Why do you like anime? - And why is it popular

[Mage of Conquest]

I love the art. I can't draw for shit, but anime seems to be pushing me to start. With that being said, I stopped after watching the Captain Harlock animated series. And not the CGI movie on Netflix; I thought it was okay, though.

These days, I'm more likely to play video games to pass the time, but even then some games have the anime look and feel to them.

 

[JamusActimus]

I don't anymore it's a pretty lazy and unimaginative in general.
Shonens are boring and immatur eans seinens are for edgelords.
The fandom sucks just take a look at anime conventions.

The last anime I enjoyed was Mob psycho 100

 

[Pointless Pedant]

I heard that the reason why Japan makes anime based on younger people is because they long for a simpler time of being a kid.

Most people don't, but losers do. And losers are the ones buying all the merchandise.

School life in Japan is very regimented, even more than the workplace is there. The long hours are the same, but as an adult at least you're making money rather than just memorising knowledge for a test that most people forget afterwards, and you can make your own career and personal choices. This is a great thing, unless you're a stupid and childish person who can't handle the responsibility, in which case you get the Chris Chan mentality of immersing yourself in fantasy and never growing up. In America, people seem to do this with superheroes, and in Japan, it's cartoons. There are clear parallels to be drawn between both subcultures, and most people in Japan aren't really into cartoons except the huge ones like One Piece which have been around for decades. The ones who are are basically Japanese MovieBob. (EigaBob?) I certainly didn't see much of them when I was there, though I didn't go to central Tokyo.

This is also why I don't like superhero and Japanese cartoon media. They're badly written fantasies with terrible hammy acting and puerile understanding of relationships. Aside from Chris Chan no one speaks like "YOU WILL FEEL THE WRATH OF MY VENGEANCE RAAA" in real life, it's just stupid. Unlike most people here I like political and satirical subtexts as long as they're not based in fanatical progressivism, which I strongly disagree with. Dr Strangelove and Network are classics.

I enjoy some American adult animation like The Boondocks, South Park, and King of the Hill though. They're genuinely funny shows with actual insights to make that aren't just the asinine "LMAO he fell on her boobs, this is totally how relationships work in real life" crap you see in Japanese cartoons.

 

[janedoe]

i got into it because the art.
stuck with it because sometimes interesting stories come out of it.
am gradually losing interest in it because the same shit is being regurgitated from it, with occasional outliers.

i especially fucking hate how formulaic shonen anime is. the premise entertains for maybe one or two seasons then it always turns into a how much can we jerk off the main character? spree. but i get it's a power fantasy for overworked chinks who don't touch pussy and have desires to neglect responsibilities.

 

[mr.moon1488]

Same reason I like King of the Hill and South Park. It's about the story and dialog, and not the massively overpaid actors.

 

[Sage In All Fields]

Most of the reason I watch anime is honestly because I enjoy weeb culture. Aside from that I just enjoy alot of the stories told with the medium, the art styles and the questions they pose. I recently watched Battle Angel Alita and it was a lovely show despite being so brief.

i especially fucking hate how formulaic shonen anime is. the premise entertains for maybe one or two seasons then it always turns into a how much can we jerk off the main character? spree. but i get it's a power fantasy for overworked chinks who don't touch pussy and have desires to neglect responsibilities.

I just hate how long shonens get, it's the same concept drawn out for 100+ episodes I don't understand why anyone would sink that much time in. I got to like episode 70 of Fairy Tail and just could not be bothered anymore.

