Welcome Back or: what color are your glasses now?
Sorry to invoke anime’s greatest ending. This post isn’t about Gunbuster. But it will do nicely in lieu of a birthday post that I never put up (short version: I’m old). Oh, the humanity and mortality of it all.
Re-watching anime, like any visual entertainment, can give you new perspective on it just from the plain and simple value of seeing things again. We tend to see plot, character development, and visuals the first time around (and considering anime means watching with subtitles for most of us, even the visuals can be secondary at times). But that second viewing can reveal details of reference, symbolism, and detail. If you only watched The Holy Mountain or, yeah I’ll say it, FLCL just once, you missed something.
But more than that, a re-watch is a reflection of where you, the viewer, are in that particular point in your life. That means it’s also a reflection of a few different factors:
I view the world through BOMBER colored glasses
Sum Total of experience
This is obvious, and especially obvious when re-watching (as I am) a series like Martian Successor Nadesico (or say, Lucky Star) that’s full of references. But it doesn’t have to be a situation where you say “Hey! I know why they said no smoking on the bridge!” during Eureka 7.
My experience as an anime fan was pretty limited when I first saw Nadesico. In fact, when it comes to sci-fi non-super robot stuff, nearly everything at that point in my life was viewed through the filter of Neon Genesis Evangelion.
Since then, I’ve seen a whole lot of other anime, including those outside the mecha and guro genres that I was big on in the 90s. Having seen the later Love Hina helped me appreciate the “harem-esque” aspects of Nadesico’s bizarre romantic story (see fig. 1).
Changing values and perspectives
This is tied in, but relates to the rest of your life as well. As we grow older, and our interests change, we desire different things out of our entertainment. Back in the day I never really desired escapism — sure, fantasy is fun, but I would gladly have watched something resembling 5cm per Second daily. Now, life is a little harder, extreme and “real” emotional impact is something I can still get great value out of, but in smaller doses. Jading and cynicism color your outlook despite your best efforts.
For some people, it may even work in the opposite way. Maybe you’re sick of the empty escapism of your average anime, and crave something with a little more meaning. Of course, we should all try to keep a balanced diet going, but the point is that tastes change — and you might find yourself enjoying something far more (or less) than you did the first time you tried.
It can even be much simpler than that. Tastes change. Maybe you didn’t even like comedy anime the first time you saw Tenchi Muyo. And now, you do. It’s still dumb, but that’s beside the point.
Slice of your life
Something that you might rarely think about, but has a very direct effect on your opinion, is where you are at this particular moment in time. On a Wednesday, in June, in 2009, what direct circumstances are painting your life differently than in 1999?
Maybe you’re watching on an HDTV instead of a 13” TV/VCR combo with bunny ears. You’re living in a different city, watching with different people (in my case, different city and same person). Maybe that bit about escapism is particularly important right now because you’re in a draining job that makes you tired and unwilling to devote a lot of brainpower to anime. Perhaps you just talked to ghostlightning and your positivity quotient is doing better than most days.
Whatever it is, the circumstances at that very moment are important.
Your mileage should vary
When you’re watching something for the second, or third, or whatever, time, take these things into account. Sometimes the old George Costanza adage “It’s not you, it’s me” is totally applicable.
Did you ever have an experience where you went back months or even years later to something, only to find that you’ve changed or even done a 180 on your opinion?
Yes, I can’t sit through Knightrider anymore, used to love that show. I caught a re-run a while back and couldn’t sit through it, the damn thing bored me to tears.
Although I do still think of KITT as being cool.
LOVE that first pic btw, GL is gonna have a fit when he sees it!
Nekki Eureka took out Mylene’s VF again, in search of her dad. Mylene wouldn’t know what to do with herself. Since 1) She’d like to know where the hell Basara is too. 2) Basara doesn’t know about his daughter yet (uh-oh). 3) Gamlin thinks he’s the father (after all he made an honest woman out of Mylene).
I think I had more to say, but that image ruined me.
I remember thinking Tim Burton’s Batman was less awesome after seeing Nolan’s Batman.
I’m all about the escapism these days. As a matter of fact, I could probably be classified as an escapism junkie. I can’t even find the words to describe how important escapism is to me lately.
