Anti-Nostalgia – This Week in Anime

today24h24_x91uezيوليو 24, 2025

0 20 11 دقائق

We’ve all got shows that we’ve outgrown. Coop and Lucas discuss some of theirs.

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by the participants in this chatlog are not the views of Anime News Network.
Spoiler Warning for discussion of the series ahead.

Full Disclosure: Coop Bicknell regularly works on titles produced by MediaOCD, having contributed to the back of box copy for Discotek Media‘s recent release of Berserk. His opinions given here are purely his own and do not reflect those of his employers.

Gachikuta, Ga-Rei: Zero, Overtake!, Dragon Quest: The Adventure of Dai, and Witch Watch are streaming on Crunchyroll.
Beyblade and Yu-Gi-Oh! are available to stream officially on YouTube
Pokémon and Pokémon: Horizons are available to stream on Netflix

Coop

After going through last week’s Isekai rundown and occasionally peeking into this season’s preview guide, I was hit with a wave of “Am I too old for these shows?” A handful of our colleagues appeared to have the same idea, particularly in regards to this season’s shonen heavy hitter, Gachiakuta.

All of this started to make me wonder: “What are some shows we’ve grown out of over the years?” Because I’ll tell you this, Lucas, my preferences as a 31-year-old differ a fair bit from my tastes as a teenager. Minus a little overlap here and there.

Lucas

Although Gachiakuta didn’t fall to my plate in this year’s preview guide, I checked it out and my immediate reaction was, “why am I watching a show that dips its toe into the edgelord pool, when I could dive in head first and finally finish reading Gantz?”

But you’re right! As people whose jobs are steeped in media, we have to check out a lot of it, which means we’re particularly susceptible to growing out of a particular series or genre! Whether that be because we have to explore and explain our tastes more thoroughly, or because we have experienced a breakout work that makes similar projects difficult to give a fair shake, or maybe we just get older and like different stuff!

Either way, I’m down for a “let’s remember some anime” style chat with an anti-nostalgia bent.

Before we dive into the pit, it’s worth mentioning that it is perfectly normal to have shifting feelings on any work—regardless of the field you work in. The series I found myself revisiting for this week’s column were favorites of mine at one point or another. It’s very much a classic case of “It’s not you, it’s me” when it comes to these titles.

© 2008 Hajime SEGAWA/[GAREI-ZERO-] Production Committee.

Ga-Rei: Zero is a series that comes to mind right away for me. In the distant year of 2008, I’d discovered the series shortly after receiving my very first laptop for Christmas. I remember being thrilled by ingenious trick setup and the heartbreaking puzzle box of a tragedy that accompanies it. But after coming back to Ga-Rei: Zero for the first time in over fifteen years, I couldn’t help but focus more on the cracks at play.

The puzzle box nature of the series’ plot (primarily the twist opening that I’ll refrain from spoiling) made it hard for me to reinvest myself into the story being presented. I know all the tricks, and my time away didn’t exactly dull that knowledge. Additionally, Ga-Rei: Zero meanders for a while with “Yomi and Kagura fight the monster of the week” plots in its early stages before really getting into the meat of what initially made it memorable for me. The heart of this show lies in the tragedy that befalls these demon-slaying sisters, but the gag-esque supporting cast and some of the narrative pitfalls dull that momentum. But on a positive note, Ga-Rei: Zero could be seen as something of a stepping stone for director Ei Aoki‘s tragic magnum opus, Fate/Zero. Funny how “Zero” is in the title of these and another one of his works, Aldnoah.Zero.

coop-4 — © KADOKAWA,TROYCA/OVERTAKE! Partners

Reminds me that I should check out Aoki’s latest series, OVERTAKE! I’ve heard nothing but good things about it.

The juxtaposition of very anime-looking characters next to 3D renders of formula series racing cars has my interest piqued too!

lucas_02 — © 2008 Hajime SEGAWA/[GAREI-ZERO-] Production Committee.

And to keep my honesty streak going, I hadn’t heard of Ga-Rei: Zero before this moment, but after a quick search, it seems like a VERY 2000s-ass anime series. It even ruffled the feathers of fans of the anime during its premiere due to the puzzle box elements you’re generously leaving opaque for folks who are also unfamiliar with the title.

As a follow-up question, do you think you’ve turned on this particular sub-genre expectation thwarting anime, or has just Ga-Rei: Zero aged like milk for you?

