"Not every person who watches a show wants to self-insert" Biggest truth I heard this year

Not even a minute in and I hear “society”. Perfect

Saitama isn't just bald, he has the same struggles as an everyday person. ie: Mosquitos, missing the sale, losing in meaningless tasks which makes him relatable and likeable

When I was younger I really enjoyed anime so much. Everything was new and badass to me. It was like a door opening and just being surprised with what you found. As I got older I slowly got bored and I'm sad in a way for losing that childish like enthousiasm. I just miss the hype I felt.

I think it's just the longer you watch anime, the more likely you notice trends and tropes that goes with every type of anime. As a result, many older anime watchers tend to find the newer anime less interesting because they often have done things that older anime have done already in the past.

I believe the term is "over saturated"

honestly I just went out of my "CONSUME ALL ANIME" phase and went from watching 5 seasons a day to really hand-picking what I want to watch next. Shameless recommendation: to all who haven't already: watch Gintama. It's just amazing!

My problem isn't that anime is boring, it's that I don't have time anymore. The anime loophole is a never ending cycle; once you start, you keep wanting to watch more and more. I just can't do it and would rather spend more time with friends or gaming.

"It has become impossible to watch every anime" I don't think it's healthy to watch every bit of material from an entire industry. Can you imagine watching every bit of content coming from Hollywood?

The solution to this problem, which many anime watchers eventually face, is to just watch less volume of anime and focus on high quality, unique shows. Don't try to watch every show out there, because in reality you're not missing much. Find what you think you'll like and stick with that

This is why I just read manga nowadays and barely watch anime. At least with manga, there's a lot more variety to choose from

As I grew up, I just ended up appreciating Manhua/Manga instead of watching the shows. I can read it in my own pace, especially now that my schedule‘s 10x more hectic. Also, 100% agree. It‘s so rare to find a good show that doesn‘t have a predictable plot and an even more predictable set of characters. The market really is oversaturated.

The genius of One Punch Man is how it takes an unrelatable situation and makes it relatable. In real life people deal with feeling with being stuck/underappreciated/bored. Being underpowered is usually how this is narratively done. But in OPM, Saitama gets the exact same predicament from being overpowered. He feels stuck and bored WITH being overpowered AND is also underappreciated. THAT'S why he works, very relatable human struggles despite near opposite circumstances to reality.

I don't really know if I'd say it's a problem with recent anime in particular. Generic and uninspired anime, much like all forms of generic and uninspired media, has always been a thing, it's just that it's inherently more noticeable in the present. Generic anime is pretty much forgettable by definition after all. Nobody is going remember or discuss every mid mecha show from the 80s or every by the numbers harem romcom from the early 2000s. People just remember what stood out at the time, making it appear as if the ratio of generic and unique anime has shifted. I imagine the increased availabilty and visibility of anime through the internet along with the increased production also contributes to this perception.

I’m Japanese but Some people in the Japanese anime community have pointed out the same things and expressed their concerns. The anime industry started prioritizing making quick money, rather than putting a lot of time and money making great shows. Studios now tend to chose a story that can attract a few, but extremely enthusiastic fans who will drop a lot of money, rather than a great number of people who will just watch the anime. That’s why we see more anime with with cute girls or ecchi-scenes, and isekai since there will always be an audience for them, and the fans are likely to get physical dvds and buy merchandise. You can’t blame the studios cuz they don’t earn much Money due to the Seisaku-Inkai(製作委員会) system, where big companies that invested to the production take most of the revenue , and also because of the tax system that really doesn’t go with how the studio earns money. A Studio’s main source of income is from the sales of merchandise and dvds. This gives the studio a ton of money for a couple months right after the anime aires( but a lot of it will be taken as tax), then will have very little money coming in until they release the next anime.

