Did Older Anime Have Better Animation?

[00:02] Was anime from the '80s and '90s more soulful compared to modern anime? And is well-constructed as anime from the days gone by? Is it not as aesthetically pleasing? These are the questions the great land of Twitterville finds itself

[00:15] asking every 2 weeks or so, and as such has a video going over both the topic brought up all the time. In it, I'll and new anime from a technical point of view, about the pros and cons of modern

[00:28] anime, and most importantly, about why this old versus new debate simply refuses to die. This is one of those random drama-adjacent videos I make every once in a while. Hope you guys enjoy. Make sure to subscribe. All that

[00:41] tell you the subscribe button looks better when pressed. Don't believe me? Try it out for yourselves. Just go down there and press the subscribe button. You can also become a channel member. Members get cool stuff like exclusive

[00:53] badges and emojis, shout-outs, and most importantly, a whole bunch of exclusive videos. All you have to do is, again, go down there and press the join button. So, let's start this video by addressing that whole old versus new argument.

[01:06] might know that there is no clear answer to that because it depends on a lot of things. First off, the actual process of 2D animation doesn't change with time. animating is the same today as it was a

[01:19] an image and then draws it again, but slightly different, and again, but again, and so on, until the whole thing when played back in video form gives the the core [music] concept behind 2D animation, and that cannot change.

[01:35] What can change, however, is the person holding the pen, the pen itself, and the and what happens to them after the artist is done. Let's go through all of them in order. The first change is fairly self-explanatory. Artists retire

[01:49] not that significant because the anime industry isn't that old. Look at it this way, most of the biggest, most iconic classics ever came out in the '80s, artists who worked on them are still active today, while the rest actively

[02:04] learn from them. It hasn't gotten to the point where the fundamental idea behind the art form is lost. The second change I mentioned, the one about the pen and the paper underneath it, is all about digitization. While there are still

[02:16] prefer to draw on physical paper, I cannot deny the significance and the modern industry. So, is it that big is digital animation fundamentally different from analog art? No, not really. I don't know why a

[02:32] certain portion of the internet loves to discredit digital animation, but in my opinion, it's every bit as credible as traditional art. It doesn't matter if it's paper or an animation software, it doesn't matter if it's graphite/ink or

[02:45] pixels, as long as the lines are drawn by human hands, it's art in the truest sense. That was your philosophy section of the video. The third change lies in the drawings and what happens to them. Drawings

[02:57] evolve with time. Artists add their own flair to a style, go on to inspire and so on. And the change in what happens afterwards is just a nod to the now done digitally instead of the traditional method of painting over

[03:12] photographs. I've talked about that stuff in detail before. So, what was the point of that whole pretentious-sounding spiel? Well, it's the fact that there hasn't been any significant change in anime production

[03:25] over the past few decades. Even the most influential change to digitization of accomplish the same goal as cell animation. It just hopes to do so faster Now, yes, the average technical

[03:38] proficiency of an anime has gone down over the years due to a combination of detail before. Stuff like poor drawings and perspective errors are more common mean anime from the days gone by looked perfect. They didn't. Projects [music]

[03:52] like Cowboy Bebop, Evangelion, Ghost in the Shell, etc. are obvious outliers. That's not what an average anime from those days looked like. technical differences between new and old anime, let's finally talk about

[04:06] which one is better. Ready? Here goes. Both. Both are better. As in, in some some cases the opposite is true. For example, I think modern Ranma and Yasha counterparts, while modern Spy x Family and Ghost in the Shell look weaker. And

[04:21] yes, those are my opinions because what else would they be? And that's the point, right? It's all subjective at the end of the day. An older art style might appeal to some people, while a newer art style might appeal to others. It's all

[04:33] preference. Or is it? >> [music] >> It is. It is. But then, if it is all subjective, why does twitter.com act like preferring a newer art style is a sin that warrants public execution? Why

[04:46] does it act like modern anime has two or three unique looking shows to offer, while the rest is unremarkable slop? Why is Twitter and that whole portion of the internet so [ __ ] insufferable? Well, my friends, I'm glad you asked because

[04:58] that right there is the real topic of this video. That's right, this was never with. Was that you thought it was? You [ __ ] idiot. That was just a hook to draw you in. It's now time for the real topic of this video. The topic and the

[05:12] underlying cause behind that new versus old argument. It's time to talk about pseudo-intellectualism. Not to be confused with actual intellectualism. Pseudo, that's the keyword. Pseudo-intellectualism,

[05:24] performative pretentiousness, that in my opinion is a disease that plagues anime discourse online. And as such, let's talk about it. It's a thing I've been bothered by for a while, so this is just me getting a few things off my chest.

