Just Anime

I started getting really into animes at around 17. My first show was Neon Genesis, which blew my mind as well as wierded me out. My first shonen was Naruto, which i caught up to in a week. I then went onto my two favorite shows FMA and Cowboy bebop....

Aaanyways, a few years later and I had watched all the major "high quality" animes, as I like to call em. (Wolfs Rain, Last Exile, FMA, samurai champloo ect.) as well as owning the the complete Chibli collection. I then hit a sort of wall. I couldn't find anything that excited me anymore. There where some films here and there (tokyo godfathers..) but I really felt I had seen the best there where to offer and allot of the average ones.

When I started drama school In London, I ended up rewatching allot of my shows with mates that weren't that familiar with animes in general, in turn making em fans. Little time was used to look up new shows (because of what I just talked about but also because I was bussy with my life and learnings, and because we had every consoll and a big-ass tv:P) I had my weekly One piece episodes and from time to time I tried and failed at getting back into Bleach (God that show..) But other then that I sort of fell out of the system.

Now I have graduated at 23 and I decided to get back into the "world" of anime as it is... To my dissmay, I could still not find anything that interested me. I tried watching Eureka Seven, seeing as I hadn't watched a mecha in a while. It was .... allright, had it's moments, but protagonist annoyed me, and the people I first found interesting I sorta.. didn't care about anymore.... I looked for something ells but couldn't find anything that was anywhere near the quality of the shows I have seen and loved before..

I am slowly loosing hope in short-form anime, and even One piece, the only Shonen I still follow fully has it's moments of "why am I still watching this" .

I will follow OP till the end though, it's my not-guilty pleassure, just because it still has those moments where I am truly excited about whats to come, but short-form animes are just....completely lost to me now.

I miss FMAs sense of journey, grown up character development, great dialogues, non anime cliched handeling of interesting plots. Uniqeness. Cowboy Bebops smooth storytelling, dark overtoned sollum atmosphere, wit and style. Wolfs rain, Last Exile. Samurai Champloo,.. there are about ...13-14 shows I allways return to..

Am I spoiled of the great shows of the past? Do I expect too much ? Is anime on the decline? Or am I just really bad at looking for the right shows?

@PenguinDust: .. and everyone ells..

* Firstly, I never said I haven't watched NOR that I don't like FMA:Brotherhood. I have watched both shows, own and read the manga several times and when I said FMA I meant both of them, and that they are bloddy fantastic. Don't know why you would think I put down Brotherhood:P

* This is not a suggestion thread, though I will take any you might want to give me. It was just something I had to get out of my head, a frustration towards my inability to find interesting animes in later years. frustration that I might be loosing interest in something I used to love because of perhaps growing older/lack of interesting shows out there..

* Thirdly, I don't just watch Shonens, I hardly do. I just happeed to mention One piece as a long running show I still watch and Naruto as a show I saw early on. I have only seen a handfull of shonens because they are mainly shit and repetative;) I thought my points where quite clear in the blogg:P

I Mainly watch "short-form" animes, as I have mentioned allready, shows like FMA/B, Cowboy bebop, Trigun, Samurai Champloo, Wolfs Rain, Gungrave, Berserk, Samurai 7, Ghost in the shell, last exile, GTO (If you look at my avatar you would see I have seen it. I also own the complete manga+shonen junai) and a few more. I have seen plenty of pre 2009 but those and some more I can't think of atm (I used to have a list:P) are the ones I allways go by..

ANyways, to answer some of the suggestions. (thanks for the ones i might not have seen/heared of) Baccano I have seen, Blue lagoon as well, Romance animes are mostly too cringy or/and uninteresting for me, with exceptions, but not many. Fairy tail I read for a year but it got very very predictable and repetative. Death Note I hate with a passion for it's great premiss but shoddy excecution/dragged out story. Oh, how it fell..

Edit: About the whole, leave you mind at the door and enjoy some mindless action/comedy, Keeping things at too high of a standard:

It's probably true that I do that, it was one of my quarrels in my original post. The things Is, It's harder to apreciate (at least for me) a "silly" anime (I still enjoy allot of one piece) then it is to sit down and watch a b-movie when I am bored. It's hard to explain, but let me just put it simply like this: Harems bore me, kiddy cute sugar-cane valley girl trips over "oooh noo" /panty shots- doesn't interest me. So there allready you have to eliminate 30% of anime.

