I'll put it like this: There's a reason Japanese people all read manga and consider it normal, whereas anime is regarded for creepy weirdos. Manga has a lower barrier of entry and has circles of enthusiasts making whatever they like. Manga has much more varied themes than most popular anime, there's a lot more creativity going on, and overall you'll find more meaningful themes.
Anime since the mid 90s has mostly been a commercial vehicle to slap branding on pachislot machines and sell figurines. It's all profit now. Not to say it's all been bad. I love Tatami Galaxy. The 2017 Kino's Journey is lovely. I'm into Girls' Last Tour too. But like other people have said here there's so much incentive to sexualize a female character and sell toys based on her. That's where the money is made (and $80 blu-rays).
I remember a statistic saying something like half of the anime ever made has been in the past 10 years. There's so much money flowing into it that getting a show that feels like a genuine artistic expression feels rarer. Also I'd hope that in a more equal society there would be less of the plots like "horny, lonely, nondescript teenage boy has his every wish fulfilled and girls throw themselves at his feet" because that's such a symptom of an unfulfilled alienated people
I also wanna say there's a lot of donghua these days (Chinese animation done in a Japanese style) and a lot of it's pretty good
I'll put it like this: There's a reason Japanese people all read manga and consider it normal, whereas anime is regarded for creepy weirdos. Manga has a lower barrier of entry and has circles of enthusiasts making whatever they like. Manga has much more varied themes than most popular anime, there's a lot more creativity going on, and overall you'll find more meaningful themes.
Anime since the mid 90s has mostly been a commercial vehicle to slap branding on pachislot machines and sell figurines. It's all profit now. Not to say it's all been bad. I love Tatami Galaxy. The 2017 Kino's Journey is lovely. I'm into Girls' Last Tour too. But like other people have said here there's so much incentive to sexualize a female character and sell toys based on her. That's where the money is made (and $80 blu-rays).
I remember a statistic saying something like half of the anime ever made has been in the past 10 years. There's so much money flowing into it that getting a show that feels like a genuine artistic expression feels rarer. Also I'd hope that in a more equal society there would be less of the plots like "horny, lonely, nondescript teenage boy has his every wish fulfilled and girls throw themselves at his feet" because that's such a symptom of an unfulfilled alienated people
I also wanna say there's a lot of donghua these days (Chinese animation done in a Japanese style) and a lot of it's pretty good
Can you give some donghua recs? Already watched Link Click thanks to chapo propaganda.