too long, same with Bleach, through the soul society and rescue rukia arc it was a pretty good show and then they both just got ridiculous.

Also I have had the opposite reaction as well. I saw a few Miyazaki works before I started liking anime like Spirited Away and didn't really care for them. Then I saw Howl's in the Movie Theatre went back and watch the old films again and really liked them.

I don't completely disagree with Answerman, all too often there have been films and books and even anime or games that I remebered as being epic, and then I was all but disappointed, but I don't feel its as set in stone as his comments make it to be. Some stuff I think is still good and some not so much.

CrownKlown wrote:

I honestly have never got the Love Hina criticism. Was it ever my favorite, no that will always be Tenchi, but its a classic harem, one guy a bunch of girls, no silly dragons or magic, or other nonsense (yes I know the little blonde girl was some kind of magical princess or something like that, but it was never really focused on), just a simple played straight harem in a "semi-realistic" setting. Its not a perfect show, but I still find it enjoyable. I think this is just one show that is has become "cool" to dislike just like its "cool" to think Cowboy Bebop is God's gift to the world.

It likely has to do with Love Hina being potentially the first harem comedy that a lot of people ever saw. That means all the tropes that have been wrung dry through constant use in numerous other harem shows were first introduced there and seemed fresh to some people. Then when they go back to it after a long time after being over-exposed to those exact same tropes and cliches you realize how Love Hina really isn't anything special.

Quote:

Have you ever gone back and watched the cartoons you used to love when you were a REALLY little kid?

One show will always be ultimate: spoiler[Tom & Jerry.]

I had a weird progression of how much I liked shows when I was little. I liked watching stuff like DuckTales and Garfield and Friends when I was younger. Then, when I reached my early teenage years, I'd watch them again and found that I liked them even more. (I don't know how I'd feel about the multitudes of less popular shows I loved like Eek! the Cat, Space Goofs, Bobby's World, or Shake, Rattle, and Roll! though, as they were never rerun later, nor did they come out on home video on any easy-to-find capacity until recently. Yes, that spanned the entire length of the 90's; I always wanted to keep up to date with cartoons.) I think during then, the nostalgia goggles were in full effect, and I was appreciating more of the writing while remembering what it was like to watch them for the first time. Then, as I grew older, my opinion for most of them became "good, but not great," though there have since been a few genuine stinkers, like Generation O, and a few that got even better with age, like Courage the Cowardly Dog.

That being said, I feel like I actually have anti-nostalgia goggles. I have been told that I grow increasingly bitter with how I remember experiences I've had in the past and that they become increasingly negative the further back they go.

I wouldn't say children are less picky about what they want to watch. A half hour to a child is a half hour to an adult. They'll want to watch the shows that appeal to them the most. The biggest difference is that children will prioritize novelty much higher than adults. As Stephen Wacker, vice-president of Marvel's animation department says:

Quote:

“You can’t be afraid to go deeper, to explore stories and characters with some depth. This audience may be young, but it can spot a stinker a mile away.”

Also, in regards to the differences between anime production culture and Hollywood culture, I remember working as an assistant to a producer who said that most people he's met in Hollywood "have egos the size of trains." When you hang out in Hollywood for long enough, even if you're not in the entertainment business, you learn that it's a city where whoever shouts the loudest gets all the attention. The place would attract people who love shouting in any way they can, whether it be leaks or a major studio getting hacked.

MetalUpa1014 wrote:

In my case, I had very fond memories of the Super Mario cartoons. Looking at them now, they're pretty terrible. Tons of animation errors and production that was obviously on a shoe-string budget are more apparent to me now than ever. But even though it's not really something that I'd waste my time with anymore, I can still appreciate it for the great time it gave to me as a child. And hey, it's always great to go back and make fun of things too.

I got both of the DVD box sets, along with The Legend of Zelda, because they were so terrible. And while I loved laughing at the lip-synch errors in "Hooded Robin" or the lack of attempt at meter in "Bad Rap," I found a bit of charm in them--it felt like the writers genuinely had fun making the stories. I was also surprised to find out that among these writers were the creators of one of my favorite shows, Kim Possible.

