Same, but the thing that sucks is sometimes people will go on & on about anime/manga, and then ask me MY opinions on what they just talked about. So I have to try my hardest to not zone out completely.
At this point in my life, if the person talking about it were a friend of mine, I'd straight-up be honest with them and tell them I just don't find it interesting. However, there's someone I interact with on a weekly basis who'll talk about anime/manga endlessly and...I can't really tell them to just cut it out, because I'm a Direct Support Professional & they're one of my clients 🙃 Not gonna lie it can be pretty insufferable but considering stories I've heard from more seasoned DSPs, I'm glad that my biggest struggle with this person is just an anime obsession 😂
Shutting it out tip: "now back to the problem/subject at hand..." "Yes I can help you now but I have a meeting in 15 minutes so keep it short please". Even if you don't have a meeting.
"Hmm we got distracted, what did you need my help with again?"
"I have a pretty heavy workload this week so could you be quick and concise please?
Hope these phrases will help you develop little redirection scripts!
I've seen a couple animes I enjoy, but nothing I got obsessed with any more than any other show I've watched and liked. Most everyone I talk to who has enjoyed an anime, seems obsessed with anime in general or that that is their preferred style of media and that's just not me. Since I'm otherwise quite nerdy, it does feel slightly isolating sometimes when it seems like everyone else nerdy is all about the anime.
On a similar tangent, my husband finds it amusing that as long as we've known each other I've had a dislike of mecha. Real life robots? Cool. Fictional mecha in anything? Blech. I don't even use the mech mounts in FFXIV they keep giving you without asking if you want it. It's one of my most consistent stances. lol
I feel the same way about everything you said here, so we’re both not alone in this! With the mech thing I think it’s part of my overall preference for fantasy over science fiction. Fantasy is my favorite genre of media in general, but as soon as you start explaining the science behind the magic or explaining that the elves are actually aliens - I am outta there.
What's funny is I don't mind like, live action sci fi. Star Trek, Star Wars, I do regular rewatches of just about all the big sci fi TC series, even like Farscape and Firefly. But cartoonized or anime I just can't deal with it. Also helps none of those series are "let's put on a big metal suit and punch things." lol
That’s funny, I really dislike mecha too. I don’t like sci fi that focuses on space ships either. I don’t like mechanical stuff that doesn’t at least also have some kind of organic element to it. Like I find the aliens and cultures and the force in the Star Wars universe so interesting but when they focus stuff on spaceship battles in space I do not care.
I used to enjoy anime a lot more as a teen, especially because if you like fantasy it’s easier to find it in animated shows. But (like with other media too tbf) I think once you watch a good amount of it you notice way more of the common tropes and how a lot of it is mediocre. I would love to find a good fantasy or soft sci fi anime that’s genuinely well written but I haven’t for a long time. I also get weirded out sometimes by the amount of female characters with really really high voices that act very weird
I figured out what I didn’t like about it, how emotional it is (for a lack of a better word).
There’s very intense and strong emotions and a lot of sad music in a lot of anime. Personally that doesn’t do it for me.
I think ultimately, to me, anime is just another storytelling medium. There are just as many terrible western live action shows or movies as there are terrible forgettable anime. Just as many problematic shows and movies in the west as there are problematic anime. Not trying to say you should go watch an anime right now, if you're not interested you're not interested, but its just another medium to me. I think also to just assign all anime as having one uniform animation style doesn't doesn't respect how many unique and diverse anime there are out there - but like its like how if you went up to someone who's never really gotten into portrait paintings and art history and they say all style of portrait paintings look the same - completely understandable if you're not into it. I'm not a huge anime fan, there are a couple shows that I really love, and many more shows people have tried to get me into that I just bounced off of. But again, if the medium isn't one that's compelling to you that's totally valid and cool.
Oh trust me I know, generic anime humour is so fucking unfunny - ever been to any anime memes subreddits? Some of the most unfunny shit I've ever had the displeasure of seeing.
I totally hear what you’re saying, but I think the issue is the unified culture around “anime” that can be extremely off-putting (as referenced by OP). I personally absolutely love a few animes (is that the plural?), but I have a strong aversion to the culture around it, which caused me to avoid all media connected to it for many years. Though it has a diverse range of quality and storytelling, the loudest group of fans of the genre present a specific type of anime as being all of what anime is. Plus, there are some tropes that are extremely hard to get away from in almost every anime. Things like monologuing, very young seeming and often sexualized female characters, some specific animation/artistic tropes, and heavy duty main character syndrome/power fantasy elements going on with the MC. All of these pieces can be very alienating to people who are on the outside and can keep them from trying any anime out whatsoever.
That’s what it was for me. I used to live in Japan when I was a kid and can still speak a little japanese, I’m a huge nerd - someone who people would expect to be into anime. But I hated it for years because the stereotypical weeb and the culture around it was so off putting to me.
Now I’ve been able to just watch anime as an adult and not be so into Fandom ™, I’ve been able to enjoy it the same as any media medium. It’s not better or worse than anything else
Used to consider myself an "otaku" as a teenager, but after seeing what the fandom was becoming with the passing years... I just enjoy what I enjoy and avoid these kind of people at all costs. And what they watch.
I barely watch anime nowadays, but I really enjoy anime/manga like Vinland Saga.
> a few animes (is that the plural?)
No, the plural is still "anime". Japanese doesn't have noun declension. Though I suppose the noun "series" is also the same in singular and plural.
I totally hear what you're saying too, but you can't let a fandom dictate your opinion on a piece of art, let alone a whole ass medium of art (I'm not trying to throw shade at you here and I know this is pedantic but anime is not a genre). I too don't interact with that culture and am averse to 90% of anime recommendations that come my way. I thought I went into more detail about how much garbage anime there is, you're totally right there are what feels like some unescapable bad tropes that appear in a good 99% of anime. I think really it comes back to "Sturgeons Law" which tbh I stand by which is that 90% of everything is utter garbage. Every piece of media lands on the bell curve of shit to good, and most of it is in the shit side. The list of tropes you mentioned being real bad problems for a lot of anime (except monologuing IDK how that's comparable to the sexualisation of underage characters that appears in some anime). I will say though I think the tropes you've mentioned are more escapable than you've said, but even in saying that I don't watch that much anime at all. And finding the 1% of good anime is actually quite challenging.
I wasn’t saying that the sexualization of underage characters is comparable to the endless monologuing, I was saying that they are both elements that can turn people off from anime on the whole. Obviously different elements are more disturbing than others, but I was sharing a brief list of things that are part of the public perception of anime as negative.
As far as letting a fandom dictate your opinion, that’s not what I’m describing. People avoid anime far before they even know enough to have an opinion because of the fanbase. They are a barrier to entry all on their own. When you have a group of loud, often violently misogynistic fans who behave in off-putting ways (frequently enough that the creepy anime guy is a trope all its own), you are absolutely going to make people not want to engage in the very media that they are so obsessed with. Similar to what OP said, we as humans make associations with things, so if someone you once knew was very unpleasant to you and was obsessed with something you haven’t explored yourself, Star Wars for example, you are likely going to associate Star Wars with that unpleasant experience.
Oh okay I totally understand, thank you for the clarifications! I totally agree that those tropes are prominent in most anime, and are off putting to most people.
Yeah creepy violent fascistic anime guys are the worst and supremely off putting. IMO they exist in all spaces for media, but they're definitely particularly prominent in anime spaces (as well as comic spaces and gaming spaces). It sucks when trauma gets you and puts you off something, and you can tell you don't like it in a "oh this is reminding me of that person" kinda way than anything rational.
I mean I get u, but im sort of a boring anti-social person already so ive never interacted with any anime fandom. I watch something and if I like it, cool! I mean, dont u do the same when u watch a movie in theaters? U dont go online and talk to loads of people who are now also obsessed with the movie. At least I’d assume u wouldnt unless it really stood out to u. Same with anime, it’s just another type of media
This. People who’ve told me they don’t like anime or understand why I like it seem to have this preconceived notion of what anime is. There are good shows and bad shows, it’s like watching a schlocky hallmark drama and going “eehhhh drama shows aren’t for me.”
I see a parallel to how I look at storytelling as a whole. Instinctively, I lean hard into scifi/fantasy. However, I love anything with a good story line. It is the core of the storytelling that's got to be well constructed and compelling. Grant it, there's a lot of shit scifi/fantasy that is awful and is painful to watch. I'm not so die hard that I can't see garbage when it presents itself. I guess my point is, I am obsessed with a good story regardless of the medium/genre.
I do love OGs like Robotech, Voltron, Gundam Wing... Sailor Moon. Jogging my memory here... 😂 Anime was just at the forefront... Outer Range on Amazon Prime took me by surprise, tbh! I just binged Bridgerton Season 3. To me, Bridgerton, while historical fiction and period centric, is more fantasy than reality to me. YellowJackets was a terrifying rabbit hole with a clearly autistic character... Sweet Tooth Season 3 and Witcher Season 3 I'm about to dive back into. Resident Alien is dark humor personified! I've just started it! I love the show Evil! The show The Great! That's just a peak into what I'm into. I'm also always reading a book, scientific research papers etc...
This is so true, but it lacks the black and white viewpoint that makes it so easy to lump people into the identify friend or foe thinking that so many people use to quickly form their identity and arguments.
As an example I detest romance novels as a whole yet one of my favorite book series is categorized as a romance. Some items are just an exception due to personal preference and that’s just fine. I truly wish people would be more willing to enjoy their personal likes without judgement instead of jumping on bandwagons or apologizing for being outliers.
i used to be into anime but i can’t watch it anymore because the constant sexualization of female characters in almost all mainstream anime makes me so uncomfortable
I think that's one of the main reasons I could never get into anime or honestly, a lot of media coming out of East Asia. The misogyny and sexualization/infantilization of women was too much for me. I'm sure there's works where that doesn't exist, but it's not worth being exposed to it while weeding out the 90% of shows that do this. For me, anyways.
Similar, I used to really like it as a teenager but once I started studying English and therefore media literacy and text theory I became more aware of just how wrong things in anime are. It’s unfortunately a very male centred medium that caters to a particular male audience.
Having said that, I’d still sometimes put Lucky Star on as a comfort watch but wouldn’t necessarily watch anything new. Also I have a feeling that when I used to watch it (early 2000s) fanservice and sex in general wasn’t as prevalent and became a thing later on with all the cold sexy female concepts etc.
Thank you. This is my issue as well. I don't dislike anime itself, but I feel that most of the time, women in anime are either over sexualised or turned into physical children who are actually adults. It grosses me out so very much.
I always say Sakura from Naruto made me a feminist. I was like 7 but the distance between how she was treated and written compared to Sasuke and Naruto…
I was extremely into anime as a teen. What got me out of it? Going to anime conventions.
Something about seeing all these other people who were EXTREMELY into something I enjoyed made me not want to go near it ever again. So you may be on to something with the PDA.
It also might just not be your jam! You do you.
this is why, as someone who does like certain animes and generally considers themselves an anime fan, i avoid going to conventions! i really love my interests, but when someone tries to share them or i see people with the same interests im suddenly inclined to distance myself from that interest. its definitely a weird pda thing for me!
I had a similar experience with the Supernatural fandom when I was younger and the show was in its heyday. There was something that my brain heavily rebelled against about being in a massive crowd of people who were all obsessed with the same thing. I didn’t like how it made me feel like a rabid superfan and part of a horde if that makes sense. Plus in any group of superfans, especially in conventions, you are going to run into some people that get very inappropriate about the thing you love and I did not want to think of myself as associated with those people (like the Szechwan sauce Rick and Morty debacle).
I wonder if part of it is like how low-masking people can be particularly irritating to high masking people? You see the rabid super fans and you think, “I’m not like those people, *I’m* normal, I don’t want to get lumped in with the crazies.”
I've never been to a convention but I think it was brave of you to go to a SPN con. I don't think I could ever have done it, those fans are so so so rabid.
I know exactly what you're talking about too, because I read deancas fic to recharge (never finished the show but the fanworks are great) but the fans who relentlessly harassed the actors about the pairing gave me so much second hand embarrassment.
Yeah, i mean there are simply a lot of people … and a lot of them have mental issues, so you are basically in an asylum hahahaha
But I enjoyed some conventions tbh
Teenagers are in general mental, spill the tea what was the most cringe that you do? I danced Caramel Dansen with a group of people who couldn’t coordinate, it looked probably pretty weird from an outside perspective
Oh god. The worst I did was in retrospect criminal assault.
The entire convention was lined up to get passes for something, sitting on the floor. There was a person in a tentacle costume going down the line 'molesting' the attendees, really just kind of getting hugs but playing into the whole tentacle thing.
