Ask John: Why Does Anime Not Look as Good as it Did in the 80s?

Question:
Why does anime look not as good as it did in the 80s? Even with the use of computers in making anime, I feel that cel painted anime looks a lot more interesting and less jagged. Not to denounce modern anime, but I feel that character designs were more attractive than then they look today. (Best example would be Kenichi’s Sonoda’s BGC’s character designs to that of the remake.) Also I like how with 80’s anime, they had their cake and ate it too with the use of nudity and gore since it was OVA anime that made the genre strong at one time.

Answer:
I’ve previously composed a response to several criticisms of contemporary Japanese digital animation, so I hope you’ll excuse me for not covering those same points again. I’m personally a devoted anime fan, which means that I love all types of anime- all genres and vintages. In my observation, contemporary anime is no better or worse than anime from the 1980s; it’s simply different. Anime from the 1980s and early 90s had characteristics that are not present in contemporary anime, and modern anime likewise exhibits characteristics not dreamt of in 80s anime. I think that technology and market demands have had a major impact on the content of anime and the way anime has evolved.

Countless anime titles from the 1980s were typified by an emphasis on style over substance. Titles including Ai City, Birth, Prefectural Earth Defense Force, Good Morning Althea, Bavi Stock, Angel’s Egg, and Battle Royal High School adhered to a theory that as long as the animation was visually exciting, it didn’t matter if the story made any sense. Titles including Fandora, Leda, Harmagedon, Time Stranger, Take the X Train, Dragon’s Heaven, Space Family Carl Vinson and many others were very simple stories that used dynamic cinematic style to enhance, and possibly draw attention away from their minimal narratives. (Of course, there were also many outstanding, timeless anime released during the 1980s, but I’m only citing titles relevant to my points.) One of the consistent characteristics of 80s anime was an emphasis on precise, minute detail and lush animation quality. The amount and precision of hand drawn detail in anime like the Macross movie, Akira, Royal Space Force, Nausicaa, and Bubblegum Crisis is awe inspiring. The effort put into animating action sequences in 80s anime like Birth, Leda, and Dunbine is equally impressive. The attention to detail and the amount of actual animation- the fluidity and amount of movement on screen at any given time- found in 80s anime seems to be greater than what regularly appears in contemporary anime. (Of course, there are still current anime like Full Metal Alchemist and Kamichu that feature exceptional animation quality.) But while the animation quality of contemporary anime may not be as overtly impressive as 80s anime, I think that the sophistication of contemporary anime storytelling is highly evolved from 80s anime.

I can’t think of any 80s anime titles that are as psychologically, thematically and narratively complex as titles like Evangelion, Arjuna, Berserk, Fushigi Yuugi, Utena, Kurau, and Full Metal Alchemist. Technology and consumer demand are undoubtedly partially responsible for this evolution. Consumers and artists have both become more sophisticated over the past twenty years, demanding more anime, and more from anime. During the 1980s, when the market for anime was smaller and consisted largely of hardcore, underground fans, anime was esoteric, violent, sexy, and often a bit weird. Much of anime didn’t need to be highly accessible because it wasn’t intended for mainstream viewers. As the consumer base for anime expanded and concern with marketing anime to the mainstream increased, the amount of gratuitous nudity and violence in anime decreased. There’s still plenty of nudity in anime, but nudity and graphic violence in contemporary anime isn’t nearly as common as it was in the 1980s. Furthermore, in response to increasing mainstream demand for anime, anime has increasingly changed from being an underground art to a market commodity. Contemporary character designs are, of course, supposed to reflect their creator’s ideas. But contemporary character designs are also a commodity. As the profitability of anime merchandise continues to grow in Japan, I’m sure that animators feel some pressure to create characters whose images will sell merchandise like figures, coffee mugs, posters, pillows, and so forth. When a certain type of character design becomes popular, or characters that look a certain way seem to be profitable, they get duplicated so as to also reap profits. And character designs that are easy to draw save money because they allow anime to be produced faster and more efficiently.

The 1980s gave us instant classic character designs including Lum, the Dirty Pair, Kenshiro, Nausicaa, Minmei, and D the vampire hunter. But recent years have also given us distinctive visual characters like Mint from Galaxy Angel, Mizuho from Onegai Teacher, Ed from Full Metal Alchemist, Chii from Chobits, Haruko from FLCL, and Inuyasha. I’ll agree that anime has changed over the years, but consumer tastes and art styles also change. The evolution in anime only seems dramatic to many American anime fans because we’ve consciously noticed it happen. Every anime fan has a right to prefer vintage or contemporary anime. But I’d like to encourage fans to hesitate before deciding that 80s or 90s anime was better or worse than anime from the 2000s. As I’ve illustrated, the two periods have noticeable, significant differences. They also each have strengths and weaknesses that the other does not. Anime from the 80s has a different “feel” than current anime, which is inevitable. 80s anime often has more impressive animation quality than contemporary anime, but contemporary anime frequently has more intelligent and literate storytelling. I think that an informed, experienced anime fan should be receptive to all types and vintages of anime because each anime offers something unique (some more than others, I admit).