As you get older things tend to seem “uninspired”. But what it really is is that you have so much reference from your years of watching a type of media that you enjoy. So it’s a lot harder to find new experiences for you. But a kid that just found anime doesn’t have any reference so even shows like Baruto are exciting for them. There are only so many story’s to tell and it’s kinda hard to expect brand new idea when so many shows have done variations on every story out there. So your “uninspired” or “boring” anime is probably thousands of kids favorite show because it’s there first experience with that type of story or characters. 😅 Now I’m not saying that shows can’t be bad. I’m just saying that the rose tinted glasses for some of your favorite first shows may be covering up the negatives of them because they were your first experience with those story’s/characters. And that memory of those older shows makes it hard for you to get into newer ones because you’ve already seen the tropes, clichés and characters.

The fact that producers no longer dare to come up with new stories and concepts because they fear the financial risk is not only a problem in the Manga / LN / Anime industry, but one of the entire entertainment industry today. That is the reason why we have had all these reboots from franchises that have long been completely exhausted in terms of storytelling. Unfortunately...

I'm only 6 minutes in and this is literally the epitome of growing up. You get older, gain more experience, learn to critically think, then suddenly everything is so bland, predictable and or shitty. Makes watching movies hard when I can predict exactly what's going to happen 5 minutes in. But I think it's also a good example of learning to differentiate bad writing and good writing. I think what they've said can be applied to anything. Video games especially.

I never used to read manga in my youth, maybe like 1 or 2 particularly good series without adaptations, but now as an adult i can barely sit through an entire show and i read way more manga than I ever have before I've noticed it's pretty typical that anime fans read more manga when they get older

It is part of growing up not to indulge for hours in a medium that is 90% made for teens and or otakus

I think a large issue people have is that when they get into anime, they have years of anime to draw upon. But once you get into the seasonal grind, you release how few and far between the gems can be That being said, if I can find 1 or 2 shows a year that I consider my "favourites" (9/10) and a few 8's, I'm pretty satisfied with my anime viewing experience

*it really says a lot about society*

It's crazy to me that Trash Taste keeps insisting that Mushoku Tensei, a Light Novel series serialized in 2014, only 8 years ago, could somehow possibly be the progenitor or trendsetter of the modern Isekai genre. It certainly set some of the tropes, such as "Truck-kun", but in reality, Mushoku Tensei and the modern Isekai model is built off of decades of Isekai that set and propagated those tropes. Familiar of Zero, Tenchi Muyo: War on Geminar, The Ambition of Oda Nabuna, Problem Children are coming from another World Aren't they?, Sword Art Online, Log Horizon, just to name a few of the anime that came YEARS before Mushoku Tensei and solidified nearly all of the tropes that people would falsely attribute to it. Isekai has always been jam packed with power fantasies, harem elements, clueless and easily self-insertable main characters, etcetera; in fact, calling Mushoku Tensei the "Grandfather of Isekai" is a misnomer by default, because Mushoku Tensei didn't just slap those elements in it's story like so many of the Isekai knockoffs nowadays (I'm looking at you, "In another world with my Smartphone"), but rather, subverted those tropes by allowing them to occur more naturally within the story. If Mushoku Tensei had really been the first isekai, or in any way a progenitor of the modern form of the genre, then we likely wouldn't be seeing so many derivative and bland knockoffs, because at the heart of the show, Mushoku Tensei wasn't a trendsetter of Isekai: it was a strict subversion of the lack of worldbuilding in it's predecessors, a trait that has NOT been carried forward in what many call Mushoku Tensei's "Successors". Re:Zero was another such subversion, focused on subverting the lack of flaws in the protagonist, and exploring the true consequences for their actions. Both of them became a benchmark for what could be accomplished with good worldbuilding, pacing, and character development, certainly, but since those traits have not been unanimously carried forward, they can only be considered exceptional outliers, rather than progenitors.

I've been watching anime since I was a kid, when I turned 18-19 I stopped watching anime because all felt the same, but nowadays (30 yo) I realised it's the mainstream shonen what keeps repeating itself. There's a minority of animes (and a greater number of mangas) that has some point of quality and deserve to be seen.

Maybe it's just the fact that the most successful and marketable anime are ones that use the same ideas of previous anime with some twist here and there. It's difficult to be original and the formulaic may not interest veteran weebs but they sure as hell would interest people who are just getting interested in anime.