They're genuinely funny shows with actual insights to make that aren't just the asinine "LMAO he fell on her boobs, this is totally how relationships work in real life" crap you see in Japanese cartoons.

thinly veiled sexual assault moment

 

[Hongourable Madisha]

I like the odd few anime games like Ace Attorney and Danganronpa, they're fun mystery solving games pretty heavily inspired by Agatha Christie but better than game adaptations of her work, and the anime is incidental (though making fun of thr Japanese justice system and school system and a lot of pop culture is pretty inherent to those two). Junji Ito is about the only manga writer I read, because of his art and ability to create horror that sticks with you and unsettles you rather than just giving a cheap shock. He sculpts his monsters and lights the sculptures to draw them better and make ridiculous twisted things look realistic.
Zipang is decent too, it's basically The Final Countdown but Japanese, a Marine Self Defence Force ship gets sent back in time to Midway and the crew all disagree on what to do, and learn a lot about Japan in that era. It's a pretty good look at WW2 that actually acknowledges the atrocities the IJA committed, it critiques European colonialism and the atomic bomb and explores Japanese identity but it's refreshing in that doesn't shy away from how bad the Axis actually was, which makes a change from bullshit like Hetalia or any number of "glorious Nippon did nothing wrong ever" bilge. It doesn't go far enough in a lot of places in dealing with the issues, some are just implied - Junji Ito does, he made pretty heavy references to Unit 731 in Gyo and the weebs and Jap nationalists were very upset with him for even mentioning it - but it is as upfront an analysis as you're likely to get and is a pretty good sci-fi at the same time.

 

[Syaoran Li]

This is also why I don't like superhero and Japanese cartoon media. They're badly written fantasies with terrible hammy acting and puerile understanding of relationships. Aside from Chris Chan no one speaks like "YOU WILL FEEL THE WRATH OF MY VENGEANCE RAAA" in real life, it's just stupid. Unlike most people here I like political and satirical subtexts as long as they're not based in fanatical progressivism, which I strongly disagree with. Dr Strangelove and Network are classics.

I enjoy some American adult animation like The Boondocks, South Park, and King of the Hill though. They're genuinely funny shows with actual insights to make that aren't just the asinine "LMAO he fell on her boobs, this is totally how relationships work in real life" crap you see in Japanese cartoons.

That may be true, but at the same time, if it's up front about being fantasy or whatever then I don't see the harm. Just be honest and admit that it's a fantasy meant for entertainment.

With genre fiction and fantasy works like anime, it's all about everything in balance and don't try to make something into something bigger or more meaningful than mere entertainment

I like political and satirical subtexts as well, but at the same time, I also find a lot of people who shit on any kind of genre media or anything that's not got some deep meaning to be insufferably pretentious and a lot of them tend to be tryhard hipsters and pseudointellectuals trying to look more mature than they are.

I'm not saying you're like that because I've seen enough of your posts to know better, but it is a disturbingly common trend to see fans of literary fiction and "serious" non-genre media who automatically shit on any kind of fantastical or unrealistic entertainment end up being the kind of guys who are just barely a step above MovieBob and try to overcompensate.

C.S. Lewis wrote about this sort of phenomenon decades ago, the "liking things is for spergs" mindset where a person is so obsessed with being mature that they end up overdoing it and looking immature and childish

I love anime, even the unrealistic "ultimate power/lol he fell on her boobs" stuff because it's fun and it's not meant to be some serious didactic work. At the same, I take it for what it is and enjoy it in moderation

That said, I also do not like the losers who buy all the merch and go all out with their nerdy BS and I do like a lot of insightful shows (seriously, King of the Hill is my favorite show of all time) and the more serious movies and books as well.

I don't like pretentious arthouse shit, but I do love Martin Scorsese's films in general and some of the historical epics and dramas (Gladiator, Gettysburg, Nicholas and Alexandra, Gangs of New York, Saving Private Ryan, Amadeus)

Everything in balance, as it were.

Liking genre media does not automatically make you a loser. Being a consoomer sperg does.

 

[Cabelaz]

I think fate is based but thats the only anime I care about

 

[Mr. Bung]

A lot of it is aesthetic, but I haven't been partaking as much lately because the vast majority of anime features characters around the 15-28 age range and it makes it harder to relate. I don't know why there isn't a greater market for anime featuring characters in their 30's and 40's yet, and you'd think there would be with an aging population of weebs, otakus etc. in Japan, the U.S., and elsewhere as well as a growing audience of older people getting into this stuff. And no, girls who appear 6 but are really 1000+ years old don't count.

