2010: ANIME IS DEAD, LONG LIVE ANIME

Mike (@cinco_bajeena), a lapsed anime blogger, has the same origin story as plenty of other fans of a certain geography and age: a cloudy mix of Vampire Hunter D, Ghost in the Shell, Akira, and Macross Plus. You can occasionally find the telltale byline otou-san at Altair & Vega and Sea Slugs until his own blog returns from the deep again, as it probably will someday.

---

One of the calling cards of the aging anime fan, a relatively new species in the West, is his insistence that they just don't make 'em like they used to. And in the 21st century, a case could definitely be made for that. While the OVAs of the late 80s and early 90s heralded an anything-goes era of experimentation where the spectacular outweighed the sensical, anime in the post-industry-collapse world is increasingly marked by formula and safety: works that guarantee a hardcore otaku audience yet alienate other potential consumers.

But we've heard all that before. Years as recent as 2010 give us plenty of reason to believe this is the case — there's always hope.

Right?

1982: The Survey Says...!

Relatively new to anime blogging, Kraker hails from the UK and posts sporadically at his blog The Vanishing Trooper Incident on topics such as animators, the studios behind anime, and giant robot shows. Kraker's first major introduction to anime was Ghibli's Spirited Away and he's been hooked ever since. You can find him on Twitter at @Kraker2k posting thoughts on TV shows, anime and video games. (And thank you for the quick fill-in! - Ed.)

---

Well, before I begin I should say as a writer who was born a few years after their chosen year I was in a pickle. There had to be away in which this era of anime could be tackled. It dawned on me that 1982 could be approached from two distinct angles. The first point of entry was to see which anime shows in 1982 were popular with the general viewing audience; after all what better way is there to gauge the waters of 1982 than seeing what the masses were watching? I managed to find a glut of data on 2channel about the viewing figures of many TV shows across the '80s. The second approach was to look at what kinds of shows were favoured by "fans", the sorts of people who went to conventions, made cosplay, and whom one could identify as the more traditional anime fan. For this, the end-of-year rankings from Animage Magazine compiled from its reader's votes came into play.

(Note: I am filling in the 1982 slot after the original author wasn't able to make it, so I've ended up putting this piece together at short notice as best I can.)