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This is my first post to the anime news network forum and I would like to ask a question that has been on my mind for a while. Is it okay for young people, and by that I mean people in their teens and early 20s, to like old anime? The reason this concerns me is because I am at this point in my life and like and even prefer old anime to what is being made recently. One of my all time favorite anime series is Super Dimensional Fortress Macross. To me, it seems that most people my age are not interested in anime from this time period or shun it because of primitive animation techniques or because it simply looks "old." Because of this I feel like I can't talk to them because they would think I'm weird for liking what I do.

On the other hand, most people who like old anime, Macross, for instance, are the people who grew up with it and are past my age group. This is why I feel like I can't be friends with them. I think it's arrogant for someone my age to talk freely with people in their 30s or 40s. I'm also afraid that by claiming to be a Macross fan, they'll reject me because I'm too young, and they'll claim that Macross is something only for their generation.

So, as you can see, my love of old anime has put me in a weird social situation. On one side, there are the people my age who can't appreciate old anime, and on the other side are the people who like old anime, but can't accept me because of my age.

So, what do you people think? I know I may be making a lot of generalizations about people in the anime fandom, but it seems that these are a few of the main cliques that anime fans fall into. I want to know if there are any other people my age that can appreciate old anime. I also want to know what you people think of me, and whether I should continue with my current hobbies, or just focus on the newer anime being produced so I can fit in with people my age. Is it wrong for me to enjoy something made before I was born? I will eagerly be awaiting your responses. Goodbye for now.

Last edited by gsilver on Sun Oct 14, 2012 11:17 pm; edited 1 time in total

Uh, Galaxy Express 999, one of the movies that was a huge part of what got me into anime in the first place, was made before I was even born. There's nothing weird at all about new fans liking old anime.

There's a definite gulf between the pre-digital and post-digital eras, and when I got into anime (mid-late 90s) we were still in the pre-digital era, so there wasn't as big of gulf in animation style... The pre- and post- digital change (essentially 90s to 00s) is far larger than the 80s to 90s change, which seemed enormous to me at the time, but I still liked a lot of the 80s stuff that I saw.

Though a rather big difference now is just the sheer availability of new anime. Back when I was getting into it, what I watched was basically "whatever is on the Sci-Fi channel" plus what little the local video rental store had, so I was exposed to a lot of old anime alongside the newer stuff by default. These days, it tends to be almost exclusively the newer stuff that's readily available over the most common distribution methods (Crunchyroll, et al) but shows like Dragonball and Dragonball Z, which started in the 80s, mind you, are still huge.

And, yes, I watch newer stuff. Most of what I watch is new anime. Things like Galaxy Express 999 and Macross are timeless classics that will likely always have a place in anime, but a lot of shows have simply gotten better than years past, learning from the strengths and weaknesses of previous works and expanding on them. Plus, while there was some amazing animation in works of years past (Wings of Honneamise still looks amazing), just compare a middle-of-the-road show made in 2012 to one made in 1986... The new one will indeed look far better, even discontinuing changes in character designs, which are the only dated looking thing in Honneamise, and even then, it's a question of style as opposed to anything having gotten "better" in the interim. Then again, Honneamise has a movie budget.

Space_Number_1--

Welcome to the fora; I hope that you enjoy your stay!
I find your question(s) to be rather curious; have you read this thread?

IMO, this tread is quite different. That thread is talking about the maturity level of the shows themselves (a boob show is a boob show no matter when it was made) and this one is more about current production qualities now vs years past.

True, but then there was also this by Rhynono(?).

Why wouldn't it be?

Everyone likes things for different reasons and while age definitely can be a factor I don't think it's always that big of one. Certainly there's no rules about how old you have to be to like an anime.

And there are lots of old anime that are still generally thought well of. Just look at the excitement that the recent licensing of Rose of Versailles caused, despite the anime being over thirty years old.

Actually, the question is more relevant in regard to ageism and convention attendance (wasn't there just recently a thread/post on that very subject by Alan45?).

I am 30 and enjoy watching films from the 1920's, I definitely did not grow up with them.

