Thursday, October 24, 2013   Mike (@cinco_bajeena), a lapsed
anime blogger, has the same origin story as plenty of other fans
of a certain geography and age: a cloudy mix of Vampire Hunter
D, Ghost in the Shell, Akira, and Macross Plus. You can
occasionally find the telltale byline otou-san at Altair & Vega
and Sea Slugs until his own blog returns from the deep again, as
it probably will someday.  One of the calling cards of the aging
anime fan, a relatively new species in the West, is his
insistence that they just don't make 'em like they used to. And
in the 21st century, a case could definitely be made for that.
While the OVAs of the late 80s and early 90s heralded an
anything-goes era of experimentation where the spectacular
outweighed the sensical, anime in the post-industry-collapse
world is increasingly marked by formula and safety: works that
guarantee a hardcore otaku audience yet alienate other potential
consumers.  But we've heard all that before. Years as recent as
2010 give us plenty of reason to