Spring Season 2024

[Ryllharu]

Comparing individual anime isn't useful anyway. I'd stay with the claim: The number of standouts was greater back then and has been decreasing.

This is your nostalgia bias. That's why I also mentioned Trigun (1998) and Galaxy Angel (2001, 2002, 2003, 2004) that were both made by Madhouse. The first hailed as one of their true masterpieces. The second is in a similar genre to Rizelmine (slapstick comedy) and with a similar visual aesthetic but is substantially better animated. Rizelmine looks like trash to anyone being fair about it. It uses shortcuts that fans tear series apart over today for being shit or lazy animation. Pan, mouth flaps, pan back, mouth flaps while staying on the same key frame for long stretches. It certainly does not look better than gag anime today.

You know what else aired in Spring 2002? .hack/sign, Chobits (also by Madhouse), Azumanga Diaoh, Tenshi na Konamaiki, and the original Tokyo Mew Mew. All highly acclaimed, well remembered (maybe not Tenshi na Konamaiki, but I still like that one), and continuing to come up in conversation or memes. Not for being visual powerhouses. They're plain, their line art is blurry, and backgrounds are full of soft focus.

The overall floor for visual quality has been raised whether you want to admit it or not.

Then, how many people remember Baby Baa-chan, Bakutou Sengen Daigander, Bakutou Sengen Daigander, Full Moon o Sagashite (I do), Happy Lesson, The Twelve Kingdoms (more people should), King of Bandit Jing, Tenchi Muyou! GXP, Tokyo Underground? Not a lot.

You can argue that this somehow translates to "less standouts" but that's also not true. There's just fewer series you're interested in today. I have the same problem. I dropped hack/sign back then. I watched maybe 5 episodes of Tokyo Mew Mew back then because I've never been into Precure-style shows. People gushed over a few shows the last three seasons that I couldn't stand more than a single episode.

You try to make this argument every season, and it simply isn't true because you're either moving the goalposts, viewing everything through nostalgia bias, or simply unaware of the absolute trash the industry used to put out. I watched 10 series in a single season just a few seasons ago, which is more than I used to ever consider in the mid-2000s.