[asdff]

I was just thinking too when there are new IPs, they are completely indistinct today. Take a character from any of the past 15 years of animated movies and they are interchangeable with each other. Everyone is afraid to establish a design language beyond looking kinda-sorta like a pixar character.

90s were so different with creative freedom with the media we were exposed to. All those shows had their own art style. Characters were distinct and unmistakable. Brands were cemented as a result.

Marketing executives have lost the hat. They are like those people from the Neutral Planet in Futurama. Somehow they reigned in everything that made them successful in the 80s and 90s.

[haunter]

>Take a character from any of the past 15 years of animated movies and they are interchangeable with each other

That's mostly an american thing

You should watch some anime

[yifanl]

To someone unfamiliar with anime, anime characters look extremely similar.

[wizzwizz4]

I'm unfamiliar with anime, and I disagree. (Not that I'll be able to provide examples.) There's a generic anime look, but there are a lot of things that don't look like the generic anime look.

Just looked up some names I've heard people mention: The My Hero Academia character art is very visually distinct from OG Pokémon, which is very different to the Sun & Moon version of Ash Ketchum.

[asdff]

Anime animation quality isn't what it was in a lot of cases too.

[specialist]

I believe, but cannot prove, new media(s) enable new waves of creativity.

(Orthogonal to the socioeconomic incubators.)