I loved the godfather trilogy, then I watched Goodfellas, and even though it had allot of similarities, I loved that too. Then I watched sopranos, and that was fricking awesome. Mean streets, once upon a time in america ect ect. These are all similar films/shows, but they are so well excecuted that the "cliches" doesn't matter, and they all have something unique. Whereas, In allot of anime, when you have seen one great show, im my sad experience, it's really hard to find shows with the same essence of the one you loved (in the first place), and then it's even less common that it's any good. Not asking for better, just adequitly good/interesting in it's own rights..

I DO have certain "standards", I love me some Breaking bad and mad men, but then again, I also watch How I met your mother and the occational stupid horror. It's just hard to have the same standards to anime I guess. And Yes, I aiin't good at finding new interesting anime shows anymore.. thats half the problem. It's just.. If they could do it back then with Cowboy bebop.. FMA... whatever.. why can't I find them now-adays??

IDK, maybe I don't even know what I) am talking about anymore...I'm babbling..

I had a similar experience with anime a few years ago and what really helped me out was forcing myself to look past shounen and explore other genres to see if any of them would interest me. I didn't enjoy every series in every genre, but I found something in each and I fell in love with anime again.

@SpikeSpiegel88 said:

And Yes, I aiin't good at finding new interesting anime shows anymore.. thats half the problem. It's just.. If they could do it back then with Cowboy bebop.. FMA... whatever.. why can't I find them now-adays??

Because back in the 90s, anime penetration was not high in the foreign market. Few shows were talked about by the fandom at large and while everyone can name Cowboy Bebop, few can name the shows that aired along side it. Now, there are fans for every sub-genre, every show, and they are praised and scorned long before even the first episode is aired. It makes for a very exciting time for the medium, but it also makes parsing gems more difficult. All the more so when there is no accounting for taste and I think Eureka Seven is great and you're crazy for viewing FMA as something more than mere pretty good.

So what I'm trying to say is, go watch Legend of the Galactic Heroes.

Lots of anime are aimed at the age group that you got into as. I too myself was very into anime when I was in HS and a little there-after. Now I'm only interested in watching the more serious movies but not series much. It's the nature of most anime, imo.

@Turambar: I'm not talking "fandome" I am talking quality of writing/animation and using an older show I like and holding it up with my inability to find good newer shows. Allready said this a few times now.

Ayways, Opinions are opinions, and Eureka was not as good as I had hoped. I liked the world, and at first some of the characters, but everyone was hyper emotional, the relationship between Eureka and Renton got very annoying rather then sweet, and It felt very much done before. They kept it casual, to then slap some out-of-the-blue serious as shit moments in our face, to then have an episode about football (just an example). The pace was off and I felt too much time was spent with renton and eurekas looped dialogues (repetative). They had some interesting character on the plane that would have been great to get fleshed out some more.(some did later on) Then there were all the things like "Seven swells" "day of love" or whatever it was called and all these things that in a very FFXIII way was just thrown around and then not allways explained, and if, not untill the later part of the show. I understand these plot teqniques very well, I have seen plenty of anime to know they can work.. but here it felt more to me like they could have either tones them down or had a bigger pay-off.. Most of the explanations had more of a "oh..ok" rather then a "aaaahh now I get it" effect on me.. I still watched the show and currently only have 9 episodes left, so it was still entertaining enough to watch trough, but it was far from great and I had high hopes for it from fans recomendation. There are more things I could say, but ill keep it to that.

And Yes FMA is a GEM. Fantastic Writing from dialogues to plot, A mass of great characters, great pacing, fantastic animation and design, unique ideas, epic scope, and the fact there are two versions of it, and even though I prefer the Manga/brotherhood version, the first animes approach was just as valid and very very fun.

@sickVisionz: Allready replied to this, I don't just watch shonens ^^.

@avidwriter: this is where I am mostly at..

Im currently going trough the suggestions people have been giving, taken out the ones I have allready seen and looking into ones that look interesting. Gonna say straight away though, if there is 5 chibi girls on the cover, I aiint watching it:P

The anime industry seems to know exactly how crappy it has become and some studios have chosen to embrace it wholeheartedly.

Case in point: