Being the form of media that it is, anime, like all things, can’t help but change along with the times. There are many things that were common in the anime world a decade ago that have more or less disappeared nowadays. Today I feel like taking a look at six of those things and figuring out why they’ve become so rare…
Just to note that for the list, I did not consider very obvious things like “anime on VHS” or “anime made with cel animation.” The disappearance of things like these was inevitable; I’m more interested in subtler things. Also, I’m not counting things that have completely disappeared so much as just become significantly more scarce than they used to be. And lastly, the list is in no particular order.
Eyecatches: For those of you who don’t know what eyecatches are, they’re short animation sequences used in TV anime to signal the beginning and end of a commercial break. While literally every anime had a unique eyecatch (that would often change in different episodes), little to no anime of the past several years has had eyecatches, with the exception of a few long-running kids anime like Pokemon and One Piece that still hang on to them. The closest thing to an eyecatch I’ve seen recently is the show’s logo briefly appearing on screen before and/or after the commercial, as is the case with the currently airing Steins;Gate and Hanasaku Iroha. As for the reason for the disappearance of this little omake that was once so common, I’m not really sure.
Anime episodes on individual volumes: While this is still going strong in Japan, for North American anime releases, box sets have pretty much overtaken the release of anime on individual DVD volumes. Back in my early years of fandom, almost every series would be released on individual DVD volumes first, usually with 3-4 episodes per volume ranging anywhere from $20-$30 each. Once all the individual volumes were out, then the complete series would be released on a DVD box set. But when I browse through the anime section of my local Best Buy, or any online store, in recent years, all I see is BD/DVD box sets of complete 13-26 episodes series, sometimes for close to the same price I used to pay for one volume! I assume the reason for the disappearance of individual volumes is that American anime companies found that it’s more profitable, especially in these tough financial times, to release series on full box sets, especially with all the 13-episode or less series that have been coming out (which actually leads to my next list item). Streaming might also have something to do with it since fans can now watch these series in full online and would then be less inclined to buy the series on individual volumes over a long period of time. As an anime consumer who much prefers box sets, this is a good thing for me =)
OVAs: Don’t get me wrong, I know OVAs are still around. But they’re not nearly as prominent as they were several years ago. Even less common are completely original OVA series not based on an already existing TV anime. The reason for the fazing out of OVAs is a simple one. The majority of TV anime from the early 2000s or before was strictly 26 episodes or more, while 13 episodes or less was what OVAs were for. Only within the past few years did anime TV series start becoming less than 20-some episodes in length. Now, it’s more common for anime TV series to be 11-13 episodes than 24-26 episodes like it was years ago. So, with anime TV series overtaking the unique episode count of OVAs, the latter has become somewhat obsolete. In recent years, OVAs have mostly been used to release a few supplementary episodes for already popular TV anime.
Chibis: Like OVAs, official anime art work with characters drawn “chibi” has by no means disappeared – it’s just way less common that it used to be. If you look at the promo art for anime from the 90s or early 2000s, chibi pictures are very common. I remember them being the rage when I was a new fan and I loved collecting chibi pictures from all the old series I loved (which was pretty easy since there were so many!) Nowadays, I only see such promo art once in a while. As to why, I’m not sure…perhaps the popularity of moe provides enough cuteness so chibis are no longer necessary XD
Fansubs less than 170MB: Does anybody remember the days when the standard size for a single episode anime fansub file (usually in AVI format) was 170MB, so three episodes would burn perfectly on a 700MB CD? Now I’d say the standard anime fansub for one episode is a 250-350MB MKV file. The size of the average fansub episode has increased drastically over the years. There’s a few understandable reasons for it – all anime shifting to HD, advancing technology for bigger but better quality video, external hard drives and flash drives overtaking CD and DVD burning, and the advent of streaming which lessens the demand for sub-par fansub files.
