new animes are cringe & unoriginal (we are cooked as a society if we refuse to talk about this)
I usually prefer reading manga/manhwa, but I recently felt like watching more anime series... and I'm starting to realise why they tend to turn me off. The ones that have been adapted from comics are usually fine, but the 'original' ones are just agonising to watch.
Disclaimer: I'm not an elitist when it comes to storytelling formats. I just prefer comics for practical reasons, e.g. I can read while commuting without draining my battery/data, I enjoy the little details and author's notes etc. However, I think it says a lot that trying to finish the first episodes of 3 different anime series within 2 days was excruciating.
They're all so... basic. Formulaic. Superficial. Completely forgettable.
A simple glance through my Netflix feed illustrates this: new anime titles that look/sound more mind-numbing than thought-provoking. Aside from the popular manga adaptations (even some of them, in fact), too many come off looking like cheap fast food meant to be consumed quickly and mindlessly, rather than a full-course buffet of compelling stories that have been prepared and sprinkled with love.
I'm not saying anime is only acceptable if it has genius-level storytelling/artistry. I'm just confused why so many people are okay with consuming things that have clearly been produced with little thought or originality.
I understand not wanting to watch things that are 'heavy', but do we not even have standards anymore of what we choose to consume? Do anime watchers not care about their media diet to the point we just take whatever we can get? Does copycat slop and regurgitated tropes not bother them at all?
Also, to make it worse, a lot of anime series that came out recently (especially those with entire-plot-summary-in-title ones) tend to revolve around children being portrayed as romantic interests for adult characters. I know this problem happens in older anime and manga too, but it's become even more glaring now that anime studios using childish dressing, voices, and mannerisms for characters that look like literal children is a deliberate choice, one that is clearly treading the limits of pedo apologists. Why are we normalising this by having these in mainstream platforms?
An adult otaku feeling whatever kind of attraction to characters who are minors (or someone who clearly looks/sounds like one) needs medical and legal intervention. Their predatorial attraction, even if for fictional characters, and so many anime series enabling this, is a social problem. Instead of watching these kinds of animes, I really hope they see a therapist to help them deal with their lol#/shot#con obsession.
Life is too short to consume junk on a regular basis, whether it be food or otherwise.