Here’s a little observation I’ve made: when something gets “too” popular, it will peak then rapidly lose popularity for a number of years proportional to how trendy it was, but within 12-15 years this negative stigma will wear off making a comeback possible. When I first arrived in Japan in 1991, the country was in the middle of a “white car boom,” when it seemed that every car on the street was white, except Ferraris, which were red. After a few years of this people got sick of white, suddenly choosing cars of every possible color and hue, although by now enough time has passed that white is acceptable again. The same thing happened with the oversized blocky glasses my wife used to wear back when we were dating: they become hilariously out-of-fashion, though they’re starting to come back now.This rule of “popularity bubbles” may apply to anime as well. I like to find random images for my Twitter followers, and when I posted this graphic by a Japanese artist that showed what K-On! might have looked like if it had been animated in the 90s, 80s, 70s and 60s, the reaction I got was interesting. Most people liked the signature facial shading and unique eyes of the 80s version of Mio, the curvy simplicity of the 70s version and the old-school Astro Boy-era 60s design, but everyone detested the Saber Marionette-esque 90s picture. Is this because 90s anime designs are currently at the low point in their post-“popularity bubble” crash? Will we someday look at the current generation of moe anime and consider it terribly dated, before rediscovering it a few years later? Some interesting questions worth pondering…
Mio from K-On!, as she might look if the show had been created in past eras. Which is your favorite?
