in the shell

I was wandering around the Net today and, as I do every so often, started searching for other GitS sites and various other anime sites (Project A-ko, mainly). As I discovered when I was revamping this site earlier this year, it seems that the treasure trove of anime sites has mostly disappeared, and those that remain are often very old and dusty. So has the fan community disappeared? Grown tired of creating web shrines? Or am I just looking for the wrong things (e.g., if I were into Bakugan Battle Brawlers, would I be rewarded)?

To be honest fan sites are generally a thing of the past. All the cool kids are doing their stuff in Facebook and MySpace now. No-one can be bothered to make a site for stuff when they can just start yet another Facebook group.

As for Anime I think it's still popular but the buzz has gone that was there a few years ago. I think a lot of the people that were big-into it in 'the day' have grown up and grown out of a lot it, mostly all the trashy kids stuff.

The world is constantly changing. The internet is a big part of that so you have to keep up. I belong to a few fansites, this one and another Matrix one used to be at the centre of the universe but are just quiet, empty shells that loyal users only pop in and out of every so often these days.

I think the big problem is that the best Anime is still stuff that was made some years ago. Not much of the new stuff has any real quality to it. GiTS and Full Medal had great story lines and character development. Now it seems that to many people jumped into it for a quick buck and never gave a thought to taking time to create something that would last. That I think ended up damaging the fan base for the artform.

I also think the newer story based video games have hurt. The quality of PS3 games like Fallout 3, Prince of Persia and others have taken away some of the anime audience. But then based on the graphics and art styles involved in those games it does seem that they are strongly influenced by anime. Maybe anime is just becoming video game based.

My favorite anime are still GiTS, Cowboy Bebop, Full Medal, Inuyasha, Trigun, Appleseed 2 &2 and Trinity Blood. Nothing new has really caught my attention

Even Bleach was only good for the first season then it went downhill pretty quickly.

Adultswim switching to crap programming also seems to have hurt the US market

Yeah, AdultSwim (in the US, anyway) has changed a lot over the years. At first it was Cartoon Network's slot for slightly more "grown-up" programming (which meant anime a bit more age-appropriate than Hamtaro); now it seems to mean shows (not even anime at all) with more raunchy toilet-humor. Other than Saturday nights, there's no anime at all, is there? And even then, the anime doesn't start until so late even I'm ready to go to bed.

This is in stark contrast to the days of yore when CN showed anime at 4 in the afternoon (and for hours thereafter), when it was good enough for prime time for normal people and not just prime time for vampires.

The last time I was able to follow any anime series without having to get it on DVD was on AZN, but of course Comcast pulled the plug on that channel.

Epiphany wrote: I also think the newer story based video games have hurt. The quality of PS3 games like Fallout 3, Prince of Persia and others have taken away some of the anime audience. But then based on the graphics and art styles involved in those games it does seem that they are strongly influenced by anime. Maybe anime is just becoming video game based.

I agree, after playing Mass Effect (as well as other Bioware classics) I have to say I love interactive story games of that ilk. I also think MMOs have grabbed a lot of the audience and money that kids were putting into Anime a few years ago. Kids are buying time/credit cards for MMOs now instead of DVDs and CDs in shops, and they spend the time they used to spend watching TV and Movies playing WoW or something similar instead.

Times change, and so has entertainment.

Wow. I was just looking around again for fansites, and found just about nada. Very, very little out there ... The Graviton City site won't even come up anymore, and the Cyberia Cafe/Lain site is there, but hasn't been updated for years. Its guest book is long gone, hit by the wave of spam that almost took out these boards as well a few years ago.

I even went to Facebook and looked up Ghost in the Shell, and the first page that came up had itself a load of spam on it. So even the vast, ironically impersonal social network sites are devoid of content. It's like the world's attention span is so minute (or focused?) that after a few moments thriving communities become shantytowns and then ruins and then not even fit for paleontologists, as bits and bytes become lost to time, reworked even as atoms are in the vast machinery of the universe.

Call me sentimental, but it makes me sad.

All these moments have indeed been lost in time, like tears in a rain of commercial spittle, the drivel of the millions drowning out the voices of the few, bubblepop music replacing the myraid genres topping the waves like islands with a flat, overhwelming sea of sameness. The Net hasn't raised the awareness of the many; the many have dragged it back into the miasma of the commercial world.

Of course, being a being of the commercial world as well as this digital being floating in a sea of information, I use the Net just as everyone else does, to buy music, to read books, to blather about whatever is important to me ... so I contribute and have contributed to the very thing the Net has become. But is there not a way to make it more than it is?

I'm not deluded and thinking that it was perfect before, some sort of Garden of Eden with no snakes and only apples or figs--there always have been nasty corners as well--but now things are so ... bland. The mob of the world has moved in and worn away, beneath their trampling feet, the highest features while leaving behind the litter and detritus every crowd creates ...

Ah, well. When I'm feeling less nostalgic I'll get back up and try to sculpt great things again, rather than moping about.

Maybe like life instead of being a continuous stream of action it's more of a slow accretion of events?

We think of this site as a little slow because we are up to date, but someone new stumbling across this place will find a vast reservoir of discussion.

I love is when someone "necroes a thread" because it means that they have become engaged by an idea. Imagine pitching out Einstein because he hasn't come up with anything new for a few years. Even if his theories prove eventually to be incomplete, they are essential stepping stones to the next think.

That this site has been saved from the spammers will continue to make it useful as long as GitS continues to attract new fans.

And just imagine how cool will be the stories and characters be that finally divert everyones attention from the Major?

Freitag wrote:Maybe like life instead of being a continuous stream of action it's more of a slow accretion of events?

We think of this site as a little slow because we are up to date, but someone new stumbling across this place will find a vast reservoir of discussion.

I love is when someone "necroes a thread" because it means that they have become engaged by an idea. Imagine pitching out Einstein because he hasn't come up with anything new for a few years. Even if his theories prove eventually to be incomplete, they are essential stepping stones to the next think.

That this site has been saved from the spammers will continue to make it useful as long as GitS continues to attract new fans.

And just imagine how cool will be the stories and characters be that finally divert everyones attention from the Major?

Great point, but I hope its a knock-down drag you on the ground fight!
I would prefer to see an evolution of GiTS rather than something new surpassing it.

I just feel there is alot left in the GiTS universe to pull from and evolve into.

There are still anime fansites around, but just not the way it used to be(I remember spending my childhood on Anime Turnpike). These days it's all about the popularity of a series. For example, I can find plenty of Bleach, Naruto, and One Piece site when doing a google search; but for series that have a hard time attracting a lot of people like Ghost in the Shell, I have put an actual effort and then still probably end up with nothing.

I also agree with what's been said about Adult Swim. They used to be one the best late night blocks on T.V. with great original programs, cult classics, and a great variety of anime(I go into GitS through Adult Swim). Now it's all about showing gross humor, rerunning Family Guy and King of the Hill to death(and I'm a fan of those shows), and they're claiming to "hate" anime now; they refuse to show any new series, only bothering to keep showing Bleach and Full Metal Alchemist because it's been on for so long(and gets good ratings), and rerun Fooly Cooly, Cowboy Bebop and GitS to death since it's the only "cool" anime they feel is worth keeping. If I wasn't so flat broke and stuck with dial-up, it wouldn't bother me that much, but I gotta have some anime to watch so I tolerate it.

Agree w/ everyone. I think there are those of us who relished in the information available on the internet and those who take it for granted. We have just gone stupid again...short attention spans...and I think people have plugged into the niches of mindless social networking and gaming. No one has the time for preservation.