What, if anything, was the early 90s anime creativity crisis?


I fairly often hear or read about how the anime industry had stagnated during
the early 90s. It's mostly brought up in the context of _Neon Genesis
Evangelion_ being the first influential anime in several years back then as
mentioned on [this answer](https://anime.stackexchange.com/a/7271):

> Eventhough they never directly admit it, I'm sure there's some amount of
> influence that Evangelion had on Rahxephon, intended or not, simply because
> _Evangelion was an incredibly influential show, at a time when it seemed
> anime in general was stagnating_. So everything that came after that, for
> better or worse, could have had some influence from Evangelion.
>
> (Emphasis mine)

Is this true? If so, what exactly was this crisis and why did it happen?




I don't know where you heard about a **_creativity crisis_** but in the early
90's there was indeed a huge crisis which weakened the anime industry for a
few years, along with a lot of other industries: an **economic crisis**.

In the world, we more-or-less refer to this crisis as the "Early 90's
recession". In a few words, it was a massive and worldwide economic crisis
which started after the market crash called the "Black Monday" (Monday,
October 19, 1987 to be exact).

In Japan, they specifically call this period the " **Lost Decade** " (sounds
like an anime event, right?). I don't think economics courses interest you
here so I'll just show you how hard Japanese growth crashed.

[![Real GDP Growth Rate in percentage in Japan between 1975 and 1997 by the
International Monetary
Fund](https://i.stack.imgur.com/ppXWm.gif)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/ppXWm.gif)

So, to summarize, **Japan had huge economic troubles during that time** , so
it's normal that both anime quality and quantity were seriously harmed.  
As [this article](http://www.nippon.com/en/features/h00043/) explains, even if
the number of television anime gradually recovered, because of these economic
issues the whole anime industry has never recovered the greatness of the 80s.

> A slump in advertising revenue, a lower birthrate and the popularity of
> others forms of entertainment like video games and cell phones have led to
> sluggish prime time ratings and a decline in the number of anime since the
> peak in 2006.

I add that the death of Osamu Tezuka ( _Astro Boy_ ) during this period could
have contributed to that "creativity crisis" you were talking about.

* * *

> **To go further** :  
>  \- [Osamu Tezuka](https://www.tofugu.com/japan/osamu-tezuka-history/)  
>  \- [Black Monday](http://www.investopedia.com/terms/b/blackmonday.asp)  
>  \- [Lost Decade](https://www.thebalance.com/japan-s-lost-decade-brief-
> history-and-lessons-1979056)  
>  \- [Japan's
> GDP](http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.MKTP.KD.ZG?locations=JP) \-
> [The struggle of the anime
> industry](http://www.nippon.com/en/features/h00043/)




I don't know where you heard about a **_creativity crisis_** but in the early
90's there was indeed a huge crisis which weakened the anime industry for a
few years, along with a lot of other industries: an **economic crisis**.

In the world, we more-or-less refer to this crisis as the "Early 90's
recession". In a few words, it was a massive and worldwide economic crisis
which started after the market crash called the "Black Monday" (Monday,
October 19, 1987 to be exact).

In Japan, they specifically call this period the " **Lost Decade** " (sounds
like an anime event, right?). I don't think economics courses interest you
here so I'll just show you how hard Japanese growth crashed.

[![Real GDP Growth Rate in percentage in Japan between 1975 and 1997 by the
International Monetary
Fund](https://i.stack.imgur.com/ppXWm.gif)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/ppXWm.gif)

So, to summarize, **Japan had huge economic troubles during that time** , so
it's normal that both anime quality and quantity were seriously harmed.  
As [this article](http://www.nippon.com/en/features/h00043/) explains, even if
the number of television anime gradually recovered, because of these economic
issues the whole anime industry has never recovered the greatness of the 80s.

> A slump in advertising revenue, a lower birthrate and the popularity of
> others forms of entertainment like video games and cell phones have led to
> sluggish prime time ratings and a decline in the number of anime since the
> peak in 2006.

I add that the death of Osamu Tezuka ( _Astro Boy_ ) during this period could
have contributed to that "creativity crisis" you were talking about.

* * *

> **To go further** :  
>  \- [Osamu Tezuka](https://www.tofugu.com/japan/osamu-tezuka-history/)  
>  \- [Black Monday](http://www.investopedia.com/terms/b/blackmonday.asp)  
>  \- [Lost Decade](https://www.thebalance.com/japan-s-lost-decade-brief-
> history-and-lessons-1979056)  
>  \- [Japan's
> GDP](http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.MKTP.KD.ZG?locations=JP) \-
> [The struggle of the anime
> industry](http://www.nippon.com/en/features/h00043/)

