Written by Antai
Do you have deep memories of visual works such as animation, movies, or games you watched in childhood? The majority of us have at least one. And I have a bunch. Meanwhile, does any on your list have a new successor? Not a sequel or reboot, but a rebuild, remaster or remake. For instance, Dune(movie), Chūka Ichiban! (animate) and Final Fantasy VII(game). Same stories, characters, and settings. If you do, which do you think is better? Old ones or the remake?
I have mixed feelings toward remakes. A remake could give you a chance to relive that moment you once had when you were younger. At the same time, remakes always are better in graphics and other stuff supported by advanced technology. Especially for video games, such as Alan Wake Remaster, has better pictures and work with the new controller’s vibration feature. So in this way, remakes are better than old ones.
However, it is only sometimes the case. Movies, comics, and animation do not take technology’s advantage as much as video games. I think the old way of making a movie or energy gives it a unique flavour. Such as, a video recorded with celluloid film looks different from a digital camera. And in old times, artists had to draw every frame of an animation, 24 frames for 1 second. That’s much work, but it looks different than digitalized AI-enhanced animation. Those are the beginning part of the taste of times. More important are the people behind it. First, people were more straightforward than right now. Not everything is commercialized. Most artists create works because they love them, not just for money. And there were fewer restrictions, and fewer internet memes creators could use their whole imagination without holdback. Also, with less technology, creators had to try every possible way to make their dream come true. Nowadays, people use computers to do everything, it’s convenient but also a shackle at the same time. Recently I rewatched Shuke and Beita, an old fairy tale animation, and some of its newer remakes. The first thing I noticed is that the aesthetics are different. The remake ruins my memories. Aesthetics also play a big part in the taste of times. Now and then, people see things differently, and it profoundly affects people’s aesthetic sense. Final question, should we try and preserve the old taste?