When Will You Stop Watching Anime?

[Ryllharu]

The more appropriate options would have been the ones Death Boo Z suggested, and my answer would probably be, "When I have kids and they cause me to not have time for it anymore." Maybe I will have kids and still have plenty of time for anime I don't know, but if my dvds are still working by then (no reason for them not to be), I probably will share it with them as well.

Hearing from the older generation of anime fans about how they whine and complain about the decaying of the anime industry that have little entertainment (K-ON!, for example as they say, is the embodiment of all that is"moe" and nothing more). They claim that these new series lack substance that is inferior to the once "great" Neon Genesis Evangelion franchise, Cowboy Bebop, Trigun, etc. (older series than this for sure)

I say this as an anime watcher who has been around for a decade or so, who often tries to extol the virtues of the older, often passed over series of yesteryear. I really honestly and truly hate this aspect about western anime fans more than any other. There's even prominent sites full of them.

It's nostalgia (emphasis on the negative aspects), plain and simple. Self-righteous older anime fans look back and only remember the good animes they saw. They love and spout never ending love for Evangelion, but do they remember Gilgamesh or how awful Bubblegum Crisis 2040 actually was? They love Akira, but never saw Venus Wars? They remark how awesome it was to rent Record of the Lodoss War from the video store, but prefer to block out Final Fantasy Unlimited (as well they should).

There's the same percentage of crap back then as there is coming out today. The simple answer relates right back to this very topic. They've grown out of it, but can't admit it to themselves (especially the ones who spent a great deal on dvds or vhs tapes). So nostalgia goes into full force, and they fall into the "Anime was better in those days..." trap.

Here they are, 5 or 10 years down the road, remembering how many times they watched Nausicaa, and looking at where popular anime has gone and declaring the new garbage. They're just not into it enough anymore to find the gems that are still being produced unless ADV released them on dvd at their local BestBuy when they are picking up the latest season of LOST, or notice at their local anime con where they go to reminisce with their old anime watching friends and make snide remarks about all the "idiot young fans" (who are the same age they used to be when they were watching) and sit in on a panel discussion.

Fansubs? They'd never touch them. They wouldn't be able to justify how much money they had spent and now never watch again. In fact, they are more than happy to announce that now that anime has become more accessible, the newer fansub watching fans aren't "true fans," they're just pirates and irresponsible punks that are making the anime industry the shell of it's former glory and if they'd only start buying dvds maybe the anime industry would stop putting out "moe garbage" and release some angsty mecha.

(Of course, everything is "moe garbage" to them, regardless of the actual content.)



I went off on a bit of a rant here, but I think I hit some good points as an equally self-loathing fan of anime. I've been through that phase and luckily was able to see it a little more objectively and realized a lot of new fans just aren't going to watch the older "decent" titles, they only want the really good stuff. I can't blame them really.

And yes, I probably shouldn't read the ANN forums or reviews anymore because they only piss me off. But I keep going back anyway.