 

[Jonah Hill poster]

I don't know why there isn't a greater market for anime featuring characters in their 30's and 40's yet, and you'd think there would be with an aging population of weebs, otakus etc. in Japan, the U.S., and elsewhere as well as a growing audience of older people getting into this stuff. And no, girls who appear 6 but are really 1000+ years old don't count.

Thing is, there are some anime out there like this. I remember there was a manga out there that was popular at one point where it featured a guy being a househusband for his wife in the beginning, while being a ninja in his past life.

 

[Samson Pumpkin Jr.]

This is a great thing, unless you're a stupid and childish person who can't handle the responsibility, in which case you get the Chris Chan mentality of immersing yourself in fantasy and never growing up. In America, people seem to do this with superheroes, and in Japan, it's cartoons. There are clear parallels to be drawn between both subcultures, and most people in Japan aren't really into cartoons except the huge ones like One Piece which have been around for decades.

I guess the difference between soyboys and otakus is that the soyboys have jobs. I don,t know a lot about Japan so I don't know if otakus have good jobs, but you can see the boy-soy marvel movie maniacs working in offices or journalism. I don't know what's there for otaku in terms of work aside from fast food and retail. You, as the Japan enthusiast, can tell me

 

[tumblrkek]

I guess the difference between soyboys and otakus is that the soyboys have jobs. I don,t know a lot about Japan so I don't know if otakus have good jobs, but you can see the boy-soy marvel movie maniacs working in offices or journalism. I don't know what's there for otaku in terms of work aside from fast food and retail. You, as the Japan enthusiast, can tell me

The equivalent word in western culture would be "nerd". A nerd can have a good job, what he can't have is friends because he's probably on the spectrum, has poor social skills and is into some obscure shit no normalfag cares about.
Also note that similarly to how "nerd culture" became popular in the West, Japan is mellowing out towards otakus with more and more young nips identifying as such.

 

[三字经]

It's fun

 

[Aidan]

I don't watch anime but within the genre you can find at least unique shows/stories. The genre as a whole is way too tropey/samey for me, I don't get how people can watch Dragon Ball Z for 20 years and not get bored of it, for example.
But the unique ones (often still riddled with retarded tropes) can be entertaining sometimes, like Death Note, Evangelion, Cowboy Bebop, and others. I tend to go into any anime assuming it'll be garbage and that's been a pretty safe bet so far, but Cowboy Bebop is at least always good. You will never get anything like that out of western cartoons, for some reason.

Anytime someone tries to get me into anime they recommend the most generic retarded bullshit. The protagonist is probably a young boy, they're definitely OP as fuck, but they just need to have faith in themselves and fight for their friends.. There's probably a "cool guy" silent badass and then the tag-along girl who is conveniently badass when needed but can be used as a damsel in distress for the main character.
99% trash, 1% gold.

 

[Pointless Pedant]

That may be true, but at the same time, if it's up front about being fantasy or whatever then I don't see the harm. Just be honest and admit that it's a fantasy meant for entertainment.

With genre fiction and fantasy works like anime, it's all about everything in balance and don't try to make something into something bigger or more meaningful than mere entertainment

I like political and satirical subtexts as well, but at the same time, I also find a lot of people who shit on any kind of genre media or anything that's not got some deep meaning to be insufferably pretentious and a lot of them tend to be tryhard hipsters and pseudointellectuals trying to look more mature than they are.

I'm not saying you're like that because I've seen enough of your posts to know better, but it is a disturbingly common trend to see fans of literary fiction and "serious" non-genre media who automatically shit on any kind of fantastical or unrealistic entertainment end up being the kind of guys who are just barely a step above MovieBob and try to overcompensate.