Fan sites: Since I’ve already written a full post about the death of anime fan sites, I’ll keep it brief here. If anyone was an anime fan before the mid-2000s, you probably noticed that anime fan sites were what you browsed through instead of blogs, Twitter, and the like. There were tons of free sharing web hosts that fans would sign up with and make their own online shrines for their favorite series and characters, posting pictures, info, mp3s, quizzes, and other unique content. It’s pretty obvious that Web 2.0 sites along with Google, Wikipedia, YouTube, Twitter, etc., are what caused fan sites to become obsolete. You no longer need to visit so-and-so’s anime shrine for screencaps and images because a quick Google image search will give you better results. You no longer need to visit another fan’s site to see the opening for such-and-such anime because you can find them all on YouTube. And you no longer need to browse through fan listings for sites with info on any particular anime because Wiki can give you everything. As someone who still owns and sporadically updates her old fan site, I can’t help but feel a bit saddened at their demise.
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If you can think of any other piece of the anime world that’s either faded or completely disappeared over the past decade, feel free to share it in the comments. Again, I’m looking for things that aren’t totally obvious ;)
By anime sites, do you mean shit like Crunchyroll and ZOMG? I still use those sites (though apparently I pay for Crunchyroll??? Didn’t find that out till a few days ago. Apparently I’d been paying for months without using it).
Another thing that’s disappeared is time to watch anime and actual good anime.
No, she means small, fan created sites. Most of them were usually dedicated to a specific character or series. Freewebs hosted a lot of them. Here’s an example: http://www.freewebs.com/misty_fan/
that last bit about the disappearance of time to watch anime is oh so true :(
Yes, as Myna said, I don’t mean those kinds of sites; I mean fan sites that used to be popular in the late 90s/early 2000s. They would often have large archives of images, info, media, etc., for a particular series or character.
And yes, I agree that time to watch anime has disappeared. But that’s mostly because my life has gotten busier and there’s much easier access to anime.
I don’t think the number of actual good anime has decreased significantly. It may just seem that way because more anime is being produced in recent years that ever before, plus there’s much easier access to new anime, so it’s harder to weed out the good ones.
Lol. XD Don’t you ever check your bills? Also, I think the lack of time to watch anime is attributed to A) growing older and B) more anime to watch. What I mean is that there is A TON more anime now than there was 5 years ago, but we still only have 24 hours in a day, so one must be more choosy of what we watch. Not only that, but as you gain more experience, you can kinda weed out the bad ones so you don’t waste your time on something you know you won’t like anyway.
The anime series, Sket Dance, has eyecatches actually. It also seems most of the OVAs I see are of the hentai variety. I also know that the recent volumes of Air Gear manga had OADs. They were mostly supplementary & animated versions of manga-only storylines, though it does tease what a new season would look like.
Regarding fan sites, I do agree that Wiki and Wikia literally killed off most fan sites. I remember when I first got into BLEACH. There was a great fansite on the series that I frequented.
I didn’t know Sket Dance has eyecatches. But isn’t it a shonen series that’s going to run longer than your average 13-26 episode series? Shonen series have mostly been the exception as far as keeping eyecatches, as I mentioned about One Piece and Pokemon.
Yeah, Wiki is one of the major contributors for making fan sites obsolete. In a way it’s nice to have all that info conveniently available on one web site, but it makes it less human and individualized at the same time.
Yeah, OVAs definitely fell to the wayside a bit. When I discovered that Legend of Galactic Heroes (which I need to watch) was an OVA consisting of 110 episodes, I was really surprised.
I miss eyecatches. The latest anime I saw that had them was Heartcatch! PreCure, but the most recent one I saw were the Allison and Lillia eyecatches. Cowboy Bebop has the best ones ever though.
Oh, a thing in anime that I think has disappeared is sequels/multiple season under one title. I.E. Cardcaptor Sakura.
Whoa, that is one long OVA! I didn’t even know they could be that long.
I thought the Allison & Lillia eyecatch was pretty much just the series’ logo? But I may have forgotten since it’s been a few years since I watched it.