Why on Earth can't you enjoy watching older anime? You should be able to enjoy anime from any year as long as it has a well written story. The year it came out should not matter.

And anyone who would reject you because you are younger is a moron and not worth your time anyways. Most people would respect that you are interested in watching older anime.

I would say "of course not!" as I am a young 20 something and I call Macross among my top 5 anime. Though I got into it via Robotech and only actually saw Macross for the first time like a year or so ago, but for me it was just like falling in love with it all over again. And Robotech blew my mind with how amazing it was despite being "old", I must've been 15 when I first saw Robotech.

But I definitely understand your concerns about having a hard time finding people who also enjoy older things that are around your age. But trust me when I say that there is a subset of people in their early-mid 20s and that it is possible to find them. I have found a good number of other people on My Anime List who like older things. Who have Legend of the Galactic Heroes, older Gundams, VOTOMs, Maison Ikkoku, Rose of Versailles, and a whole host of other older (mostly scifi I will admit) shows listed on their favorites. And who usually like 80s and older manga too, and Tezuka and Year 24 group shojo, etc.

But I've also found friends in their 30s on MAL who like the older stuff. I feel like once you're old enough to drink though, it's all fine. I understand that my friend did not grow up with Digimon and does not have nostalgia for it, but we kinda leave it at that and would prefer to talk about things we both like instead. Like how epic Vertical is. I think that as long as you carry yourself like an adult, I haven't had much trouble internet wise. Now, irl, I still look like a high schooler (did I mention I finally didn't get carded for an R movie for the first time in my life last week?), but once I've talked with them a bit, that's usually fine too. And my friend on MAL (we met up every Otakon irl, and are each other's enablers in the dealer's room) has been into anime and manga since the 90s (I didn't get in until early 00s), so she was able to get manga like Sanctuary way earlier than I was and was able to appreciate Banana Fish well before I did. But we're both adults now and we both plan to give TRSI money for Rose of Versailles, and age doesn't seem to matter as much as you get older.

Granted, you will probably run into rude people at some point, but know that there are people older than you into the same anime that are polite and don't mind all that much that you might be half their age. So if some people are rude, just keep searching. If you go to cons, try and go to any panel on older stuff (or Tezuka stuff), and you'll find someone to chat up. Most of them will also realize that the internet has helped some things get fansubbed that never would've come out otherwise and that it's now a lot easier to expose other people to these series. So even though we might not understand the pain of buying $30 subbed VHSs with 2 eps on them to see the same shows, we still like the same show, right?

But ok, as for me, I've found most modern anime.... lacking. Hard to say exactly how, it's clearly not visually (ok, except for stuff like Gundoh Musashi, which we all watched clips of for the lolz), but I feel like there's a lack of urgency. Since they can animate things with the computer and it looks all nice and pretty, they can spend a lot of time shooting the breeze then suddenly have to rush the ending or something. So pacing I guess? Or maybe there's just too much cute girls in high school anime for me. Not enough scifi.

But older series, the ones that are still popular are popular for a reason. It's not that I don't think bad anime has existed in every era (I simply need to remind myself that Garzey's Wing exists), but that time has weeded most of them out (yet did not stop Garzey's Wing from getting released twice on DVD). But I also find a lot more older scifi shows, and I love scifi shows and not too many have come out recently. That's changed a bit that past year or so, but I don't think they're as awesome as the older ones are. There really is a different style of storytelling between older and newer stuff and not a lot of the newer stuff is a style I really like.

And it might've taken a bit, but I find older animation and character designs charming. Even when they're Fist of the North Star style hilariously out of proportion (which seems to be a FotNS thing, not uber common), or occasionally fugly or look like a powerpoint slide show (looking at you, Max's infiltration scene in Macross or his fight vs Miriya). And that's because the characters and story more than make up for it, and now it's kinda charming how far we've come on some of the visuals. I don't even really look at visuals anymore, doesn't matter when something "uglier" is so much more captivating to me. And the newer stuff doesn't captivate me at the end of the day.

