How did you get into anime? (And why you love it)

[RZ.]

How I got into anime was pretty weird. Somebody made a meme of the Queen riding in a car during a royal ceremony wearing a green dress. They'd used the dress as greenscreen and inserted the Evangelion opening over the top of it. Looked in the comments and found the name of the show and watched it... the rest is history,

Strangely, NGE wasn't the first anime I ever watched. I found the eclipse scene from the third Berserk film on YouTube whilst trying to find dark animations for a music video. I also watched one of the Hokuto no Ken movies and another called Children Who Chase Lost Voices on YT one day when I was recovering from a night out at university lol

[Gonstroph]

Anime feels like it's always been a part of my life even though I never watched much of it before recently.

I used to, and still am but not as much, HUGE on YouTube. And most of the youtubers I watched would drop anime references or talk about an anime for jokes, and I eventually began getting the gist of some shows before ever watching them, such as JoJos, DragonBall Z, MHA, Hunter x Hunter, ect. 

Other than YouTube, the show that most directly contributed to me getting into anime was Evangelion. It was one of the few anime series at the time I actually watched more than 1 episode of or watched more than just snippets from by stopping in the living room and seeing my sister watching an anime. I got into it because I looked it up and saw it's amazing reviews, and wanted to try it out with my sister, and we both got HOOKED.

The entire show made me think about if there were other masterpieces like this one out there, and if there were, I HAD to see them.

Problem was, my attention span was dogshit. I watched YouTube mainly because it didn't require me to focus my attention for a long period of time. But I was motivated by that idea of shows as good as Evangelion being out there, so I forced myself to sit down to finish any episode I started on, and to not watch another show unless I finished the one I was on if it was good. Eventually my attention span began getting better, and I was even watching movies by my own will at times, which I never did before. 

And now I can binge entire seasons in 2 days or less. AOT was my most recent binge, I finished season 1 in 2 days, which past me would have been disgusted and shocked at.

 

(Edit: as for why I love anime, it's the lack of restraint it has. Anime doesn't seem to be afraid to be anything it wants, and you get unashamedly weird shit. Depending on the anime, it can be a good or bad thing, but it really can make for some of the most beautiful storytelling out there.)

Edited July 9, 2022 by Gonstroph

[Lone Lancer]

I will begin this by saying that I would hardly describe myself as a "weaboo" or a cosplayer. I'm just a person who goes wherever the good is. Anime just happens to be the best product. As with the case of all entertainment there is always that one question which is paramount in determining something's intrinsic worth: is it good? Although there is some anime that I would describe as being unwatchable, my experiences with anime have been generally positive, though part of this is probably owed heavily to the fact that I always make a point of reading the synopsis of the plot to see if it sounds like something I would be interested in. Indeed, there are anime titles that cater to nearly everyone's tastes. Many of them good, some of them bad.

Although I have watched anime episodes or films sporadically for most of my life, I was already out of high school before it became my primary mode of entertainment. So what exactly about it had enticed me? A lot of things.

People talk bad about Saturday Morning cartoons from the 80s ( which were often joint ventures with Japanese animation studios by the way ) because they are seen as basically just long toy commercials. I do believe that there is some truth to that but, those same cartoons also had a certain vibe to them that was charming and endearing. Would shows like "He-Man and the Masters of the Universe" be more exciting if the titular hero had dramatically battled Skeletor's minions to the death in a bloodbath similar to what was seen in "Hokuto no Ken" - definitely. Still, by no means was it a bad cartoon. I would take these "cheesy" Saturday Morning cartoons over nearly anything that's being produced in the West today ( with few exceptions ).

One of the driving forces that eventually culminated with my abandoning support of most American TV shows and movies, is that I became increasingly disturbed by all the different ways in which the creators of the shows and films would keep pushing the envelope and coarsening the culture for no good reason. The focus became where it was always about shocking and desensitizing, not even real entertainment as such. Newer films and movies would portray the main characters engaging in activities which were sick and making it look like those were things that normal people did. All the supposed ribs and barbs that were presented as being "funny" became increasingly vicious and meanspirited to the point where it felt more like the whole point of it all was to bully and make fun of the viewership. If I had kids, I would not let them watch western television in its current form right now. I know that there is a lot to unpack in that statement, and for certain reasons I cannot go into all of the specifics about it. The only other thing I am going to say, is that this is coming from someone who would be considered a pervert by the standards of a Puritanical Ned Flanders type guy. There is nothing "Trad" about me, and even I am disgusted at how dirty and filthy entertainment culture has become in the Western World. It literally makes most hentai look totally innocent and straightlaced by comparison...I am telling you.