A single title that goes beyond 26 episodes in a continuous series is actually a very good addition to the list. You’re right, I remember a lot of older anime having random episode counts, like Cardcaptor Sakura with 70 episodes, Utena with 39 episodes, Fushigi Yuugi with 52 episodes, and the second part of Magic Knight Rayearth with 29 episodes. On the other hand, just about every series I’ve watched in the past five years is either 11-13 episodes or 22-26 episodes. My guess as to a reason for it is that, with the advent of anime TV series being a short 11-13 episodes, it allows companies to take risks with new anime under a smaller budget than a full 26 episode series would. So most companies have been concentrating on doing that – producing a variety of short ~12 episode series and only making sequels of the popular ones later on when they see how sales have done. Continuing with a series for longer than a full season has simply become more risky compared to the aforementioned option.
I beg to differ on eyecatches. Several recent anime still retain this tradition. Examples from this season would be Kami-sama no Memochou, Croisee, Itsuka Tenma no Kuro Usagi and Sacred Seven. It is not becoming less common, but more like it is no longer an obligation or neccesary.
Yeah, the fansite…I remember the time when anipike was still around and I browsed through Gundam Wing fansites; that’s how I started learning English too.
I’m watching KamiMemo and Croisee, but what they have as eyecatches aren’t really like the eyecatches of the old days. Old eyecatches were fully animated sequences showing the characters doing something, or they’d at least flash images of original artwork that was different in every episode (like the Slayers and Shakugan no Shana eyecatches). The ones for KamiMemo and Croisee are basically just the series logo over and over. You could call them eyecatches but they don’t have the same “omake” feel to them.
OMG, I used to visit AniPike all the time XD So nostalgic.
Nowadays you can probably get the same video quality in a 120mb .mkv as the 170mb .avi files used to be. If you want to give your eyes a real treat, however, it’s certainly worth downloading the 250mb files. 350mb is a little excessive for a normal episode (unless you’re talking about like 1080p, in which case each episode can be 1gb+…).
Besides, nobody burns anime to CDs anymore. XD I do remember, however, that 26 170mb episodes seemed to fit perfectly on a DVD. I’ve stopped burning anime in the past year or so since I’m running out of places to store them, but I still remember how frustrated I’d get when the series I was trying to burn was juuuuust 50mb too big to fit onto a single DVD. =.=;;
Yeah, LOL, I still have two binders full of anime I burned onto CD and DVD. And I also remember very well how frustrated I’d get when I wouldn’t have quite enough space on the DVD for the full series and had to waste another disc just for one or two episodes XD It also didn’t help that the CD burner on my old computer was kind of buggy and would sometimes mess up a burn midway because one of the files was too large. I had to wasted so many CDs and DVDs because of that XP External hard drives and flash drives make things so much easier nowadays!
I’m definitely happy about the shift to thinpaks & boxed sets. Bought all my Ghost in the Shell & Cowboy Bebop individually & they cost me a pretty penny. Two things I’ve noticed: the disappearance of brick & mortar anime-related hobby stores (this is pretty obvious) & the disappearance of the adult-only/geek-only atmosphere at conventions. When I first started going to cons about 7 years ago, it was rare to see kids or even teenagers attending. Now you see them all the time as certain anime become very mainstream, and as internet memes become more popular convention themes (Nyancat, urgh…). I’m glad more people are attending cons, but it does create a weird demographic split.
Yeah, the disappearance of little privately owned anime/hobby stores is a result of the times we live in more than anything. I was reminded of this recently when Anime Plus, my local anime store since I first got into anime eleven years ago, finally shut down not too long ago. I’ve been relying on online stores more and more to get my anime products.
Since I probably haven’t attended as many conventions as you have, I haven’t really noticed the demographic change. But from what you’ve been telling me, not just at cons but at your cosplay gatherings, it’s certainly a good point and just another result of the technology-centered lifestyle of the next generation.
It is quite sad that fansites have mostly disappeared from the internet; I was a big fan of them and they were very useful for my fanfiction research.
There’s something I also noticed but I’m sure most people have also noticed since its not very subtle: Today, Pokemon is the only anime that has its own openings translated into other languages. Before, in the 80’s, it was very current to see anime like Dragonball (for example in France) sung in French at the time.