C.S. Lewis wrote about this sort of phenomenon decades ago, the "liking things is for spergs" mindset where a person is so obsessed with being mature that they end up overdoing it and looking immature and childish

I love anime, even the unrealistic "ultimate power/lol he fell on her boobs" stuff because it's fun and it's not meant to be some serious didactic work. At the same, I take it for what it is and enjoy it in moderation

That said, I also do not like the losers who buy all the merch and go all out with their nerdy BS and I do like a lot of insightful shows (seriously, King of the Hill is my favorite show of all time) and the more serious movies and books as well.

I don't like pretentious arthouse shit, but I do love Martin Scorsese's films in general and some of the historical epics and dramas (Gladiator, Gettysburg, Nicholas and Alexandra, Gangs of New York, Saving Private Ryan, Amadeus)

Everything in balance, as it were.

Liking genre media does not automatically make you a loser. Being a consoomer sperg does.

I think you're misinterpreting what literary fiction actually is. A lot of it is straight up fantasy (Borges, Vonnegut, Kafka, etc) and merit is not solely judged based on realism. Take Pynchon, for example. Gravity's Rainbow is not a serious book, and it's certainly not a realistic one, but it's a major classic of late 20th century literature since it represents the clash of liberal hippie culture with crushing paranoia, the impending threat of nuclear destruction, and the horrors of WW2 a few decades earlier. Good writing doesn't have to be pretentious, either (see Twain, Hemingway, Steinbeck).

Of course there are books like "the eternal struggles of being an upper class tranny, by I. Cutmydickoff", but these are 1. generally not accepted as actual classics and 2. not at all representative of what literature or cinema actually is. This kind of crap is way more common in trashy YA writing than actual literature, in my experience.

The problem with anime isn't that it's not realistic (it's a cartoon, of course it's not), but that it's usually full of ham acting and sexual awkwardness that looks like it's written by a virgin. That's what people mean when they say it's low quality, not that a cartoon doesn't exactly mimic real life. It's not like The Boondocks is very realistic either. That said, realistic cartoons do exist (Persepolis, Waltz with Bashir), and I doubt you'd share my fondness for them.

 

[Meat Target]

I mostly just like the art style. I've never been able to stick to a series other than Girls und Panzer (which I readily admit is just Asian Thomas the Tank Engine for autistic /k/ommandoes and history buffs).

The genre gets a bad rap from hentai and other such pervy subgenres, but that's like saying all cinema is bad because CP or pornos exist. Characters with big eyes and voices that sound like baby-talk in Japanese are cute and endearing because we associate those things with other cute things, such as puppies and small children. How often do you see parents describe their own children as cute or beautiful? All the time. That doesn't make you a chomo.

Spoiler: Amateur EvoPsych speculation

This seems connected to an evolutionary instinct; your children are your genetic legacy, and so you find them makes you bonded to them and protective of them.

That said, also think anime's association with loser nerds can be funny, such as moe anthropomorphism. Places, things, or concepts personified as a cute cartoon girl are a bizarre juxtaposition.

 

[ToroidalBoat]

I don't know if it's just me or the crappy city I live in, but reality seems to have this harsh and ugly "tint" to it. Seems like everything is decaying or dying. Buildings are always run down. There's not much color. Seems everyone is bland, and being different enough makes you stick out like a freak. And real life is more about tedious mechanistic routine and suffering. Not to mention the isolation and insanity modern life can breed.

In art - not just anime - the world doesn't have to be like that.

 

[Meat Target]

In art - not just anime - the world doesn't have to be like that.

But it's become fashionable to the point of absurdity. Starting in the mid-aughts/post 9-11 world, being grimdark and edgy got popular. I remember tons of sports teams integrating black into their uniforms when they hadn't had it before. Then by the Obama years, we had Nolanverse Batman, Game of Thrones, Breaking Bad, and everything else that made relativism look more "realistic". Now the only way we're able to portray binary morality is through capeshit and Star Wars.

 

[ToroidalBoat]

in the mid-aughts/post 9-11 world, being grimdark and edgy got popular

9/11, recession, "culture wars", 2020 - that's probably why.