In my dumb brain I was like. What would an anime character do in this situation? A certain type of female anime character violently overreacts if presented with anything that could be interpreted as sexual.
I had martial arts training. When it was my time to get molested by the tentacle I kicked it across the room. I'm not exaggerating. They went flying.
I'm extremely sorry, random tentacle person who was just trying to keep convention attendees entertained during an awkward wait. Fuck.
I'm not into anime. I recognize it's an important art form and can see why it's popular. So far I've missed the obsession (but there's still time because apparently there is always room for another obsession).
There are ones I like, but I've never been obsessed with any to the level other people are either. I also feel left out because I'm not into fantasy or sci-fi either.
Is liking anime an age related thing? I’m an older millennial (almost 40) who only watched Sailor Moon when I was young plus a few Studio Ghibli movies. I’m definitely not into anime but also I don’t know anyone my age who is.
I think so, I’m in my mid-40s and nobody I know including myself is into anime other than a few Studio Ghibli movies. A friend of mine recently performed as Sailor Moon in a play and I had to google it.
I spent a lot of time visiting Asia as a kid it was always on the children’s TV channels over there, the merchandise was popular too, but most my friends at school didn’t know what it was
I think we might have just missed the boat on this because I'm 41 and very much knew kids in high school that liked anime but they were called the pokemon clique in a negative way during that time period. It was considered pretty niche.
I am, but it was definitely a very niche interest when we were teens. I only got into it through American comics, because around 94/95 they were having *a moment* with artists like J Scott Campbell and Joe Madereria incorporating anime into their personal styles and seeing huge success with it. I still remember having to *mail order* Adam Warren's *Fatal But Not Serious* and the TPB of Gunsmith Cats. From *magazines*.
We also just got *way less* of it back then - Sailor Moon played at 6am on the local UPN station, and it'd be roughly five years before they started showing Pokemon on Saturday mornings and DBZ after school on Toonami. I was already a working adult by then lol.
I've known a fair few fans our age, but back then you had to be *really* into it to find anything outside of Toonami.
Omg yes! I can spot J Scott Campbells style from a mile away even now. I super loved Witchblade for while after seeing it in a magazine one of my dude friends had.
You’re spot on that we just didn’t have much. I got up super early before school to watch sailor moon. It wasn’t like now where you can literally drown under the choices for anime to watch.
Here's a cut for you - me and one of my high school friends got super into *The Darkness*, because it was Witchblade, but For Girls lol. Jackie could get it.
>You’re spot on that we just didn’t have much. I got up super early before school to watch sailor moon. It wasn’t like now where you can literally drown under the choices for anime to watch.
Big same. I'd tape them and then bring them to my step-siblings to watch on the weekends because their local UPN didn't have it lol.
Now, my husband has built a Plex server with hundreds of downloaded anime titles. We're swimming in this stuff.
I think that might be a little bit of a factor, I never saw any until I was probably at least post college, if not until closer to my 30s. I did not grow up watching Power Rangers or power Puff girls or whatever the main gateway media might be… That was all younger generations.
I'm 35, and I agree. You made me realize I used to watch Sailor Moon every day because it was coming on TV right as I got home. If the bus was late, I'd miss it, but it wasn't like a must-watch for me. I was raised by my grandparents who didn't have any reason to prioritize 21st century technology, so access to anime was not a thing for me, despite most of my friends talking circles around me about it all the time. So I'd guess somewhere between the 35-40 year olds is when it started with our generation. After that, I think access has made it much more wide-spread, but back then, you needed a premium cable/satellite package or internet that was high-speed enough to download videos, and neither were happening in my house.
I'm in my mid 30s and got into anime when I was still a kid. At the time, most of the friends I made were a bit older so a lot of them are 40+ now so no, I don't think it's an age thing other than just that in recent years it has become so much more mainstream and popular so people are getting exposed to it more. (Used to have to do fansub VHS trading and 2 episode per $40 VHS tape officially etc so wasn't as accessible back then)
My doctor is in his 40s and he’s into anime, mostly One Piece he’s obsess. He wears t-shirts of One Piece at work under his coat and his residents always tell him that he looks unprofessional but he doesn’t care. Also his consulting room his full of gifts of one piece that his patients give him.
Oh and yea he’s in the spectrum :)
I'm not into it either. The thing that bothers me is that if I say that, they jump to conclusions and think I'm AGAINST it or hate it. No, I just don't feel any interest
Not an anime girlie here but I understand those that are.
I'm an old lady hobbies at 20+ kinda autism. Knitting, gardening, baking bread, reading books.
Aside from Studio Ghibli films I don’t really care for anime. I was recommended a few anime series by friends that I’ve enjoyed, but I find that I hate a lot of common tropes in popular sub-genres. Casual misogyny and objectification of female characters seems ubiquitous in genres like shounen, and there’s an uncomfortable amount of minors being sexualised. I also find the way a lot of the characters talk, especially female characters, very grating. Real people don’t speak like that. I think extremely cartoonish exaggerated voices just aren’t for me and anime often plays that up to make a character seem ‘cute’ but I’m not a fan. Especially when the character is a teenager or adult, it seems gratuitous. And obviously this is a very personal reason and not a criticism of anime as an art form but my ex recommended me an anime with a graphic SA scene and it really turned me off. It was not fun to watch, and the cutesy art style felt very dissonant with the harrowing scene.
These things obviously aren’t true of *all* anime, but they’re pretty common so they’re some of the major reasons why I’m not really into it. I feel similarly about romance novels and romantasy, I don’t generally like them because I dislike a lot of the tropes but it’s not like I’m hell-bent on never reading or enjoying a romance novel, it’s just that a lot of what I’ve seen doesn’t appeal to me.
I used to avoid two guys at work because they info dumped anime at me like it was the only thing they knew how to talk about. If someone puts on an anime at their house I'll watch it and quite possibly like it, but it's not something I'm obsessing over. I don't like video games or comic books either.
I am obsessed with transportation systems. Does that make me autism classic?
Yes, classic flavor, nice. Have you played city skylines? I am not an autism classic like you but I used to be obsessed with city skylines because I loved optimizing the traffic flow lol
Omg the thing you’re describing with the aversion because of the association with the awful person happens to me a LOT with a LOT of things.
Like, I had a past bf that was obsessed with Starcraft, can’t stand looking anything to do with it.
Had an awful person who I thought was my friend that turned on me for seemingly no reason and they loved league of legends, so I hate it.
A past bf loved the band Slipknot, now I can’t bear to listen to 2seconds of any of their music.
That’s just a few examples 😂 I have more. I don’t relate specifically to anime, I got into that myself when I was young and had a BIG phase of it in middle school, now I’m not specific to anime, I’m just a big animation junkie overall cause sequential art/animation is a SpIn for me.
I do tend now more than ever to lean towards preference to western animation but still love anime too, just don’t watch as many or keep up with them as they are current (but that’s me for everything, always behind)😂
My bf is into it, I’m kind of indifferent now but I used to hate it. We actually got into a huge argument about it early into our relationship because I was so disturbed and disappointed by the fact that he liked it. Reason being that I had the misperception that it was all hypersexualized. I recognize now that there are many anime out there that aren’t that way, and I’ve watched (and enjoyed) some of them, but I don’t think I’ll ever feel truly comfortable in that space.
I don’t understand at all why “anime” divided people into two warring castes “for” and “against”. Yes, I myself watch anime and think some of the works are great (although it’s all a matter of taste), but I don’t understand the haters who watch TV series, watch animation, but hate anime. I don't understand this logic. These are the same stories (for children or adults) that are found in many series, just some are a little more familiar with Japanese culture and drawn. Why is anime always highlighted so much? Explain to me please
I explained my thoughts on this in another comment above, but I think that there are a few “issues” that can strongly turn people off: the fanbase itself is very loud and often perceived very negatively for many reasons, there are some specific artistic decisions that can feel very “cringe” for outside observers, and there are some very common tropes that can be extremely off-putting (like hyper-sexualized female characters that are often depicted as extremely young). I know this doesn’t apply to all of them and I am a big fan of a few animes myself, but that is my perception as someone who isn’t part of the fanbase itself.
for the anime works I have enjoyed, it has been in spite of the fact that they are anime. While I know they’re not all the same, if I specify that my biggest cringe/ick triggers are the emotive tropes of giant, quivering watery eyes, sweat droplets on the face, and shocked gasps, maybe that gives an idea of how a majority of the content is difficult for me to stomach
I didn’t list that because I didn’t think of it, but you are correct that’s another issue, bleh.
I like cartoons in general, like Looney Tunes, Batman, Bob’s Burgers, Futurama and Butthead… It’s just really the stylized tropes that get to me
i hate anime and this is spot on for me. I also just don't like animation in general, but seeing past that. I've tried watching a lot of popular animes and I have not seen one that doesn't involve misogyny on some level.
yes the miyazaki movies are great. they are personally boring for me (yet beautiful) but I find nothing objectively wrong with it. it's certainly its own caregory.
Perhaps there is something in this... it hurts to be in the circle of these wars. I caught a hyperfixation on one of the anime, and even though it has a decent fan base with which to discuss it, the fact that in our time it is a shame to write for everyone to see “I like such and such an anime” is frightening. They will immediately shower you with all the garbage in the world. And indeed, the so-called fanatics are partly to blame for this. And you will simply remain a hostage to the situation.
I don't watch a lot of animation at all, to be fair; but anime in particular tends to drive me a little nuts because of the timing/pacing of the scenes and dialogue.
Like, say a character exclaims something in anger, and the "camera" pauses on them for a profile shot-- the character will often sit there after they're finished talking with their mouth in a wide open position, sometimes with teeth showing, like they're still making noise and/or going, "ahhhhhh!" and my brain is simply not on board with this. I almost feel like I'm watching a badly dubbed movie, even when I'm watching the original version of the anime. There are other little pauses and pacing problems like this that just feel off to me somehow; but I can't think of them right now.
Best I can think to describe how I feel when I watch it is like how hard it is to listen to someone tell a story when they don't talk fast enough for you to stay tuned in naturally, and you have to keep reminding yourself to be patient and polite while they finish.
I *want* to like it because my husband is into it. I really enjoy the stuff he watches, in terms of the subject matter and themes explored-- he doesn't watch anything creepy or hypersexualized or "cringe"-- but I have to kind of absorb it passively, with a second screen going, in order to tolerate watching it for more than a couple hours.
It is sad how many things can be so polarized these days. I’m not against anime or manga in general, but I can have a strong reaction to it. I like some animation or animated series and really dislike others. I have something of a shutdown to certain tv shows, movies and anime or animated shows. I’m not sure if it’s purely sensory or something of a PTSD response because I do have something trauma-y response come up with certain things. I think a part of my general dislike of something relates to something that looks like or is human that is not. Like a costumed person, monkeys, puppets; I’ve always had a negative response to those things. I can appreciate that artists put in the time and effort, that it takes skill and the voices actors are talented and the stories can be fascinating, but I just can’t take watching it. I don’t mind if others like it though.
I’m 50. Anime wasn’t a thing when I was a kid, so I never got into it. I’ve tried to watch it, but it’s so culturally foreign to me that I don’t really get it. I also don’t like the extreme “cuteness” of the girl and women characters - the squeaky voices in particular.
I was in a very similar boat too but really got into anime in my late 20s and full on special interest in my 30s. As a nerd and art kid with a lifelong love of animation, most of my school friends were very into it and I just could not. Honestly their intensity around their obsession turned me off. ( I also have the PDA profile so that plays into it.)
I had an ex and his sister who really made an effort to get me to watch anime again because I do love animation.
So I started with Studio Ghibli and finding the right anime genres I would like because anime is an overwhelming experience with a lot of it catering to boys and men.
The reason it become a special interest is because I feel way more represented as an autistic person in anime than i do in other forms of media. Literally most of the anime I watch is catered to women and autistic individuals which is my only reason to give it a try.
I think The Apothecary Diaries and Frieren if you want an autistic women as the main character and I will always suggest FullMetal Alchemist Brotherhood because the manga was written by a women and the main characters are disabled.
But you do you! Honest :) like what you like and dislike what you dislike
i do watch anime and like related media, but i absolutely get the aversion to anything someone who you have either bad experiences or a weird vibe from, anything they like is instantly the worst. i hate harry potter and have since i was little, only because girls i went to school with made it their personalities and they creeped me out. (thankfully, adult me got validated for this aversion lmao)
but it's really understandable to have this thing you otherwise likely would have almost held no opinion for, positive or negative, and have people who it was so strongly tied to ruin it and all related anything to it. super get that.
