Anime/Manga - Discuss Japanese cartoons and comics here; NO CULTURE WAR DOOMPOSTING!

[Seething Bazelgeuse]

return to high school anime. post apocalypse settings.

Personally, I hope it's a return to both.

Mecha costs way too much to animate

This will also never not piss me off. Even modern Gundam is plagued by 3d models. I couldn't watch Aldnoah.Zero because of it. Just filled with fucking 3d models dropped into 2d scenes and it was so distracting.

 

[Sleazy Car Salesman]

Mecha costs way too much to animate, even middle of the road 3D models get shat on repeatedly, so I doubt it will return. Mahou Shoujo seemingly didn't get as much traction when studios went for it after Madoka's success (holy shit, 15 year ago). It's not impossible that they'll try again though.

Just about the only magical girl property that's still around is Precure, which is effectively the Gundam of magical girls show that shit will never die.

However the reincarnation isekai subgenre of Otome Game villainess isekai seems to grow year on year and it doesn't seem to be losing steam.

 

[God of Nothing]

High school 'something' (either romance, shonen, horror) will never go away, it's a staple; but we might get more battle shonen centered around schools, isekai are just battle shonen with a fantasy coating. Fantasy anime may get the short end of the stick because of the close association with isekai and the inevitable comparisons with Frieren, so the genre may be left alone for a while - unfortunately.

I'm betting on a wave of mecha anime driven by Gundam's 50 year anniversary in 2029. Bandai/Sunrise is already warming up with teasers, commemorative videos and partnerships (the Hololive Gundams as an example). You can bet authors will pivot to that genre, chasing the popularity. We might get our scifi, post-apoc and silly space operas because of that!

And maybe a ressurgence of mahou shoujo: there's a lot of anime about witches for a while now, adapting the theme is pretty easy. It doesn't even need to pull a Madoka, a slightly edgy/more mature mahou shoujo from the get go would do the job pretty well. Uma Musume already has proven how grown-ass men will watch cute girls doing silly things if there are high stakes and fierce competition.

We need more high-school street gang MMA shit. Kenichi was recently storytime'd on /a/ and the entire Ragnarok arc should've been the whole manga. That was fucking comfy.