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The story
A thread on 5ch’s “Live Reporting General” board heated up over which era was the most fun to live through: Showa (1926–1989), Heisei (1989–2019), or Reiwa (2019–present). Some users championed Reiwa for the sheer convenience of smartphones, while others held firm nostalgia for Heisei, when people enjoyed the internet through flip phones and PCs. On the pace of gaming’s evolution, posters noted that visual fidelity leapt forward dramatically in just the ten years between the Super Famicom (1990) and the PlayStation 2 (2000), while progress over the last decade has felt comparatively stagnant. Showa didn’t get an unqualified pass either, with commenters pointing out that “pollution, organized crime, and workplace harassment were just normal back then” — laying bare just how differently each generation experienced its own era.
What people said
Smartphones are just too convenient
Heisei just had flip phones, right? Showa didn't even have those
lol can't even remember 8 years ago
You could enjoy plenty of online content on a PC without a smartphone
If anything, things got more boring once smartphones took over
If you let people pick either, 99% would choose Reiwa games
At the age of most people here, you've basically already retired from gaming — normally you're just handing games to your kids or playing along with them
What world are you living in where you think 99% of 30- and 40-somethings still obsess over game quality?
For a second I thought you meant people looked happy doing math problems
Half of Heisei barely had internet either though
Nothing but console games
No Steam, right?
Steam's just a storefront that made it easy for anyone to play all kinds of PC games — PC gaming itself has been around forever
No thanks
That's just sad 😭
The air was filthy, the place was crawling with gangsters, workplace harassment was everywhere, no washlets, the food and booze were bad, and everyone was ugly — nothing good about it
wasn't even born yet
Showa was the best, come on
Johnny's idols, Disney
Dragon Quest, homegrown sports cars
It had everything
Showa was the best, come on
Johnny's idols, Disney
Dragon Quest, homegrown sports cars
It had everything
If you didn't live in the city center, life was basically like the Edo period
Whatever you wanted? Sounds more like getting dragged off to war and forced into suicidal banzai charges
And glass bottles too
By market size, it's now
it's just consuming information, so it's not that fun
just my take
Feeding your brain on information while your body stays unsatisfied creates that lopsided state, so you end up endlessly chasing satisfaction, feeding on more information over and over
Reiwa: work is easier
That's basically the vibe
Whether work's easier really just depends on the industry and the company..
Reiwa's hit a wall
barely any progress from games 8 years ago
Super Famicom release date: November 21, 1990
PS2 release date: March 4, 2000
And that leap happened in just 10 years
Same with anime
the artwork's barely changed from 10 years ago
Background and Key Points of This Debate
Heisei ran from 1989 to 2019, and Reiwa has continued from 2019 to the present — as of 2026, we’re in the 7th year of Reiwa. The phrase “8 years ago” used in the thread points to a period roughly overlapping the transition from late Heisei into Reiwa, and posters used it as a jab at generations whose memories of that time have already gone hazy. It’s also an objective fact that graphical fidelity leapt forward dramatically in the mere ten years between the Super Famicom (1990) and the PlayStation 2 (2000), and several posters cited this to argue that games and anime have felt comparatively stagnant over the past decade. On the other hand, nostalgic takes on Showa drew pushback from users pointing to its darker sides — pollution, the visible presence of organized crime, and normalized workplace harassment — underscoring that generational perspectives on the era can’t be reduced to simple nostalgia.
※This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Nanademo Jikkyo G) thread “Showa vs Heisei vs Reiwa: Which Era Was the Most Fun wwwwwwwww“.
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