[PuppyTailWags]

> the post-apocalyptical dystopia where teenagers are being oppressed by old people and the teenagers have to overturn the old ruling class

I don't think this is a Last Decade thing... This describes Evangelion quite well, and evangelion is way older than a decade. Wolf's Rain is literally a bunch of teenagers (who are also wolves) remaking the world in the post apocalypse, also older than a decade. Arguably this is also full metal alchemist.

[guardiangod]

I am talking about the western society. In the 80s and 90s, you don't really see movies about an entire generation of teenagers being oppressed. The main characters are likely to be teenagers but most adventure stories have teenage main characters.

In the 2000s, you started seeing popular sci-fi books (then movies in 2010s) like The Hunger Games and Maze Runner that depict teenagers as the opposed class.

Personally I think the 2000 Japanese classic Battle Royale started it all.

[mrguyorama]

I disagree. "Adults are stupid and we have to fix everything for them, sometimes with them even working against us" is an old trope. It was common in the 90s, like with rugrats and pretty much every made for kids movie, but I'd argue it even goes back to movies like Goonies and matilda and Little Rascals.

The mid 2000s dystopia fest in young adult stuff is just follow the leader with Hunger Games. The oppression is used not for it's own sake, but because its an easy excuse for your teens to be more "mature" and more in control of their own lives. It's escapism for teens who think parents "just don't get us"

[toyg]

Teenage rebellion goes back to James Dean, arguably, with baby-boomers reacting to a calcification of postwar societies they inherited.

I think the difference now is that happy endings used to be the norm, whereas now they are not necessarily there, or the protagonists are pushed through such extreme losses that the win ends up looking pyrrhic.

This might simply be a function of the amount of productions - in the history of mankind, we've never seen so many new stories circulating so widely on so many different media. Smart authors want to look different and "real", so they might veer dark more liberally than they used (or rather were allowed, by public and editors) to.

[mrguyorama]

I mean, we can look all the way back to romeo and juliet, where rebelious teens were being unfairly oppressed by adults who just don't get it and they have to figure things out for themselves and in the end everyone dies.

[kitsunesoba]

It's definitely a long recurring theme, and will likely continue to be one as long as there are young people feeling frustrated and powerless to change the ossified broken systems they have to live with.

[dylan604]

>and will likely continue to be one as long as there are young people

every generation feels this way. not sure why it needs the qualifier you attached. each generation has to have it's own ________. can't listen to the same music as the prior generation, as that's lame. can't use the same social platforms, because you're parents are on it. can't use the same lingo as that's not hip and gotta talk in ways they parental units won't understand

[screye]

Which maps directly onto Japan's Lost Decade - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lost_Decades

[KRAKRISMOTT]

I thought Evangelion was about biblical themed panspermia robots and exoskeletons?

[cthalupa]

Evangelion is Anno deconstructing the insanity that was the mecha anime genre of teenagers being forced to go to war and become killing machines with little to no impact on their mental health, showing his general distaste for the "otaku" lifestyle, and also using it as an outlet for his own struggles with depression.

The biblical stuff was added just because they thought it looked cool.