In any case, not only is anime generally safe to watch with children around in contrast with most modern TV from the West, it also has a very rich gradient of vivid colour dimensions to its defining features ( in more ways than one ). The level of detail in the characters and backgrounds is artisanal in a way that is almost unprecedented in Western cartoons - I think Disney Studios ( going back to the 1930s ) and "Clutch Cargo" ( circa 1959 ) probably came the closest back in the beginning, and even then the animation of the latter was still laughably choppy. Much like in anime, some of the characters in Clutch Cargo were drawn to look like real people while other characters were done in the egregiously crude Hanna-Barbera style that made them look like they were from a different cartoon. It looked very weird seeing the two together in the same show. I have noticed in the dialogue of several anime that I have watched, that the work of Walt Disney himself is greatly admired in Japan. Some of the anime that I have found most interesting to watch were the anime about making anime - shows like "Shirobako" and "Girlish Number."

Anime is known for playing up the extremeness of its characters in the more fantastical settings. This is one of the smartest methods that they use to focus the attention of their audience. Most anime have at least one or two characters that are so unique that they could never be mistaken for anybody else, and they'll usually be all decked out in some custom tailored outfit with unconventional accessories. Some of these major characters driving the plots are flashy and elegant while others are just plain bizarre.

One of the other things about anime, is that typically the stories ( however fantastic in nature ) deal with hard subjects that hit very close to home on an emotional level. It's very nuanced, there are periods where the mood is happy, and others where it is heartrending and deals with one or more of the characters dying or having a brush with death - it's never a static one-season world. Even the characters that are super powerful often meet a violent end; in this way, they are actually more human than Popeye and Elmer Fudd. This is one of those features that makes the whole experience feel more real to the viewer, as paradoxical as that might sound.

In Japan, they have what we would refer to as a tribalistic society. They will clannishly stick together with one another through thick and thin - I actually find this admirable. One of the features of anime that I consider to be the most beautiful, is how selfless the main characters often behave. When one of their friends or neighbors is in trouble, they help them out themselves rather than pointing them to the poorhouse. One of the most important moral lessons it teaches is how important it is to protect those who are closest to you and to prioritize that at the local level. As the saying goes, charity starts at home. In the United States, people will usually just pass you by without even acknowledging your presence unless they want something from you; of course, they'll always be superficially friendly to your face! The Winter Solstice Holiday ( which every culture has ) is treated as that one designated time of the year that people in the United States will treat others with generosity, and then after New Years it's back to being a self-serving jerk again. Hypocrites.

When the characters are drawn to look so lifelike as they do in anime, it is natural to feel emotionally attached to them ( at least a little bit ). I have seen anime with characters that are literally the spitting image of people I knew during my formative years in high school - different name, maybe a different personality, but they look just like them in the face with an uncanny resemblance. I realize that they aren't real people, and yet I still feel that visceral connection to them as if they were real somehow. I can think of two anime characters that look nearly identical to some girls I used to know - one of them driven to an early grave from making bad choices ( I'm not gonna say the names of the girls or the characters that resemble them though ). I suppose another reason I have grown to despise American television so much is because something will appear on a show or commercial that triggers painful memories from the time that I was dealing with all of that - this, and the fact that I actually blame that trashy smut television for influencing my friend to do the kind of stupid things that she did. There is no feeling that is worse than being unable to protect the people who mean the world to you. I had some traumatic experiences that changed me as I came of age...experiences that nobody should have.

Another thing that drew me to anime, is that I noticed that there was a lot of interest in the mythology and folklore of ancient Europe. It was not an unusual occurrence to see characters from Celtic, Norse or Greek Mythology to either make appearances, or be featured as main characters in the cast. As I started familiarizing myself more with the mythology and folklore of Japan, I did notice some striking parallels in a lot of their myths, such as a certain goddess associated with wild boars, as well as a red thunder god/ogre ( corresponds to Thor? ) associated with lightning storms and the superstition that lying down with an exposed belly button would leave one open to having their entrails pulled out through their belly button by this Raijin deity. The Japanese also show a great deal of interest in the cultures of ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia too I've noticed.

As many people on this thread have already pointed out, anime uses nice aesthetics often accompanied with pleasant music. This is a natural attention getter. Another thing about it that makes it all the more appealing, is that the main characters are usually very likable, if often naive. In any given title, there always has to be some mandatory babes in the cast of characters. Those manga artists know that having lots of pretty girls pays the bills - kudos to them for understanding this. Nothing wrong with that, though many people on this thread have also pointed out the signs that the writing is being watered down in newer anime to give way to more fan service, which is unfortunate. Is there any reason we can't have anime that has it all? I enjoy the occasional ecchi or hentai anime but, I also like it when there is also a good plot to go along with it.

There are some signs that we are actually on the eve of seeing a renaissance brought on by anime as it continues to establish itself on a cosmopolitan scale. The major obstacle I see to Western countries adopting the style fully as their default, is simply the fact that it's extremely difficult to make, it's not something that just anybody can do. The manga artists that do this stuff for a living are like the Leonardo da Vincis of their day.

Edited July 10, 2022 by Kōyamaki