I had a friend say something similar. He said that stories nowadays aren't as good as stories from prior generations (or something like that). I just pointed out to him that he a) has a huge back-catalog to pull from as he looks at stories from prior generations and b) he's noticing more fluff stories because he's this generation's catalog isn't complete (aka it's more noticeable when things are coming out currently compared to looking back and handpicking).

The issue here is that Anime no longer follows through. We see so many one season anime that never get devloped further than the foundmentals. I get this same feeling from LITrpg right now.

Once u watch enough anime. U start to realise the troupes and clichés. It doesn't become fun when u can predict what happens next. Joey is right "once I read the synopsis I can tell u in detail the first 3 episodes" and I can tell you the whole 12 eps for the seasonal animes.

"Isekai is just so inbred" Bro Conor is the funniest dude in this show 🤣🤣🤣

Here's the best advice...don't watch anime because it's popular or recent, actually take the time to look for anime you'd like and watch them instead. So many hidden and underrated gems, plenty of great 80's & 90's anime, lots of great movies & OVA's, even the 2000's had plenty of hidden gems. Usually some of the best anime are the ones people aren't talking about or even heard of. Try looking for old anime that you missed and you may find yourself a hidden gem

Lmao I love how Garnt knows exactly what Joey wanted to say at the beginning. These two truly share one brain cell it's amazing.

My problem is that after watching several anime and reading tons of manga, I started to see how the manga panels are being animated(if you know what I mean). Like you can see some static anime scenes and you'll recognise that yeah this whole 4 minute dialogue was done in two panels in the manga. And you can actually read it in your own pace whether it be fast or slow depending on the context.

I mean it's not really anything new. Remember how in the early to mid 2000's we were overflooded with generic slice of life anime's?

This is why it's important to have a balanced life, rather than LIVE for entertainment. Anime and movies should be a thing you go to every now and then, not everyday

I’ve been far more selective with my anime as of late. Ranking of Kings and Odd Taxi have been my most recent watches and even if they have a retread story the visuals are really nice!

I have gone full circle, and can criticize and analyze anime and its quality, originality and novelty, but have not let it stop me from enjoying something trashy but funny or somewhat enjoyable even if so similar to something I've already seen.

My biggest gripe with isekai in recent years is the game mechanics trope. I'm just SO tired of this boring, done-to-death, lazy approach that in 99% of all cases is only used to let the creators skip the world building. "Oh it's a fantasy RPG style world with RPG mechanics, go knock yourself out, you know how it goes", basically. The _entire draw_ of the genre used to be getting to explore and experience these creative, interesting new worlds, that's why it's LITERALLY in the genre name...>_> But nowadays all you get is "generic medieval fantasy town A" and "generic elf race forest B". It's a problem fantasy literature has too, that everyone just copies Tolkien over and over, but at least there's an ATTEMPT there to make things unique and different, while isekai anime just play it as straight and lazy as they can. Idk who these stories are for. Sure, most of us are gamers, but if I wanna play a game, I'll just do that. If I read a light novel or watch an anime, I wanna see actual characters interact, not the visual equivalent of a relationship bar filling up.

I don't think I've ever "self-insterted" in most anime I've watched, even when I was like 10, it was the world within the anime and the unfolding of the story which interested me

The problem is binge culture and pushed consumerism. Its predatory marketing. We get given so much choice and at such a pace we burn out. Also a lot of the time creators make content just for the sake of making content instead of for the art and creation of the story. Its leaking into everything. Another example is TCGs where they release set after set in a very small time frame and noone can keep up. We've poisoned ourselves with to much choice.

I think the problem is reflective of larger societal issues in Japan. The Japanese are incredibly risk-averse these days and so they won't take a chance on breaking with established tropes. Also, every year a fresh crop of chuunis are stamped out of the mold by Japanese society, making it unnecessary to break with established formula.

I'm also thinking that Western Animation has finally understand that Animation can be used not just for comedy. Castlevania, Arcane, Dota, ect. I've noticed that anime as a Base could make great for artstyle but having a good script and dialouge can really make a great series. Japanese anime need to focus on more mature writing.

