I'm 4 years older then Bennet The Sage the host of the Anime Abandon YouTube series. He's basically the poster child on YouTube for the generation of Anime fans who view the 90s and very early 2000s as the Golden Age of Anime based on their personal nostalgia. He started Anime Abandon in 2011 with a brief rant about how he can't enjoy current Anime at all, yet I've defined that same year as when my personal golden age of Anime began and I'm 4 years his Senpai.
About half the Anime I've watched came out in that year or since, and likewise half the shows I've given a 10 out of 10. And only about 60 of the over 300 Anime I've completed came out before the year 2000. Only one of the rotating group of Anime that I have marked as a Favorite on MAL is pre-2000 (Nausicaa of The Valley of The Wind) though one other is part of a franchise that started before then (The 3rd Pokemon Movie).
My taste in Pokemon reflects my age, I have a small part of myself that can relate to the original 151 purests, and my top two movies are ones that still had Misty in-spite my not liking Misty herself very much. However I've found value in every era of Pokemon.
It also shows my age that I can remember seeing the DiC Dub of Sailor Moon on American TV before it was ever on Toonami. And that I rather casually watched the Namek through Cell sagas of DBZ when they originally aired on Toonami. And during the 2000s I occasionally got into things like Noir and Witch Hunter Robin and Code Geass and Gundam 00 and Death Note. And then took an interest in Lupin III when I first got into BlackCoatPress in 2012.
But besides a few other random things that was about the extent of my interest in Anime prior to 2014. But in that year I took an interest in the Sailor Moon revival, and that lead to me watching Madoka and Utena on Hulu, which lead to me watching Rose of Versailles and Gankutsuou and more. But it wasn't till 2016 I started actually paying attention to anything currently airing.
Every other Nerdy interest of mine somewhat reflects my age, though I've never been someone hating what's current for not being exactly like what I grew up on. But when it comes to Pro-Wrestling I'm primarily Nostalgic for the Attitude era, when it comes to Video Games I like 8 and 16 Bit the best, and when it comes to DC Comics I idealize the Crisis To Crisis era for the most part. If you asked me what Saturday Morning kids Cartoon shows I fondly remember, I'd say Garfield and Friends, Tiny Toons, Animaniacs, Rugrats, and of course Pokemon. Buffy The Vampire Slayer was once my favorite TV show, and I have some Power Rangers Nostalgia.
So why is it that my taste in Anime seems like that of someone 10-15 years younger then me?
There are some non Anime recent stuff I've liked. Pretty Little Liars is now my favorite western TV show. Phineas and Ferb is a more recent kid's cartoon I enjoyed a lot. But even those were on the way out when the Anime fixation kicked into high gear.
Is there maybe a reason why having that particular taste in western media of the 90s would lead to preferring the last decade when it comes to Anime? After all the people who were full Otaku then probably felt a disconnect with American media similar to what I feel now. Is there some weird way in which Japan and America's sensibilities have swapped?
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