Do you love old anime and manga? Maybe it's not just nostalgia.

Hello everyone :) hope you're have a wonderful day I wanted to write this post in continuation to the topic of why are old school anime (or just old anime) appealing and how it's not just nostalgia, in the previous post I mentioned how they appeal even to people who didn't grow up with them, and I talked about few reasons, in this post I'll delve a bit deeper into the reasons because I felt that the topic deserves more attention. Old anime still fascinates people of all ages and tastes, Youtube is full of videos with different themes and aesthetics showcasing scenes from old anime, there's something deep and captivating about them that stood the test of time, this -in my opinion- could be -in many cases- due to objective reasons

1. Old anime have more soul: Most old anime were hand-drawn, artists had to animate each scene on transparent sheets called cels, this process required drawing the scene frame by frame until the scene is animated, and being fully hand-drawn this caused imperfections and variations in the texture and form, resulting in a scene that looks more human and organic than the digital process which modern anime use, another edge that hand-drawn anime have is that characters look more distinct and have more personalities and better facial structres, especially with the modern trend in anime which glazes the charachters with the shiny plastic brightness looks.
notice how the modern digital art(up) looks shiny plastic and somehow artificial.


2. Colors were more subtle, and suited the genre better: While artists back then didn't have many color options like the ones that apps offer today, those colors had more depth, and were more natural and closer to the human eye to recognize and associate with the mood that the anime is trying to deliver, this is apparent in the use of earth, smoky and muted color tones, to test this just pick few old anime and few modern ones of similar genre and video quality and compare the colors used in natural environments for example, you'll notice that old anime looks better. this could be extended to all genre, for example no modern anime titles of the cyperbunk genre could be compared in the feelings to the old anime like Akira and Fist of the North Star, the use of neon-soaked shadows, deep shadows, and film noir lighting in old anime communicate the feeling better than the digital way which feels more like rendering.
colors and artstyle in Serial Experiemnt Lain were able to depict the dark and depressing atmosphere of the anime.


3. Old anime have better backgrounds: The backgrounds in old anime are works of art on their own, from forests to temples, from cities to the space, old anime artists and studios paid a lot of attention to details, it's common to see a beautiful background of trees in the garden, or the sea behind the road, or a cluster of village houses, while moving from a scene to another, these background help immerse the viewer in the world of that particular anime, creating an atmosphere the boosts the emotions it tries to portray.
no matter which genre you prefer, old anime backgrounds will have the things you like.


4. Characters in old anime were more unique: Old anime suffered less from the same-face syndrom that modern anime have due to digital production, for some reasons, probably because character designs weren't as much standarized as to day, old anime had more room for creativity when it came to nose shapes, eye spacing, facial designs, and fashion, on the other hand, modern anime, especially commercial or fan service ones, use flat designs for charachters, or copy designs of characters from other shows, that's why we see memes about anime characters living in another anime shows worlds, because a lot of them look alike.
notice the same face syndrom in many modern anime, while all animated works (anime both old and new, cartoons, 3D animations, etc...) may use references or inspirations from other works (Studio Ghibli used its own character designs in many works) it's usually to build the character brand and identity of the studio, however, moder anime takes this to the extreme.


5. Stories were more philosophical and experimental: Many great stories we know from anime came prior to the 2010s, an era when authors experimented more, probably due to what was going on in the Japanese society, that's why we have themes revolving around existentialism, memory, justice, loss, innovation, etc... seen in anime like Neon Genesis Evangelion, Serial Experiments Lain, Death Note, Monster and others, these stories pushed the artists too to experiment in ways to portray the atmosphere and feelings necessary to the story.
stories like Neon Genesis Evangelion are still cheriched to this day by anime fans.


6. More room to silence and cinematic shots: As production back then faced constraints, this forced artists to find creative solutions to get around the limitations in budget and tools, thus relying on still and silent shots, mood, and lighting, resulting in more poetic and cinematic shots and helping the viewer taking moments to immerse themselves in the scene, rather than the constant movements and fast actions in modern anime.
Castle in the Sky by Studio Ghibli especially the Japanese version (not the English dubbed one) is noticed for the ability to deliver feelings through silence.