100% agree with what Connor is saying about Lelouch, the type of person that he is is one that thinks they should be able to plan everything out with some genius strategy and unless they're incredibly experienced, that type of character *should* keep getting hit in the face with random stuff they didn't anticipate. So many shows miss that. I think it can apply to plenty of other types of characters too...I get pretty bored with a show that takes itself seriously and doesn't have the characters facing some kind of personal struggle that stems from their personality or approach or how they interact with the world. I basically started watching anime in like 2009 and I definitely relate to the sense that after a while (for me it was around 2016 or 2017 maybe) it got way harder to find good new stuff. There were still occasional specific shows I thought were really good, but the difference was that there were a lot of shows made between like, 2006 and 2014 that I could really enjoy even if they were kind of trashy or just dumb fun, and I felt like it got way harder to find that stuff after a certain point. I still don't know if it's because my tastes changed or because what types of show got made kind of changed - both certainly happened.

I absolutely understand the watching in 2x or going straight to manga thing. I started watching Sword Art and Danmachi in my early teens, and nowadays, I just skim through them for the action scenes. Going straight to the manga on the other hand, is great for shows that love to pad out run time by stalling on static reaction shots, internal monologue, straight-to-audience expo dumps and comedy bits that normally only take up a couple panels or bubbles on paper.

I have watched so much anime growing up, to the point where I would finish maybe 200 episodes a week on average. For the past 5 years I have had such a hard time watching anime so that now I watch like maybe 15 episodes a week at most. I resonated so much with the statement "I feel like I can read a synopsis and know 90% of the anime." Meanwhile many shows I did enjoy are either cancelled or on hiatus for years because it doesn't follow the current molds.

I’m 30 years old and I’ve been watching anime since I was 5 or 6. I’ve seen many progressions in different animes. I understand one can get tired of a genre. Trick really is to mix it up. Not only with anime but some regular shows or documentary’s. Can’t really say anime has gotten boring or not worth watching. There will always be a breakout anime every year.

im a big mushoku tensei fan myself, hearing gigguk and joey's combined opinions on it make me feel good :)

One thing I've realized is that if I was to start watching some of the anime I watched years ago today, I probably wouldn't be able to make it past the first few episodes. I tend to find a lot of stories boring, or there are tropes that are overdone. It's not just with anime though. In the recent years, it has become more common for me to not finish shows. It may just be a part of getting older.

My biggest problem is that non of these shows even get a chance because their only given 12 ep, but yeah they could try harder to have a different plot.

As I've gotten older I realized that on average we are all "normies". So I will only pickup shows that are relatively well reviewed by the community.

Hot take. This is the exact same reason why it was sooooooo hard for me to get into demon slayer. It looked great. But the first 5 episodes are soooo generic shonen I wanted to pull out my hair. What kept me around is the supporting cast which really kept me hook which made me sad that we had to go through so much generic story to get to the parts of the anime that makes it unique

I feel this so strongly. I don't watch new anime anymore. It has allowed me to go back and watch some older stuff. Im stuck on Patlabor right now. Anime goes through trends that cause oversaturation of tropes. It makes it difficult now to sift through all the garbage to get to the good stuff because of how much there is. Good stuff is still out there I'm sure.

Part of this is just getting older and more familiar with the genre, so you have a far broader pool of experience to draw comparisons with. But another thing I’ve noticed across all medias is the increasing over saturation of the market. With each decade producing media of any type has becoming more and more accessible, both in terms of creating, publishing, and reaching a very wide audience. What you get from this is a greater rate of content creation which means more content is being with each year than the year prior. There are likely still as many quality new anime shows being released as before (which to be completely fair, the genre itself wasn’t prone to producing back to back high quality creative hits in quick succession anyways), they’re just hidden underneath the mass amount of lesser quality and average shows being released too. I work in publishing and see this with books too, and you’ll find the same trends when looking at tv shows, comics, movies, video games, KZfaq videos even… It’s a phenomenon brought about by technological change that I ultimately still see as a plus, despite the trade off in quality from the surface view. I also think perhaps another thing to be considered is that y’all have had lots of time to watch through all the pre established classics of anime that were around when y’all first began watching, and were also around to watch some classics as they released. It’s survivorship bias. The classics you watched got released alongside a whole slew of other shows that have been lost to memory and time, often because they simply were not up to par with the ones people remember and cherish. In retrospect maybe 10 years out from now, you may be able to reflect on this a little better regarding this specific time-the shows people will love for life that were released now, the ones that got added to the forever growing list of classic anime you must watch.

