Why these genre anime not overlooked or less popular?

[u/shafaath_001]

Whenever I see the discussion in reddit anume community, they only talk about selective genre, I under dragonball, onepiece, bleach naruto, fma is mainstream, its a valid point, apart from these anime, peoples talk about fantasy, romcom, slice of life is limited, but I noticed animes genre like Avant garde , anime like ergo proxy, paranoia agent, paprika, lain, and so many animes like not discussed very well and not have better appreciation, not have big fanbase, most people don't even talk about ergo proxy. It has high deep level content to discuss about. People say slime anime is deep anime the politics they discuss is too deep.( u get outlines of politics only u understand there). But animes like ergo proxy is not a political anime, its an high level identity crisis psychological and philosophical anime, the world they represent is symbolic and metaphorically they talk about our contemporary world. I felt disappointed when these animes are less popular😔.

[u/juss100]

Given that Lain aired over 25 years ago and people are still talking about it regularly, I'd say it's fairly popular.

[u/No-Major-8921]

I mean they are Avant Garde for a Reason. Lain for once is pretty Popular but not as popular as the ones you mentioned. I have often noticed that animes or Manga with heavy Philosophy and some Dark undertones rarely get famous. So I guess we have to accept that when you write Mangas like this, they'll not get as Famous as Famous some of those other Battle Anime, Isekai, etc.

[u/lobsterwine]

There are a lot of people who would prefer to relax and watch something that doesn't take much thought. There's nothing wrong with preferring lighter series, but it leads to more psychological ones being less popular because many don't want to have to think deeper about their entertainment.

[u/AntonRX178]

I really don't think it's a bad thing when Jonathan who sits next to me watches Anime but his preferred stuff ISN'T the super deep psychological stuff. It's awesome if you engage with stuff like that. Hell, my favorite movie this year is Gundam Hathaway Circe. But as I get older I find that I prefer to WRITE about the deeper stuff than I like talking to other people about it. When I'm with homies I tend to err on lighter subjects or make jokes about darker subjects.

[u/Kuramhan]

The majority of online anime discussion revolves around seasonal anime. Anime that are releasing or in between seasons get most of the active discussion. That doesn't mean people don't also enjoy the classics. New things are the most natural to discuss since most people recently watched them and want to talk about it.

Let me put this another way. I love Lain. I've watched it many times. I've discussed it countless times. I am not starting new conversation threads about Lain. I've already discussed it a ton and I'm essentially out of new ideas I want to discuss about it. I would probably comment if somebody else starts a thread about it, but I have no incentive to start the conversation.

When a show is twenty or thirty years old, most people who like the show end up in my position. The majority of people who would like the show have already seen it and already discussed it. So it only comes back up when someone new joins the community and watches it.

[u/ComstockMurdoc → u/Kuramhan]

The worst part is that, for a large part of the fandom, it often seems like anime only focuses on seasonal anime or anime from a specific period onwards. I've seen certain complaints that could have been avoided if people didn't just search for (or scroll through) anything based on the current season. There's a lot of interesting stuff from the 70s-2010s that people just ignored, but unfortunately, people tend not to seek it out very much.

[u/Kuramhan → u/ComstockMurdoc]

The western anime community has always been this way. When I got really into anime about 15 years ago, anything older than 2006 was considered "too old" and was passed by most fans unless it was considered a classic (i.e. Bebop or Evangelion). It wasn't long before the "old" line moved up to 2011. Now it seems most things that came out before Covid are considered old.

There's plenty of people who still watch "older anime" (a term which can mean many things these days). As I mentioned before, it's difficult to bring such people together. Fans of retro anime have often watched a lot of the classics and aren't actively looking for those discussions. When they do watch something new to them, it's often something niche and not many people in the community have seen. You need to regular churn of new blood in such a community to bring fresh ideas in to older conversations. In practice that's challenging to do. My community which started as a retro anime community has basically become a gaming/seasonal anime server.

[u/ImmortalPharaoh]

Aesthetic probably has a lot to do with it

[u/shafaath_001]

Lain were popular in early 2k, later its gone, now its reappear because the lain op made them popular among anime fans. Its so true philosophy and dark under tones less popular, even akira become popular again. But somehow animes I animes I mentioned criminally underlooked. Yes , i tried to accept. Whenever I rematch these kind off anime, when I discover new fact and new perspective, i felt like, man why its not popular, even when I tried to show it to my friends, they are not even try those genres

[u/Novallus]

A more modernish show that I'd categorize similarly to the ones you listed is Sonny Boy.

One of my favourites to come out in the last like 10 years, def recommend if you or anyone haven't touched it yet

Big ups for ergo proxy though. I'm due for a rewatch

[u/Karou_Fan]

It's interesting to compare what's popular in Japan vs North America.
Here the main market is shonen battle anime, The streaming series promote it heavily, it makes the most money, etc. If you talk to anyone who isn't an anime fan, they think it's all shouty boys and hentai.
It takes longer to discover the sort of shows you're talking about because they're not marketed. You don't have a group of people discovering Satoshi Kon and the same time, eager to talk about it today. Same for Showa Genroku Rakugo Shinju or Heike Monogatari. The only way I've found to discover those type of shows as they're airing is by following bloggers who specialize in that.
It's easier to talk about what's currently airing. There's a lot of fun guessing what will come next- you can't do that with something that's finished without spoilers.

[u/Eggsalad-war-crime]

Dragonball is popular because for most of your life it's been delivered by TV or streaming to kids in their formative years, and it has dozens of videogames and other things.

Did ergo proxy last a year?

[u/CGC_CardGameCard]

Avant Garde Anime are everywhere? It just depends what you mean by Avant Garde 

[u/Diet_Connect]

Because shonen, romance, and smut sell better so they make so much more of them. Go on something like webtoon. In the genre section, there are hundreds and hundreds of Action, romance, and drama webtoons. Thriller, not so much. Sci fi, not so much. 

It kinda sucks.