Introduction
In writing this blog post, I found it rather difficult to develop a title. I decided to go with the most clickbait title possible.
That being said, what I’m going to cover is the importance of watching many different anime. Before I get there, however, I will start with a bit of background.
Like any other hobby, passion, interest, or whatever else you spend your time doing, it is of vital importance to broaden your horizons wherever possible. I am the furthest from an elitist, but you can’t spend the entirety of your life eating at Arby’s when Five Guys is sitting right behind you. When my love of anime and manga truly began to grow, I started to devour practically anything I could get my hands on, whether it was old movies like Crusher Joe or very strange series like Mawaru Penguindrum. As I said in a previous post, I truly believe that trying so many different things over a few decades was beneficial for me to find out what I like and don’t like. This is not to say you must try everything, but if you are trying to experience what anime is, it would behoove you to try out the anime "canon."
Some examples include:
- Steins;Gate
- Evangelion
- Fullmetal Alchemist
- Code Geass
- Fate
- Madoka Magica
Outside of these, there are too many to name, but based on the anime I listed, it is easy to get the point that I’m making. Watching things that are critically acclaimed (whether you end up really enjoying them or not) can be an enriching experience and open your eyes to the possibilities of what anime can accomplish. I find that there are a lot of people who feel the same way as I do and enjoy trying out new things, but some differ in their beliefs. I have developed a little theory of anime fandom to sort of make sense of what I have observed. Time for the discussion on a few of the many different types of anime fans:
The Different Types of Anime Fans
- The Scavenger: I fit into this category. This is someone who likes to scour the interwebs for hidden gems and new experiences. This person has an account on a few different forum websites and will be constantly looking for fresh new series, sometimes from unconventional sources. I find that scavengers are pretty open to checking out anything and have a real passion for good stories, period.
- The Expert: The expert is an individual who has seen everything in a respective genre and can name the character’s birthdays, blood types, and date of birth. You have experts on things like sports, romance, isekai, battle shonen, and nearly any other genre. This type of person is really interesting to speak to because, while they will constantly be pushing an agenda, you know that they have a strong knowledge of anime.
- The Media Fan: This person is not really an anime fan but enjoys anime from time to time. You will usually find this person enjoying things like One Punch Man, Bleach, Invincible, mecha anime, samurai anime, or things that aired on Cartoon Network, Disney, or other networks. This person is largely open to watching other anime as well but just needs solid recommendations in most cases.
- The Follower: This person primarily watches what is trending at the moment. In addition, I usually find that this person is also a big internet user. This is a newer type of fan because, while anime has been popular on the internet for well over a decade, things like Twitter and Reddit didn’t have millions of people discussing anime until the late 2010s. This type of fan is where I start to have questions:
- How do you spend so much time on the internet, yet your interests are exactly what everyone else is interested in? Shouldn’t someone who is chronically online have their own niche interests that they have discovered? Take the Beyblade community, for example.
- Are you going to allow your preferences and interests to be dictated by how much Shueisha/Kodansha/etc. spend on marketing in 2024? Why should TikTok have a say in your interests?
- If other topics were pushed to your social media, would you fall down a conspiracy theory or crypto scam rabbit hole? (PROBABLY)
- The Subway Surfer: This person cannot watch anything where the characters aren’t bumping. They need a constant explosion of colors and action to truly be satisfied. I am half joking and half not. I would appreciate it if people stopped coming to me telling me that a 12-episode anime or a 50-chapter manga is too slow.
Note: There are many more types of fans. I am working with MG Labs to finalize the research on anime fans. I will update once more conclusive results are available.
Not Everything Is Supposed to Be Fun ALL THE TIME
This point will be a hard sell to certain types of people, but I think it is important for people to understand that we benefit from different types of things in different ways.
Here are some examples:
- Non-fiction stories that were of critical importance to history: Some are difficult to read and enjoy but impart valuable knowledge into your mind.
- Historical fiction stories on difficult topics: I have read quite a few of these that were difficult to get through. However, I cannot say that I would’ve been better off if I didn’t read them just because they were difficult reads.
- Fictional stories with moments that aren’t fun: I worked my way from non-fiction to here to show that, in a lot of cases, fictional stories are trying to portray some of the same ideas as non-fiction stories (morals, important lessons, a troubling/cautionary tale, etc.)
Stories are like life. You are supposed to experience things and not feel a constant rush of dopamine at every single moment. I have yet to see something that I would consider “good” that doesn’t make the audience experience a wide range of feelings about it.
Similar to how failing an exam, getting dumped, losing money, and other trash moments of life are important, it is important to see things that don’t always entertain you, such as a slow exposition, tragedy, unfortunate outcome, or anything else you weren’t hoping for that doesn’t necessarily make something “bad.”
This point will be a hard sell to certain types of people, but I think it is important for people to understand that we benefit from different types of things in different ways.
