I still contend that in the balance that visibly adult characters were more common before the turn of the century. Also, while on the surface teenagers may be the stated audience, the fanservice-drenched merch-associated slop is consistently made for the same targeted group of big-spender otaku and on average they aren't getting any younger.
That's generally caused because nobody really ages out of watching the teen targeted stuff. Even today you can slap a 30+year old in front of Pokemon and they'll enjoy it like they were young and watching the first series again.
Since the older group doesn't age out but you still want to target the younger group, not much reason to exclude an audience by targeting only the older group.
All these decisions are economic. Especially in anime these days which is ruthlessly run by the publishing committees.
I still argue there's timeless kid-friendly stuff like Pokemon then there's fanservice-loaded kiddie-creeping stuff that can say "for teens" when the real revenue source (and they know it) is aging otaku.
That's true but it's caused by the same effect. It doesn't hurt the teen audience but it does attract the adult audience, also provides internet marketing through sharing shit.
This is in fact also a problem in western media imo. More and more content is hyper-sexualised even targeted at younger audiences because the older audience watches the franchise still and never stopped.
None of the kids tv network targeted at teens ever was, Disney, Nickelodeon, even Cartoon Network. All the shows have teens or sometimes younger in them.
But this is the same era as the era of anime we're talking about. He-Man is 80s.
The point is how much it has changed. A lot of people will get the wrong perspective on new content in the west because of marvel movies, but the marvel shit is all a holdover from the 80s too.
Still true if you stick to seinen, everything else is targeted at teenagers so it looks like them too.
I still contend that in the balance that visibly adult characters were more common before the turn of the century. Also, while on the surface teenagers may be the stated audience, the fanservice-drenched merch-associated slop is consistently made for the same targeted group of big-spender otaku and on average they aren't getting any younger.
That's generally caused because nobody really ages out of watching the teen targeted stuff. Even today you can slap a 30+year old in front of Pokemon and they'll enjoy it like they were young and watching the first series again.
Since the older group doesn't age out but you still want to target the younger group, not much reason to exclude an audience by targeting only the older group.
All these decisions are economic. Especially in anime these days which is ruthlessly run by the publishing committees.
I still argue there's timeless kid-friendly stuff like Pokemon then there's fanservice-loaded kiddie-creeping stuff that can say "for teens" when the real revenue source (and they know it) is aging otaku.
That's true but it's caused by the same effect. It doesn't hurt the teen audience but it does attract the adult audience, also provides internet marketing through sharing shit.
This is in fact also a problem in western media imo. More and more content is hyper-sexualised even targeted at younger audiences because the older audience watches the franchise still and never stopped.
No arguments there. Western media is :awooga: obsessed too, but with an extra large additional helping of violence on top of that.
Counterpoint, in america media aimed at teenagers is full of only adults.
None of the kids tv network targeted at teens ever was, Disney, Nickelodeon, even Cartoon Network. All the shows have teens or sometimes younger in them.
He-man and GI were mostly afults. Every teen drama has actors that are like 30+
Bonus: GI Joe is anime.
But this is the same era as the era of anime we're talking about. He-Man is 80s.
The point is how much it has changed. A lot of people will get the wrong perspective on new content in the west because of marvel movies, but the marvel shit is all a holdover from the 80s too.
Good counterpoint
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