[05:37] Are you guys familiar with that just making sure I don't fit in meme? That, unfortunately, is an effective summary of a sizable chunk of anime discourse online. Of course, it's not the majority. The majority of anime

[05:49] on Twitter, engagement baiting, people posting memes from r/anime while unironically using words like waifu and otaku and whatever the [ __ ] it is that the anime men do. That's the vocal majority, but underneath that boisterous

[06:02] insufferable group of fans who think of themselves as saviors of anime, greatly overestimating their intelligence. These are [music] the guys who, despite not drop by every once in a while with their "Don't tell anyone it's the first modern

[06:17] accurate proportions" or "Hey, goodbye Lotta, it's the first modern anime that's hand-drawn." You know those guys, right? That "Oh, look at me, aren't I so smart and cultured" crowd, the type that glazes old anime and simply refuses to

[06:30] feel like that's the intellectual thing to do, that crowd. Now, why am I dedicating an entire video to this topic, you may ask? Is it really that big of a deal? Why am I doing this? Well, mainly because I'm petty, but

[06:43] beyond that, it's because I feel like the aforementioned elitism is firmly rooted in contempt for the medium. I think people who say stuff like goodbye put modern shows into VCRs like the final boss of performativeness that they

[06:56] are aren't just a bit clueless, they're also actively antagonistic towards anime as a whole, and that grinds my gears. Think about it, why else would they try so hard to downplay a vast majority of the medium? Why else would they live in

[07:09] a constant state of juvenoia, dismissing every modern thing out there? Why else would they try so hard to distance themselves from the medium? Why else tell you why that annoys me. Over the years, a lot of people have asked me how

[07:22] I know so much about anime production and the like, about why I can notice stuff that most others cannot, and the answer to that is quite simple. It's show, not a specific genre, not a

[07:34] specific decade or era, but rather anime as a whole. I love anime, and that's why I pay attention to it. That's how you learn, right? By appreciating the medium, by watching the good, the average, and the bad, by giving shows

[07:46] knowledgeable about something you inherently dislike. That's why all of those performative tweets I brought up a second back feel so profoundly clueless, because they are. Their authors clearly don't watch anime beyond the absolute

[07:59] shows. They have no idea what they're talking about. They're just parroting things they've heard others say without quite understanding the intent behind them. I mean, [music] why else would you say [ __ ] like this?

[08:11] pseudo-intellectuals being obnoxious online isn't limited to anime production whole. You see people spout profoundly moronic takes all the time, and it's blatantly obvious that their tweets are just a better worded version of a casual

[08:25] take. I'll give you a couple of examples. Frieren, we all know it, most across takes like, "Finally, a fantasy anime that focuses on character work instead of mindless action." Except it doesn't, does it? It doesn't focus on

[08:39] action. Here's a fun statistic for you. total of one episode without an action scene in it. One episode without action has that exact action episode per season ratio? King Solo Leveling. Both seasons

[08:55] of Solo Leveling had one episode without any proper action in it each. Fans of a comes to action scenes don't get to brag about their show being above mindless action. They just don't. Frieren literally had a whole ass tournament

[09:08] neck and review. Here's another example. Jujutsu Kaisen, a great show, my personal favorite battle shonen. And did you catch that? That's right, battle shonen. That's what Jujutsu Kaisen is. It's a battle shonen.

[09:21] And here's another fun fact about pseudo-intellectuals. They'd rather say anything good about a mainstream show, because they think it devalues their taste, which is just so sad. Anyway, so then how do they approach JJK

[09:34] as a topic? Well, since battle shonen is historically a flawed medium with a lot of issues, they accuse JJK of having those same problems, except it doesn't and they come off as clueless. Here's an example, there are plenty of battle

[09:46] shonen titles that forego thematic depth in favor of hype action scenes and these morons accuse JJK of doing the same and while I don't believe in true and reviews, I think that's about as close as you can get to an objectively

[09:59] incorrect opinion. Like it's one thing to say you don't like the thematic aspect of JJK, but to deny its existence is profoundly moronic, especially when the best episode of JJK has zero action in it, season 2 episode 5.

[10:13] And that's the point I'm trying to make. It's not about whether or not JJK is whether or not Freedom is a complex story. It's not about whether or not the than Mamoru Oshii's version. It's not,

[10:26] about any of that. It's about the alleged fans who watch anime with predetermined answers to those questions in their minds. It's about people who let their desire to portray themselves as being above filthy casuals stop them

[10:39] from actually engaging with whatever they are watching. That's the problem. It truly annoys me when I see folks online act like they're doing modern anime a favor by laying their priceless eyes upon it and this is coming from Mr.

[10:51] Probably pretentious. I myself have seen and read a ton of stuff, more than most. my taste, I'd say it's actually quite stop me from watching new stuff as those of you watch my seasonal watch list

[11:05] videos would know. Be it a bland isekai, be it a diamond doesn't rom-com, be it a broken mess of a production, I'll watch it all because I love anime and also >> [music] >> I love anime, which is why it infuriates

[11:19] me when I see people use some anime to downplay others. I wouldn't be as novels, movies, whatever for that purpose, but something about watching them verbalizing their hate for the medium while masquerading as a fan of

[11:33] boil. And that's it, I guess. Watch anime. That's the moral of the story. Watch anime. It's a very cool art form. That's been my TED Talk. Thanks for watching. I know this whole

[11:47] thing was just me venting, but I hope you guys enjoyed. A special thanks to Noob03, ahmed, thegalles90, muzicage, easyone, jazzymus, and mentorassassin0282 for becoming tier three members. And

[11:59] for becoming tier three members. And until next time.