Anime and Older Media

The summer season for new anime has ended, and the fall season has begun. There are some returning favorites like My Hero Academia or Welcome to Demon School Iruma-kun. There is also one being rebooted, Urusei Yatsura, which is a big surprise. I do not feel that the aesthetic of the show really fits in modern anime and entertainment, and reboots have quite honestly been more misses than hits. It goes to show that while there are a lot of new anime coming out, fresh ideas are hard to come by, especially with the prevalence of isekai anime and all its sub-genres out there. It has been done to death at this point.

I have been watching a few of the older anime out there from the 80’s like Tenkū Senki Shurato (Legend of Heavenly Sphere Shurato), which funny enough is an early isekai. I like the general artistry and care that is put into older anime, even if other areas like strong characterization or stilted dialogue may not be as prevalent. It seems to be something of a theme with just entertainment in general where the older media just seems to have more personality than what is out there today which prioritizes style over substance.

As a writer, I can understand it. Every story has pretty much already been done, so it becomes a matter of just putting a new spin on what has already been established. My novel, The Mustard Prince in the Condiment Kingdom, for example, is a medieval quest and adventure, which has been done before but with a more humorous and anime-inspired element to it. At the end of the day, it is all about entertaining the audience, and that has not changed.