Its really telling when, in the Asian light novel scene, there's practically an entire genre dedicated very specifically to "I have awakened memories of my past life and realised that the world I'm in is an otome game and I'm the villain what do I do?". Like, not just isekai, but a genre so specific that just by seeing the first two words of the title you can probably predict how the first arc of the entire story will pan out, and also all the tropes that the story will invoke for the foreseeable future

And that's why new ppl who get into anime get their minds blown and believe that it's the best thing in the world, because you are pretty much treated with masterpieces. But when you are in like 5-6 years, you would start understanding what this trio just said

I tend to agree, I only recently "got in" to anime a few years ago, spent a year obsessing over it then ended up dropping it as fast as I picked it up, the stories just seem to be cookie cutter now and the originality that I originally gravitated towards is just gone with all the new shows. 80s/90s has a great back catalogue so I guess there's still that, but regarding new seasons? A lost cause

16:50 Pandora hearts is a good example when those factors done right, to the point you feel the music just come up from the pages of the manga. Like when you hear the harry potter theme from the movie and you feel that is just basically what happened if the book turned into a music theme.

I've been insanely picky with anime in the last few years. mainly i noticed how its mostly targeted at guys so female characters often feel lame and over sexualised. amd when i go to look for something targeted for women its either inverse harem or gay romances and its super boring, im in my twenties not interested in that stuff anymore. and plus it always seems to be teenager mcs so idk im trying to watch a bit older anime. i liked samurai champloo even if it was simple ill try cowboy bepop maybe utena if i can go past the artstyle haha

Honestly getting into the seasonal grind is the worst thing you can do, go and watch shows from the mid 2000s or early 2010s instead if your third awful generic isekai from the current season

I'd love to see the three of you write an anime together. I think it would be really cool to see from people who have watched and really gotten into the deep reviews of so much anime.

I hate that I feel this way, I've distanced myself from anime ever since I graduated highschool in 2020. I still love it, but everything just feels the same, and when I do watch anime I tend to watch ones I already watched for nostalgia, or older ones.

This is what pushed me away from anime a while ago. I've never been a big consumer of it but it usually feels so derivative. Coming from reading a good novel and then reading a manga or watching an anime, it feels like watching teenagers just trying to make up "cool" stuff. Of course there are some exceptions here and there but there's SO MUCH TRASH!

0:31 i like how garnt understood what joey was even trying to say and explained it clearly to connor

This is such a tasteful conversation. As a long time anime fan that took a break I’m so happy that I’m not alone I’m thinking like this

I feel one thing that's an issue as well is that when you grow up, you gain more awareness of the concept of "demographic target". The more you watch anime, the more you realize "this anime wasn't made for me", and then you have to choose between abandoning/ignoring and find other ways to enjoy the one in question.

I'm convinced the best way to watch anime as a "newcomer" is to never go into that "binge everything under the sun" phase. It's going to take me ages to reach that seen it all mindset because I only watch a few a year and rarely dip into stuff older than a decade or so. The "causal" "non-weeb" anime fans also have it the best because they just wait for hype and word of mouth to push them to watch a show, just like what they do with live action media.

Yes, because they realise that they don't have to put effort into making something original to rake in the cash. Just look at the resent seasonal anime line-ups with all the little posters, 90% of them look the same.

I think yall should watch weekly anime together. That really makes it so much more interesting and felt good to have a time where that's what we're doing.

It's not just anime, but all of media that's being oversaturated with whatever execs think will be big. Overall creators aren't in as much control as they were in previous decades, and I hope the decline of sales forces those in control to give up and let artist be in the lead again.

