There is one thing that triggers me more than almost anything else does in a conversation. I generally think I am a pretty hard person to annoy. I'd go so far as to say that I have fairly thick skin. But when someone says that I only like something i'm passionate about because of nostalgia? Wow. That just burns me up in a way no other words can.
Stating that someone who likes something only does so because of nostalgia sort of like a double whammy. It is downright insulting to the individual it is directed at as you are inferring that they are incapable of separating their emotions from logical analysis. Not only that, but you are also insulting the media in question by implying that due to it's age, it cannot possibly compare in quality to new things. As if something being newer makes it inherently better. I mean, I had no idea that something being made in the last decade or so automatically gives it a more compelling narrative, art direction, well-written characters, better animation and or all of the other countless things that go into a show.
I am not 70 episodes in to Dragon Ball re-watch because of "nostalgia", that is utterly absurd to suggest. Dragon Ball is a fantastic show that revolutionized the anime medium. It virtually created the battle Shounen as a concept. Western anime fans tend to have a demented view of it since it created the Western anime industry alongside Sailor Moon. As such it is unfairly criticized as being "vanilla" or "tropey" despite the fact that it pioneered those tropes.
Not only that, but the majority of Western fans skipped half of the story. Resulting in them having no buildup for 90% of the cast and the aliens twist being spoiled immediately. This is also why people falsely say that Goku has no character development; they did not watch Dragon Ball. His character developed in the first half of the story, his arc was already completed by the time the Saiyans arrived for the most part. You skipped straight to the second half and then acted as if you'd seen all there is to see.
Something being special to me from my childhood in of itself is not enough to make me sit down and dedicate so much of my time to it. Sword Art Online was one of my first anime ever and I fully acknowledge that it's garbage. My opinion has adjusted accordingly despite the fact that I liked it when I first saw it. There's plenty of media that I liked when I was younger but that I now realize has little artistic merit.
Nostalgia can cloud someone's perception of something if they haven't experienced it since childhood, I'll fully concede that. A lot of people are aware of this and refuse to revisit old things they enjoyed at a younger age because of it. THAT is an example of nostalgia influencing someone's opinion, and a case in which the term is fairly applicable.
Want to know where it's NOT fairly applicable? When you are directing it towards someone who has revisited the media in question. For an example; Nostalgia isn't me regularly playing Mario Kart Wii for hundreds of hours in the past 3 years. I play it because I believe it's superior to every other entry in the series and I have legitimate reasoning for thinking so. Such as the fact that item usage is more strategic, the gameplay isn't so on rails like Mario Kart 7 and it's successor are, that there are deeper techniques & a higher skill gap compared to other entries, that inside drifting bikes are meta and that the game generally gives you so much control over your vehicle.
Nostalgia also isn't me dedicating hundreds of hours to this very website. While apart of the initial kick to get me to make this site may have been nostalgia-related, do you think the fact that I wanted to have a website when I was a little kid over a decade ago is what has kept me updating it for almost 4 years now? Absolutely not.
I maintain this place because I despise the controlled walled gardens that have consumed cyberspace. This site helps keep me off of social media, and also allows me to express myself without fear of being deplatformed for wrongthink. Not to mention it gives me a place to share my creative endeavors. I don't do this for some tacky "aesthetic", I do this because I think everything about personal website ownership is superior to the pathetic state of the modern internet.
An additional humorous thing is how even with media that I'm not nostalgic for, you'll still see people acting like if you prefer them to the newer version you must somehow be blinded. I first watched Hunter x Hunter in it's 2011 form, and not only that but it was one of my first 10 anime ever. A 100+ episode voyage that was one of the very first shows I ever watched. Huh, naturally I must be pretty nostalgic for it right? It's surely among my favorites right?
Nope. I vastly prefer the 1999 adaptation which I only watched for the first time in 2024. The funny thing being that if I were to mention that I prefer 1999 in a lot of HxH fan spaces, I'd immediately get shouted down for "NOSTALGIA!!!" when if anything I'd have nostalgia for the 2011 version.
There are many legitimate reasons to believe '99 to be the superior adaptation. Whether it's the art style, the incredible background art, the dark tone the show has compared to 2011's overly cheery tonal whiplash, the much larger color palette, the slower pace and more detailed coverage of events, the more realistic character designs, or the shot composition and generally superior directing by the great Kazuhiro Furuhashi. But no, it's all nostalgia bro. Do you see now why I find it so obnoxious? It's nothing more than a way of shutting down conversation.
After all, if you simply dismiss something based on it's age, you don't have to do that pesky thing called "thinking". You don't have to interact with art that's slightly outside of your comfort zone because it does not wholly conform to modern design trends. None of which by the way are inherently superior than older ones. I suspect that many people who default to referring to appreciation for anything old nostalgia likely have not thought about how dismissively it can come off. I hope that this little rant of mine can shed some light on that. Don't be that guy.