So I don't really care about anime/manga

I never ever watched an anime or read a manga befor I started here.
But I have got hooked on Studio Ghibly movies, and on a few of the KyoAni titles.
So, okay, obsessed with Studio Ghibly. :crazy_face: I just canā€™t watch violent stuff.

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Me, Iā€™m pretty far from super into it. Akira is a work of art and one of the best films ever made but a huge chunk of anime is utter trash, just like a huge chunk of TV made all around the world.

Iā€™m reading a ć—ć‚ćć¾ć‚«ćƒ•ć‚§ book at the moment because itā€™s easy and has useful vocabulary for me. Also, cute drawings. But I donā€™t seek out manga particularly. :woman_shrugging:

Eh, I think it is to be expected with a Japanese language learning community based outside of Japan. Anime/mange are the only easily accessible resource for a lot of people.

That being said, I am pretty ambivalent about anime. Iā€™ve seen a few, but would by no means consider myself an otaku. I do like manga, though (especially old ones from the 80ā€™s.)

However, my main interest in Japan stems from military alliances, East Asian international security, politics, and maritime security.

Sooo, you arenā€™t alone lol.

Unfortunately, it may make your other Japanese language learning friends a bit uncomfortable if you declare you donā€™t like anime (from my experience at least.)

Also, you probably wonā€™t be able to do any presentations in Japanese about missiles :frowning: (trust me, I tried.)

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Although much of my early interest in Japanese was much influenced by reading manga and watching anime, I lost most of my interest once I actually went to Japan for the first time. Back then I got interested first in j-drama (Hana Yori Dango aired just back then) and watched those for a while. Then I lost time and interest in those as wellā€¦

Itā€™s kinda funny that the only ā€œanimeā€-serie Iā€™ve been interested in the past few years, isnā€™t even Japanese production, but from China :smiley:

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all im going to say is JOJO

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Used to like them a lot during high school, as well as video games and thatā€™s what made me grow an interest towards Japan and its culture. I have however outgrew this phase, and went through a bit ofā€¦ soul-searching. :sweat_smile:

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Is that an Attack on Titan reference?

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Itā€™sā€¦ probably a Jojoā€™s Bizarre Adventure reference.

ā€¦ Why would it be an Attack on Titan reference?

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That was the joke, because ā€œis that a JoJoā€™s reference?ā€ is a popular phrase often quoted in memes so I turned it on its head a little to create an unexpected twist.

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Count me as another who doesnā€™t care for anime or manga. I see them mostly as a necessary intermediate step until I can read light novels, but struggle to find anything I connect with enough to use as a learning tool. Fortunately, Iā€™ve found a few slice-of-life and sports anime that donā€™t have too much chibi (omg, I loathe chibi, sorry!) or fanservice. Heck, I even found a rugby anime which is bearableā€¦and I liked Shirokuma Cafeā€™s puns!

Itā€™s taken a lot of work and some very knowledgeable friends to help me find things.

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Iā€™ve watched a few series, mainly when I was 9-12 years old (Higurashi & Naruto), but after that I didnā€™t find much that stuck with me even when I wanted them to.
I still read doujins, hence my icon : P Those are very short one-shot stories though.

Watching Higurashi while being 9-12 :sweat_smile:

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I love anime and manga as much as I love Showa era Japanese cinema (Ozu, Mizoguchi, Kurosawa, etcā€¦ films). But I will never read light novels, Iā€™d rather go with short stories of Japanese literature (Souseki, Akutagawa, etcā€¦). One thing I really like about anime is that even if you are super tired, you can still easily get one hour of listening to Japanese dialogues without falling asleep. I have no regrets to every penny I pay Netflix, Amazon, Crunchyroll and Funamination. Recently, the dialogue in Sangatsu no Lion (Netflix) is music to my ears.

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Yeah it took a while to stop being terrified of being murdered in my sleep after watching all of that, but it was really interesting

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That was me, until I got sucked into Narutoā€¦ Then FMAā€¦ Then Dragon Ball (original)ā€¦ Now a days itā€™s mostly Japanese drama.

Recently I watched Hitoshi Matsumotoā€™s Documental - itā€™s a bunch of Japanese comedians stuck in a room for 6 hours, the only rule is youā€™re not allowed to laugh. Itā€™s hilarious, definitely check it out.

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Iā€™m not particularly into it either (even though itā€™s literally everywhere here). Iā€™m primarily a fan of the art from the studio/artistā€™s accounts on Twitter, and seeing what they work on. Reading their Tweets is good reading practice too!

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Itā€™s pretty okay since Japan isnā€™t all about Anime and Manga. Itā€™s just one of the gateway drugs.

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Anime and manga is a pretty common gateway for young people. I know I grew up watching cartoons and playing video games, both big exports from Japan. Iā€™m curious in what other ways people get sucked in?

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