Back when I was in high school (circa 1994-1998), anime was not only a niche genre, but in most cases it was so obscure most people didn’t even know it existed, much less actually cared about it. It wasn’t found on internet subscription TV services, and it wasn’t something you normally saw on Saturday morning. If you wanted to watch one, you most likely rented whatever was shoved in the bottom shelf of your local Blockbuster, or you’d convince the owner of a mom ‘n pop video store to order a certain title. They were organized in volumes, with two or three episodes per tape, and the store only carried volume 3 of 7. You’d rent it, take it home, and invite a friend over to watch. If you liked it, you dubbed it, because that was the only way you were ever going to own it.

The artwork for these shows were usually a bit more detailed that your home-grown fare, yet with much simpler animation. You didn’t know, or care, because holy shit it was cool. The dude in the cartoon would swing his sword and after a quick flash of light, the bad guy would slowly peel in half, and a shower of blood would spew forth! You never saw that on G.I. Joe!

The first time I was introduced to anime (which like I said, we called “Japanese cartoons”) was at a friend’s house. I believe it was Gunbuster. We watched it and it wasn’t bad. I was personally intrigued by the more adult themes that cartoons in the U.S. just didn’t cover. So of course, being an art student, I was hooked on the things. I watched every anime I could find, which were usually the popular staples like Ninja Scroll, Appleseed, Ghost in the Shell, Street Fighter V, and Akira. Then there were others, like Cowboy Bebop, Dirty Pair, and others that didn’t really do it for me. Not even Dragon Ball Z.

The difference was that back then, unless you were in a very specific circle, you just didn’t know when or where these things would pop up. Your knowledge was limited to a specific few, and the quality differences among them were pretty slim, because if it sucked, it never made it state-side. In other words, all anime rocked.

Fast forward a few years, and I’m in art school. I have a friend and classmate who is Japanese, and much like the newly internet-enlightened world, is obsessed with anime. She loves the shit, and until then, I thought I did too. She introduced me to some of her favorites. More obscure stuff. Stuff she brought over from Japan or imported while she was in the U.S.

It was then that I realized not all anime was good. In fact, quite a bit of it is downright awful. Luckily, prior to Netflix and Crunchyroll and the internet in general, we had a natural buffer in place for what we saw here. Distribution companies were only going to bother localizing the stuff that was worth localizing. None of that filler shit need apply.

But now we are in the Digital Age, where language barriers and thousands of miles don’t matter, and every time I turn around, there is a new “flavor of the month” anime popping up out of nowhere that garners everyone’s attention. I tried keeping up for a while, but I’m older, and in my opinion this shit just keeps getting worse and worse. As a former animation student, the horribly poor technique and cut corners are true testaments of how badly these studios want to get it out the door, so that they can cash in on whatever craze is happening right now. Because in the Digital Age, next week is too late.

And yet, every time one of these hits the virtual shelves, it’s the best thing EVAR!!!!

Somehow, the younger generation is more adept at discerning true anime gold from the piles and piles of shit that are shoveled out in a given year. Or maybe they’re just idiots and don’t know a good show if it punched them in the throat. Whatever it is, it’s beyond me, and I’m hoping that one day, one of these little hipsters could enlighten me.

Then I can finally either have my long-sought “Ah-ha!” moment, or I can tell them they’re full of shit. Either way, I think I’ll finally be satisfied.