[Saecryd]

For a movement that got it's start by famously inventing the most cost-effective and therefore funny-looking animation techniques (remember all of those slow pans where nothing was actually moving?) anime sure has come a long, long way in the animation department. It's pretty amazing when you look at it back to back.

The 60's


The 70's



The 80's


The 90's


2000+

Of course, everything shown above were series, operating on a limited budget and expected to play over a long period of time. OVAs and later full-fledged films would obviously look a lot nicer than any series. Heck, even their openings were a lot better than the animation of the show itself.

Nowadays we have studios like Production IG, Bones, GAINAX, and others who not only maintain high production values but, in the case of IG, go well out of their way to further the practice of animation in more ways than one. Production IG is rumored to be more of an animation lab than anything else, as evidenced in the amazing visuals they created using technology they'd come up with that had never been done before in the film "Blood: The Last Vampire". Studio Bones and GAINAX are ramping up the framerates in their work, producing absolutely astounding action scenes with many, many objects onscreen all moving at the same time (think "Eureka Seven" when they were dodging homing lasers or clusters of missiles or "Tengen Toppa Gurran Laggann" almost all the time). Kyoto Animation produces some of the most consistently smooth animation in Japan at the moment, as shown in the "Haruhi" clip above, and they're only getting better.

It's all pretty astounding when you sit and think about it.

[ssluffy]

it trully is

[Gamer_144]

Ah yes, watching technology grow through the years and what it produces... oh so beautiful to witness in our lives ^_^

[MegaMortal]

Lol at the Bebop clip

But yeah, just can't imagine how it'll end up being in the future when we look down on shows like Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya and go "That's and old classic one there".

[Infero93]

Ahh this animation... Nobody knows how gonna look in next year’s but we can say it will by amazing. Best example is TTGL and Haruhi. That was animation but maybe in the next year this anime will be only good, old classic whit poor animation

[Volture]

Basquash anyone?

[WuxingBagua]

love it! I have been watching anime since 1988 or so and it was jumped leaps and bounds... just awesome! I am always looking out for new art, style,etc.. Anime Rocks!

[Retrorock]

Originally Posted by Volture

Basquash anyone?

What do you mean???

[Saecryd]

I think that he thinks that Basquah's animation is good. And he would be sorta right since the computer animation blends pretty seamlessly with the the more traditional animation. But the traditional animation is horrible. All Basquash has going for it is a nice, consistent color palette and snazzy computer graphics.

[Volture]

Every anime consists almost only out of 'computer graphics'.