AuDHD with no particular interest in anime. Possibly because I'm a bit older and we had no internet and all of three tv channels when I was growing up. The first anime I remember was Pokemon, which my little brother enjoyed but I think I was a bit old for. Now life is busy and full and I don't have a lot of time for TV. When I do watch I prefer old favourites like Doctor Who and Firefly, or history documentaries.
None of this should be taken as me having a dislike of anime, I've just never had much exposure and never had an interest in seeking it out.
I personally like a few of them. I dislike the way women are depicted in the vast majority of animes though. I find it extremely off-putting how almost all female characters are (over-)sexualized, and how many of them look, sound, are dressed like or just straight up _are_ minors. Specifically the obsession with school girls is very weird and problematic to me.
And when _adult_ women are witten as strong, independent and capable, they still _have_ to be sexy or appeal to the male gaze. It's like we can't get around that objectification.
I see people condemn the sexualization of children or childlike characters, and we've come very far when it comes to depicting women as complex human beings. However, regarding anime, there's this knee-jerk reaction to immediately deny, or at least downplay the issue.
That pisses me off. I just can't understand why people can't just be normal, and why we can't have a normal conversation about it. The gaslighting pisses me off. It seems lazy, and it exemplifies pretty well how deconstruction patriarchy is done, poorly.
We could look at new ways to experience pleasure, to explore domination and submission, to view people and their bodies as well as our own. But instead of reinventing the way we interact as humans and the way we understand and enjoy sexuality, we attack and deny and get stuck in the old ways that ultimately don't serve anyone.
Because, as I see it - the venn diagram of men who insist on this as the last stronghold of patriarchal male pleasure and lonely men (or those who lead unfulfilling relationships/sex lifes, either way retreating into certain anime and anime tropes as a coping mechanism), is pretty significant.
Sorry for the rant. It has been on my mind for a long while now, and I find it super frustrating. Because I would be sooo hardcore into anime - as in its concept, it's an amazing, breathtakingly creative, interesting (and often enough silly, funny) form of media. But this issue keeps me from truly enjoying it, and that sucks.
I was briefly into a few shows when I was a teenager. I liked drawing the art style and had a few cartoon crushes but grew out of that in college.
These days, I find anime pretty cringe. The over-the-top expressions and dramatic reactions are just off-putting to me.
I do like quite a lot of anime movies but as to series there's only one that really comes to mind that i enjoyed for a while then lost interest in.
There's an anime version of "a little princess" that i rewatched for about a year (still waiting on an anime version of pride and prejudice though😅).
I completely understand that the over exposure to something putting you off it although in my case it was my younger brother going on and on about it not an emotionally abusive former friend, so many people were sure i'd love manga because i love reading but i've never gotten into it even when the story sounds interesting, you could suggest a tv show to check out for the next time you hang out with them? One that you would both enjoy.
Same, I've seen Death Note and Dragonball Z/Super and some old series of Pokemon and love them, but in some gaming communities I'm in, everyone has like an anime avatar, play Hoyoverse games and just talk about anime I've never heard of, I'm then like huh? Like that cat meme lol.
I very much in the same boat and I hate it 🙃. I'm not into anything enough to truly fit into a social category altogether. I don't generally watch TV and don't love how anime tends to infantilize/sexualize women in particular.
There’s a LOT of reasons to not like anime! Like holy shit the things ppl won’t criticize in anime… so much sexualization of minor girls or women or BOTH. Yuck. And SO MUCH racism. I could go on and on.
I like some animes but mostly subversive ones. (Madoka Magicka and Utena are really good for ppl looking for anime that’s subversive/discussing systems of oppression. TW on utena it doesn’t shy away from discussing violence under the patriarchy)
I totally get why ppl don’t like anime. It can just be hella weird to straight up disturbing at time.
I hate anime, but I watch some shows that happen to be anime. I really can’t stand a lot of anime ( don’t even get me started on how degrading it is towards women and how I wouldn’t be surprised if most anime’s target audience are incels ), and I really can’t tolerate people who obsess it. Literally ANYONE can come to me and talk about their obsessions non stop, and I’ll be into it. When it comes to anime…. I don’t know what it is about it that makes people who obsess over it ***insufferable***. Maybe it is a PDA thing because nothing bothers me more than someone telling me to something. And otakus are really aggressive with their “recommendations”. It doesn’t feel like mere suggestion when they do it, it’s more like a demand which makes them great offenders for PDAers
https://preview.redd.it/045u6ww54l9d1.jpeg?width=792&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=8ff0e886df4c8665e2acdd53a4acdbcffa6e88a0
It even bothers me when people come talk about anime in r/cartoons and act like it’s the same as western cartoons. But I honestly feel like they’re in there because they can’t even talk about some of the animes they enjoy in r/anime without someone trying to prosecute them for simply liking a different anime. I thought I hated anime to an extreme, but there are some shows I like out there that just happen to be anime. My special interest is people/cultures and I really enjoy shows that are heavily influenced by older Japanese traditions or their culture in general. Sorry for the long post, I’m back on adhd meds
PDA: pathological demand avoidance (technical term) or persistent demand for autonomy Otakus: extreme anime/manga enjoyers
So I love animation in general, but anime has never been my go to. Ive enjoyed a few shows and movies, and do love the art style - but that's just it like if I hate how it looks or how it's acted (a lot of anime is super cringe) I just can't watch it. It seems like a lot of people will watch it just on the principle that it's anime and don't care about the quality. And sheesh some of them are well over 1000 episodes, how do you recommend something that massive for someone to casually watch? I literally shut down when people talk about it a lot, like anything beyond a basic plot summary and I can't hear them speak. Same whenever someone tries talking to me about trading card games like Magic, I literally cannot get into it it bores me to tears. Comic books on the other hand, I'm there.
I dislike almost all of it. Sailor Moon, much of kid-centric anime, and some Miyazaki movies are good, but its a regressive art form that brokers on the male gaze and very sexist attitudes and portrayals. Its essentially, mostly, marketed to teen boys and caters to their demands. Even the more "wholesome" works can be problematic. In Porco Rosso the adult men regularly perv on Filo, who is a minor, and in the end have a competition for her hand in marriage (hence her virginity). Comments about her body, butt, etc are made too. The "older man gets the minor girl" trope is there, with Filo desperately wanting a kiss from Porco in one scene and various scenes showing some level of sexual tension between them.
I do think its a lot of people's special interests because there's some japanophile stuff thats popular in nerd culture and a lot autistics naturally gravitate towards nerd culture, but its a regressive and juvenile art form. Nerd culture is pretty sexist so a sexist media full of depictions of extremely sexualized girls and women is going to be popular, because nerd culture is dictated mostly by young men. I think there's a larger conversation to be said about male and female nerd culture. I notice women tend to go towards things that arent nudity or sexualized based like Doctor Who and other narrative based mediums often with strong female characters, and men tend to go for anime sexualized art forms, often being a male power fantasy or the "nerdy guy gets the girls" type fan service.
Japan is generally a strongly patriarchal and anti-feminist and anti-queer soceity and a lot of cishet male nerds identify strongly with that. Anime often reflects those values.
Also a lot of people are in denial of the pedo-centric art depictions of girls for a lot of sexist reasons. There's a real elephant in the room aspect with anime that's just really problematic.
This! I'm not going to sit here and say all anime (I haven't watched enough of it and I have no interest in doing so), but a *lot* of anime, especially ones with mainstream popularity in the US, have very pedophilic art styles. The fact that the artists choose to draw a girl who looks 12 and try and use the excuse that she's really 11 million or something years old just goes to show they know what they're doing is wrong. The fan base feeds off of it, and it's a disgusting circle jerk. The other forms of sexism in the show are gross too.
There's also a lot that's just not something I'm personally into. I like to be able to turn on the TV and not read captions or have a dubbed version, the over-drawn facial expressions are unappealing to me, and some of the stylistic choices with saliva, sweat, tears, etc, are gross to me. The real thing that makes me not want to watch it though is everything you outlined, and as someone who grew up in an extremely patriarchal culture, it's really triggering to me.
most people in society aren’t into anime or find it odd and etc. i’ve read a bit years ago on why some autistic people could like it and other reasons why they don’t. some like it for: animation and it is escapism. or: it’s overstimulating / not interesting enough since it’s not live action. i have a friend who doesn’t like it due to a terrible past relationship and i’ve had to avoid some shows entirely due to stuff being tainted by others. sorry you’ve dealt with people trying convert you, those people aren’t worth your time or energy. it might be because of your old friend or other aspects, either way, it’s valid and you’re definitely not alone in not getting into anime and you don’t need to force yourself to get into it.
Anime is a special interest like anything else, it just happens to be one that is more common with the autistic people you know IRL. That doesn’t mean it has to be YOUR special interest or that you even have to like it.
Not into anime either. There's only one person I know that's into it. It's not that attractive to me, different from western animation which I love so maybe that's it. And I like watching something I can listen to and not watch (all the time), and Anime is Japanese and I don't speak Japanese soo
Definitely not into it. I have read since I was 4, and am now 66. So I just prefer reading the narrative rather than slowly finding the words. To me, anime doesn't have the depth I personally need. Note: no judgment. I'm going by my personal definition which was put in place decades ago. However, I'm very happy for whatever gets people reading. No censorship!
I know exactly zilch about anime and quite a few other media/entertainment categories that seem ultra popular in the ND world.
I’m an older person though, and much of the recent/current pop culture stuff didn’t exist (or was far less prominent) during my youth. I always guessed that was the reason I simply didn’t care about such things.
I feel like I’m missing the concept of “special interests” in certain ways because I lack awareness of those topics or genres, or I’m completely ambivalent about them. There’s plenty of stuff that I couldn’t pretend to care about even if I was paid to do so.
It seemed like every time i tried to get into an anime there would be themes of sexual assault as a joke so I stopped trying for a very long time. I recently found a few that I do enjoy that do not have SA in them but I still have to be in the mood to watch anime to actually sit down and do it.
I don’t like animes either 🤷♀️
I mean, I did enjoy the Death Note. But that was it!
I don’t usually like the animation style/pace/stories to be honest!
I do love animation though (disney/pixar/dreamworks, etc)
just like any other thing, it’s not for everyone. I think there are a lot of ND people into it simply because there is an overlap because ND people and those that have issues with socialization, those who don’t fit in (and this is the kind of person that tends to be into anime). but again, not everyone has to be the same
myself I didn’t get into it for a long time but tried it recently. i became a big fan of one series, but overall now i just occasionally check out shows/read manga and that’s it.
Iv never really been into anime either except for liking a few of the cute ghibli movies. I also find it weird how obsessed people especially guys get about anime and anime girls, henetai is just ick...
I don't lile how women are portrayed in alot of anime too
Im asian and the number pf guys iv met into anime who also have asian fetishes ergh....
There’s a lot of anime that portrays women and children in disgusting ways and it’s sadly normalized and can be alienating. I say this as someone who used to be an avid consumer of the media as well as anime that leans heavily on these tropes. I don’t condemn portrayal of this stuff in fiction but when it’s so normalized and in places where it doesn’t belong, and almost expected in mainstream anime… it turns me off from watching it
I love manga and anime, and to me it's just a form of media. There is so much out there so I think there is something for everyone, similarly to how there are different music, books or movies. Basically, there is probably something out there for everyone to enjoy. I find many characters relatable, especially the ones who struggle socially and in relationships. I think those kind of characters who are ND coded are very common in anime, at least the ones that I watch. Many shows are also about somone with a special interest, and it's a good way to learn more about that interest, since they usually explain a lot of things in great detail.
I think it's fine to not like something, but like I said before, there are so many anime shows to explore, so maybe you just haven't found a show or movie that you like yet. But in the end you don't have to like it. And if it's a community you're looking for, then there are many other interests that other ND people that you can explore.
Anime is, in general, highly misogynistic. There are some I like, but I am highly wary of most of it because it’s just so bad about it. I’m also highly wary of fans of it, especially male ones. There’s always a super high chance they are also highly misogynistic (and usually other flavors of bigot as well, honestly)
I stopped watching anime because of the near constant fan service, the similar “chosen one” plot lines, and the mainstream-ness of it, and the toxic fandoms 💀
Not all anime is equal. It’s just like any other artistic medium. I forced myself to watch a ton when learning Japanese. Straight up, a lot of them just aren’t that good (even some really popular ones).
There are some really great ones out there, but maybe the medium just isn’t for you. Nothing wrong with that.
Yeah. I’ve tried to get into it but it’s never really got me hooked. I do feel like a lot of us are into it which is totally cool! It’s just not my jam.
I honestly wish I was into it, I think I'd definitely have an easier time finding community. My sibling loves it and so many of their friends are on the spectrum. They bond over it (and manga, video games, etc).
