Neon Genesis Evangelion Creator Predicts Death Of Anime Within 20 Years

 

Good job on actually explaining it. Anno is essentially saying that anime is in a bubble (duh) that wont last for much longer (another duh), and that when the ashes clear there will be a similar but different anime industry (a final duh). He's not saying anything particularly shocking or out there for anyone who actually follows the industry, or just pays attention to the number of shows that are being produced a year (over 200 last I checked).

 

Yeah, I was in the middle of typing up my thoughts on his comments when my little niece peed on me. Since I had more immediate concerns at the moments, I just posted the link and intended to edit my post with my thoughts later. But things got in the way.

Anyway, I'm not sure the 'death' of anime will be coming any time soon. It feels like there is more anime than ever these days and a lot to choose from. His comments on the lack of passion in Japanese animators compared to Taiwanese animators is interesting. I was unaware he had much involvement in anime these days. Every single time I see his name mentioned it is in reference to Neon Genesis Evangelion. I know Taiwan's output has been growing lately, but I don't see them replacing Japan unless the Japanese economy gets a lot worse or Godzilla attacks.

Anno thinking that they need to use more tricks like CG amused me. Every time it appears in anime that I watch, people complain. Like in Fate/Zero, I liked it fine but the rest of the internet hated it.

At any rate, anime will survive. I think he was wrong when he wondered in anime fans would stick around and wait for the 'resurgence.' People won't abandon their hobbies that easily. Especially those that have devoted years of their life to it.

'Death' and 'Resurgence' might be to extreme. Maybe more of a 'Transformation.'

Then again, I'm not too knowledgeable on the subject. I'm l could be completely wrong. I don't spend much (any) time reading up on the industry. I just try to watch as many shows as possible since I got into anime later than most people and always have this feeling that I need to see everything to catch up.
......

Going back on topic: Baby Steps season 2 is still going great. I don't think there has ever been an episode of this show that I disliked. Everyone should watch this show, even if they don't like tennis. The progression of the main character throughout the series is just great.

Do any other sports anime compare?

 

I don't watch many sports anime but not only is Chihayafuru an excellent show but it also has some very good character progression.

 

Diamond no Ace is fairly decent Cyclops first season is 75 eps long though so takes an age to run through. I really enjoyed the characters though, and there are some fantastic moments.

Best Sports anime for me though are:

- Haikyuu - Volleyball
- Giant Killing - Football
- Kuroko no Basuke - Basketball

Haikyuu has two really talented players combining forces, Giant Killing is more mature, in that the MC is the coach who tries to bring the eccentric team together and restore his old club to it's former glory whilst Kuroko no Basuke makes use of both in an interesting way.

Giant Killing is more personality based, everyone gets fleshed out with their own moments of glory, you learn their wants, goals etc; so the moments feel even better. KnB has awesome games, particularly Season 2 and the OST is fantastic for that season in particular while Haikyuu is just really fun to watch. All worth the time.

 

Baby Steps seems to be really undersold in my experience. I'm with you, I've loved every single step (heh) of both seasons thus far.

As for other sports anime, I really liked Cross Game. It's a baseball anime, with a lot of character focus and some heavy themes involved. It's kind of long at 52(?) episodes, but it kept me engaged to the end. It's not the happy-go-lucky sort like Baby Steps, but still well worth the time investment.

Ookiku Furikabutte is ok. Another baseball show that kept me watching to the end. Features a timid pitcher with excellent control that hates being unable to pitch and a control-freak catcher. I liked it, but not as much as other shows.

If you don't mind that almost annoyingly-cute moe style, you might try Ro-Kyu-Bu! It's kind of a cute-girls doing cute-things kind of show, playing basketball. It's okay if you don't mind that.

If you enjoy some ridiculousness you might try Prince of Tennis. I like to describe it as Dragonball Z, but with tennis players. It's absurd, but has some fun to be had.

 

Mirroring some of the recommendations of Risen, theBrute7 and meerkats:

Cross Game - A baseball anime, which is probably the closest in feel to Baby Steps. By that I mean it tones down that shounen, overdramatic feel with something a bit more grounded. And yet, the climatic points and are still epic. Takes a while to build up and take off, but well worth it.