This one is definitely of its time… But, I’d say less than it’s aged poorly, and more that I’ve realized that Ga-Rei: Zero‘s strongest elements (primarily the relationship between Yomi and Kagura) become a load-bearing beam that strains under the weight of additional cruft. I’ve made a point of treading lightly around the twists because I think this series might very well be worth checking out (perhaps academically) for those aforementioned strengths. However, it speaks volumes that I bought the recent Blu-ray release only to sell it afterward. That’s not something I do often with physical media.

As far as puzzle boxes go, I don’t mind them… After all, I do love me some Danganronpa

Speaking of puzzle anime, I was a big Yu-Gi-Oh! kid back in the day! The combination of the puzzle-like encounters between characters, the blend of magic and near-future technology, and the dark (for kids) atmosphere influence my tastes to this day!

lucas_03 — © 1996 by Kazuki Takahashi/SHUEISHA Inc.

Though even as a kid, I remember the series falling off pretty quickly after the original series. Yu-Gi-Oh! GX was fine, but maybe I would have liked it more if we ever got a dub of the fourth season. By the time 5Ds came around, it was clear to me that Konami was trying to get blood from stone.

I’m also bummed to admit that any part of Yu-Gi-Oh! (outside of maybe the Abridged Series) is difficult for me to return to today with my current politics and worldview. As a lot of anime media today is just flagrant advertising (looking at you Umamusume!) I’m more keyed into shows that are stealth commercials, and unfortunately, any run of Yu-Gi-Oh! fits pretty cleanly that mold.

I’m right there with you, although I was a bit more of a GX kid myself. I’d chatted with Chris about that back when we covered a whole toy aisle’s worth of product-focused kids’ cartoons. Though I do wonder… As a fellow kid who probably spent way too much on cardboard, did you ever get the card of all cards? The very card Seto Kaiba would throw everything away to have three of?

The famed Blue-Eyes White Uncle eluded me in my childhood! Though that was mostly because there wasn’t much of a scene for competitive card games in my hometown, so I mostly gravitated towards the Yu-Gi-Oh! video games and other popular JRPGs.

You can’t believe how frenzied I was about collecting every Elemental Hero I could get my hands on… It turned me into a Green-Eyes White Uncle. Which reminds me of another toy-based title that I found myself struggling to return to—Beyblade
.

My love for Beyblading has been well documented in this column and social media, but returning to the show that sparked that initial love was rough. As I’ve mentioned before, watching the latest episode of Beyblade on ABC Family was all a part of my before-school morning ritual as a grade schooler. Flash-forward to a year ago and I figure “Oh, I’m getting back into Beyblades and the show’s officially on YouTube! Why not?” Well, that Nelvana dub did not age well.

Also, Tyson, my man… Cutting apart two rip cords and gluing them together is a great way to quickly trash two rip cords AND the launchers they came with! I swear… I had this exact conversation with Beyblade X manga letterer Brandon Bovia not all that long ago. Probably right before we did this…

I finally ran into @brandonbovia.bsky.social again, so you know we had to let it rip

[image or embed]

— Coop (@riderstrike.bsky.social) May 24, 2025 at 6:53 AM

And yes, we drew a crowd.

The only defense I’ll give the original Beyblade anime is that the English original opening song is the exact right amount of stupid fun for a cartoon that’s principally meant to sell toys.

Dude, that guitar riff near the very end kicks so much booty.

While I would never claim that the Pokémon franchise is somehow less cynically produced than any other capitalistic anime of this ilk, it’s clear from the difference in productions values between these shows that the Beyblade crew had shallower coffers during their anime’s production than the Pokémon team.

Also, let the record show that I’m a fake Pokémon fan and stopped watching the anime somewhere in the Sinnoh League seasons. The show started recycling story lines from previous episodes, and tween Lucas wasn’t down for that!

I want to say I fell off somewhere around the Ruby and Sapphire era. But you brought up some good food for thought about the budgets these product-focused series have to work with. Some might be flush with that card game money while others have to make do with what they’re given in the case of Beyblade. And even though the modern incarnations of these toy vehicles aren’t my bag of cats today, there’s nothing like having your young nephew randomly call you in the middle of the day to tell you just how cool the cartoon he’s watching is.

Agreed! That makes me want to talk to younger people about their experiences with these kinds of shows. A lot of them are available for free across various websites today, while you and I had to wait for new episodes to drop weekly as kids. Makes me wonder if that makes it easier for young people today to dip in and out of these kinds of franchises, whereas we had to commit back in the day.

Speaking of stuff nephews will call us about (and to loop back to your opening point), I have a hard time getting into shonen anime unless I know it’s going to be a hit and borderline monoculture in the anime community!

