FLCL really and truly shouldn't be someone's first foray into anime unless they're already animation fans. It's a strange, strange show that perfectly encapsulates what even
is anime, but it has a lot of animation quirks that fans of the medium will appreciate the first time around. It's definitely a quintessential show for anime fans, yes, but make it like someone's 50th or 100th overall anime.
Now
Golden Boy is where it's at.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=JxjS7IqcUYk
I actually did find FLCL kind of off putting the first time I tried to watch as I was still fairly new to anime, it had to grow on me a bit, it's definitely not beginner level.
Golden Boy really surprised me with how genuinely good it is, a cut above most fanservice stuff.
I gotta ask, what do you guys think the general reception of the medium as a whole is like nowadays?
I know back in the 2000s, while it was still gaining popularity, anime was being viewed by some as being "tacky, cheaply made, and holding no substance" for some people. By the way, that is a direct quote from
this guy, who was one of the most popular people on Youtube during its early inception years. He basically said that liking anime was "beneath him", and many people agreed with him.
It's in a really weird place these days when compared to the 2000s.
I would say in the 2000s it hit higher highs, to think there was a time in which you could find Shonen Jump or issues of Anime Insider at grocery stores is kind of incredible to think about today, as well as there simply being more magazines devoted to it in general, there was more anime on broadcast television, there was also Spirited Away winning the Oscar, which never happened again for an anime film despite many nominations, anime really flirted with going full on mainstream back then, although the culture ultimately wound up going with superheroes instead.
On the flipside to that while you may not be able to find magazines at grocery stores, you can find Hatsune Miku posters and other anime merchandise and DVDs/Blu Rays at Target and Wal-Mart, which is pretty incredible, anime is more easily accessible than it ever was on broadcast TV thanks to streaming and you can find a metric ton of manga at what few book stores are left, more than you would find back then.
It basically sits at the "kid's table" among the pop cultural landscape, it's not mainstream but everyone is at least well aware of it and you can find some stuff alongside your comic book, movie and TV merchandise ala anime Funko Pops, it's not the main focus but it is at least treated as a worthy part of the landscape.
I miss the days when it seemed like the sky was the limit, but not going mainstream has turned out to be a blessing in disguise thanks to Woke and what it's done to other nerd cultures and it's certainly in a way healthier place now that it was around a decade ago, the days when the bottom fell out of the DVD market were bleak, it basically went through a sort of bell curve, with a peak around 2005, a nadir around 2010 and a peak again now, things could be better, but they could also be a lot worse.
I would also say there's real potential for anime and manga to actually go mainstream again in the future considering the way Woke is bleeding everything else dry, look at how much more manga is selling than US comic books at the moment, people could be turning to Japanese media in general in a big way soon as western media becomes Woker and Woker, look at the cultural phenomenon Resident Evil 8 has been, it's been the game that has gotten people the most excited in a while, could it be a sign of things to come?
