Anime is in decline. Embrace Vubers.

Anime as of late seriously sucks.

In my book, the Japanese anime industry has been going downhill since around 2015. The first to go was art style where anime series began to look awfully look alike. There are still some that have distinct art styles, but those are too few. The second to go was the plot. Once the anime industry ran out of manga to animate, they went for light novels. Perhaps, that itself is fine. The issue was that rarely any anime based on light novels has had proper ending because the novel was often too long to be animated fully without anime studio taking a loss.
People nowadays want a good story from get-go. The issue is that, from my own experience, truly captivating stories take time to build up, meaning a slow start. Anime viewers generally cannot take slow starts. So, in the end, anime studios end up trying to find a middle ground and eventually lean toward to animating stories that start very good but wither later on. That’s fine for them since they never animate the later story anyway, thank to seasons. In the end, what anime studios are after is profit, and profit only.

As of 2023, what we have now in anime is a clusterfuck of incomplete stories that share art styles and voice actors. What I am trying to say is that the Japanese anime industry has chosen the safe route and rarely takes risks. Essentially, every anime out there is basically the same stuff over and over.
I was sick and tired of this and wanted to try something different without much success.

Enter Vtubers, namely Hololive.

Now, what are vtubers? Those are ordinary people like us who hide behind a 2D anime avatar. In the most basic terms, what vtubers offer is improvised drama which has a similar vibe as what Critical Role does. Content vtubers create are literally created on live, providing the vibe I missed from anime from earlier times. You can never expect what shenanigans they might end up pulling or get sucked into unlike anime nowadays where you can predict where its plot would go upon watching the first episode.

I am recommending Hololive because they offer the most stable experience. Hololive is a vtuber agency. I believe it is the #2 in Japan, #1 being Nijisanji. I advise you to avoid Nijisanji however due to endless internal drama and conflicts. Basically, they are toxic. Well, if that’s your thing, I guess that’s fine. Nijinsanji is just not for me. I just want a peaceful and relaxing experience.

Of course, there are independent vtubers as well, but the most entertainment come from collaborations between other vtubers. Both agencies have EN branch. However, EN branches from both agencies aren’t quite active as their primary JP branches. So, just learn some Japanese and dive into their JP branches. Trust me, Bro. You won’t regret it. The sheer joy and entertainment is unparalleled. And you know what? They are FREE.

Now, I can’t even watch anime. It feels … so dead to me. When you are exposed such unhinged, unrestricted, pure chaotic content, you can’t go back to heavily scripted stories like anime. No, I will not.