But yeah, we're kinda a niche in a niche, though the niche expands if you go higher up to other age groups. A lot of whom I actually find look at people our age and go "You're ignoring Legend of the Galactic Heroes because of how it looks and its age? Your loss....but you kinda suck for that" (like, length they'll usually understand and suggest something shorter like Macross, but age or looks and they'll just shake their heads in silence and weep for the younger generation) So I think it kinda gives them hope that there are still awesome people that watch LoGH, Rose of Versailles, and Macross.

I'm probably one of the oldest persons on this forum if the" too old for anime" thread is any indication I may very well be the oldest or at least in the 0.1% of them and speaking with younger members about a series we've enjoyed has no bearing on who's young or old.

age has no meaning if you have a common interest. you'll find people of all ages discussing series in the threads.

if you happen to be talking about meeting people live I'd be the first to say stay within your age group and always be cautious of your own safety.

Space_Number_1 wrote:

I think it's arrogant for someone my age to talk freely with people in their 30s or 40s.

Why!? It sounds like you have some serious hangups regarding age man. You can talk to whoever you want. And as for them potentially rejecting you because of your age...that's on them. If they do that then they're just being snobs.

Yes, because the only person that is allowed to tell you what you can and can't like is you, yourself. If anyone tells you any different it's socially acceptable to tell them to f*** off, or various other, more PC, equivalents.

Space_Number_1 wrote:

This is my first post to the anime news network forum and I would like to ask a question that has been on my mind for a while. Is it okay for young people, and by that I mean people in their teens and early 20s, to like old anime? The reason this concerns me is because I am at this point in my life and like and even prefer old anime to what is being made recently. One of my all time favorite anime series is Super Dimensional Fortress Macross. To me, it seems that most people my age are not interested in anime from this time period or shun it because of primitive animation techniques or because it simply looks "old."

First, you have to find out whether they've ever seen it, or just avoided it because "Ew, it looks old, like from before 2000, why does it not, like, die?"

And if the latter is the case, cajole, dare, wager, or otherwise strap them into watching one episode. If they don't like an episode, leave it at that, but at least they've got a reason. (A strategy I often use with Urusei Yatsura, which came from the same time period and I'm guessing also predates your birthday.)

You're not the "disease", THEY are, and we don't just throw up our hands and say, "Oh, well, it's probably not worth finding a cure."

I tend to be particularly disgruntled because I know the myth is perpetuated by Cartoon Network running the overbearingly obnoxious Lupin III TV dub Pioneer tried to sell to Adult Swim (vintage classic series, rotten dub) and when it plummeted in the ratings, not one--not one--analyst blamed the strangleworthy Sgt. Frog-like dub. Every analyst believed that Pioneer dropping the series halfway was due to early-80's animation and viewers who thought "Eww, this isn't Bleach, it looks old, like my grandpa who smells funny!"
I've been a bit of a lone avenger ever since.

Maidenoftheredhand wrote:

I am 30 and enjoy watching films from the 1920's, I definitely did not grow up with them.

Why on Earth can't you enjoy watching older anime? You should be able to enjoy anime from any year as long as it has a well written story. The year it came out should not matter.

If this were a movie board, and somebody didn't want to watch Humphrey Bogart because "eww, it's, like, in black and white!", at least two dozen posters would whip the culturally-uncurious kid's hinder within seconds. Very Happy

Over on said movie board, we like to say, "Once they're on disk, there ARE no 'old' or 'new' movies--There are just ones you haven't seen yet. DVD/Blu is the Great Equalizer."

Welcome.

I love classical music. It's perfectly okay for young people to enjoy vintage anime that can't be more than a few decades old.

Of course it is! While I'm not 'young' by any stretch, I like the classic Disney short cartoons, which are awesome and uncensored and lack political correctness(I hate). The animation for those works are superb and look like they can stand up now. What else? I'm a Gundam fan and while it's funny Endless Waltz(W on it's own had trash animation) and 8th MS Team where made earlier, it's also funny that they sport FAR better animation than Gundam SEED OR Destiny. Hell even F91 and Char's Counterattack have better animation and visuals than something made over a DECADE after them.