Once you’ve lived a good bit of this ‘life’ thing we all like to talk about so much, it’s really easy to see how changes in ourselves and surroundings would alter our perceptions of things we’ve watched or experienced before. So I think what qualifies something as really special is if you can come back to it years later and love it all over again.
Just the other day, I finished rewatching Haibane Renmei, a series I had not seen in over 5-and-a-half years. Since then, I’ve graduated from high school and college, moved to a new town away from old friends and family, and generally start a brand new life. When I saw the series again, I understood more, sympathized in ways my younger self couldn’t, noticed so much more nuance than I remembered, and came away thinking its as amazing, inspiring, and momentous as I remember when I was a bright-eyed youth yet to experience the harsher realities the world has to offer.
Maybe things have changed. Maybe I appreciate it even more than I did then. But some things have a way of staying with you for the rest of your life.
Okay, I think I recovered.
First, this is a great example of how meaning is created by what the viewer/reader puts into the experience of the subject show/text. Watching Evangelion in the 90s will be a different experience when you rewatch it today.
Did the show change in any way? No. You did.
It’s the same case with me and Eureka SeveN (from dropped to #2 all time favorite lols); it seems inconceivable that I dropped it when I first saw it considering the virtual ink I’ve spilled over it (more to come), but I was a different anime fan then. I hadn’t appreciated Gundam yet, I had very little to reference it with, and thus had no means to remember love — I never made it to the more delicious references to Eva and Macross; or maybe I would’ve accused the show of ripping these off instead of the loving homage I make these out to be now.
I’ve rewatched a whole lot of shows this year (Giant Robo, Crest/Banner of the Stars, Macross Zero, etc.), and just by spending a lot of time and effort writing and reading anime blogs I now have so many tools and ways to appreciate the shows I get back to.
That, and the recency bias, which I will explain tomorrow via post.
@Sakura
LOL it’s not really about you, though. The Hoff is just plain dated.
@choujin
Just be careful, too much escapism can make you too lazy/unwilling to change Real Life, which is the root of the issue.
@kadian1364
I recently bought Haibane Renmei, but I’ve never seen it. It’s on the list, I will definitely check it out soon. Glad that it managed to hold up for you.
@ghostlightning
I wasn’t trying to reinforce your point of works only having meaning when viewers/readers apply their own, but hey… My view of it is that the work didn’t change, but you’re viewing through a filter that does change. Anyway.
I did think of you and the E7 situation while writing this — it’s one of the more extreme cases I can think of. But you bring up a really interesting point about blogging and how that changes what kind of a fan (and thus, viewer) you are. That’s a whole topic of its own to chew on.
Too late!
Three years ago I was watching Vandread on TV (I lived in Moscow back then) and thought it were the most modern/awesome show I’ve ever seen. Recently (in Germany already) I tried to re-watch it. And understood that I actually only once seen such crap before.
Currently I’m re-watching Bounen no Xamdou with my mother, noticing interesting details I haven’t seen before.
I think re-watching not only lets you dive into that world once again, but also helps to ponder about the show. Now I pity that I can’t rewrite some reviews on my blog, because with time passing, I changed my mind on many anime.
Sometimes, re-watching has no effect. For instance, The Crow: City of Angels was just as shitty the second time around.
@ otou-san
I know you weren’t, I’m just so right lols. I touched on how animu blogging affects one’s own consumption here []
oops I mean here: http://ghostlightning.wordpress.com/2009/05/18/moar-animu/
it always trouble me when something i really loved “turns out” to be real crappy, and viceversa. was i wrong, was i right, did it suck, did it kick ass, what am i doing here, what are we all doing here??? and so forth…
It’s funny that you mention this.
For me, anime has always been a type of social stigma. I liked it in high school, but i never pursued it because I was afraid of the social side effects. Now that I’m in college, I could care less and I’ve never been happier with the medium. Not only that, my friends that dislike anime can handle my interests.
I can barely watch any of the “kiddie” anime that I watched when I was younger, specifically Pokemon/Digimon. That shit was the bee’s knees when I was younger, and I still love watching some of it for nostalgia alone. Age seems to be a huge influence for me. That said, I absolutely loved the show when I was younger, and it helped form bonds with friends that I still hang out with to date.
