I don’t watch dubs so can’t know for certain, but I can’t imagine newer ones are worse than the horrific cringe that made me decide to not watch dubs in the first place.

What’s the R35 then though?

That’s undoubtedly true.

But by the same measure, there’s also actually more great anime being put out now that there was in the past - again, just measured by sheer volume rather than percentage.

And while I wouldn’t disagree with that, it goes even further contrary to the rose-tinted view of the past, and thus even further from my point.

I didn’t mean to say or imply anything specific about the standards of one or another era of anime. My only point is that people need to be aware of the fact that they can’t make summary judgments regarding relative quality by pointing to all of the recognized great anime of the past, because that’s necessarily what’s remembered. The basis for any such judgment is necessarily skewed by the fact that over time, the great ones are remembered and the awful ones are forgotten.

That’s all.

Just to note…

There was just as much garbage anime in any given year in the past as there is now - it’s just that current garbage anime is current and past garbage anime has been long since forgotten.

Ditto manga, music, movies books, television, whatever. The past generally looks better because it’s only the best of it that’s remembered.

SAO was excellent here and there (Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer, The Black Swordsman, Mother’s Rosario) and was at least decent all the way through.

It was just one of those series that became so commonly loved by normies that advertising one’s hatred of it became an easy way to gain instant edgelord cred.