Haikyuu - Is a fantastic implementation of a typical shounen sports anime. A volleyball anime focusing predominately on two characters who go from being rivals to teammates. Fantastic characters (for this sort of anime), amazing animation and fun matches. The story progression (which in a shounen anime is all about them overcoming challenges in their team work, learning to overcome opponents, etc) is done really well.

Kuroko's Basketball - Is a basketball anime which has more of the issues you expect in a shounen - crazy, unbelievable abilities and a lot of bits that make you wish they had gone a slightly different route. But when it hits its climaxes, they're freaking epic. Especially with the awesome, pump up OST in season 1. Not gonna lie, used to watch scenes from this to pump me up for my own basketball matches.

Over Drive - A fun bicycle anime about a rather unpopular kid who gets forced into joining the bicycle club (yes, almost the same premise as YowaPedal). Only got one season, and 14 episodes covers a single race in almost real time. And you know what, I wasn't bored for even a minute of it.

Chihayafuru - Not strictly a sport anime, but I'd put hobby/club anime in this category. About a girl who starts playing a card game called karuta, creating a club and entering tournaments. It's a shoujo and that gives different sorts of character interaction and development but it still has that energy that you get in a shounen. This is really up there for me. Starts a bit slow for the first few episodes (where they are kids), but really takes off after a time skip.

Hikaru no Go - Another hobby/club anime. Basic concept is a kid gets possessed by a ghost of a legendary Go player, and starts playing himself. This is one of those anime that manages to hit all those shounen tropes, and yet you never once feel that it was executed poorly. From the overly dramatic games which can go for episodes, to the development and shounen rivalries that pop up, this somehow avoids to make any of the mistakes you generally expect in an anime like this.

Giant Killing - Is a bit different to the others listed here in that the characters are all older, mature professional players. It follows a professional Japanese football/soccer club who have been on a bit of a down turn, nearly getting relegated when they bring back an ex-player who has made a name as a coach overseas, winning the FA cup. It tackles very different issues such as how to tackle a backward culture amongst the club and fans, the issues in the mindsets of the players and generally a look at the sort of personal issues professionals may go through. So yeah, no cheesy lectures about friendship and about not being selfish, etc. In fact one of Takumi's things is that the players should start thinking more about themselves as individual players and stop worrying about the club.


On Prince of Tennis, I think it's way too dated to enjoy now unless you're high. Back then, sports anime could do absolutely ridiculous things (like this) and people expected it. I loved that anime back when I first saw it in like 2004, but compared to more modern sports anime that at least pretend to be somewhat adhering to physics?

On Diamond no Ace, I found it just had too many of the shounen issues. CRAZY over the top emotional dramatic scenes (get used to seeing boys crying and bonding a lot) being the most off putting, but also regular flashbacks and a typical loudmouth main character. And it didn't have the climatic scenes, energy or things to look forward to keep me from droppingi t.

 

I watched this for some episodes and then stopped, seeing neither fun matches nor fantastic characters (if Hinata stares at his hand one more time I'm going to rip it off). The music was the worst though. I couldn't stand that in matches, where there's supposed to be something on the line, they use background music that creates absolutely zero tension, like nada. Haikyuu was, to me, an absolutely sleep-inducing experience.

I second Kuroko, Hikaru no Go, and Giant Killing. It's been a while since I watched Overdrive but I can't remember anything bad about it.

If you're into baseball, Major might be worth a look too. As would be One Outs (though the sports angle is only secondary in that anime, I believe, as it's mainly about the psychological tricks from the protagonist).

Does car racing count as sports too? If so then there's also Initial D (a bit dated and taking 2-3 episodes to get going, but great fun nonetheless).

 

Aha, how can I forget Initial D. An anime that basically introduced me to my car hobby which has sucked up the majority of my money and time over the past 7 years, and will only just keep getting worse - it actually changed my life.