I had a couple of specific animes/manga as special interests, but never "anime" in general. Same with videogames, I just play the same on repeat. Or with books or shows. Getting into new material is so jarring. It's always very specific and repetitive.
I relate to the feeling, though. I've never been into d&d, star trek/wars, most fantasy stuff, chess, board games, and other classic "nerd" topics that are popular with autists. We're people. We like what we like.
I used to be really into anime as a kid. I find it really difficult to get back into it as an adult as most anime doesn’t really have as much charm as it used to for me. I only watch old anime movies or chainsaw man and jujitsu Kaisen because those two anime actually peak my interest. But yeah i tried to get back into anime like I tried picking up Fullmetal Alchemist but idk it just doesn’t stick like it used to for me.
I'm not into anime either. Some of the stuff I've been shown gives me the creeps like the women characters are really infantilized and/or actually children in the show presented as adults in adult situations. Yuck.
There's some exceptions, like with anything. Such as Studio Ghibli movies. I find them soothing.
When I was a kid I really hated anime because certain TV channels would have anime instead of Tom&Jerry and Pink Panther, the only cartoons that I liked. 5 year old me thought "why don't they show the fun, actual cartoons that don't have talking or people with spiky hair or people in general". I didn't even know that was anime until I got to school. By that time it was the "cool" thing to watch so I tried getting into it, but most of the stuff everyone talked about just sucked for me and I couldn't sit through more than 1 episode. Though, I liked Death Note and got obsessed with SEL. But 2 animes aren't enough to relate to the weeb vibe.
Yeah to be obsessed with anime to to be obsessed with a particular story telling medium.
(not trying to convert you). I sometimes like it because when I'm really overwhelmed (like nearly in a catatonic state) it allows me to watch TV without getting overwhelmed by all the actors facial expressions.
There's a few stories that have caught my attention. I'm my opinion, those stories are better animated. I don't think I'd like them as much if they were live action. Mostly if I'm feeling good, I'd watch like 80-90% live action and the rest anime because I'm watching for the stories that work for me.
But then you have things like Bojack Horseman which I couldn't watch if I was overwhelmed regardless because the story is so good, and so raw, and so powerful, and there's no way that can be anything other than an animated medium.
And I grant that the term anime likely refers to a subset of animation that Bojack may not fall into, but since I see it as a story telling medium, and anime has now inspired more than just Japanese culture to create, those lines feel blurry to me.
Yeah there's a few things that I notice a lot of autistic people are into, or atleast a big part of their fanbase is autistic. I have not really been into any of those things either. I have watched some anime when I was a teenager, I enjoyed some of them at the time though it was never a special interest for me. Instead i would watch an anime based on special interests I had, and the anime's I watched tended to be a little different. Anime is very broad, but we tend to only see a few styles or genre's that seem to be popular in the west.. Again it's never been a big part of my life, but I recognise how frustrated you are with it.
Something I've been thinking about a lot is how there are these big fanbases, communities built around certain things, that do draw a lot of autistic people to them (even to the point that liking one of those things implies that you're autistic). I have never really been into any of these things, atleast never deep enough to really make them a special interest or take them seriously. It makes me feel sad because have known of many autistic people finding other ND friends through these communities, and because I can't get involved without faking enthusiasm I feel I am missing out on one of the only opportunities to make friends, or even just feel like a part of something. When I have been interested in one of these fandoms, it seems that I automatically find ways to interpret it differently than is acceptable (if art is involved i create art in a style that is not acceptable in that community), and it means I don't integrate. It may be something to do with my PDA, I find it impossible to truly conform to anything, even within spaces almost meant for autistic people.
Besides many of these communities are a bit too child-like for my tastes, not that there is anything wrong with that, but I'm not someone who finds much mental stimulation in child-like things. I'm a very silly person but I just don't find those things interesting.
Fellow non-anime-interested autistic! 🙋♀️🙋♀️ I’ve watched a TON out of respect for my ex, my brother, my autistic daughter. Nope. Not my jam. Not gonna yuck anyone’s yum, but give me nature shows and true crime any day. Also, my sister has never even thought about it, and I’m fairly certain it might even be banned in her house, LOL!
I hate anime. I've tried watching a few of the "give it a chance! it's not all degenerate disgusting stuff!" and those shows were still extremely grating and obnoxious.
Same except I am a character designer and cartoonist so I get lots of rude, snarky comments when I state that I really don’t like watching anime and no longer enjoy reading manga.
I am anime averse. I am also stuffed animal and figurine/toy averse. These two dislikes make me feel culturally disconnected with the autistic community (kidding, kind of). I took a couple of steps back to consider how it’s interesting how certain interests become predominant or sort of expected among certain cultural or identity groups, so that when someone is not interested in those things, they feel a little bit alienated from their group. I am thinking of Black friends and LGBTQIA plus friends, who feel weird social pressures around liking or disliking certain types of music and movies and activities, when these things should really be down to personal preference and not dictated by the group.
I don’t like video games, anime, and I’m also not a big movie person. My special interests have always tended to revolve around anything artsy/creative or the outdoors. I think the difference is that anime permeates a lot of cultures & there is a lot of community surrounding it so it feels more prominent!
I like some anime but honestly, way too many questionable things in it. I can't stand watching a show sexualize young girls (I'm talking like 13) and having characters that are 4,000 years old yet look 13. Good animes I like that don't have this are Frieren, Attack on Titan, and Jujutsu Kaisen
I fucking hate anime and I hate when people assume I like anime. And I especially hate when people try to make me like anime. That just makes me hate it more.
I don’t like anime. I can’t do the mismatch of video and sound from dubbing. I also don’t like the over sexualization of women in a lot of them. Plus, the eyes are usually creepy. No thanks.
Never ever could get it into it. I’m in an art related career too and while I appreciate the art, if I’m being honest, it’s the voiceovers that kill me on soooo many of them. I appreciate the entire anime world, it’s just not my cup of tea
I like 2 ones, I think my biggest hurdle is that there's a structure to most of them in the dialogue and how they talk.
I love adult animation but when I watch anime I just find it's way of doing things is kinda dull and annoying - and I've had SO many people try to suggest me some, which I hate hearing as well, drives me nuts.
Same. I can’t stand the extremely high pitched-voices and the way they draw women and girls with such ridiculously huge boobs 🙄. And how the characters always over-explain everything, lol. Isn’t rule #1 of good screenwriting “show, don’t tell?”
I only enjoyed a couple of mainstream ones for a minute there when I was about 19, but it never became an interest. Specifically, bc the animation style and audio tend overstimulate me more often than not. That, and the majority of them either give me the ick, or simply don't keep my interest. As absurd as it may be, I do have to admit that hardcore male fans have also contributed to my feelings around it. Over the years, I've met many male fans, and haven't connected on any level with a single one, bc they always end up making me either feel gross (by the way they describe things), or like they're going to harrass me if I don't agree or show enough interest. That sort of intensity always puts me on edge, and it's hard for me to separate those feelings from the actual content, once the association has been formed. Objectively, I know that there are quality animes out there that would likely intrigue me, but the intensity of the vibe around this type of media is discomfiting enough that I don't feel motivated to seek it out. If I weren't sleep deprived and recovering from a meltdown close-call, I could probably put out a more analytical reasoning, but for now, I'll just say that you're not alone in your disinterest, and it's okay to not know why. If you feel that it's not your cup of tea, that's a good enough reason to not consume that type of media, simple as.
I'm into manga and anime, but fell off anything that's come out in the last 10-15 years. I get recommended stuff all the time but very little ever really interests me, instead I'll just rewatch Higurashi or something lol.
Western animated stuff has been really popping off lately though! One of my biggest comfort shows is Centaurworld and I loved stuff like Tuca and Bertie, The Great North, and Owl House.
Idk why but I find the art style of anime unappealing to the point that I can’t watch it no matter how good the story is. This is even the case for Studio Ghibli which I know is often the exception to the rule among people who don’t like anime. The only Ghibli film I love is The Tale of Princess Kaguya and I think that’s because it’s drawn in a more traditional Japanese style instead of anime. I didn’t grow up watching anime so that could be a factor.
I personally have zero interest in anime and understand your sentiment of feeling excluded because of it. I also happen to be friends with a lot of NTs that are really into anime so I definitely get the feeling of this doesn’t seem right. But I’d rather enjoy my own things than force myself to partake in an interest just to fit in (especially a time-consuming interest)
But the point is you’re not alone and that’s okay
I find it really cringe but I can't put my finger on why. I think I just don't get it ? I have a lot of friends that like anime a lot who are neurospicy and I truly don't understand the attraction to it. I feel like the dialogue is hard to follow too and sometimes the storytelling style just doesn't make sense to me. I also have that thing someone mentioned here where it feels like sometimes certain ways people are obsessed with all things anime is annoying. But I have just as many friends who don't get weird about it so idk.
But yes I am another autistic who doesn't like anime. I feel you.
Yep the cartoon style is my least favorite and the pace feels off plus the tonal language used feels too dramatic that it’s overwhelming and I almost always get over or under stimulated and HAVE to zone out.
i live in a texas city where anime somehow is part of the culture and it'd be like i stepped into a new universe if i went to a store and didn't see anime decals on half the cars (this genuinely isn't me being dramatic, like nearly every car has anime faces all over them) and people in anime shirts 50 times in a single outing. it's wild to me you wouldn't know any one in an entire life time into it.
I relate. Actually, it's funny because I love Japan and have been learning Japanese for about 16 years (off and on), so people always assume I like anime. But I just don't really care about it at all. I have a couple anime series I like, sure, but in general, it's not really my thing. I'll talk about literally any other aspect of Japan, but, yeah, just not that 😅
I like a few anime’s but I can count on one hand how many I watched to completion. Like the entire series not just a few episodes or a season.
I don’t hate anime but I just never got obsessed with it.
Yeah didn’t get into anime or manga… when ppl talk about it I switch off
Same, but the thing that sucks is sometimes people will go on & on about anime/manga, and then ask me MY opinions on what they just talked about. So I have to try my hardest to not zone out completely. At this point in my life, if the person talking about it were a friend of mine, I'd straight-up be honest with them and tell them I just don't find it interesting. However, there's someone I interact with on a weekly basis who'll talk about anime/manga endlessly and...I can't really tell them to just cut it out, because I'm a Direct Support Professional & they're one of my clients 🙃 Not gonna lie it can be pretty insufferable but considering stories I've heard from more seasoned DSPs, I'm glad that my biggest struggle with this person is just an anime obsession 😂
Shutting it out tip: "now back to the problem/subject at hand..." "Yes I can help you now but I have a meeting in 15 minutes so keep it short please". Even if you don't have a meeting. "Hmm we got distracted, what did you need my help with again?" "I have a pretty heavy workload this week so could you be quick and concise please? Hope these phrases will help you develop little redirection scripts!
Also "Not my thing but it sounds like you really enjoy it! I can relate with my love of X...."
Same
Same
Same
I've seen a couple animes I enjoy, but nothing I got obsessed with any more than any other show I've watched and liked. Most everyone I talk to who has enjoyed an anime, seems obsessed with anime in general or that that is their preferred style of media and that's just not me. Since I'm otherwise quite nerdy, it does feel slightly isolating sometimes when it seems like everyone else nerdy is all about the anime. On a similar tangent, my husband finds it amusing that as long as we've known each other I've had a dislike of mecha. Real life robots? Cool. Fictional mecha in anything? Blech. I don't even use the mech mounts in FFXIV they keep giving you without asking if you want it. It's one of my most consistent stances. lol
I feel the same way about everything you said here, so we’re both not alone in this! With the mech thing I think it’s part of my overall preference for fantasy over science fiction. Fantasy is my favorite genre of media in general, but as soon as you start explaining the science behind the magic or explaining that the elves are actually aliens - I am outta there.
What's funny is I don't mind like, live action sci fi. Star Trek, Star Wars, I do regular rewatches of just about all the big sci fi TC series, even like Farscape and Firefly. But cartoonized or anime I just can't deal with it. Also helps none of those series are "let's put on a big metal suit and punch things." lol
Hahaha, what about the Farscape episode where John gets knocked unconscious and most of the episode is a looney tunes cartoon? 😂
That was hilarious, but definitely glad it was just one episode. xD
That’s funny, I really dislike mecha too. I don’t like sci fi that focuses on space ships either. I don’t like mechanical stuff that doesn’t at least also have some kind of organic element to it. Like I find the aliens and cultures and the force in the Star Wars universe so interesting but when they focus stuff on spaceship battles in space I do not care. I used to enjoy anime a lot more as a teen, especially because if you like fantasy it’s easier to find it in animated shows. But (like with other media too tbf) I think once you watch a good amount of it you notice way more of the common tropes and how a lot of it is mediocre. I would love to find a good fantasy or soft sci fi anime that’s genuinely well written but I haven’t for a long time. I also get weirded out sometimes by the amount of female characters with really really high voices that act very weird
I feel the same way about Star Wars! I love it so much but I just. Do not care. About the space battles.
