Interest Stacks

Every so often, I feel the sudden and intense urge to watch an anime from around the Turn of the Millennium (1998-2003) with a certain "murky" quality to it that has since gone out of style. This aesthetic, which I have dubbed the "Millennium Haze", is characterized by warm tones of orange, gray, and sickly green; blown out backgrounds and blooming lights; and usually the kind of rounded, "realistic" art style I explored in my "Realistic Y2K Art Style" stack. This aesthetic feels like the visual equivalent of the music of Slowdive or Monoral; it's the kind of thing you listen to while driving in the dark or walking alone down a dusty street with nowhere to go.

Anime with this look also tend to have dark, hazy stories to accompany their dark, hazy visuals, exploring existential themes and tending toward genres like Mystery, Drama, or the darker side of Sci-Fi. Whether due to changing technology or shifting trends, they really don't make them like this anymore.