In the streaming era of crystal-clear images and AI tools, it seems the antidotal charm of pre-2000s anime is hitting all the right notes with Gen Z. And brands are taking notice. “A lot of the briefs I receive include screengrabs that I can tell come from a City Pop video,” says animator Jack Zhang from his shared east London studio space. “Or a lo-fi Vaporwave one.”

Fan uploads of pop music from 1980s Japan have reignited interest in the period’s retro-futurist sensibilities. In tribute to the era’s home video boom and the country’s subsequent golden age of animation, the songs are accompanied by its prototypical images: a hypnotic blend of cyberpunk cityscapes and vintage haze, to which Zhang’s images pay loving homage.

Growing up in China in the early 2000s, classic anime evoked in him a confusing feeling that remains to this day: like nostalgia, but for a time before he was even born. It formed the backdrop to his unorthodox upbringing. The oldest of three, he was “the guinea pig” in his artist father’s experiment of taking his children out of school and letting them learn at home, at their own pace. At the time, unsupervised in front of the TV with a sketchpad, he thought, “Oh my god, I’m just wasting time. I’m going to end up nowhere.”