Here are some examples:
- Non-fiction stories that were of critical importance to history: Some are difficult to read and enjoy but impart valuable knowledge into your mind.
- Historical fiction stories on difficult topics: I have read quite a few of these that were difficult to get through. However, I cannot say that I would’ve been better off if I didn’t read them just because they were difficult reads.
- Fictional stories with moments that aren’t fun: I worked my way from non-fiction to here to show that, in a lot of cases, fictional stories are trying to portray some of the same ideas as non-fiction stories (morals, important lessons, a troubling/cautionary tale, etc.)
Stories are like life. You are supposed to experience things and not feel a constant rush of dopamine at every single moment. I have yet to see something that I would consider “good” that doesn’t make the audience experience a wide range of feelings about it.
Similar to how failing an exam, getting dumped, losing money, and other trash moments of life are important, it is important to see things that don’t always entertain you, such as a slow exposition, tragedy, unfortunate outcome, or anything else you weren’t hoping for that doesn’t necessarily make something “bad.”
Develop Your Taste
Without trying new things, good and bad, exciting and tragic, you will never be able to develop your taste in anime and find what is really for you. I find that there are many people who never truly developed a taste of their own, so everything they like is something nearly everyone else likes, and they rarely deviate from that either out of fear of being ridiculed or because it is easier to chase TikTok. But my counter to that is: ISN’T THAT BORING?!?!?!
This may be a controversial statement, but you may find that an anime that isn’t as sound in the literary department can provide a much more enriching and heartfelt experience than something that is written by a much better writer. (This is one of the many reasons we’ve seen web novels and doujins explode in popularity.)
One example I have is when you’re discussing sports, if someone names all of their favorite players and they tell you:
- LeBron James
- Kobe Bryant
- Kevin Durant
- Shaquille O'Neal
- Luka Dončić
- Nikola Jokić
This is a very unserious person. What are the chances that all of your favorite players would be League MVPs and some of the most popular players ever? That list of players is a ChatGPT response. The same concept applies to anime, to me. I have found that the people I’ve gotten along most with have some slightly unique series that they favor and are always proud to talk about them.
Some of these have included:
- Nisekoi
- Dandadan
- Digimon
- Guilty Crown
- Future Diary
- Macross
- Seraph of the End
And many other cult classics (can’t name them all). The point I am making is that, in just living life, you will eventually find things that you’re extremely passionate about, and a lot will be things no one else knows about (yet). And here we have arrived at one of the most beautiful things about anime:
Being able to participate in the exchange of ideas and interests with like-minded people. You get to push your own agenda too!
Growing up, my friends and I would even watch different anime and read different manga just to be able to share them and see what was and was not worth reading. This was a lot of fun and is something I hope everyone will get the chance to do.
How I Got Here & The Whole Point
One of the biggest reasons I thought of this is because, for many years, I’ve heard casual anime fans say that they don’t like mecha. This is an interesting take because a very large proportion of the most critically acclaimed anime of all time in the last 40 years have been of the mecha genre. From Code Geass to Macross: Do You Remember Love to Eureka Seven, mecha has been a mainstay in anime. In addition, if you think about it, all of the series I just named are completely different and have very little in common besides featuring some sort of robots and being critically acclaimed.
We can even go further. When was the last time there wasn’t a hot new, critically acclaimed mecha series on the scene? Even only using things that were legitimately popular:
- Gundam SEED (2002)
- Eureka Seven (2005)
- Code Geass (2006)
- Promare (2019)
- 86 (2021)
- Gurren Lagann (2007)
- Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans (2015)
- Gundam: The Witch From Mercury (2022)
- Knights of Sidonia (2014)
- Gundam Unicorn (2010)
This is not even mentioning things like Aldnoah.Zero, Full Metal Panic!, Darling in the Franxx, Guilty Crown, etc.
If a person watched 2 or 3 of these anime and said they didn't like any of them I would actually be willing to pay them. Because I highly doubt it!
At this point, it is hard to even call “mecha” a real genre as it is just used as a motif to convey complex ideas about war and politics much of the time (while doing it in style). You wouldn’t call “guns” a genre.
My thought process on mecha conversations is usually the following:
A. “I don’t like many mecha, but I like Gurren Lagann and Code Geass.” → Valid Take.
B. “I don’t like mecha.” → “Oh, have you tried 86 or Code Geass?” → “No.” → This person is an unserious anime fan.
C. “Why do you like mecha? I don’t like it.” → “Well, they’re all different. Mecha is just a good canvas to paint your political thriller on.” → “Yeah, but I don’t like looking at mechs.” → “Okay… thank you for your time.” → This person is also unserious.
The point of all this is that, just like you need to experience different things in life to be a well-rounded person, it is legitimately beneficial to experience different types of stories and new ideas. I believe that closing yourself off to certain styles, genres, etc. is a somewhat strange and unnatural behavior. It’s like being this guy.
Why not try new things? Branch out. Your favorite anime may be about a topic you never could have possibly believed.