Should We Drop Anime?
Do you ever watch an anime, only to have a feeling of dislike build up inside? How about the time when you picked up a series due to recommendations and it just didn't feel right? When watching something becomes a big headache, should we just say no?
Although there are many anime that we like or love, there's bound to be a bad apple in the bunch. The viewer is then given a choice; to continue on or walk away. Now, while there's numerous opinions on the topic of dropping anime, I thought it would be a nice idea to give my thoughts on it. Since this is a problem I encounter all the time, I thought others might be facing the same thing. So hopefully this post gives their minds a little bit of ease.
For those who don't know, dropping is basically to stop watching an anime. It doesn't matter what episode you are on, or how much progress you've made, you basically decide that you don't want to finish it.
Let's get down to business now. First things first, I believe dropping anime is completely okay. Sure, you might be called a quitter or be looked down upon, but I think we sometimes forget why we actually watch anime. There are many small reasons, but the big one that almost everyone can agree on, is the fact that anime is enjoyable.
Yes, it's alright to take anime seriously. Even if it may be fiction, the thoughts and ideas behind the anime are real. However, if an anime is causing you stress and pain, in a bad way, it's best not to force your way through it. We go through enough of this through our daily lives, so why should we torture ourselves with anime as well?
Secondly, I would like to say that I don't think dropping = giving up. I've talked about this before, but there can be somewhat of a peer pressure factor when it comes to watching anime. It sounds a little silly, but I've seen it happen. People try to drop an anime, and others continue to persuade them to keep watching, even when they are visibly put off by it. The viewer is pretty much frustrated, and the others aren't satisfied until they finish it. It sounds like the answer to this situation is easy, but when you're in it, it's not always clear.
So the lesson here is that you shouldn't worry about what others will think if you drop an anime. As a blogger, I plan to watch anime and sometimes drop them. I write about them and later drop them. Sometimes, I don't even make it past the first episode. If I were to watch every anime that was given to me, from start to finish, I would have a lot of unnecessary posts on anime that I didn't even like. Who wants to constantly read negative or non-emotional posts? I wouldn't want to do that to my readers or myself, so you can think about dropping in that sense.
The last and most important thing is that you don't have to like everything. This was a little hard for me, because I thought that I had to enjoy every anime that came my way. I'm pretty open minded when it comes to different ones, but there are some I don't like, and others that I have trouble watching. Horror, extreme violence, and depressing anime fall in the category of ones I have trouble tolerating. At first, I thought it was something wrong with me for not liking them since they are so popular.
When I started to see people with similar likes and dislikes as me, and people who disliked the anime I loved, it became somewhat clear. If I don't like something, it's okay. After realizing this, I felt a lot better about dropping anime. I also was happier watching anime, because I was choosing the ones I liked.
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| Instead of forcing yourself through an anime that everyone else likes, why don't you find one you enjoy? |
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It's very simple, actually. Life is too short to force yourself to waste time on too many things you dislike, unless you're actively studying something. There are simply too many anime out there to get stuck wasting time on one that isn't for you. Be adventurous instead, and broaden your horizons. Try out an older anime, or one in a genre you'd normally never consider instead. Dropping an anime just isn't something to be afraid or upset about - it's a chance to do or watch something better. It doesn't matter how popular or well-regarded the anime is if you don't like it. Entertainment is meant to entertain you, after all.
ReplyDeleteThank you for commenting!
DeleteThank you for that, you pretty much summed up the post in a paragraph! I agree completely.
I think it's hard sometimes, as I mentioned in the post above. I've been persuaded into continuing anime when I didn't want to, and it was pretty disastrous. So, hopefully people who have similar feelings will feel a little better after reading this post.
Yeah, I actually find it pretty fascinating how many anime fans I meet seem to believe they need to stick with an anime they don't enjoy.
DeleteThere's the "so bad its good" effect, of course, as well as simply venting some frustrations by being harsh on an anime, but unless you've adopted a blogging persona or something it mystifies me why you'd want to punish yourself. Especially if you do it often. Surely not everyone who does this is just a masochist?
Maybe it's just peer pressure, since anime fans seem to feel like they need to stick together and support their medium, and they get so caught up in that they feel like dropping a popular anime is treasonous or something? Hard to say. It'd be nice if fans actually watched and supported what they like, so anime would be even more diverse and certain studios a bit more adventurous.
Thank you for commenting! Sorry for the late reply, I missed the comment alert! ^^;
DeleteYeah, I see it a lot and I've been around many people who think that way.
Yeah, I agree. Hmm, I think that's something interesting to think about. I've tried dealing with anime I didn't like for the purpose of blogging, but when I wrote an article on one of them, it didn't really receive positive feedback. Some people work better when something is going against them, but I do better when I genuinely like something. So for certain people who are like that, it might be something worth doing, but for those like me, it just backfires all together. That's something interesting to think about though, so thank you!
As in response, I don't think everyone is a masochist. It's just kind of like placing society's wants against your own. Since society is the bigger group, it takes a lot to go against the crowd. I also think that some of it isn't even on a conscious level. When a person is so used to doing something constantly, they may not even realize the reasons behind their actions.
Maybe. I wonder if that's why we see so much of the same things in anime. Numerous anime that have similar plots just with different characters. The tropes of tsundere, dandere, kuudere, etc. If more people were true to their likes and interests, who knows how diverse and vast the anime world would be. Kind of like those hidden gems among the slew of popular anime which no one really looks at. It'd be nice to see more of those!