Initial D is one of those terrible shounen sports/hobby anime from the Prince of Tennis era, with awful characters, cheesy running commentary and a character who never actually loses. And yet, it's addictive as fuck and really enjoyable, with each arc bringing out that proven concept of seeing the underdog beat the titan to the sound of cheesy Eurobeat music.

First Stage had awful animation, but the most fun storyline. Second Stage (13 episodes) and Third Stage (a movie) each saw a step up in animation, but Fourth Stage blew them out of the water with gorgeous cel-shading and had the best battles IMO (especially for rewatch value as a car fan). Fifth Stage and Final Stage were pretty dull in comparison.

And holy shit, how did this miss my attention. I just found out there's a Movie Remake Trilogy of First Stage called Legend 1 - Kakusei, of which the first one was released last year. Need to watch...

Wangan Midnight is another car anime for those who liked Initial D. It's quite different in themes and atmosphere though. Most of the characters are adults, and it focuses on the Japanese freeway racing scene, with the focus being on tuning/modifying cars rather than racing skills.

Where Initial D makes a car hobby this respectable hobby, Wangan Midnight almost portrays it like drugs - an obsession responsible for destroying lives, breaking families and making people bankrupt (not all that inaccurate really). It has this great darker, otherworldly atmosphere to it set with a great mood-setting OST (as opposed to the more uplifting and energetic Initial D). Some really fun characters too - especially, the batshit insane Kitami Jun (the Tuner from Hell), who's got this whole new level of mad obsession that the voice actor somehow manages to bring out amazingly.

Not nearly as addictive as Initial D though and I think it may appeal more to car fans than a general audience. Not sure though.

 

Cross Game is my personal favorite show. It's the only one where I can watch a random episode and then sit down to finish out the rest of the entire series -- this literally happened to me yesterday! The show can at times be slow, but it has fifty episodes to tell its story so it gets leeway. The story itself is one that has brought me to the edge of my seat in anticipation and to tears on numerous occasions, even on multiple viewings. It just has that effect on me.

I love Cross Game. It's the best.

As for other recommendations, one other show stands-out that hasn't been mentioned. Hajime no Ippo, or Fighting Spirit. It's a boxing anime, and is generally considered the boxing anime after Ashita no Joe. It has great characters and even greater fights. It's only hiccups are that it is very shounen as far as humor and general development (plot and character), but I forgive it because the characters are so well thought out ad realized, and the fights are absolutely amazing to watch -- personal favorite is the Takamura v. Hawk fight.

 

Yeah, forgot to mention Hajime no Ippo too. It's another great anime with some absolutely great fights. The way the fights are put together, the various stages that can occur over the 4-5 episodes, the music and lead up to them are all fantastic. Ippo's training and development in between fights can be a bit dull though (because he's a bit dull). Animation is quite good for its age too - they certainly weren't lazy about it.

Disagree with the humour though. Sure, most of the time its typical shounen humour, but there's some absolutely bizarre dick humour scenes that you just don't expect and had me laughing (basically, anything with Takamura).

I think the most important thing a shounen anime needs are a good cast of side characters and antagonists, and Ippo has them in spades. People like Sendou, Date, Ricardo, Takamura, Miyata, Sendou all have that aura of epicness that keep an anime like this awesome. Most of them friendly outside of the ring, but absolute ruthless monsters in it, with absolutely iron wills and goals. Favourite fights were Ippo vs Sendou, Takamura vs Hawk and Ricardo vs Date.

Season 1 (76 eps) and 2 (26 eps) were great, but Season 3 was absolutely awful though. Lacked any good antagonists to fight, started bringing in stupid shounen stuff (fighting under water!) and there was too much focus on Aoki and Kimura (sidekick, comic relief characters).

Here's another one I just remembered.

Capeta is an anime about go-karting. It's definitely not the best shounen. Main character is a bit typical, but his friends are even worse (like, his sidekick is the definition of a sidekick, doing absolutely nothing but following Capeta around - never even drives once). But nonetheless, has fun and energetic races, with some cool rivals that he goes up against. The first arc is a bit dull (when they're kids), but there's a time skip which makes everything a lot more enjoyable.