Freyanne wrote:

The same thing applies to non-anime shows I watched growing up. I can still watch the heck out of most of the early 90s Nickelodeon/Disney series, and I am a bit surprised I can still enjoy watching Animaniacs. Tiny Toons Adventures, on the other hand...

Unlike Animaniacs, which drew its pop culture references from the entire history of television and filmmaking, Tiny Toon Adventures drew mainly from the late 80's to early 90's, when the show was being made. Seeing it on The Hub/Discovery Kids nowadays, I was turned off by its depiction of college as an extension of high school, with the same lack of motivation to pass classes (especially with Plucky and Montana Max) and the same stereotypical high school culture on campus, an idea that a lot of kids definitely have but obviously grow out of it when they actually enter college.

And while it's probably mostly just me, the lack of fact-checking compared to Animaniacs, and especially Pinky and the Brain, just strikes nerves with me. Of course, as a trivia person, I'm probably more sensitive to lack of research than most others.

roxybudgy wrote:

re: rewatching stuff

I feel the same way about some of the series I loved in the past. I got into anime at a time where I had no Internet access, and the people who I discussed anime with were also fans of the same series I watched.

But now, with access to the Internet, where I can read the opinions of hundreds/thousands of other people who did not like the series I liked, I feel like some of that has tainted my opinion of the series I once loved so much. I mean, some of those opinions have valid points which I may not have considered the first time I watched.

I had kind of the opposite situation. Where I consumed most of my anime on television, mostly through Toonami, most of my anime-watching acquaintances had a burning hatred of anything localized into English, with an It's Popular, Now It Sucks attitude. As anime became increasingly mainstream in popularity, they retreated near-exclusively to hentai and ultra-violent works, which they knew the American companies wouldn't touch.

It wasn't until the Internet became popular, I had a computer advanced enough, and my parents less restrictive on how I could use the Internet, that I was able to find people who actually had positive things to say about Digimon or Yu Yu Hakusho.

Or maybe that's some of that anti-nostalgia kicking in, since I also knew at least two people who followed anime on Toonami, just like me.

walw6pK4Alo wrote:

I wouldn't know how Robotech holds up for people who watched it as kids in the 80s and 90s, but SDF Macross is still a landmark anime.

Robotech to this day could be a viewing pleasure if the damned voice over was muted. There is nothing worse than someone telling you what's happening, what this is and what this isn't all the while you're actually seeing it on screen. Maybe that's why I appreciated so much more the novelization of Robotech (before HG decided to f-u-c-k it up) than the tv series.

For the Japanese series that made Robotech I have to say while I really liked SDF Macross it is a chore to watch it today. The number of episodes with subpar animation is simply too much for my taste. In the years following the broadcast of Robotech I warmed a lot to Southern Cross and Mospeada. It's ironic because in the eighties I was a superfan of Macross and couldn't stand the other 2 series. Well that's growing up for you. Laughing

I haven't been into anime for a particularly long time, especially compared to some other people posting here, but I must say that I can't really think of anything that really liked and revisited and ended up thinking was bad. I have changed my views on things to smaller extents, with things both increasing and decreasing in how much I like them.

It may be strange, but probably the most common change that happens is I like something significantly more after seeing it the second time. Things that are some of my top favorites like Venus Wars, Key the Metal Idol, and Noein were things that after seeing them once I considered great anime, but only after the second time did I come to like them as much as I do. I wonder why that is. Is it just familiarity? Me maturing and seeing things in them that I didn't previously? Them just being the kind of thing where having an understanding of where things are going makes you understand and see things more clearly? I honestly don't know.

I've got a couple resolutions: one is to graduate college, next is (naturally) find a good job, and finally hopefully go on my schools' overseas trip to Japan.

