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. I just canāt watch violent stuff.
Me, Iām 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.
Iām reading a ćććć¾ć«ćć§ book at the moment because itās easy and has useful vocabulary for me. Also, cute drawings. But I donāt seek out manga particularly.
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. Iāve seen a few, but would by no means consider myself an otaku. I do like manga, though (especially old ones from the 80ās.)
However, my main interest in Japan stems from military alliances, East Asian international security, politics, and maritime security.
Sooo, you arenāt alone lol.
Unfortunately, it may make your other Japanese language learning friends a bit uncomfortable if you declare you donāt like anime (from my experience at least.)
Also, you probably wonāt be able to do any presentations in Japanese about missiles (trust me, I tried.)
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¦
Itās kinda funny that the only āanimeā-serie Iāve been interested in the past few years, isnāt even Japanese production, but from China
all im going to say is JOJO
Used to like them a lot during high school, as well as video games and thatās 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.
Is that an Attack on Titan reference?
Itāsā¦ probably a Jojoās Bizarre Adventure reference.
ā¦ Why would it be an Attack on Titan reference?
That was the joke, because āis that a JoJoās reference?ā is a popular phrase often quoted in memes so I turned it on its head a little to create an unexpected twist.
Count me as another who doesnāt 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, Iāve found a few slice-of-life and sports anime that donāt 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 Cafeās puns!
Itās taken a lot of work and some very knowledgeable friends to help me find things.
Iāve watched a few series, mainly when I was 9-12 years old (Higurashi & Naruto), but after that I didnāt 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
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, Iād 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.
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
That was me, until I got sucked into Narutoā¦ Then FMAā¦ Then Dragon Ball (original)ā¦ Now a days itās mostly Japanese drama.
Recently I watched Hitoshi Matsumotoās Documental - itās a bunch of Japanese comedians stuck in a room for 6 hours, the only rule is youāre not allowed to laugh. Itās hilarious, definitely check it out.
Iām not particularly into it either (even though itās literally everywhere here). Iām primarily a fan of the art from the studio/artistās accounts on Twitter, and seeing what they work on. Reading their Tweets is good reading practice too!
Itās pretty okay since Japan isnāt all about Anime and Manga. Itās just one of the gateway drugs.
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. Iām curious in what other ways people get sucked in?