Early 2000s Anime is overdue for it's Nostalgia Boom.

After stumbling upon and enjoying Comic Party and it's sequel Comic Party Revolution I watched some YouTube videos discussing the franchise from 4-6 years ago.  And one of them lamented how Anime from about 2000-2004 is pretty neglected in online discussion for being both too old to be modern but not old enough to be Retro.  And I remember feeling the same way at about when those videos were made as I lamented the lack of online Fandom appreciation for shows like Noir and Witch Hunter Robin.

But now the 20 year Nostalgia cycle for that era of Anime should be in effect, yet it seems to be slow in starting.

And the thing is at that time Nostalgia for other stuff of that era was already taking off.  Maybe the Star Wars Prequels Nostalgia boom was bumped up by getting the new Disney stuff, but there was already a spiked up interest in Raimi's Spider-Man movies and other stuff.

The Internet has always been to a large extent driven by Nostalgia, and I'm fascinated by how we've entered the era where the Nostalgia the internet celebrates now includes Nostalgia for the early Internet itself.  YouTube videos documenting Internet mysteries and old Fandom Dramas, even whole channels getting most of their views from that kind of content.

Anime more then most mediums was going through particular growing pains at this time, chiefly the transition from Traditional to Digital Animation.  However with Video Games there was also once a narrative about the awkwardness of early fully 3D games but now those aesthetics have become charming and nostalgic.  I've been feeling that way about early Japanese Digital Animation for awhile and I was not actually into much of it at the time.

Part of the problem may be how we forget that the Western Fandom was frequently behind, sometimes not getting these shows till a whole 5 years later.  So even if today Western Otaku are always citing the Japanese airdates because that's what's on MAL and ANN and AniDB in many cases our actual memories of these shows aren't 20 years old yet, two decades ago today we were mostly still getting delayed releases of 90s stuff.  I'm pretty my first experience with Noir started in 2005.  But we did make a big deal out of 2016 being the 20th anniversary of Pokémon even though it didn't make it's American debut till late 1998.

A certain type of Western Anime fan resents this era for being when MOE was truly taking over.  A lot of the redemption arc MOE has seen began with TrixieTheGoldenWitch leading the charge in singing the praises of K-On.  So the MOE stuff that predates KyoAni's Golden Age often simply gets neglected rather then hated or defended.

I want to play a role in getting some of these classics the fresh perspective they deserve.  Rumbling Hearts and Comic Party Revolution are among some shows recently added to Crunchyroll.  Sadly the original Comic Party and To Heart and Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha and Madlax are still lacking an official streaming option, while Noir and Pretear and Witch Hunter Robin are still only on Funimation a site that's supposedly being phased out. [Update: all three of those shows are on CR now.]

And then there is the subplot of what this era was for certain long running shows.  For Pokémon this is principally the Johto and early Advanced Generation including the Pokémon Chronicles side series and specials like Legend of Thunder and Mewtwo Returns.  

Probably the most not neglected stuff from this era are the long running Shonen that started then, Naruto, One Peice, Yugioh, Inyuasha ect which are kinds of shows I've personally never been into.

But I have this year been getting into Detective Conan, and for that show this era largely is the Vermouth Arc, from her introduction in episode 176 in January of 2000 to the big epic showdown in episode 345 in January of 2004, an arc that produced a lot of great episodes.  The movies during this era are 4 through 9 of which only movie 6 I wouldn't rank in the upper teir of Conan films.  And interestingly episode 304 a 2 hour special from January 2003 is actually connected to the most recent movie 25 the Bride of Halloween.

But thinking about a show I discovered recently reminds me that I need to watch more myself, other Anime based on Leaf or other early VNs, and Steel Angel Kurumi being another work from the same studio as To Heart and Comic Party.  And as a fan of Comedy there are more Nabeshin shows I need check out as well.  Galaxy Angel has also interested me for awhile but I keep putting it off.