I haven’t been watching anime lately.
I think I haven’t watched any anime at all this year. Sure there are my old favorites, which I revisit every now and then when I’m bored, but I don’t feel like starting anything new. Maybe it’s because of how the mainstream anime industry has changed over the past few years, resulting in all sorts of genres and stereotypes like moe, harem, etc. which I find utterly unappealing. I’m sure there are still good stuff out there hidden under the pile of garbage, but I lost the interest to seek them out. Too little time.
Anime is one thing I don’t want to grow out of. I remember how Pokemon and DBZ used to feel back when I was a kid, and I want to re-experience those feelings every now and then. For few years I had started believing that it was impossible, but then Fate/Zero came along and proved me wrong. Sure, the extreme excitement lasted for a short time, but it was enough. And now they are remaking Fate/Stay Night, so I guess I’m pretty excited about that. I am also a little sad though, because the old Fate/Stay Night was one of my favourite shows back in its day. Obviously it feels bland now that Fate/Zero showed us a whole different level, but lets not forget the awesome music which kind of defined FSN.
What I really want now is an anime which is made for our age group, which appeals to our maturity rather than the child in us. There are enough beautiful anime that I like because they are so innocent and sweet (Ghibli movies come to mind), or because they are cool (Cowboy Bebop, Death Note), but very few truly adult and mature anime. I guess they are not targeting that demographic anyway, but they definitely should. I mean, we were among the first few generations of anime fans, and now we are grown up and we expect grown up stuff in order to keep going. Not the same plot about a guy being the center of attraction of ten girls. Unless the industry shows some drastic changes, I’d be just a guy who used to watch anime. And that would be very sad because anime days used to be fun days.