Forum - View topicNostalgia - The Third Lesson
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Zin5ki
 Posts: 6680 Location: London, UK |
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The same happened to me with moe, I'll admit. I continue to defend such a genre from its many critics, perhaps owing to my memories of first encountering to it. Like an old acquaintance, if you will.
That's nothing I'd lament. True, I'm not exactly a veteran when it comes to anime, but plenty remains once an initial fascination -such as that of mecha- dwindles. Of course, to optimise one's entertainment one has to overlook the titles which offer nothing their predecessors didn't, but this is part and parcel of being a fan of any ongoing medium. |
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Errinundra
Moderator
 Posts: 6584 Location: Melbourne, Oz |
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Nostalgia is the point here.
I got hooked by anime when I saw Paprika at the Melbourne Film Festival two years ago. My education has been through Satoshi Kon, and productions like the Girl who Leapt through Time, Time of Eve, Death Note and Mushi-Shi. All anime from this decade. When I went from there to see things like Akira and Evangelion, I thought the latter were, frankly, stupid. I am not viewing these shows through the prism of nostalgia. They may have been groundbreaking for their time (indeed, they were, as my exploration of anime continues) but they don't stack up well against more recent fare. I suspect that I may look back in ten years time and wonder where anime went wrong. But then, perhaps not. Anime like GITSSAC 2nd Gig are great storytelling regardless of the format. |
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Greboruri
Posts: 387 Location: QBN, NSW, Australia |
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I remember reading an editorial in Animag published in 1991 which essentially bemoaned the state of anime of the time. Fred Patten said the same thing in a rather crappy article in Markalite magazine.
Certainly a few anime I have watched in my early years look like rubbish now, but most of it I still love. Yes, anime is mostly a new set of clichés, but lot of anime is built up on base of 50 or so years of modern Japanese pop culture, especially sci-fi, anime and manga. For instance in the article, "Revolutionary Girl Utena" is very heavily influenced by "Rose of Versailles" and "Princess Knight", but it's still highly original. Same for "Evangelion". Without "Ultraman", "Gundam" and "Ideon" you wouldn't have the show, but it's still highly original and a massive break from the genre. I find it fasinating to know the origins and influences of these show. I think it's a bit sad that errinundra thinks "Akira" and "Evangelion" are stupid. I have recently watched some of the shows that influenced "Evangelion" as well older titles like "Hols, Prince of the Sun" (over 40 years old now), however I don't think that they're stupid just because I'm not viewing them through the haze of nostalgia. I've often gone back to watch older material that I haven't seen before and discovered that it beats the hell out of recent shows (especially in story telling). |
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Errinundra
Moderator
Posts: 6584 Location: Melbourne, Oz |
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I was probably exaggerating a little with Akira but Evangelion really does make me cringe when I watch it. Perhaps mecha just isn't my thing. For me, it only got interesting at the end. But, the wonderful thing with anime is that it is so rich that, for every Evangelion, there's a Samurai X: Trust & Betrayal or a Now & Then, Here & There - both from a decade ago and both brilliant. |
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ShinoMatrix
 Posts: 12 |
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Bravo for the good article. I guess it's something that many "veteran" anime fans feel is becoming of anime that it's all going downhill, but just the same, I think the subject of the article is probably an understated fact and only obvious once someone has voiced it. Retrospect is good.
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Tim H
 Posts: 3 |
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I had intended to jump into this thread back when it was still, well... relevant, I guess.
As it happens, I've been rather busy with a deadline for Retro Gamer, to say nothing of relocating from London to South Korea. This, I expect, may be something that gets explored in a future column. Anyway...
I've written about Evangelion quite extensively, particularly when ANNau was just starting up. You've noticed something of note, though: this is a show that, for its entire first half, really played into what was chic in the anime word at the time. It was a little better than most, however it could be understandably dismissed as little more than an above-average mecha series. No biggie. But, damn, there was a lot bubbling away below the surface, and it remains one of the most well directed shows I've seen to date. In fact, it's one of the very few tv series that I can detect a palpable directorial vision in. I really can't say I agree with the cringing here - it's stood up far better than some other shows I've re-visited -, but you're spot on in saying that it got notably better at the end. Errinundra, have you watched Perfect Blue? If memory serves right, then it hit towards the end of the 90's, and it was an absolute ripper of a way for Kon to introduce himself to the world. |
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Zin5ki
Posts: 6680 Location: London, UK |
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For the first half, yes. As you'd probably agree though, by the time it has initiated its conclusive phase Evangelion becomes difficult to group together with existing works. Ideon is often cited as comparable, but the differences between the two are quite notable. The news of your relocation intrigues me. I'll keep an eye out for the details, as and when they're released. |
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aurickandrien
 Posts: 22 Location: Perth, W Australia |
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I've only been watching anime for about seven years myself, so I don't know that I can really get all that nostaligic about it.
That said Evangelion and Akira were two of the first animes that I was exposed to. Really I don't know that I can see all that much great about them. I can see that Akira was a standout for its time. It was one of the first really big anime movies coming seven years before Ghost in the Shell. It had some groundbeaking animation in it. It's one of the animes that helped anime break into the Western world. Kudos. Really in some ways Akira and Evangelion are similar: a somewhat bleak future after something went boom, a bunch of unhappy juveniles with too much power in their hands, some action, things getting destroyed, and some trite ideas about human evolution. Personally I'd pick Akira over Evangelion: You don't have to put up with the biblical imagery, the characters aren't as mental, it's shorter, and I quite liked that comment about amoebas having the power of humans. ... Really though I think that whether I dislike Akira and Evangelion is neither here nor there. As to the question about whether anime is getting better or worse I would say: Yes. Probably the only thing getting worse in my view is the fact that the mainstream is getting bigger and more fortified, but really I think that's a general trend around a whole bunch of culture and not all that limited to anime. And it doesn't mean that there isn't some good anime being made as errinundra said. I think that all that matters is that you know what you want from anime and know where to find it. I sometimes wonder about the amount of junk out there, but that doesn't mean that I haven't been able to like a few different anime series both from the past and the present. |
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Zin5ki
Posts: 6680 Location: London, UK |
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I'd do likewise, though the 'amoebal' monologue in Akira was the film's weakest moment in my view. More substantial flaws than this can be found in early episodes of Evangelion, despite said series' later redemption. The two works do have a common theme, insofar as they reflect certain eschatological notions present in Japan at the times in which they were released. At least that's what some lecturer happened to allude to. |
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