Ah, the days of ‘YI YO, YI YO!’ are over…
That said, I think the licensing/dubbing companies don’t even bother doing that anymore, as people start to accept Japanese in their anime more and more (even in subs nowadays). Besides, it’s near-impossible to translate an opening literally into another language while keeping its tune, and extremely hard to create a new tune that fits with the opening. The best bet would be to create another opening, but I guess companies are getting lazy…
Also, eyecatches are by no means less common than they were before. More than half of the shows this season probably have eye catches – Yuru Yuri, Ao no Exorcist, Nichijou, Tiger & Bunny, Steins;Gate, Sacred Seven, Itsuka Tenma no Kuro Usagi, Kami-sama no Memochou, Croisée… the list goes on. An eyecatch can be anything, really, that catches the viewers attention back to the show after a commercial break. There’s no reason why simply showing the logo isn’t an eyecatch – and besides, weren’t those in common use a decade ago as well?
I guess what I mean is that eyecatches haven’t disappeared so much as gotten “plainer” than they used to be. As I mentioned in my comment to Jellyfish Marine above, it used to be the norm for eyecatches to show actual unique animation footage or images that change episode by episode. Showing just the show’s logo has become the norm now.
I think the reason only Pokemon gets its opening translated into other languages is because it’s so massively popular internationally compared to other anime. It’s not even marketed as anime. For average anime aired on TV, it’s most likely the preference of the fans to keep the openings and endings in Japanese rather than dub them I know Funimation has sometimes made dubbed versions of their openings, but for the most part only the mainstreamed kids anime like Pokemon and Yu-Gi-Oh! get their songs translated.
Most of the fansubs that i know upload 2 or 3 versions of their anime: HD (250mb+), standard (170mb) and light (90mb); if a fansub doesn’t have a light version of an anime, there’s always a light-anime upload group who uploads light versions of those series, from 50 to 90 mb each Ep. I Think this is due to the lack of bandwidth in most hispanic-speaking countries.
And i would like to see more uncensored violence like in old-school anime.
That’s true, a lot of times a series will get multiple releases for a single fansubbed episode for various sizes. But even so, I still rarely see the 170MB size anymore and AVIs are becoming rarer. Now that I have a better computer I prefer to download the larger and better quality files. But I know there are plenty who don’t have the computer power for it so I’m glad fansubbers still think of them and make light releases =)
Those are all very true… The lack of eyecatches avoids a break in the show though, so when you see the episode without commercials (fansub, DVD), then it looks as a single item with nothing to break it. We used to watch everything on TV before, with with new technologies, not so much I guess…
OVAs are much less now… But you are are right about anime show standards coming down to 11-13 eps. I used to dislike series that were too short, and preferred the 24 ep ones, but the quality has been really good. So it’s not too bad, and probably much easier (and cheaper) for anime companies to develop.
The jump in file size is very impressive. I’ve seen 24min episodes now taking 500MB space :S Good thing we can keep up with that, but it is a big change. Anyway, good quality is always worth it, so it’s not that bad :)
I’ve noticed changes in the anime itself, in the way it is drawn. Probably goes back to having HD and higher resolutions. I’ve noticed the eyes tend to have greater detail (more “shine” and reflections), as well as more detailed clothing. Although, that is a normal change, so defining “lesser quality” as disappearing is not really what you’re looking for >.<
What I have seen is a radical change in the message that anime for kids gives out to the public. Well, I've seen the change in western cartoons and kid shows as well. They used to teach something, or try to always give some kind of positive teaching. They often had a little part in the end as well to spell out what the message was. I've seen that kids anime has become quite complex (I know kids think differently now), and tends to rely more on antics for fun only, than trying to teach something to the kids. That's my impression at least, and I find that loss somewhat regrettable :(
Yeah, anime going HD and becoming digitally animated rather than animated with cels has increased the overall detail and quality of the medium greatly.
I actually haven’t noticed much of a change in kids anime. I’ve been watching Pokemon, Naruto, Digimon, and One Piece for years and they’ve remained pretty much the same – they still have good moral messages amongst complex fantasy and action. Pokemon is the only exception but that’s because it’s marketed for the international audience rather than the Japanese audience.
Never really noticed consciously that eye catches were gone. Although that might technically have to do with the fact that what I am watching has them still.
I can’t comment on OVA’s since I don’t watch many. Anime box sets and the such I can’t comment on as I sadly never have bought any anime ever.
