In the recent years, I have seen some great modern anime with great animation, story line, high production values, and etc… yet the backwards man, Miyazaki, the well acclaimed animator of Ghibli who is known for My Neighbor Totoro and Spirited Away saying that modern anime is no good… He is a sign of a purist and elitist and can’t accept that the way of anime is done since 2000 is done differently.
Anime before then were hand drawn and animation quality wasn’t as great until technology evolved which allows animators to produce higher quality productions which resulted in masterpieces… The ones I have seen recently and deemed as masterpieces is Clannad (both seasons) and Kanon 2006 remake. Most people will agree that some of the modern anime are masterpieces. However, Miyazaki is living in the past and believes that modern anime is bad… in the statement he said:
I can’t stand modern movies. The images are too weird and eccentric for me
In his statement, he believes that modern animation done by computer is too strange and unreal… Sure, modern anime have alot more eyecandy which appeals to the viewers… However, I disagree with his statement because it’s a sense he believes that his productions are better and that anything but his works his bad.
Young people are surrounded by virtual things. They lack real experience or life and lose their imagination. Animators can only draw from their own experience of pain and shock and emotions.
Again, his statement is untrue to a certain extent in a sense because some anime which are more in tuned in real life experience like some of the Seinen drama-genre anime I have seen have shown real life experiences that could happen in real life.
Another thing, is that he views all modern anime as “unoriginal and uninspiring,” and agree to a certain extent except that not all modern anime would fall into that… since it’s a matter of opinion.
There is always going to be a bunch of bad, unoriginal or uninspiring anime in every genre regardless… Another factor is that people’s opinions on a show is depending on the person’s tastes as mentioned before… so one person can say X show sucks while the other person thinks X show is good. So, I mostly disagree with this statement at the same time agree with some of his points of shows being unoriginal and uninspiring, but not applies to some since this is a matter of opinion.
The main problem with Miyazaki is that he cannot accept modern anime what it is… It doesn’t mean that any of his works is horrible or that I’m heavy criticizing about since he did made good movies, but in the world of technology and with the most of the population using or know how to use technology (which he also don’t like), he is making people lose respect of him because he refuses to accept the fact that modern anime like we know it is here to stay…
Source: alafista.com
Miyazaki is an old man sitting on his porch, shaking his stick and yelling “YOU DAMN KIDS GET OFF MY LAWN!!” And constantly complaining about Young People Today.
@Snark: Again, I’m not here to bash opinions since people are entitled to their opinions, but I have recently went back to watching anime late 2008. While I only focused on some of the better anime, I haven’t touch the others and I don’t have the full picture on which anime is deemed unoriginal and uninspired.. but it doesn’t mean that some of the good anime are unoriginal or unaspiring… however… I have seen one recent uninspired and unoriginal piece of anime recently and that is Nyron Churuya-san… which is basically crap all over in terms of animation, content and etc.
Again… it depends on peoples tastes… not everyone will like the genre of show you are watching… it’s different strokes for different folks. However, Miyazaki needs to accept the times and stop the hatred spree against modern anime… since not all of it is not that bad… but still a vast majority and remember… I don’t touch that much on anime I deem horrible or not within my tastes.
So this is, what I think, the first time I’ve commented on this blog, so I don’t want to come off as some angry troll trying to fan some flames, just that I disagree with this editorial. However, I can’t really say I agree with Miyazaki either, with only two short excerpts to go off of and no link to a full interview in sight. However, I do have a lot to say on the subject, so hang there with me.
Ask any veteran (let’s say 7+ years) and up-to-date anime fans, and they’ll all agree, to degrees, that the medium has gotten stale in recent years. It’s not just a matter of taste or quality, the former being subjective while the latter remains constant in proportion to quantity, it’s about the trend towards group-think, bottom-line focused, laser-targeted otaku appeal of recent popular anime that irks them. Every show now is a sequel, or a copycat, or an adaptation of an already popular manga, game, or light novel. Constant repeats of material we’ve seen for years.
12 years ago, Neon Genesis Evangelion set the anime world on fire. It was hip and popular and new; experimental in regards to storytelling methods, character archetypes, and cinematic vision. It was the next Big Thing with plenty of Things To Say. Its influence can still be enumerated in the medium today.