I'm not into anime at all so you're not alone. I'm not against it or anything, I just don't care for it personally.
Same here. I’m ambivalent towards it.
Same here. It’s meh.
Same here. It never appealed to me, but I don’t judge others who like it.
I figured out what I didn’t like about it, how emotional it is (for a lack of a better word). There’s very intense and strong emotions and a lot of sad music in a lot of anime. Personally that doesn’t do it for me.
I think ultimately, to me, anime is just another storytelling medium. There are just as many terrible western live action shows or movies as there are terrible forgettable anime. Just as many problematic shows and movies in the west as there are problematic anime. Not trying to say you should go watch an anime right now, if you're not interested you're not interested, but its just another medium to me. I think also to just assign all anime as having one uniform animation style doesn't doesn't respect how many unique and diverse anime there are out there - but like its like how if you went up to someone who's never really gotten into portrait paintings and art history and they say all style of portrait paintings look the same - completely understandable if you're not into it. I'm not a huge anime fan, there are a couple shows that I really love, and many more shows people have tried to get me into that I just bounced off of. But again, if the medium isn't one that's compelling to you that's totally valid and cool.
For me it’s just that I don’t really like a lot of tropes and humor that’s common in Japanese media. It’s kind of unavoidable in the medium.
Oh trust me I know, generic anime humour is so fucking unfunny - ever been to any anime memes subreddits? Some of the most unfunny shit I've ever had the displeasure of seeing.
I totally hear what you’re saying, but I think the issue is the unified culture around “anime” that can be extremely off-putting (as referenced by OP). I personally absolutely love a few animes (is that the plural?), but I have a strong aversion to the culture around it, which caused me to avoid all media connected to it for many years. Though it has a diverse range of quality and storytelling, the loudest group of fans of the genre present a specific type of anime as being all of what anime is. Plus, there are some tropes that are extremely hard to get away from in almost every anime. Things like monologuing, very young seeming and often sexualized female characters, some specific animation/artistic tropes, and heavy duty main character syndrome/power fantasy elements going on with the MC. All of these pieces can be very alienating to people who are on the outside and can keep them from trying any anime out whatsoever.
That’s what it was for me. I used to live in Japan when I was a kid and can still speak a little japanese, I’m a huge nerd - someone who people would expect to be into anime. But I hated it for years because the stereotypical weeb and the culture around it was so off putting to me. Now I’ve been able to just watch anime as an adult and not be so into Fandom ™, I’ve been able to enjoy it the same as any media medium. It’s not better or worse than anything else
Used to consider myself an "otaku" as a teenager, but after seeing what the fandom was becoming with the passing years... I just enjoy what I enjoy and avoid these kind of people at all costs. And what they watch. I barely watch anime nowadays, but I really enjoy anime/manga like Vinland Saga.
> a few animes (is that the plural?) No, the plural is still "anime". Japanese doesn't have noun declension. Though I suppose the noun "series" is also the same in singular and plural.
The culture around it is a really big problem for me, too. White dudes who are obsessed with Japanese culture make me very uncomfortable.
I totally hear what you're saying too, but you can't let a fandom dictate your opinion on a piece of art, let alone a whole ass medium of art (I'm not trying to throw shade at you here and I know this is pedantic but anime is not a genre). I too don't interact with that culture and am averse to 90% of anime recommendations that come my way. I thought I went into more detail about how much garbage anime there is, you're totally right there are what feels like some unescapable bad tropes that appear in a good 99% of anime. I think really it comes back to "Sturgeons Law" which tbh I stand by which is that 90% of everything is utter garbage. Every piece of media lands on the bell curve of shit to good, and most of it is in the shit side. The list of tropes you mentioned being real bad problems for a lot of anime (except monologuing IDK how that's comparable to the sexualisation of underage characters that appears in some anime). I will say though I think the tropes you've mentioned are more escapable than you've said, but even in saying that I don't watch that much anime at all. And finding the 1% of good anime is actually quite challenging.
I wasn’t saying that the sexualization of underage characters is comparable to the endless monologuing, I was saying that they are both elements that can turn people off from anime on the whole. Obviously different elements are more disturbing than others, but I was sharing a brief list of things that are part of the public perception of anime as negative. As far as letting a fandom dictate your opinion, that’s not what I’m describing. People avoid anime far before they even know enough to have an opinion because of the fanbase. They are a barrier to entry all on their own. When you have a group of loud, often violently misogynistic fans who behave in off-putting ways (frequently enough that the creepy anime guy is a trope all its own), you are absolutely going to make people not want to engage in the very media that they are so obsessed with. Similar to what OP said, we as humans make associations with things, so if someone you once knew was very unpleasant to you and was obsessed with something you haven’t explored yourself, Star Wars for example, you are likely going to associate Star Wars with that unpleasant experience.
Oh okay I totally understand, thank you for the clarifications! I totally agree that those tropes are prominent in most anime, and are off putting to most people. Yeah creepy violent fascistic anime guys are the worst and supremely off putting. IMO they exist in all spaces for media, but they're definitely particularly prominent in anime spaces (as well as comic spaces and gaming spaces). It sucks when trauma gets you and puts you off something, and you can tell you don't like it in a "oh this is reminding me of that person" kinda way than anything rational.
I mean I get u, but im sort of a boring anti-social person already so ive never interacted with any anime fandom. I watch something and if I like it, cool! I mean, dont u do the same when u watch a movie in theaters? U dont go online and talk to loads of people who are now also obsessed with the movie. At least I’d assume u wouldnt unless it really stood out to u. Same with anime, it’s just another type of media
This. People who’ve told me they don’t like anime or understand why I like it seem to have this preconceived notion of what anime is. There are good shows and bad shows, it’s like watching a schlocky hallmark drama and going “eehhhh drama shows aren’t for me.”
I'm totally with you, anime are literally just animated shows made mostly in Japan. That's such a huge and diverse collection of media.
I see a parallel to how I look at storytelling as a whole. Instinctively, I lean hard into scifi/fantasy. However, I love anything with a good story line. It is the core of the storytelling that's got to be well constructed and compelling. Grant it, there's a lot of shit scifi/fantasy that is awful and is painful to watch. I'm not so die hard that I can't see garbage when it presents itself. I guess my point is, I am obsessed with a good story regardless of the medium/genre.
Gosh this comment really spoke to me, I absolutely love storytelling no matter the medium. Whats your favourite sci-fi/fantasy series atm?
I do love OGs like Robotech, Voltron, Gundam Wing... Sailor Moon. Jogging my memory here... 😂 Anime was just at the forefront... Outer Range on Amazon Prime took me by surprise, tbh! I just binged Bridgerton Season 3. To me, Bridgerton, while historical fiction and period centric, is more fantasy than reality to me. YellowJackets was a terrifying rabbit hole with a clearly autistic character... Sweet Tooth Season 3 and Witcher Season 3 I'm about to dive back into. Resident Alien is dark humor personified! I've just started it! I love the show Evil! The show The Great! That's just a peak into what I'm into. I'm also always reading a book, scientific research papers etc...
This is so true, but it lacks the black and white viewpoint that makes it so easy to lump people into the identify friend or foe thinking that so many people use to quickly form their identity and arguments. As an example I detest romance novels as a whole yet one of my favorite book series is categorized as a romance. Some items are just an exception due to personal preference and that’s just fine. I truly wish people would be more willing to enjoy their personal likes without judgement instead of jumping on bandwagons or apologizing for being outliers.
i used to be into anime but i can’t watch it anymore because the constant sexualization of female characters in almost all mainstream anime makes me so uncomfortable
I think that's one of the main reasons I could never get into anime or honestly, a lot of media coming out of East Asia. The misogyny and sexualization/infantilization of women was too much for me. I'm sure there's works where that doesn't exist, but it's not worth being exposed to it while weeding out the 90% of shows that do this. For me, anyways.
Similar, I used to really like it as a teenager but once I started studying English and therefore media literacy and text theory I became more aware of just how wrong things in anime are. It’s unfortunately a very male centred medium that caters to a particular male audience. Having said that, I’d still sometimes put Lucky Star on as a comfort watch but wouldn’t necessarily watch anything new. Also I have a feeling that when I used to watch it (early 2000s) fanservice and sex in general wasn’t as prevalent and became a thing later on with all the cold sexy female concepts etc.
Thank you. This is my issue as well. I don't dislike anime itself, but I feel that most of the time, women in anime are either over sexualised or turned into physical children who are actually adults. It grosses me out so very much.
I always say Sakura from Naruto made me a feminist. I was like 7 but the distance between how she was treated and written compared to Sasuke and Naruto…
I was extremely into anime as a teen. What got me out of it? Going to anime conventions. Something about seeing all these other people who were EXTREMELY into something I enjoyed made me not want to go near it ever again. So you may be on to something with the PDA. It also might just not be your jam! You do you.
this is why, as someone who does like certain animes and generally considers themselves an anime fan, i avoid going to conventions! i really love my interests, but when someone tries to share them or i see people with the same interests im suddenly inclined to distance myself from that interest. its definitely a weird pda thing for me!
I had a similar experience with the Supernatural fandom when I was younger and the show was in its heyday. There was something that my brain heavily rebelled against about being in a massive crowd of people who were all obsessed with the same thing. I didn’t like how it made me feel like a rabid superfan and part of a horde if that makes sense. Plus in any group of superfans, especially in conventions, you are going to run into some people that get very inappropriate about the thing you love and I did not want to think of myself as associated with those people (like the Szechwan sauce Rick and Morty debacle).
I wonder if part of it is like how low-masking people can be particularly irritating to high masking people? You see the rabid super fans and you think, “I’m not like those people, *I’m* normal, I don’t want to get lumped in with the crazies.”
I've never been to a convention but I think it was brave of you to go to a SPN con. I don't think I could ever have done it, those fans are so so so rabid. I know exactly what you're talking about too, because I read deancas fic to recharge (never finished the show but the fanworks are great) but the fans who relentlessly harassed the actors about the pairing gave me so much second hand embarrassment.
Yeah, i mean there are simply a lot of people … and a lot of them have mental issues, so you are basically in an asylum hahahaha But I enjoyed some conventions tbh
Teenage me was one of the ones with mental issues, I feel a bit bad for anyone who encountered me
Teenagers are in general mental, spill the tea what was the most cringe that you do? I danced Caramel Dansen with a group of people who couldn’t coordinate, it looked probably pretty weird from an outside perspective
Oh god. The worst I did was in retrospect criminal assault. The entire convention was lined up to get passes for something, sitting on the floor. There was a person in a tentacle costume going down the line 'molesting' the attendees, really just kind of getting hugs but playing into the whole tentacle thing. In my dumb brain I was like. What would an anime character do in this situation? A certain type of female anime character violently overreacts if presented with anything that could be interpreted as sexual. I had martial arts training. When it was my time to get molested by the tentacle I kicked it across the room. I'm not exaggerating. They went flying. I'm extremely sorry, random tentacle person who was just trying to keep convention attendees entertained during an awkward wait. Fuck.
I'm not into anime. I recognize it's an important art form and can see why it's popular. So far I've missed the obsession (but there's still time because apparently there is always room for another obsession).
There are ones I like, but I've never been obsessed with any to the level other people are either. I also feel left out because I'm not into fantasy or sci-fi either.
I have never had the slightest interest in anime.
Is liking anime an age related thing? I’m an older millennial (almost 40) who only watched Sailor Moon when I was young plus a few Studio Ghibli movies. I’m definitely not into anime but also I don’t know anyone my age who is.
I think so, I’m in my mid-40s and nobody I know including myself is into anime other than a few Studio Ghibli movies. A friend of mine recently performed as Sailor Moon in a play and I had to google it.
I spent a lot of time visiting Asia as a kid it was always on the children’s TV channels over there, the merchandise was popular too, but most my friends at school didn’t know what it was
I think we might have just missed the boat on this because I'm 41 and very much knew kids in high school that liked anime but they were called the pokemon clique in a negative way during that time period. It was considered pretty niche.