As for the file size of anime, it was gonna happen. I remember putting episodes of anime in the RMVB format onto CD’s. I think I fit like seven episodes on average or so. I sorta stopped with the practice of putting anime onto a CD or backing it up because it felt wrong in my moral code. I only have like four series still backed up on discs if I recall.
Chibi’s are something I recently thought about. I was thinking back to Get backers and remembered how Ginji would turn into a chibi from time to time. What really made me think about it was the title of the manga Karin in the west, Chibi Vampire. I just thought to myself “When was the last time I actually saw a chibi?”
Hah, I remember the RMVB format XD They were such small files but the quality wasn’t all that bad for back then.
Chibis haven’t so much disappeared from anime episodes, especially comedy series, as opposed to anime promo art. Lots of old series that never had chibis in the actual episodes would have chibis in promo artwork. You hardly see chibis in promo art anymore.
Ecchi/light hentai is taking over all good anime… The main annoying fact about this is that there are soo many lame anime out now centered around a male protaganist with a good storyling surrounding him and then the storyling gets left behind just to expand the main character’s harem and make all the girls fall in love with the male. The plot of these anime never go anywhere, except sometimes when the main character decides which girl he prefers :| And Higurashi no naku koro ni is being slaughtered with the new “Kira” series turning a serious, dark, mystery anime into a magical girl, Ecchi anime when the manga has a few arcs which were never animated. Fairy tail anime has spent quite as bit of time on focusing on Lucy’s body in recent episodes aswell as giving wendy a supply of suggestive poses and a tiny miniskirt. Kenichi History’s strongest deciple chapters are half full of exagerations of the leading female characters body aswell as virtually all of the covers being light hentai of one of the female characters. The series always had a small bit of Ecchi, but now it’s more to do with Ecchi than martial arts as you can see here. An epic battle had been going on for the last several chapters but all we get to see if Miu’s body for several pages then a flashback…
http://www.mangareader.net/historys-strongest-disciple-kenichi/440/3
“Ecchi/light hentai is taking over all good anime…”
It’s true. Add moe moe kyun~ to that list, too.
I would agree that we’ve been seeing more ecchi/fan service anime in recent years. But I wouldn’t say it’s overtaking anime – I personally don’t like a lot of ecchi in my anime yet I’ve been able to watch tons of new anime every season without having to see any fan service. Sure, it’s sometimes inserted into non-ecchi series which is annoying, but if it doesn’t take away too much from the other good qualities of the series, I can forgive it. The majority of series that air each season are not what I’d call ecchi so I can’t say that genre has taken over. It’s just more prevalent than it used to be because more anime is being produced in recent years than it used to be so quality series are harder to pick out.
Some of the best days of my youth were spent on an anime fansite, but time took it’s toll on that too and made it’s forum members bitter and horrible people because people spent more time on blogs.
As for the rest of those things I can’t say I miss them. Maybe small fansubs, but definitely not the art style that is chibi (I’m a seinen fan, I’ve never been into the cute as I have been with the bloody).
I used to spend so much time on fan sites too, others and my own. I wouldn’t say blogs are better or worse…just different.
I used to love chibis when I was a new fan but eventually I just kinda became neutral to them. I could still love chibi images though, it just depends on the picture and the character(s).
Yuru Yuri has an eyecatch and it’s fron this season.
Haven’t been watching that series but that’s good to know.
Yes, the whole economic crisis has definately changed a lot of things, especially the Anime Industry. This is the reason OVAs remain primarily on DVDs releases since they are a lot cheaper and encourage DVD sales.
Fansites are something nostgalic and something in the past. Back then, I remember Dreamweaver or some kind of HTML editor to make my own Pokemon fan site (which doesn’t exist anymore). I feel that we don’t see these anymore since Anime Blogging has in a way make them very obscure. Also content management systems like WordPress and Joomla made it unnecessary to code each page manually and the use of themes make it easier to have a good looking design up in no time.
Fansubs getting bigger is inevitable with technological advancements as custom typefaces, softsubs and higher picture quality. Unfortinately, playing them got more demanding that old computers have a difficult time playing these files already. While the transition to 10-bit H264 files may solve the file size problems, it only ups the requirements needed to play these files.