Granted, I’ve read my pick of new Shonen Jump chapters once a week for what is now more than half of my life, so I’ll admit to being a bit of a snob in that regard. However, I can’t bring myself to stick with a ‘mid’ shonen title like I was able to in my teens and a good chunk of my 20s.

With many of these shows available for free, I can see plenty of them being just thrown on in the background to keep today’s kids occupied before dinner. Perhaps as a more direct form of turning on the TV after school, like we did. Makes me feel old even though we’re both pretty young, still in the grand scheme of it all. Just as official streams started to take off in the late aughts, I remember watching pretty much whatever I could get my hands on. I’d imagine that’s probably the same case for teens today, though they’re not hard up for choice at all. It’s overwhelming how many series are available at times.

© SANJO RIKU, INADA KOJI/ SHUEISHA, The Adventure of Dai Project ©SQUARE ENIX CO., LTD

When it comes to my relationship with modern shonen titles, I find that I gravitate to titles that dabble in the spirit of what I grew up with, but wryly imply that they’ve grown up a little in execution as well. Dragon Quest: The Adventure of Dai would probably have to be my favorite example of that. The series tells a grand story, but realizes there are a few tweaks it has to make. Ain’t nobody got time for a one-hundred-and-something episode series these days. Then again, there’s a bit of my proclivities for the old in there. While Dragon Quest might pull on some nostalgic strings, I have a fondness for older titles that either worked within an earlier version of the anime production machine or completely outside it.

© ei Urana, Hideyoshi Andou and KODANSHA/ “GACHIAKUTA” Production Committee

While many audiences may greatly resonate with these modern titles, they can come off as “the latest product” to me at times. That’s a feeling I held way before I ever started writing about cartoons. However, if a title like Gachiakuta can truly grasp someone’s heartstrings, that’s still amazing! It just goes to show that I have my proclivities. For what it’s worth, I can see how people relate to the series; I’m just tired of stories about young guys filled with nothing but piss and vinegar. That’s part of why I’ve struggled to ever return to Attack on Titan past the mid-point of season one.

I’ve long described The Adventure of Dai as a Rosetta stone for much of the battle shonen genre. It typifies a lot of the ideas and language of the genre in a similar way to other influential works in the space, like Dragon Ball, Fist of the North Star, and JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure. However, because it never saw a wide US release in its heyday, most folks in our sphere don’t know about its quality nor impact. Which is a long way of saying that you have great taste, and The Adventure of Dai is a phenomenal example of a timeless series that’s both influential and easy to return to.

As for Gachiakuta, I’m going to be the more cynical of the two of us and (to paraphrase David Lynch) recommend that people fix their hearts if this show tugs at their heartstrings! I get it, this is a lot of kids’ first edgy anime, but there are so many better jumping-on points for badass anime with heavier imagery and themes. Off the top of my head, I’d recommend Berserk 1997 (now on Blu-Ray), the first season of Tokyo Ghoul, Dorohedoro, Hellsing Ultimate, or even DEVILMAN crybaby!

I understand this could entirely be a me problem and that I just don’t see the appeal of Gachiakuta, but it’s never been easier to watch “the good stuff” in the anime scene, and young people today don’t have to settle for watching whatever is new and on like we did when we were getting into anime in the 2000s.

I generally agree with you, but let me tell you a little story. Back in 2016, I saw the School of Rock musical on Broadway as part of a field studies trip for my degree. I didn’t dislike the show, but I didn’t exactly love it either. It was as we were filing out of the auditorium that my professor, a Broadway veteran, told me, “There’s got to be shows for kids, too.” While not exactly 1:1 to our current conversation, I believe part of this sentiment can be applied to it. The amazing edgy entry points that we laud to this day are fantastic (and worth getting around to), but teens and college-aged viewers want titles they can call their own—not their mom’s, their uncle’s, or anyone else’s.

I can understand wanting to have something you can completely call your own, even if it’s far from perfect. That just might be what pulled us both toward anime in the first place.

That’s a fair point, and with remakes and years later sequels becoming increasingly common in the anime industry, I can understand young people wanting to grasp onto a flawed new release that they can use as a generational marker.

I wouldn’t be surprised if, 20 years from now, a new batch of 30-something anime writers name drops Gachiakuta in a TWIA with a similar premise to this one. (Assuming Lynzee lets them double up on this topic!)

Just you wait, the ANN executive editor of 2045 is most likely in grade school right now…and probably in absolute love with Pokémon: Horizons.

And as long as the anime flame keeps on burning for generations to come, I can’t complain about that.