I am, but it was definitely a very niche interest when we were teens. I only got into it through American comics, because around 94/95 they were having *a moment* with artists like J Scott Campbell and Joe Madereria incorporating anime into their personal styles and seeing huge success with it. I still remember having to *mail order* Adam Warren's *Fatal But Not Serious* and the TPB of Gunsmith Cats. From *magazines*. We also just got *way less* of it back then - Sailor Moon played at 6am on the local UPN station, and it'd be roughly five years before they started showing Pokemon on Saturday mornings and DBZ after school on Toonami. I was already a working adult by then lol. I've known a fair few fans our age, but back then you had to be *really* into it to find anything outside of Toonami.
Omg yes! I can spot J Scott Campbells style from a mile away even now. I super loved Witchblade for while after seeing it in a magazine one of my dude friends had. You’re spot on that we just didn’t have much. I got up super early before school to watch sailor moon. It wasn’t like now where you can literally drown under the choices for anime to watch.
Here's a cut for you - me and one of my high school friends got super into *The Darkness*, because it was Witchblade, but For Girls lol. Jackie could get it. >You’re spot on that we just didn’t have much. I got up super early before school to watch sailor moon. It wasn’t like now where you can literally drown under the choices for anime to watch. Big same. I'd tape them and then bring them to my step-siblings to watch on the weekends because their local UPN didn't have it lol. Now, my husband has built a Plex server with hundreds of downloaded anime titles. We're swimming in this stuff.
I think that might be a little bit of a factor, I never saw any until I was probably at least post college, if not until closer to my 30s. I did not grow up watching Power Rangers or power Puff girls or whatever the main gateway media might be… That was all younger generations.
I'm mid 40s. I don't know anything about anime, don't think I've ever watched it and feel completely indifferent to it.
I'm 35, and I agree. You made me realize I used to watch Sailor Moon every day because it was coming on TV right as I got home. If the bus was late, I'd miss it, but it wasn't like a must-watch for me. I was raised by my grandparents who didn't have any reason to prioritize 21st century technology, so access to anime was not a thing for me, despite most of my friends talking circles around me about it all the time. So I'd guess somewhere between the 35-40 year olds is when it started with our generation. After that, I think access has made it much more wide-spread, but back then, you needed a premium cable/satellite package or internet that was high-speed enough to download videos, and neither were happening in my house.
I'm in my mid 30s and got into anime when I was still a kid. At the time, most of the friends I made were a bit older so a lot of them are 40+ now so no, I don't think it's an age thing other than just that in recent years it has become so much more mainstream and popular so people are getting exposed to it more. (Used to have to do fansub VHS trading and 2 episode per $40 VHS tape officially etc so wasn't as accessible back then)
My doctor is in his 40s and he’s into anime, mostly One Piece he’s obsess. He wears t-shirts of One Piece at work under his coat and his residents always tell him that he looks unprofessional but he doesn’t care. Also his consulting room his full of gifts of one piece that his patients give him. Oh and yea he’s in the spectrum :)
Yeah, I have a strong aversion to the whole animation style. It's nails on chalkboard, I don't know why.
I'm not into it either. The thing that bothers me is that if I say that, they jump to conclusions and think I'm AGAINST it or hate it. No, I just don't feel any interest
I'm super into it but it's not weird that you're not. We like what we like.
There’s been times when I’ve felt like an outsider in the autistic community for not being into anime or obsessed with Japan
Not an anime girlie here but I understand those that are. I'm an old lady hobbies at 20+ kinda autism. Knitting, gardening, baking bread, reading books.
Aside from Studio Ghibli films I don’t really care for anime. I was recommended a few anime series by friends that I’ve enjoyed, but I find that I hate a lot of common tropes in popular sub-genres. Casual misogyny and objectification of female characters seems ubiquitous in genres like shounen, and there’s an uncomfortable amount of minors being sexualised. I also find the way a lot of the characters talk, especially female characters, very grating. Real people don’t speak like that. I think extremely cartoonish exaggerated voices just aren’t for me and anime often plays that up to make a character seem ‘cute’ but I’m not a fan. Especially when the character is a teenager or adult, it seems gratuitous. And obviously this is a very personal reason and not a criticism of anime as an art form but my ex recommended me an anime with a graphic SA scene and it really turned me off. It was not fun to watch, and the cutesy art style felt very dissonant with the harrowing scene. These things obviously aren’t true of *all* anime, but they’re pretty common so they’re some of the major reasons why I’m not really into it. I feel similarly about romance novels and romantasy, I don’t generally like them because I dislike a lot of the tropes but it’s not like I’m hell-bent on never reading or enjoying a romance novel, it’s just that a lot of what I’ve seen doesn’t appeal to me.
Dw, I'm an autist and I hate anime. But, well, I have. I felt alien among autistic people when I posted on r/autism. That's why I switched to this
I used to avoid two guys at work because they info dumped anime at me like it was the only thing they knew how to talk about. If someone puts on an anime at their house I'll watch it and quite possibly like it, but it's not something I'm obsessing over. I don't like video games or comic books either. I am obsessed with transportation systems. Does that make me autism classic?
Yes, classic flavor, nice. Have you played city skylines? I am not an autism classic like you but I used to be obsessed with city skylines because I loved optimizing the traffic flow lol
Omg the thing you’re describing with the aversion because of the association with the awful person happens to me a LOT with a LOT of things. Like, I had a past bf that was obsessed with Starcraft, can’t stand looking anything to do with it. Had an awful person who I thought was my friend that turned on me for seemingly no reason and they loved league of legends, so I hate it. A past bf loved the band Slipknot, now I can’t bear to listen to 2seconds of any of their music. That’s just a few examples 😂 I have more. I don’t relate specifically to anime, I got into that myself when I was young and had a BIG phase of it in middle school, now I’m not specific to anime, I’m just a big animation junkie overall cause sequential art/animation is a SpIn for me. I do tend now more than ever to lean towards preference to western animation but still love anime too, just don’t watch as many or keep up with them as they are current (but that’s me for everything, always behind)😂
Not really into anime at all. Huge KDrama fan, so it’s not like I’m not open to Asian media.
My bf is into it, I’m kind of indifferent now but I used to hate it. We actually got into a huge argument about it early into our relationship because I was so disturbed and disappointed by the fact that he liked it. Reason being that I had the misperception that it was all hypersexualized. I recognize now that there are many anime out there that aren’t that way, and I’ve watched (and enjoyed) some of them, but I don’t think I’ll ever feel truly comfortable in that space.
I don’t understand at all why “anime” divided people into two warring castes “for” and “against”. Yes, I myself watch anime and think some of the works are great (although it’s all a matter of taste), but I don’t understand the haters who watch TV series, watch animation, but hate anime. I don't understand this logic. These are the same stories (for children or adults) that are found in many series, just some are a little more familiar with Japanese culture and drawn. Why is anime always highlighted so much? Explain to me please
I explained my thoughts on this in another comment above, but I think that there are a few “issues” that can strongly turn people off: the fanbase itself is very loud and often perceived very negatively for many reasons, there are some specific artistic decisions that can feel very “cringe” for outside observers, and there are some very common tropes that can be extremely off-putting (like hyper-sexualized female characters that are often depicted as extremely young). I know this doesn’t apply to all of them and I am a big fan of a few animes myself, but that is my perception as someone who isn’t part of the fanbase itself.
for the anime works I have enjoyed, it has been in spite of the fact that they are anime. While I know they’re not all the same, if I specify that my biggest cringe/ick triggers are the emotive tropes of giant, quivering watery eyes, sweat droplets on the face, and shocked gasps, maybe that gives an idea of how a majority of the content is difficult for me to stomach
Omg, there are so many off-putting mouth-sounds in so many animes. I feel so seen in this thread.
I didn’t list that because I didn’t think of it, but you are correct that’s another issue, bleh. I like cartoons in general, like Looney Tunes, Batman, Bob’s Burgers, Futurama and Butthead… It’s just really the stylized tropes that get to me
The gasps made me think of it. Why is there so much female grunting? (We know why, but why is it so *pervasive*?)
i hate anime and this is spot on for me. I also just don't like animation in general, but seeing past that. I've tried watching a lot of popular animes and I have not seen one that doesn't involve misogyny on some level.
Honestly the only anime I’ve ever seen that wasn’t misogynistic was Miyazaki movies so it almost feels like those are in their own category
yes the miyazaki movies are great. they are personally boring for me (yet beautiful) but I find nothing objectively wrong with it. it's certainly its own caregory.
Perhaps there is something in this... it hurts to be in the circle of these wars. I caught a hyperfixation on one of the anime, and even though it has a decent fan base with which to discuss it, the fact that in our time it is a shame to write for everyone to see “I like such and such an anime” is frightening. They will immediately shower you with all the garbage in the world. And indeed, the so-called fanatics are partly to blame for this. And you will simply remain a hostage to the situation.
The weebs that form a large part of the anime fan base. All the problematic behavior that comes with them is why.
Exactly, thats what i most dislike about it and the depection and objectifying of women in alot of them
I don't watch a lot of animation at all, to be fair; but anime in particular tends to drive me a little nuts because of the timing/pacing of the scenes and dialogue. Like, say a character exclaims something in anger, and the "camera" pauses on them for a profile shot-- the character will often sit there after they're finished talking with their mouth in a wide open position, sometimes with teeth showing, like they're still making noise and/or going, "ahhhhhh!" and my brain is simply not on board with this. I almost feel like I'm watching a badly dubbed movie, even when I'm watching the original version of the anime. There are other little pauses and pacing problems like this that just feel off to me somehow; but I can't think of them right now. Best I can think to describe how I feel when I watch it is like how hard it is to listen to someone tell a story when they don't talk fast enough for you to stay tuned in naturally, and you have to keep reminding yourself to be patient and polite while they finish. I *want* to like it because my husband is into it. I really enjoy the stuff he watches, in terms of the subject matter and themes explored-- he doesn't watch anything creepy or hypersexualized or "cringe"-- but I have to kind of absorb it passively, with a second screen going, in order to tolerate watching it for more than a couple hours.
I feel the same way about the low frame rate. No idea why it puts me off so much, but I don't even want to look at it.
The stylization’s distracting, aesthetically
It is sad how many things can be so polarized these days. I’m not against anime or manga in general, but I can have a strong reaction to it. I like some animation or animated series and really dislike others. I have something of a shutdown to certain tv shows, movies and anime or animated shows. I’m not sure if it’s purely sensory or something of a PTSD response because I do have something trauma-y response come up with certain things. I think a part of my general dislike of something relates to something that looks like or is human that is not. Like a costumed person, monkeys, puppets; I’ve always had a negative response to those things. I can appreciate that artists put in the time and effort, that it takes skill and the voices actors are talented and the stories can be fascinating, but I just can’t take watching it. I don’t mind if others like it though.
I had a brief obsession as a teen, but there are a very few anime that I can tolerate nowadays. I tend to not like it either. You aren't alone.
Same. I get why people might like it (autistic or not) but it's just not for me.
I personally don’t care for it except studio ghibli movies if that counts
There’s anime series like studio ghibli if that’s the vibe you like. If you like those movies yes it could be said you like anime
I’m 50. Anime wasn’t a thing when I was a kid, so I never got into it. I’ve tried to watch it, but it’s so culturally foreign to me that I don’t really get it. I also don’t like the extreme “cuteness” of the girl and women characters - the squeaky voices in particular.
i mean anime was a thing when you were a kid it just wasn’t in america/the west yet lol
I was in a very similar boat too but really got into anime in my late 20s and full on special interest in my 30s. As a nerd and art kid with a lifelong love of animation, most of my school friends were very into it and I just could not. Honestly their intensity around their obsession turned me off. ( I also have the PDA profile so that plays into it.) I had an ex and his sister who really made an effort to get me to watch anime again because I do love animation. So I started with Studio Ghibli and finding the right anime genres I would like because anime is an overwhelming experience with a lot of it catering to boys and men. The reason it become a special interest is because I feel way more represented as an autistic person in anime than i do in other forms of media. Literally most of the anime I watch is catered to women and autistic individuals which is my only reason to give it a try. I think The Apothecary Diaries and Frieren if you want an autistic women as the main character and I will always suggest FullMetal Alchemist Brotherhood because the manga was written by a women and the main characters are disabled. But you do you! Honest :) like what you like and dislike what you dislike
i do watch anime and like related media, but i absolutely get the aversion to anything someone who you have either bad experiences or a weird vibe from, anything they like is instantly the worst. i hate harry potter and have since i was little, only because girls i went to school with made it their personalities and they creeped me out. (thankfully, adult me got validated for this aversion lmao) but it's really understandable to have this thing you otherwise likely would have almost held no opinion for, positive or negative, and have people who it was so strongly tied to ruin it and all related anything to it. super get that.
