Did being an anime/toku/gaming fan feel more special in 90s Japan?
For people who lived through that era, did it feel more special back then compared to now?
⚠️UPDATE; I think a lot of the feedback centers around the public perception towards fans and i honestly its fascinating.
But what about the vibe of the material/shows/movies at the time?
Was it melancholic, felt exciting and was the material more “organic” back in those days?
To me There was something very magical or melancholic vibe to things like the quality of shows, games, toys, merchandise, magazines, events, and the general fan atmosphere.
Nowadays it feels like there's so much content and merch that everything is crowded and oversaturated. Was it easier back then for certain shows, games, or toy lines to feel like a big cultural moment?
For those who experienced both eras, how would you compare the 90s/early 2000s to the 2010s onward?
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🍀 eleboration of what i mean
I think part of why I’m so drawn to ’90s and early 2000s Japanese media is because I grew up discovering it from outside Japan, through whatever I could access in my home country.
Anime, Heisei tokusatsu, J-pop, old openings and endings, fansubs, bootlegs, VCDs/DVDs, magazines, and random TV broadcasts all created a very specific emotional image of Japan for me. It was not just the shows themselves, but the atmosphere around them.
A lot of ’90s anime had this sincere, melancholic mood that stayed with me. Even shows that were comedic or action-heavy, like Outlaw Star, Rurouni Kenshin, Ranma ½, early Inuyasha, Cowboy Bebop, Trigun, and Evangelion, often had this quiet emotional weight underneath. The music was a huge part of it too: wistful endings, soft piano, lonely guitar, ambient synths, and those reflective pauses where a sunset, train crossing, or rainy street could say more than dialogue.
Even the tokusatsu of that era took its time to tell a story; timeranger, megaranger , kamen rider agito, kuuga, faiz, blade and so on.
So when I wonder what it would have felt like to walk around Tokyo or Osaka in the ’90s or early 2000s, I’m not imagining it as perfect. Real life would still be ordinary, crowded, stressful, and messy. But emotionally, I wonder what it felt like when that media culture was still more physical and local: CD shops, arcades, video stores, toy aisles, magazines, station posters, and late-night TV.
I think what I’m nostalgic for is not just the anime, but the atmosphere of discovery itself. Before everything became so hyper-online, you had to slowly piece things together, and that made it feel more personal.
After the pandemic, the world feels faster, busier, and more constantly online. So part of me wonders what it would have felt like to be there during that late-Heisei era, when the music, anime, tokusatsu, games, and city atmosphere still had that sincere, melancholic texture that feels harder to find now.