The Eighties
Some people avoid 80s rock music like they do country. I get the feeling this is true for some anime fans with 80s anime as well.
Pop-culturally, some aspect of Japan’s popular scene is always perpetually lagging behind what’s popular in the US. Especially way back when. Japan has transformed drastically in the past 10-20 years though, so much of its identity today is its own wonderful, borrowing hybrid. Still, sometimes you can see something reminiscent of the past today in some of this Japanese stuff.
But in your travels on the internet or off, you might run into those people who swore by shows like Kimagure Orange Road, Patlabor, Gundam Zeta, Maison Ikkoku, Urusei Yatsura, Bubble Gum Crisis, Riding Bean, some of Leiji Matsumoto’s stuff, and much more of these era pieces. These are certifiably old school. I’m not sure how many people, reading this sentence, were rocking it with Lum or Priss when they were “new,” but it can’t be a high number?
I’m not going to say 80s anime are or are not timeless; even totally crappy things like Lensman gets replays this day and age, beyond comprehension of why or how. OTOH, franchises like Gundam, Dragon Ball and Macross are children of the 80s, and we remember them very well today as shows belonging to the franchises that evolved over time. Studios like Studio Ghibli made their name in the 80s. Creators like Katsuhiro Otomo, Mamoru Oshii and Yoshiyuki Tomino made their name in the 80s. It was a golden age for Japanese animation, and the impact of what happened is clearly seen 20+ years later. Some of which is still presently happening.
What I am going to say, however, is how all this age-old gunk is not much more than rose-color lenses. I do respect the achievements and revolution of anime’s past, but it is cultural entrenchment. Anime is a medium, even in Japan, that pushes the edge of expression. It has consistently done so over the years, even if the bulk of it remains in relative comfort. I think clinging to what used to be new and great is fine as long as people keep moving on to explore new things. And likewise, understand what went before our times provide a new perspective to understanding what is happening today. That’s how history works, right? The lawn is a lie, so kids can’t get off of it even if they wanted to.
Which is all to say, despite the clumsy handling of White Album, that first episode is a gentle reminder how things were like in the late 80s, and how late 80s anime are like. It’s kind of retro. It’s like watching ToHeart, but now on the weird, metaphorical dark side of the moon. And that shouldn’t surprise anyone who has done their homework with Leaf. ToHeart was a proof of concept; White Album is a journey back to that magical past, almost 10 years later, while shouldering the burden of trying to make something new.
No surprise why there’s a mixed first impression about it.
A lot of other factors too. I know some people who despise most older anime (or even the new ones) because the girls are not moe enough to today’s standards (moetards should go to hell). ToHeart is not that old yet.
I absolutely love Lum and Kyoko-san (and Yu Yu Hakusho / Saint Seiya though it has become a faint childhood memory), but I’m still not impressed with White Album yet, but one can’t judge from just one episode, heh.
@danie: Only thing I can stand less than moetards are whoever came up with the term - or rather oldfags.
It’s no fun limiting yourself to one era or style. I’m always shocked to find people so closed-minded to older anime (animesuki requests threads often have opening statements like ‘nothing before 2003). I imagine it’s true that there is at least one show from every era, genre, or style that will appeal to any given person.
I think I probably should insert this paragraph:
What’s novel about ToHeart is how it combines that smooth and subtle romance in a relatively retro package (for a ‘99 show) with a new style of narrative that doesn’t focus on a winding, dynamic relationship. It’s an excellent merger of late 90s anime with an 80s theme. It’s like hearing heavy influences of 80s rock in 90s jrock, yet it sounds attractive. It’s a tough recipe to follow and yet I think this is the road White Album has embarked on from the get go.
I grew up in the ’80s watching Macross - it was rare that we got anime in the Philippines that was produced in the same decade. Most of the time we were watching ’70s fare like Gatchaman, Choudenji Machine Voltes V, Tosho Daimos, Mazinger Z (and a bunch of other super robot shows).
I actually saw ’80s anime in the ’90s and beyond, most notably Akira. Recently, I watched Project A-ko, which disgusted me with its enormous budget and superlative production values. It wasn’t a bad show at all. I just felt that those kind of resources were better spent on the anime I like.
I always balance the new and the old in my anime watching. It’s to keep myself from falling into a rut.
>I imagine it’s true that there is at least one show from every era, genre, or style that will appeal to any given person.
I can’t agree more…
Unfortunately, I’m much too young to relate. However, I’ve seen a few of the older shows and I find that some are just as good as today’s, just as some of today’s shows are just as good as the shows from before. I think it ultimately boils down to personal taste and trying out what’s good and what isn’t.
I think that is part of the issue; if you grew up in the 80s you are going to look at it very differently than if you didn’t.
But one point I want to make clearly is that it’s not about better or worse, but they are just different flavors and themes aesthetically in visuals as well as in story and narrative.
I’ve always been a big music nerd, and every time I discover something I like, I obsessively backtrack to find the point where that started. I guess I’m a fan of context or something. Recently, I started doing that with anime too, since my memory of 80s stuff is limited to what I saw of Voltron, Mazinger (Tranzor Z to us) and Robotech. It’s been interesting, and I think it’s important to see where we’ve been. Sometimes for no other reason than to more fully appreciate what we have now, but it’s also nice to appreciate the greats in context. Putting, say, Macross next to old Matsumoto makes it look a lot more sophisticated.