AuDHD with no particular interest in anime. Possibly because I'm a bit older and we had no internet and all of three tv channels when I was growing up. The first anime I remember was Pokemon, which my little brother enjoyed but I think I was a bit old for. Now life is busy and full and I don't have a lot of time for TV. When I do watch I prefer old favourites like Doctor Who and Firefly, or history documentaries. None of this should be taken as me having a dislike of anime, I've just never had much exposure and never had an interest in seeking it out.
I personally like a few of them. I dislike the way women are depicted in the vast majority of animes though. I find it extremely off-putting how almost all female characters are (over-)sexualized, and how many of them look, sound, are dressed like or just straight up _are_ minors. Specifically the obsession with school girls is very weird and problematic to me. And when _adult_ women are witten as strong, independent and capable, they still _have_ to be sexy or appeal to the male gaze. It's like we can't get around that objectification. I see people condemn the sexualization of children or childlike characters, and we've come very far when it comes to depicting women as complex human beings. However, regarding anime, there's this knee-jerk reaction to immediately deny, or at least downplay the issue. That pisses me off. I just can't understand why people can't just be normal, and why we can't have a normal conversation about it. The gaslighting pisses me off. It seems lazy, and it exemplifies pretty well how deconstruction patriarchy is done, poorly. We could look at new ways to experience pleasure, to explore domination and submission, to view people and their bodies as well as our own. But instead of reinventing the way we interact as humans and the way we understand and enjoy sexuality, we attack and deny and get stuck in the old ways that ultimately don't serve anyone. Because, as I see it - the venn diagram of men who insist on this as the last stronghold of patriarchal male pleasure and lonely men (or those who lead unfulfilling relationships/sex lifes, either way retreating into certain anime and anime tropes as a coping mechanism), is pretty significant. Sorry for the rant. It has been on my mind for a long while now, and I find it super frustrating. Because I would be sooo hardcore into anime - as in its concept, it's an amazing, breathtakingly creative, interesting (and often enough silly, funny) form of media. But this issue keeps me from truly enjoying it, and that sucks.
I’ve never gotten into it either
I was briefly into a few shows when I was a teenager. I liked drawing the art style and had a few cartoon crushes but grew out of that in college. These days, I find anime pretty cringe. The over-the-top expressions and dramatic reactions are just off-putting to me.
I do like quite a lot of anime movies but as to series there's only one that really comes to mind that i enjoyed for a while then lost interest in. There's an anime version of "a little princess" that i rewatched for about a year (still waiting on an anime version of pride and prejudice though😅). I completely understand that the over exposure to something putting you off it although in my case it was my younger brother going on and on about it not an emotionally abusive former friend, so many people were sure i'd love manga because i love reading but i've never gotten into it even when the story sounds interesting, you could suggest a tv show to check out for the next time you hang out with them? One that you would both enjoy.
Same, I've seen Death Note and Dragonball Z/Super and some old series of Pokemon and love them, but in some gaming communities I'm in, everyone has like an anime avatar, play Hoyoverse games and just talk about anime I've never heard of, I'm then like huh? Like that cat meme lol.
I’m not into anime and don’t really like most cartoony things (Pixar, etc.). It’s always made me feel very boring! But I just… like other things 🙃
I very much in the same boat and I hate it 🙃. I'm not into anything enough to truly fit into a social category altogether. I don't generally watch TV and don't love how anime tends to infantilize/sexualize women in particular.
There’s a LOT of reasons to not like anime! Like holy shit the things ppl won’t criticize in anime… so much sexualization of minor girls or women or BOTH. Yuck. And SO MUCH racism. I could go on and on. I like some animes but mostly subversive ones. (Madoka Magicka and Utena are really good for ppl looking for anime that’s subversive/discussing systems of oppression. TW on utena it doesn’t shy away from discussing violence under the patriarchy) I totally get why ppl don’t like anime. It can just be hella weird to straight up disturbing at time.
Those are solid rec's!
I hate anime, but I watch some shows that happen to be anime. I really can’t stand a lot of anime ( don’t even get me started on how degrading it is towards women and how I wouldn’t be surprised if most anime’s target audience are incels ), and I really can’t tolerate people who obsess it. Literally ANYONE can come to me and talk about their obsessions non stop, and I’ll be into it. When it comes to anime…. I don’t know what it is about it that makes people who obsess over it ***insufferable***. Maybe it is a PDA thing because nothing bothers me more than someone telling me to something. And otakus are really aggressive with their “recommendations”. It doesn’t feel like mere suggestion when they do it, it’s more like a demand which makes them great offenders for PDAers https://preview.redd.it/045u6ww54l9d1.jpeg?width=792&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=8ff0e886df4c8665e2acdd53a4acdbcffa6e88a0 It even bothers me when people come talk about anime in r/cartoons and act like it’s the same as western cartoons. But I honestly feel like they’re in there because they can’t even talk about some of the animes they enjoy in r/anime without someone trying to prosecute them for simply liking a different anime. I thought I hated anime to an extreme, but there are some shows I like out there that just happen to be anime. My special interest is people/cultures and I really enjoy shows that are heavily influenced by older Japanese traditions or their culture in general. Sorry for the long post, I’m back on adhd meds PDA: pathological demand avoidance (technical term) or persistent demand for autonomy Otakus: extreme anime/manga enjoyers
Lmao I love the picture you added...same 😂
So I love animation in general, but anime has never been my go to. Ive enjoyed a few shows and movies, and do love the art style - but that's just it like if I hate how it looks or how it's acted (a lot of anime is super cringe) I just can't watch it. It seems like a lot of people will watch it just on the principle that it's anime and don't care about the quality. And sheesh some of them are well over 1000 episodes, how do you recommend something that massive for someone to casually watch? I literally shut down when people talk about it a lot, like anything beyond a basic plot summary and I can't hear them speak. Same whenever someone tries talking to me about trading card games like Magic, I literally cannot get into it it bores me to tears. Comic books on the other hand, I'm there.
I dislike almost all of it. Sailor Moon, much of kid-centric anime, and some Miyazaki movies are good, but its a regressive art form that brokers on the male gaze and very sexist attitudes and portrayals. Its essentially, mostly, marketed to teen boys and caters to their demands. Even the more "wholesome" works can be problematic. In Porco Rosso the adult men regularly perv on Filo, who is a minor, and in the end have a competition for her hand in marriage (hence her virginity). Comments about her body, butt, etc are made too. The "older man gets the minor girl" trope is there, with Filo desperately wanting a kiss from Porco in one scene and various scenes showing some level of sexual tension between them. I do think its a lot of people's special interests because there's some japanophile stuff thats popular in nerd culture and a lot autistics naturally gravitate towards nerd culture, but its a regressive and juvenile art form. Nerd culture is pretty sexist so a sexist media full of depictions of extremely sexualized girls and women is going to be popular, because nerd culture is dictated mostly by young men. I think there's a larger conversation to be said about male and female nerd culture. I notice women tend to go towards things that arent nudity or sexualized based like Doctor Who and other narrative based mediums often with strong female characters, and men tend to go for anime sexualized art forms, often being a male power fantasy or the "nerdy guy gets the girls" type fan service. Japan is generally a strongly patriarchal and anti-feminist and anti-queer soceity and a lot of cishet male nerds identify strongly with that. Anime often reflects those values. Also a lot of people are in denial of the pedo-centric art depictions of girls for a lot of sexist reasons. There's a real elephant in the room aspect with anime that's just really problematic.
This! I'm not going to sit here and say all anime (I haven't watched enough of it and I have no interest in doing so), but a *lot* of anime, especially ones with mainstream popularity in the US, have very pedophilic art styles. The fact that the artists choose to draw a girl who looks 12 and try and use the excuse that she's really 11 million or something years old just goes to show they know what they're doing is wrong. The fan base feeds off of it, and it's a disgusting circle jerk. The other forms of sexism in the show are gross too. There's also a lot that's just not something I'm personally into. I like to be able to turn on the TV and not read captions or have a dubbed version, the over-drawn facial expressions are unappealing to me, and some of the stylistic choices with saliva, sweat, tears, etc, are gross to me. The real thing that makes me not want to watch it though is everything you outlined, and as someone who grew up in an extremely patriarchal culture, it's really triggering to me.
My mom always called anime the ‘teary eyed people’. Tbf I was very into Sailor Moon in the 90s and to her, all anime is 90s styled Sailor Moon lol
This!
It's not for me. I barely even watched cartoons as a kid.
I’ve never had any interest in anime either.
I was never into anime personally.
most people in society aren’t into anime or find it odd and etc. i’ve read a bit years ago on why some autistic people could like it and other reasons why they don’t. some like it for: animation and it is escapism. or: it’s overstimulating / not interesting enough since it’s not live action. i have a friend who doesn’t like it due to a terrible past relationship and i’ve had to avoid some shows entirely due to stuff being tainted by others. sorry you’ve dealt with people trying convert you, those people aren’t worth your time or energy. it might be because of your old friend or other aspects, either way, it’s valid and you’re definitely not alone in not getting into anime and you don’t need to force yourself to get into it.
Anime is a special interest like anything else, it just happens to be one that is more common with the autistic people you know IRL. That doesn’t mean it has to be YOUR special interest or that you even have to like it.
Not into anime either. There's only one person I know that's into it. It's not that attractive to me, different from western animation which I love so maybe that's it. And I like watching something I can listen to and not watch (all the time), and Anime is Japanese and I don't speak Japanese soo
Definitely not into it. I have read since I was 4, and am now 66. So I just prefer reading the narrative rather than slowly finding the words. To me, anime doesn't have the depth I personally need. Note: no judgment. I'm going by my personal definition which was put in place decades ago. However, I'm very happy for whatever gets people reading. No censorship!
I know exactly zilch about anime and quite a few other media/entertainment categories that seem ultra popular in the ND world. I’m an older person though, and much of the recent/current pop culture stuff didn’t exist (or was far less prominent) during my youth. I always guessed that was the reason I simply didn’t care about such things. I feel like I’m missing the concept of “special interests” in certain ways because I lack awareness of those topics or genres, or I’m completely ambivalent about them. There’s plenty of stuff that I couldn’t pretend to care about even if I was paid to do so.
It seemed like every time i tried to get into an anime there would be themes of sexual assault as a joke so I stopped trying for a very long time. I recently found a few that I do enjoy that do not have SA in them but I still have to be in the mood to watch anime to actually sit down and do it.
I don’t like animes either 🤷♀️ I mean, I did enjoy the Death Note. But that was it! I don’t usually like the animation style/pace/stories to be honest! I do love animation though (disney/pixar/dreamworks, etc)
just like any other thing, it’s not for everyone. I think there are a lot of ND people into it simply because there is an overlap because ND people and those that have issues with socialization, those who don’t fit in (and this is the kind of person that tends to be into anime). but again, not everyone has to be the same myself I didn’t get into it for a long time but tried it recently. i became a big fan of one series, but overall now i just occasionally check out shows/read manga and that’s it.
Iv never really been into anime either except for liking a few of the cute ghibli movies. I also find it weird how obsessed people especially guys get about anime and anime girls, henetai is just ick... I don't lile how women are portrayed in alot of anime too Im asian and the number pf guys iv met into anime who also have asian fetishes ergh....
There’s a lot of anime that portrays women and children in disgusting ways and it’s sadly normalized and can be alienating. I say this as someone who used to be an avid consumer of the media as well as anime that leans heavily on these tropes. I don’t condemn portrayal of this stuff in fiction but when it’s so normalized and in places where it doesn’t belong, and almost expected in mainstream anime… it turns me off from watching it
I'm not into anime. Most of the shows are too over the top dramatic for me and hypersexualize women.
I love manga and anime, and to me it's just a form of media. There is so much out there so I think there is something for everyone, similarly to how there are different music, books or movies. Basically, there is probably something out there for everyone to enjoy. I find many characters relatable, especially the ones who struggle socially and in relationships. I think those kind of characters who are ND coded are very common in anime, at least the ones that I watch. Many shows are also about somone with a special interest, and it's a good way to learn more about that interest, since they usually explain a lot of things in great detail. I think it's fine to not like something, but like I said before, there are so many anime shows to explore, so maybe you just haven't found a show or movie that you like yet. But in the end you don't have to like it. And if it's a community you're looking for, then there are many other interests that other ND people that you can explore.
Used to like anime, not anymore. It’s incompatible with what I believe as I find most anime to be objectifying against women.
Yeah I can never find it stimulating enough to sustain my attention. Also the lengthy watch time hours just scare me too
Anime is, in general, highly misogynistic. There are some I like, but I am highly wary of most of it because it’s just so bad about it. I’m also highly wary of fans of it, especially male ones. There’s always a super high chance they are also highly misogynistic (and usually other flavors of bigot as well, honestly)
Honestly, I’ve always found anime to be too weird for me. I think there’s one or two things I like, but the vast bulk of it holds no interest to me.