I find that I pick up a lot more the second time around too. I always liked Samurai Champloo when I first saw it, but I was in a different state of mind. Sure, I got the vibes, but I was in my death metal/Gears of War phase, and the show didn’t really click. Fast forward two years and Sam Cham is one of my all time favorites and I’ve played the OST probably 80 times.
I guess the point I’m trying to make is this: the truly moving anime, or moreover, the one’s a viewer connects with best, will always remain in the nostalgia category, while being supplemented by newer anime that feeds our current tastes.
@Gargron
I don’t think there’s any big problem with changing reviews on your blog. It’s your site. You might want to be transparent about it — provide full disclosure that the review changed over time, maybe provide readers access to the original version. But if by reviewing you are trying to pass your knowledge on to readers, then it benefits them if you’re passing on your current knowledge.
@choujin1
You deserve what you get for watching that twice.
@kritik
It took me many years to finally watch Evangelion again. I was so worried that it was just something so different from anything I’d seen that it affected me unrealistically. Safe to say there’s still nothing like it, but point is I understand your pain.
@Joe
The social stigma is what the name of my blog is all about! But it is nice to be able to enjoy with friends, or at least not be stigmatized too much.
Age is definitely a factor. While most of us watch anime that’s well outside our supposed demographic range, age and the various experiences that go along with it have a huge effect on what we like. As far as connecting strongly with something, you’re right about that as well. It’ll stick with you. That leads back to my third point a bit, because sometimes the circumstances surrounding that first viewing have as much to do with us liking it as the quality — sort of like a song that takes you back to that summer when it came out, in spite of the fact that embarrasses you to still like the song.
Wow, a Jodorowsky reference? You’re getting high-brow on us. Where are the tits and catgirls, man?
I watched a few anime shows as a kid that still color my appreciation of the medium. One in particular was The Mysterious Cities of Gold. I happened upon the series again when I was in my late teens, and some of the images still resonated with me — such as the Golden Condor, but moreso, the Olmec war machine that manages to somehow still evoke a low-key dread, even as an adult.
Oh man that Eureka picture is so freaky.
I like your point about putting together the tools to enjoy anime. I feel I really appreciate shows like Hatsukoi Limited a lot more now because I now value execution over originality in many cases (and originality becomes harder to find the more you watch).
Mysteries Cities of Gold Now that does take me back I used to love that as a kid. I wonder if I’d still enjoy it now, something tells me I would.
Some things you grow out of, or look back upon and think OMG why did I love this crap and those are the shows that just don’t age well.
Other shows like you say you can look upon with nostalgia because they are great enough to stand the test of time.
I just finished rewatching Macross and it just renewed my love for it and made me think back to a few other shows I’d like to rewatch, like RahXephon.
Haha, yeah The Hoff is pretty dated, the hairstyle at least…
Wait, isn’t that Eureka picture a Get Backers reference…?
Caught the two OVA episodes of sola not too long ago and all I could think of, hilarious bikini hijinks aside, was that it didn’t seem all that bad anymore! Or maybe it was just the benefit of hindsight and how those episodes fit together in the entire series as a whole (the prelude to the first episode, not the swimsuit episode).
I just rewatched 63 episodes of Bleach and I was more impressed than I was the first time round, mostly because I could see how much was well done with the series with all the animu knowledge I’ve gotten since then.
@Korasoff and Sakura
I have never seen Mysterious Cities of Gold, to my knowledge. This makes me think I should check it out.
RahXephon held up very well to a second viewing, but I somehow lost my set so I have no idea about the third time…
@Kabitzin
I get what you’re saying: seems like after seeing a bunch of anime it becomes a matter of whether you decide you can’t handle all the crap or you start to value things like execution. Because originality really is at a premium for most of it.
@Owen
That is a Macross 7 reference, Eureka dressed as this guy. I haven’t seen sola, but it does remind me (not sure why it reminds me) I’ve always wanted to go back and see if I’d like Ranma 1/2 these days…
@Omisyth
Saw your tweets on the subject. I’ve never seen the beginning of Bleach, but I’m inclined to believe what you say. Haters be damned, you don’t get that popular being complete shit (unless you’re Coldplay). I’m sure there are some things that I watched early on that would impress me even more in context of the rest of the anime I’ve seen since.