As long as anime like sonny boy are still being made I’m satisfied

Just in 2021 and only in tv (movies excluded) we watched anime like Odd Taxi, Mushoku Tensei, Re: Zero season 2, Vivy: Fluorite Eye's Song and To Your Eternity. The anime are not declining in quality, we have so many anime per year now that "seems" the quality has declined. If you think in averages then maybe yes the anime are not so good anymore, but the GOOD anime produced per year are more than ever.

I know I’m late on this but in regards to getting bored, I think that’s pretty natural when it comes to anything in life. I’ve been watching/reading for 12 years now and I only look for stuff that really peaks my interest at this point. The reason why we do this is because we’ve already sifted through the garbage and we now have a based understanding of what we like vs what we don’t, as you guys mentioned in this video about Isekai all following the same tropes with the exception of a couple.

I use to watch basically every anime that came out or was already out, but as of the last two years I have a harder time staying focused & having my attention drawn in to invest myself into a lot of anime anymore also. I still love it (mainly because I draw manga also..), I just have become very picky about which ones I watch, & look for the best.

I think it's natural to go through phases of liking things and getting bored of things, it's also natural to go back. I took a three nearly four year break away from anime and thought I'd grown out of it, but I'd just been bored and had over done it, now I'm back and enjoying it much more because of the break

When naruto and luffy had their dreams planned. Being hokage or pirate. I feel like back then it mattered and we were all hyped. But when we get black clover and my hero. The worlds best hero or the wizard king. We already know what to expect because we’ve been through this already. You can watch and enjoy them but you already know what you’re getting yourself into!

One way to enjoy anime is to mix it up with other medias or perhaps animation of other countries. It's refreshing to see how certain tropes can be done differently by non-japanese creators

I really like watching anime, I will probably always love watching it but I definitely have to take breaks from it in between series

This is one of the main reasons I don't watch seasonal Anime like that I pick at least 4 or 5 shows that catch my interest because If I look too much I feel like I'll end up hearing the same concept/story and plus I have hundred's of shows that's been on my list for like the past 6-7 years I haven't seen yet. Some of the Anime that Joey and Conner bringing up like the isekai trend is why Anime that were gems like Meglo Box No Mad that came out this year got slept on and I think it's the best sequel we got I would even almost call it Anime of the Year but no one talked about it at all, Can't help but to think we be doing it to ourselves sometimes🤷🏽‍♂️

We need more 4th Dimensional chess-type-plays in anime. It will at least tell people the writer had to really try. We shouldn't go back to the days of when people were only important if your power level is so big. Can your character physically fight Goku? Because that seems like one of the most important questions, nowadays. That, or we need more of whatever Jojo and Baki are on.

I'm not sure if you guys will see this or if you already read it but a series that I would consider one of my all time favorites is to your eternity. It's written by the same person of a silent voice and is just so Interesting to read. The pacing in the series is just soo good. And the character development is a joy to read. I recommend or wanted to bring it up, I guess 😅🤷‍♀️, is because to me it is different. The way it's set up and how it's told is something I haven't seen before. So I was wondering about your opinion on it as guys who have watch anime longer then I have.

I semi stopped because I got sick of people being like “oh you like dub ew insert bad slurs”

I think it's the same problem that KZfaq has nowadays : people wants to create things and make money, and are corrupted by this latter, that's why the KZfaq videos feels so alike too. Basically we are currently in a production mindset instead of actually wanting to make a good show, which takes more time and cost way more money and effort to produce, and is not garanteed to find his audience, since as you guys said, there are so much entertainment that is released now it's a real challenge to stand out.

I just really relate to what Conor said. Weebs nowadays don't seem to like flawed characters. It just takes away the humanity in them.