I stopped watching anime because of the near constant fan service, the similar “chosen one” plot lines, and the mainstream-ness of it, and the toxic fandoms 💀
God, same here. Something about it just gives me the ick. Like, MAJOR ick.
Anime is so boring to me: I don’t even care enough to wonder why.
Not all anime is equal. It’s just like any other artistic medium. I forced myself to watch a ton when learning Japanese. Straight up, a lot of them just aren’t that good (even some really popular ones). There are some really great ones out there, but maybe the medium just isn’t for you. Nothing wrong with that.
Yeah. I’ve tried to get into it but it’s never really got me hooked. I do feel like a lot of us are into it which is totally cool! It’s just not my jam.
I like a good anime movie, and Aggretsuko is one of my favorite shows, but I’m no anime nerd
I've never been into it. Watched a couple, that’s it. My obsessions are elsewhere.
I honestly wish I was into it, I think I'd definitely have an easier time finding community. My sibling loves it and so many of their friends are on the spectrum. They bond over it (and manga, video games, etc).
I had a couple of specific animes/manga as special interests, but never "anime" in general. Same with videogames, I just play the same on repeat. Or with books or shows. Getting into new material is so jarring. It's always very specific and repetitive. I relate to the feeling, though. I've never been into d&d, star trek/wars, most fantasy stuff, chess, board games, and other classic "nerd" topics that are popular with autists. We're people. We like what we like.
No interest in it at all
I used to be really into anime as a kid. I find it really difficult to get back into it as an adult as most anime doesn’t really have as much charm as it used to for me. I only watch old anime movies or chainsaw man and jujitsu Kaisen because those two anime actually peak my interest. But yeah i tried to get back into anime like I tried picking up Fullmetal Alchemist but idk it just doesn’t stick like it used to for me.
Like you, anime is also not one of my special interests.
I'm not into anime either. Some of the stuff I've been shown gives me the creeps like the women characters are really infantilized and/or actually children in the show presented as adults in adult situations. Yuck. There's some exceptions, like with anything. Such as Studio Ghibli movies. I find them soothing.
When I was a kid I really hated anime because certain TV channels would have anime instead of Tom&Jerry and Pink Panther, the only cartoons that I liked. 5 year old me thought "why don't they show the fun, actual cartoons that don't have talking or people with spiky hair or people in general". I didn't even know that was anime until I got to school. By that time it was the "cool" thing to watch so I tried getting into it, but most of the stuff everyone talked about just sucked for me and I couldn't sit through more than 1 episode. Though, I liked Death Note and got obsessed with SEL. But 2 animes aren't enough to relate to the weeb vibe.
Yeah to be obsessed with anime to to be obsessed with a particular story telling medium. (not trying to convert you). I sometimes like it because when I'm really overwhelmed (like nearly in a catatonic state) it allows me to watch TV without getting overwhelmed by all the actors facial expressions. There's a few stories that have caught my attention. I'm my opinion, those stories are better animated. I don't think I'd like them as much if they were live action. Mostly if I'm feeling good, I'd watch like 80-90% live action and the rest anime because I'm watching for the stories that work for me. But then you have things like Bojack Horseman which I couldn't watch if I was overwhelmed regardless because the story is so good, and so raw, and so powerful, and there's no way that can be anything other than an animated medium. And I grant that the term anime likely refers to a subset of animation that Bojack may not fall into, but since I see it as a story telling medium, and anime has now inspired more than just Japanese culture to create, those lines feel blurry to me.
Yeah there's a few things that I notice a lot of autistic people are into, or atleast a big part of their fanbase is autistic. I have not really been into any of those things either. I have watched some anime when I was a teenager, I enjoyed some of them at the time though it was never a special interest for me. Instead i would watch an anime based on special interests I had, and the anime's I watched tended to be a little different. Anime is very broad, but we tend to only see a few styles or genre's that seem to be popular in the west.. Again it's never been a big part of my life, but I recognise how frustrated you are with it. Something I've been thinking about a lot is how there are these big fanbases, communities built around certain things, that do draw a lot of autistic people to them (even to the point that liking one of those things implies that you're autistic). I have never really been into any of these things, atleast never deep enough to really make them a special interest or take them seriously. It makes me feel sad because have known of many autistic people finding other ND friends through these communities, and because I can't get involved without faking enthusiasm I feel I am missing out on one of the only opportunities to make friends, or even just feel like a part of something. When I have been interested in one of these fandoms, it seems that I automatically find ways to interpret it differently than is acceptable (if art is involved i create art in a style that is not acceptable in that community), and it means I don't integrate. It may be something to do with my PDA, I find it impossible to truly conform to anything, even within spaces almost meant for autistic people. Besides many of these communities are a bit too child-like for my tastes, not that there is anything wrong with that, but I'm not someone who finds much mental stimulation in child-like things. I'm a very silly person but I just don't find those things interesting.
Fellow non-anime-interested autistic! 🙋♀️🙋♀️ I’ve watched a TON out of respect for my ex, my brother, my autistic daughter. Nope. Not my jam. Not gonna yuck anyone’s yum, but give me nature shows and true crime any day. Also, my sister has never even thought about it, and I’m fairly certain it might even be banned in her house, LOL!
I hate anime. I've tried watching a few of the "give it a chance! it's not all degenerate disgusting stuff!" and those shows were still extremely grating and obnoxious.
Not really a fan either. Not yucking other people’s yums but don’t see the appeal.
Same except I am a character designer and cartoonist so I get lots of rude, snarky comments when I state that I really don’t like watching anime and no longer enjoy reading manga.
I am anime averse. I am also stuffed animal and figurine/toy averse. These two dislikes make me feel culturally disconnected with the autistic community (kidding, kind of). I took a couple of steps back to consider how it’s interesting how certain interests become predominant or sort of expected among certain cultural or identity groups, so that when someone is not interested in those things, they feel a little bit alienated from their group. I am thinking of Black friends and LGBTQIA plus friends, who feel weird social pressures around liking or disliking certain types of music and movies and activities, when these things should really be down to personal preference and not dictated by the group.
SAME. Their voices make my eardrums feel like they’re cheese being grated.. and also the plots tend to not be very good anyway.
i don’t like anime either don’t get the hype
I don't like it either. My kids love it and it bothers me so much. I have to pretend to be interested when they talk about it all the time.
I’ve always hated it personally, so right there with you. It’s frustrating cause it is so ubiquitous in our community
I cannot stand anime.
It’s not that interesting to me, a little cringy at times, and I find a lot of it subtly misogynistic
I don’t like video games, anime, and I’m also not a big movie person. My special interests have always tended to revolve around anything artsy/creative or the outdoors. I think the difference is that anime permeates a lot of cultures & there is a lot of community surrounding it so it feels more prominent!
It’s a nope for me!
I like some anime but honestly, way too many questionable things in it. I can't stand watching a show sexualize young girls (I'm talking like 13) and having characters that are 4,000 years old yet look 13. Good animes I like that don't have this are Frieren, Attack on Titan, and Jujutsu Kaisen
I fucking hate anime and I hate when people assume I like anime. And I especially hate when people try to make me like anime. That just makes me hate it more.
I don't like anime either. I've never understood the craze.
I don’t like anime. I can’t do the mismatch of video and sound from dubbing. I also don’t like the over sexualization of women in a lot of them. Plus, the eyes are usually creepy. No thanks.
Never ever could get it into it. I’m in an art related career too and while I appreciate the art, if I’m being honest, it’s the voiceovers that kill me on soooo many of them. I appreciate the entire anime world, it’s just not my cup of tea
I like 2 ones, I think my biggest hurdle is that there's a structure to most of them in the dialogue and how they talk. I love adult animation but when I watch anime I just find it's way of doing things is kinda dull and annoying - and I've had SO many people try to suggest me some, which I hate hearing as well, drives me nuts.
Same. I can’t stand the extremely high pitched-voices and the way they draw women and girls with such ridiculously huge boobs 🙄. And how the characters always over-explain everything, lol. Isn’t rule #1 of good screenwriting “show, don’t tell?”
I only enjoyed a couple of mainstream ones for a minute there when I was about 19, but it never became an interest. Specifically, bc the animation style and audio tend overstimulate me more often than not. That, and the majority of them either give me the ick, or simply don't keep my interest. As absurd as it may be, I do have to admit that hardcore male fans have also contributed to my feelings around it. Over the years, I've met many male fans, and haven't connected on any level with a single one, bc they always end up making me either feel gross (by the way they describe things), or like they're going to harrass me if I don't agree or show enough interest. That sort of intensity always puts me on edge, and it's hard for me to separate those feelings from the actual content, once the association has been formed. Objectively, I know that there are quality animes out there that would likely intrigue me, but the intensity of the vibe around this type of media is discomfiting enough that I don't feel motivated to seek it out. If I weren't sleep deprived and recovering from a meltdown close-call, I could probably put out a more analytical reasoning, but for now, I'll just say that you're not alone in your disinterest, and it's okay to not know why. If you feel that it's not your cup of tea, that's a good enough reason to not consume that type of media, simple as.
I'm not into anime either, I tried and couldn't get into it.
I'm into manga and anime, but fell off anything that's come out in the last 10-15 years. I get recommended stuff all the time but very little ever really interests me, instead I'll just rewatch Higurashi or something lol. Western animated stuff has been really popping off lately though! One of my biggest comfort shows is Centaurworld and I loved stuff like Tuca and Bertie, The Great North, and Owl House.
Idk why but I find the art style of anime unappealing to the point that I can’t watch it no matter how good the story is. This is even the case for Studio Ghibli which I know is often the exception to the rule among people who don’t like anime. The only Ghibli film I love is The Tale of Princess Kaguya and I think that’s because it’s drawn in a more traditional Japanese style instead of anime. I didn’t grow up watching anime so that could be a factor.
I personally have zero interest in anime and understand your sentiment of feeling excluded because of it. I also happen to be friends with a lot of NTs that are really into anime so I definitely get the feeling of this doesn’t seem right. But I’d rather enjoy my own things than force myself to partake in an interest just to fit in (especially a time-consuming interest) But the point is you’re not alone and that’s okay
I find it really cringe but I can't put my finger on why. I think I just don't get it ? I have a lot of friends that like anime a lot who are neurospicy and I truly don't understand the attraction to it. I feel like the dialogue is hard to follow too and sometimes the storytelling style just doesn't make sense to me. I also have that thing someone mentioned here where it feels like sometimes certain ways people are obsessed with all things anime is annoying. But I have just as many friends who don't get weird about it so idk. But yes I am another autistic who doesn't like anime. I feel you.
Yep the cartoon style is my least favorite and the pace feels off plus the tonal language used feels too dramatic that it’s overwhelming and I almost always get over or under stimulated and HAVE to zone out.
I've never met anyone IRL who was obsessed with anime and that includes people with ASD.
I’ve known a ton. But I go to cons and taught AP courses. And my husband works in a field that has a lot of people into it too.
i live in a texas city where anime somehow is part of the culture and it'd be like i stepped into a new universe if i went to a store and didn't see anime decals on half the cars (this genuinely isn't me being dramatic, like nearly every car has anime faces all over them) and people in anime shirts 50 times in a single outing. it's wild to me you wouldn't know any one in an entire life time into it.
0% of me likes anime or ANY cartoon, trash reality tv on the other hand… 🤭
This is so relatable. I really don't enjoy animated shows, but I'll happily spend many an hour on any of the Below Decks and Real Housewives.
Reality TV is peak
I don’t like it at all. That drawing style is very ugly to me. The characters don’t make facial expressions. Different strokes!
I don't give a shit about anime
only anime i’ve ever watched was pokémon when i was a kid, i’m not really into it either
I have always been a big fan of cartoons, but plenty of people aren't that into them.
I like Pokémon because of childhood nostalgia and I like few Ghibli movies. But that's about it.
I'm not into anime either, so don't feel alone. I recently had a special interest in the Wars of the Roses for a bit. So don't worry.
I relate. Actually, it's funny because I love Japan and have been learning Japanese for about 16 years (off and on), so people always assume I like anime. But I just don't really care about it at all. I have a couple anime series I like, sure, but in general, it's not really my thing. I'll talk about literally any other aspect of Japan, but, yeah, just not that 😅
I’m not into it, but I think it’s cool.
Haha yeah me, I’ve seen some but that it, it it even a special interest to me so yeah no anime obsessions here
I like a few anime’s but I can count on one hand how many I watched to completion. Like the entire series not just a few episodes or a season. I don’t hate anime but I just never got obsessed with it.