It made you appreciate things more, too. Several of my favorite shows are, objectively, awful or at least decidedly average, but at the time, they were great simply because they were there.
'06 We still had ADV pushing out their decent dubs but with random budget titles. Bandai holding onto the Gundam/Giant Mecha market with a death grip. Then Pioneer/Geneon concentrating on quality, but overspending on every license.
Now all of that has pretty much been eaten up by Funimation, with Sentai being the bastard offspring of ADV picking up the scraps.
I'd love to go back 15 years where the west gets anime from bad dubs and sketchy illegal websites. Those were better days for anime.
Honestly, yeah. I miss the days when it was the most embarrassing thing you could like.
Those were the best days for anime.
It was proper gatekeeping that meant your fellow weebs had suffered enough trials to be worth engaging with.
Now weebs just watch it on CR/Funimation with the same ease of babies who watched it on cable back then.
It made you appreciate things more, too. Several of my favorite shows are, objectively, awful or at least decidedly average, but at the time, they were great simply because they were there.
'06 We still had ADV pushing out their decent dubs but with random budget titles. Bandai holding onto the Gundam/Giant Mecha market with a death grip. Then Pioneer/Geneon concentrating on quality, but overspending on every license.
Now all of that has pretty much been eaten up by Funimation, with Sentai being the bastard offspring of ADV picking up the scraps.