This is so true biggest thing i took from this is that the more anime being pumped out just leads to more of those 6 and 7/10 animes which makes it feel like the 8,9,10/10 animes arent even there but they still are some really great ones out there

I'm just stumbling upon this quite late but this feels pretty validating because I've been feeling this way also. I get a lot of flack because I don't like Kimetsu no Yaiba... but after watching a few episodes of it I just kind of knew it was a newer version of the same kind of story, right down to the lack of shock over his parents dying. I'm longing for something that's fresh and original but it seems that those kind of projects just don't get the bills. It seems little by little things are improving a bit.... but the volume of not very anime is definitely higher. DON'T EVEN GET ME STARTED ON THE IDOL TRASH. When I go to Animate I don't even feel excited anymore... I can't tell if it's a ME problem cause I'm getting old... or if it's a lack of quality. But I feel like it's the latter, and at least I'm not the only one who seems to agree.

Just give me a proper Berserk anime adaptation, and i will die happy

To be honest, I feel like this is the main reason I didn't enjoy Demon Slayer as much as everyone else. It was a good show don't get me wrong, but it really felt like every other shounen I had watched. And it didn't help that I had just finished Code Geass which imo is one of the best anime I've ever watched.

11:35 I have seen this so many times in the "were gruesome and mean" animes, within 2-3 episodes (or as long as it takes to clear the intro-sequence) they tend to become as standard as it can get with all the usual tropes and character-responses shortly after. Goblin slayer, shield hero being good examples, sure they reference darker elements here and there but any sense of true setting malevolence is either sidelined or downplayed the moment the shock-clicks are received. SAO gets stick for many of it's tropey aspects but it does things than most never even consider, not as well as it could be done but "they done tried their best" an actual exclusive relationship develops and even gets some time to mature (tho i'm with the abridged in terms of the reason it STAYS exclusive), the grand plan of the "bad-guys" generally comes to light at a sensible point of time for rational thinkers without viewer levels of external information, each game/setting is used well(-enough) as the story backdrop rather than as the entire focus. sure enough it's jarring at times but it's not an isekai, it's a world with top-line VR so the real world implications SHOULD have impact on the "gamey/RP" aspects, hell it manages on occasion to finish off story aspects that the matrix utterly failed on (i.e. how to finish a dual-world storyline without making the MC magical in all the worlds they exist in.

I feel the same way about video games, every game is just a re-skin of the other one, every game is just content. I cannot play another mission about going to point A, then go back to point B for something you missed, now then point a will open A door to point. And for the anime/manga arguments, I agree with all of your points.

That's why everyone needs to watch Ousama Ranking. That show is fire

Finally, someone put it into words. There has always been mediocre anime, but nowadays there's much more anime being made each season, so there's more bad or uninspired anime

I think this is true, even when I got into the genre, there weren't that many newer animes that I enjoyed. I tended to enjoy the older stuff that was more original.

Can you guys do podcasts where people can chime in or comment on the convo? If that’s something yer willing to do, I would love to see how that pushes the dynamic of the conversation

The history channel Vikings show did languages quite nicely. It was primarily in English but in scenes where the English, Francs or Vikings were in the same scene they would speak alternate languages which helped a lot with immersion that they don't actually understand each other, and characters that did speak the alternate languages spoke freely/broken.

It be like that about 80% of the time, but at least you can still grasp 1 or 2 gems among the dozens and dozens of re-skins.

This is why I just look for the classics and the best of the new stuff. I got into sports anime and we know that's rehashed as hell, but that new stuff brought me to Slam Dunk. Then I watched the original Gundam and fell in love. There is so much older anime that we all know is great. No need to dig through the mountain of new anime. So much great old anime.

I've never related to a video more, I've been feeling this for so long idk it's just really cathartic to watch

I think it depends on what you expose yourself to. Vivy’s Flourite Eyes, Eighty-Six and To Your Eternity felt pretty fresh and that all came out this year

The problem with making your passion/hobby into a career is when you hit this jaded/calloused place in your experience.

This is why I’m drawn to Miyazaki. Not only does he have his own unique art style, but he makes films/shorts because he wants to tell specific and unique stories.

I really liked Rising of the Shield Hero because it was a lot more different from your typical isekai, but as you get further into the series, it started to revert back into every other isekai cliche. It was honestly the biggest heartbreak ever when I searched up spoilers because I'm that type of person, and I connected the dots that it wouldn't get better.