Lastly, the phasing out of individual releases was predictable since it’s a somewhat outdated business practice at least for R1… But, you still see them with a few recent releases. The North American release of K-ON comes in mind and they may have a limited edition release.
Anyways, excuse my excessive boy talk in this comment since some of these points were interesting from my experience.
That’s a good point that including OVA episodes on the BD/DVDs increases sales for those BD/DVDs. It would be less profitable if the OVA episodes were released separately.
Blogs, LJ, Tumblr, etc., make it very easy for people to have a professional looking site up in no time. Compared to the days of fan sites, I used to be in awe of people who had good looking sites because I knew they had to make it all from scratch and have some kind of web building knowledge. Now it’s become something that anyone can do with no advanced knowledge, which is nice but takes some of the magic out of it =/
Yeah, I’m not sure why Bandai is releasing K-ON! on individual volumes. I would be more inclined to buy the box set.
In a sense, yes the use of prebuilt themes on blogs take the fun out of designing a site… but still, I design my blog’s theme through extensive modifications of CSS and PHP code. So, there is still a lot one can do on making a new design although you need a bit more skill than just HTML.
Fansites, those were the good ‘ol days for sure. Countless sites were created during a single week on summer break by some kid who happened across SAILOR MOON on television. They may not have all been aesthetically pleasing, and they may not have all been frequently updated, but each fansite had its own flavor or personality. Others sprung up as a product of anime link sites (“Please vote for my site!”), like Anime Web Turnpike; link sites used to number in the hundreds I’m sure.
The loss of individual DVDs is a little more complicated, I think. Technically, individual volumes make more money, but that’s only if the market supports them. For about five years now, it hasn’t… so “slim cases” and box sets have become the norm. Distributors gotta move those units, and it doesn’t help if with each subsequent DVD volume, less and less units of a title are sold.
That’s the market/return-on-investment angle. There’s also the release window, which you mention. Anime fans are an impatient bunch, and have to have their stuff now (or else). DVD sets compress the release window as much as is halfway reasonable to pacify fans and prevent them from “shopping” elsewhere, while still trying to squeak out an honest dollar bill. And it’s like you said, the next step beyond this was the simulcast formula, or streaming formula… which, personally, I’m not in tremendous favor of considering it doesn’t actually make any industry partner any real money.
Anime fan sites are gone, though I don’t know why. I guess because it’s depersonalized. Luckily, blogs are very much alive, which is much more personal, even though a single blog only has a few authors at most. I’m relatively new to blogging, so I don’t know the whole history behind it and what I’ve heard is that blogging is not nearly as popular as it used to be, but from what I can tell from my own personal experience, blogging is just another form of social networking.
I still see eyecatches in today’s anime, like Oniichan no Koto. Not as popular as they used to be, but I’m kinda glad they’re gone since they were distracting. Now they are mostly used in ecchi anime, for pandering fan service, of course.
The increased file size is a given as the visual and audio quality in anime increase, from SD to HD to BD. When I watch some old anime from the early 2000s, I chuckle when I see pillar boxing on either side.
There is still a Haruhi dedicated fan site. However, it has been a little inactive besides the forums… And even that is getting slower.
And yeah. I kinda miss those things as well.
The last Eye-catcher I ever saw on a more recent Anime was on Fma:Brotherhood
Okay this may be kinda stupid to ask you, and it’s not really pertaining to the subject at discussion here, but what is the anime featured above in the screenshot? The art is beautiful and so are the colors, I’d love to watch it.
Sorry if I’m annoying you D:
Sorry for the late reply. The anime in that picture is Puella Magi Madoka Magica. It’s a series that aired earlier this year in Japan and has been one of 2011’s biggest hits.
Wait.. THAT’S Puella Magi Modoka Magica?
The posters I’ve seen makes the anime look really colorful, girly, and filled with lolis, which is why I avoided it,
The colors in that picture are seem contemporary and monotone, almost likened to a Makoto Shinkai film, (well, not the drawings anyway.) I’ll give it a shot, my friend reccomended it to me nonetheless. Thanks for taking the time to answer.