We need not be trendy all the time.
While many are caught up in shows that are currently airing due to the wonders of fansubs and the internet, it seems there are times when we do forget to “remember love”, not only for the Macross franchise and all things related thereof, but for past anime in general. There’s an urge to stay modern, current and trendy, unless you want to be left behind after missing the latest plot twist or startling revelation that everyone’s talking about. Though I’m not one to really talk, watching so many currently airing shows at the moment that I don’t have time to catch up on the gems of yester year.
I think it’s just the nature of fans of a media form such as anime to keep watching and taking on new material as much as possible, like gamers; though they do remember older games and how good they were, seldom are they looking anywhere but to future releases and sequels.
Even when we do watch the older shows, it’s most likely through word of mouth or recommendations rather than us becoming intrigued in a show through our own volition. It’s testament to the quality of these shows that they’ve managed to stand the test of time and retain their entertainment value to this day (though at times they may be viewed though the rose-tinted glasses of nostalgia) and they shouldn’t be forgotten in the world of blogging for this. We do often make a casual reference to them in passing, but only really for comparison with other shows or by virtue of the fact that they’re complete juggernauts in the anime industry (NGE, for example). I’ll be the first to admit that I’m a hyprocrite, though, as the only “old” show that I’ve blogged is Jigoku Shoujo. But then I look over at OH!, WRL and even Euphoric Field see them giving me a new perspective on older anime (not forgetting the somewhat perplexing re-appearance of Legend of the Galactic Heroes), which shows that demonstrating that the occasional retrospective isn’t too bad in times of the seemingly endless saga of Code Geass.
Perhaps it partially lies with the fact that the old shows just don’t get the hits or the comments; in my opinion, authors write primarily to discuss and hear others opinions on a show, so without that stimulus there doesn’t seem much of a point in blogging. But this isn’t so much a call to arms keyboards as an appraisal of the shows of the past and those who seek to blog them and the thought that re-watching and blogging a show you’ve seen in the past could lead to discussions which would further enlighten you and the reader as anime fans.
With that having been said, I’m off to catch up with Toradora! so I can “OMG!!!” as much as these four and write post :P.
Oh yeah. I noticed that too. Old shows are just too ‘old’ for them (or us). Even though its not too old though. I mostly blog on ‘old’ shows because I havent really seen much anime lately because of me being an anime fan just months ago (not even a year). But as for now, Im obligated to watch currently airing animes (which I hate because I dont feel comfortable watching in the internet) because I blog for it and that ‘new’ show gives me lots of readers. Unlike ‘old’ shows which readers think that its too.. uhh.. not new.
But I dont know, this wouldnt keep me for blogging about the so-called ‘old’ shows.
actually, with a lackluster winter season, i think now’s the perfect time to be watching older anime – the ones we missed out on because we weren’t fans at the time or because we opted for other anime from the same season. i’ve actually started ^^ and i can’t believe i watched so much bad anime in previous season because they’re current.
I need to watch ToraDora too…all the excitement that seems to come from the episode is killing me. It’s worse because I have to catch-up too.
Funny that you mention this because watching old shows is something that I’m trying to do now. Well not “old” shows so much yet as just shows that aren’t airing right now. I’m determined not to pick up much in Winter purely for this reason (though it looks like that won’t be too hard anyway).
I have almost no motivation to blog after watching old shows though. Not because of the lack of hits thing, but more because I marathon them and by the time I’m finished I don’t have much to say. Plus sifting through 12+ episodes to find some screencaps sucks.
It’s nice to have a sense of context, and of course the more old anime you’ve seen the more allusions you pick up in new stuff. That said, we watch anime for fun, not as a study exercise, so it’s not as though we’re obliged to put ourselves through ‘Anime Research’.
Personally, I probably watch a fair bit of old anime for similar reasons to biankita’s above: a good series in a genre I like from a few years back is obviously worth choosing over a bad currently-airing series in a genre I don’t care for.
And yeah, Legend of the Galactic Heroes.
What The Animachronism said.
And,
I write about old shows principally because I am old(er) than most of the bloggers I read. I write about what I think I know. As time goes by and I get the hang of this blogging thing, I will be able to write more about shows that air in the year that I write about them.
That said, remembering love for older shows, mostly the ’90s for me – when I was the same age as a lot of you are, is what’s fun for me to write.
There’s also the matter of it being more difficult to get a hold of older shows because we can’t call “it’s unlicensed! I can download it!” as easily. Sure, it’s illegal either way, but we feel better about it if it’s unlicensed. (This is why I think all the progress near-simultaneous releases is actually a double-edged sword.)
That said, I’ve personally never really had the time to keep up with too many current shows. I would say that right now is the most I’ve ever followed at… three shows (Soul Eater, Gundam 00, and Nodame Cantabile Paris-hen, which just finished). I feel bad about it sometimes just because I hate spoilers and the more I put off an interesting show, the more likely it is that I inadvertently come across spoilers, etc.
I don’t think I really mind that older shows aren’t blogged about consistently though. It’s always a treat when people touch on them that way. I think I blog about a lot of older shows just because I tend to get a lot of recommendations for older shows and I like writing reviews. It’s true that those entries don’t get as many hits or comments than the current stuff, but I don’t really mind that either. It’s funny, I’m usually pretty comment-starved for the things I do, but blogging isn’t one of them. Maybe it just goes back to me not being too social? I don’t know. :>
I have… NEVER… been trendy :p
@Kairu Ishimaru
You’ll be able to call yourself a defined anime fan at +100 shows :P
@biankita
I’m actually thinking the same thing; of much backlog, Mushi-shi, Noir and Ghost Hunt are on my list to catch up on. I’m giong to try and be a bit more cutthroat with what anime I watch this season, but that shouldn’t be too hard, since so much of it seems made of fail.
@FuyuMaiden
See @biankita. Also, I’m not thinking that when I watch these shows, I MUST BLOG TEHM. I’ll see how each show goes, and if they’re good enough they shoudl inspire me to write about them, rather than that beig a pre-requisite.
@The Animanachronism
Perhaps its just a bit self-gratifying to notice allusions in new shows :P.
Also, see @biankita. <— most times I’ve used one reply for multiple comments: 3
@ghostlightning
By no means change what you write about, for reasons I mentioned in the post. It all goes back to blogging being a form of self-expression, and I hope I didn’t sound like I was chastising those who write about shows currently airing :p
@Kiri
Woah, only three? I wish I had that level of restraint. I’m still hovering at the phase between wanting to get my hands on all the anime I can and realising that half of what I’m choosing to watch is kinda crap :P
@21stcenturydigitalboy
ORLY?! I thought the E7 recap was waaay to chic.
I usually try to keep watching old shows as well – there always seems to be something interesting, obscure or not, that I missed – but sometimes I can’t help but get caught up in my backlog of current episodes. That said, I recently finished Monster and I’m about halfway through Nana, both of which are pretty long, so I’ll try to keep this up for as long as I can ;P
@omisyth: “a defined anime fan at +100 ‘with 50% old’ shows” haha