 

Takamura all the way. His awesomeness has led me to identify every character with the same voice actor as him... I can't watch F/Z without laughing myself silly when Kiritsugu is speaking. The only other character where that happens to me is Araragi from Bakemonogatari (also useless Shinji in F/SN UB and Akashi in Kuroko).

And I have never seen such an epic training camp as the ones with Takamaru in it. Ippo in general are training montages done right. It was the first sports anime I showed my flatmate to convince him that the genre isn't utter tripe (he had a weird aversion to sports anime before). After Ippo he was on the right side of things again and has now watched several sports animes and is halfway through Major.

Anyway, I just posted to say that Takamura gets all of my thumbs for all eternity. His is a character filled with so much win it bursts from every pore whenever he's on screen.

 

Watching the latest episodes of Baby steps has been really satisfying. The tennis is also excellently animated.

 

Ippo wouldn't be Ippo if it didn't spend an entire chapter of the manga on a dick joke.

 

If your're looking for a good sports anime I would look towards Major. I love sports anime, my favourites would be Hajime no ippo(Boxing), Cross Game(Baseball), Kuroko No Basket(Basketball), One outs(Baseball), Haikyuu!!(Volleyball), Initial D(Driving), Yowamushi Pedal(Cycling), Over Drive (Cycling), all of those are probably the best of the genre.

The ones that I would recommend the most would be Major and One outs. Both are centred around baseball, however, they differ as Major is your typical shounen, of very high quality, while One Outs is basically Death Note without the deaths and Light plays baseball.

Moving on to my real topic, Your lie in April, or, Shigatsu wa kimi no uso. Oh my fuck, this anime made me baw my fucking eyes out for probably an hour. Would would recommend this anime to anyone. The premise of it is that a young pianist lost his abilities, however his motivation comes back when his friends girl friend gives him a spark of life.

The music featured in this is glorious, I normally don't listen to classical music but this music just suits it so well. The animation quality is very high, and stylistically it looks pretty good, amazing in some parts, but has a one or two drawbacks. The main genres of the anime are romance and music, but even if you've never really like shows of this nature, I implore you to try it out, you wont be disappointed.

 

Can you elaborate on this?

Oh god, Your lie in April. Fuck this anime. Seriously.

Actually you know what, here's the review I left on myanimelist about Your Lie in April:

As for 'the dramatics or the pacing' that I did not touch on this review: Basically, each and every episode a character cries, often more than once, and we're supposed to feel sad for them, but the anime floods us with 'sad' moments that oftentimes don't make sense and just... what's the word.... dis-sensitize? us for the rest of them.
The pacing is just... terrible.

 

That's largely due to the manga pursuing a similar direction. I think the Sawamura fight was fine, but I agree that the Shimabukuro fight was pretty bad. (I also dislike that Morikawa is making Aoki and Kimura to be butt monkeys too often right now) The manga is pretty much a mixed bag right now, with some genuinely awesome sections. However, a lot of that is going on with the secondary characters having those scenes - Ippo himself is going to be in a bit of boring string of fights in any upcoming season 4, unfortunately.

Also, Morikawa needs to hurry the hell up and progress the Ippo/Kumi/Itagaki/Nanako/Mari love pentagle (with Ippo and Kumi being the strongest requited corners). The Ippo/Kumi storyline itself has been largely unprogressing for nearly 1000 chapters at this point.

 

So Shokugeki is so good it's stupid. I got to the point where my highlight of the week was Saturday morning just so I could catch the next ep.

It got so bad I just said fuck it and caught up with the manga.

The series gets even better after...

Spoiler

Yukihira loses in the Autumn select to Akira and he starts trying to broaden his skillset

The alumni are brilliant too (Hinako and her trolling of Shinomiya particularly).

I started off thinking Nikumi is best girl, but as I got further in, Erina really started to grow on me. I'm finally starting to get what people find so adorable about the 'Tsundere'. I'll admit they're a lot more likable when they're not physically violent harpies.

I like Alice more, but she already has her manslave, so Soma's not an option, lol.

Megumi's funny, but... eh.

 

Nikumi is still best girl, heathen.

 

You know, I suddenly like her a lot more when she's dressed in jeans and a blouse, lol.