The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya has often been said to be this generation’s Eva, a comparison I find quite fitting, since Haruhi draws many interesting parallels to Eva: it also enjoys huge prolonged popularity, and lauded for its innovative narrative techniques, updating and reinventing character archetypes, and setting a new standard for consistent visual excellence. Haruhi’s influence on the medium today is numbingly obvious.
But their differences are the key: Eva played with its conventions and inspired other creators to experiment with metaphors and symbolism, to be unafraid of asking meaningful, thought-provoking questions of its audience. I don’t think Kino’s Journey, Haibane Renmei, or Welcome to the NHK would’ve made it to animation had the trail not been blazed by Eva. In contrast, Haruhi played up its conventions to hyper-exaggeration, where cute character designs, quirky antics, and short-term escapist adventures prevail over any themes of substance. Now we have legions of Moe Moe Kyuuns as its legacy. Additionally, since the Haruhi anime is little more than a carbon-copy adaptation of its light novel source, anime producers depend more and more on already existing literature to milk and are content to discover the next Big Thing, rather than create one themselves.
It’s not that I’m glorifying Evangelion at the expense of Haruhi Suzumiya (I actually think Haruhi is the more entertaining series of the two), I’m say that their artistic endeavors and creative influences couldn’t be further apart.
I think what Miyazaki speaks to is that the independent spirit, those experimental and innovative ideas, the voice of people with Things To Say, is lost, or at least buried beneath mountains of sequels, copycats, and adaptions. Anime as a creative medium can’t survive on rote repetition alone.
This turned out to be some sort of essay, but I hope my ideas come across.
Man, I wish I had a grammar checker.
@kadian1364: Thats okay if you don’t agree with me since I like people who provide their inputs and also debate about it as long it’s not trolling or people insulting me because I don’t agree, but what drove me to write about it is a post on AnimeSuki which caught my attention… but I do think there is a good percentage of good anime and bad anime… Most of the time.. I read about series having excessive amount of fanservice and ecchi which I really do not like that much nor it make the series any better… which doesn’t do much on creativity nor make a story a masterpiece… The main reason why I see Clannad, Kanon, and Air (not the ones made by Toei Animation) as masterpieces because it doesn’t have excessive amounts of fanservice and ecchi crap since it doesn’t have any or very few and meanwhile have a good and original story… then again… Key/VisualArts are always pretty original in writing their stories in their visual novels and developed a basis, but others have tried to copy and failed… like Da Capo, which is susposely seems to be a complete copy of Kanon and it didn’t do so well (check the MAL ratings on all of the Da Capo series… and it’s rating is not higher than a 7). I rather see a good story in a drama series instead of seeing panty shots or anything sexual in that matter.
For comedy genre, it’s difficult to be original since some people will enjoy it and others won’t and I don’t rate the anime higher because it have excessive amounts of moe and like it… I look at the content and if I enjoyed it, but I will never consider a series like Lucky Star or K-ON! a masterpiece (a rating of a 10 which I rarely give unless it’s really that good and/or have very little flaws) and pretty lenient, but I’m alot harsher if I see glaring flaws in a episode of a Anime series… This is why I review comedy series alot differently than serious series like Drama genre… It depends on the person views what genre they deemed.
Although I like and respect Miyazaki’s works which I have seen (My Neighbor Totoro and Kiki’s Delivery Service)… I don’t necessarily agree with his politics and his views on Anime except one view… there is a lack of original and/or inspiring works since most series focuses too much on fanservice and/or ecchi…
What is hypocritical is that Miyazaki worked for Toei Animation which made alot of fanservice-oriented anime.
(can’t believe I edited this comment many times)
Miyazaki last worked at Toei Animation in 1984, some 25 years ago. What they’ve produced since is hardly on Miyazaki’s hands.
The bulk of his major works have since been made with Studio Ghibli, the production studio he co-founded. I don’t pretend to know his political leanings or personal values except those described in his films, where themes of exploring humanity’s place on earth in relation to nature and technology, a love of flying, outstanding female heroes, and morally ambiguous antagonists and conflicts are often featured. He is a fine example of a creator with Things To Say, yet his whole body of work demonstrates he has shown a sublime ability to weave his messages into great, meaningful films, critically and commercially successful. It’s no wonder Disney and Pixar animators and producers idolize the man.