I'm glad that a lot of series get re-releases, as I started really getting into buying anime when a lot of series started going out of print. (around 2010, but I had been watching and reading manga for longer)

As for rewatching, some stuff naturally doesn't amaze me as much as it did before, but I've been impressed with many others. I remember seeing FLCL long ago and thinking "woah, the animation is super amazing". I rewatch it every once in a while and I still can't believe how great it looks (even moreso considering its 14 years old now) The music is even more kick ass. I saw a bit of Bebop around that time and thought it looked really old. I finally saw it complete last year and appreciated just how impressive the art and animation really was. (the series was still merely ok for me; prefer Champloo) I was watching some of the very first Pokemon not too long ago, and I was pretty impressed. It had so much energy, and more attention to details (for lack of a better word) especially compared to some of the later series. Same with Cardcaptors: I loved the series as a kid ( Sakura would've been my waifu if I knew that word back then) but rewatching it subbed I realized just what a fantastic job Madhouse did on it, especially with the animation. Stratos 4 was one of the first series I saw when I began expanding my horizons and as I've been finally buying the dvds it holds up well. I still get a kick out of Speed Grapher and Mirai Nikki. Only (kind of) exception is Yu-Gi-Oh. I thought it had good animation (boy was I wrong) but despite the cheesy dub I still caught it for over 10 years on Kids WB/CW/Vortexx. And I'm gonna be seriously pissed if Yugi is ever voiced in English by someone other than Dan Green.

I guess the biggest change is just what I am willing to watch. When I was a kid I wouldn't be caught dead watching a "girly" show like Sailor Moon or Tokyo Mew Mew, only watched action stuff like Shaman King and Naruto. Nowadays though I've got no problems with anything involving cute girls. (hell I prefer them, two of my favorite series being Moe).

My anime taste has gone from watching anything and everything I could get my grubby hands on to buying the best versions possible of the favorites that have stood the 15+ year test of time for me. My true beginning as an anime otaku started when a girl in 7th grade recommended to me that I watch a film called The Wings of Honneamise. I will never ever forget that. I recently found her on Facebook and thanked her. That movie changed my entire perspective on the medium nothing up until then had captured my attention like that film. The amount of tedious detail that the staff at Gainax poured into that film is astounding.

I'm reading lots in this thread about the upcoming Haruhi and Lucky Star licenses by FUNimation. Back when Bandai Entertainment was faltering (I was incredibly fed up with all of the "gimping" going on with their BD releases like K-ON! and Kurokami) I decided that it would be many many years before the BD sets saw the light of day on N American shores so I swooped up the Japanese sets. I regret the price I payed for LS it looks like garbage and I would have been happy with my DVDs if I had just done a little research. Of course this was back in my "its the Japanese set so it can't look bad!" days. Boy was I wrong lol.

My resolution this year is to cut down on a lot of things that stress me out. I've done a great job last year at decluttering my life, sold off/gave away most of my old anime/manga, went through boxes of all of my old paperwork from class and trashed it, sold off my second car (a RWD Toyota Corolla...Jerry Chu would be disappointed in me lol) and gave up tuning for good, and built that solid collection of top tier, all imported from Japan anime that I've always wanted since my early teens. Now the focus is to live a low stress, fun life with my girlfriend and son. I'm finally done with school took ten years to get a degree that I am confident with so I'm ready to build a career throughout my 30s. I'd also like to start working out more now that homework is a thing of the past.

I had fun watching plenty of Western animated shows way back when I was a kid, as well as some anime shows on Toonami and Kids' WB (while it existed back then). I remember having plenty of laughs and sobering moments while I was watching Hey Arnold, Rugrats, Spongebob, and many others. I even had fun hearing the opening song of Cardcaptors (the Americanized version of Cardcaptor Sakura), until I came to an understanding that it really didn't sound as awesome as I thought it did years back. Since anime shows now pretty much consist of what I watch daily, I just don't see myself returning to Western animation anytime soon.

That said, I do have plans of re-watching a couple of anime shows that I saw a while earlier...

That last question actually asked something I have been pondering over for a long time, but instead of doing what Justin said, I think I won't rematch them and just keep them as memories. Some of my fondest and earliest memories of watching anime include shows like Sword Art Online, Gurren Lagann, Code Geass, and Angel Beats. Though I highly doubt they would become less amazing to me, I would rather not take the risk of degrading their positions in my heart. That said, if you haven't watched one of these four shows, I would highly recommend them. In my opinion, they are the four best anime out there.

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