• @_danny@lemmy.world
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    986 months ago

    Kids are going to be weird and use their imagination. They’ll pretend to be an NFL player breaking tackles as they run through a crowded school hallway. They’ll pretend to be Optimus Prime and pretend to transform into a truck. Or they’ll pretend to be iron man blasting bad guys with their lazer palms.

    The issue is when your friends have aged out of that behavior and you think it’s still cool to Naruto run up to them all the time.

    • @averagedrunk@lemmy.ml
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      386 months ago

      I remember when I was a kid I used to pretend the weirdest stuff. Once I was sitting on a picnic table behind the school and I pretended I was loved and safe.

      I did stop pretending like that pretty early though because I was afraid of being seen as weird.

      • Maeve
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        196 months ago

        Can you feel me hugging you in our hearts?

      • Maeve
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        96 months ago

        Me too soul family. If we pretend together enough, we’ll jump timelines. Want to?

          • Maeve
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            06 months ago

            You see me move back and forth between both…

            I’ve almost found a balance!

            It’s hard to keep it lighter than a feather; sometimes it’s heavier than lead; coming round to the understanding that’s also on me. (Believe it or not, some heart chakra with string drum helped me out of that rut while i slept. I didn’t purposely find it, it just was on after the video i fell asleep to. It’s no excuse not to do grief work though. And i’m doing that too.)

            I’m glad to play and learn together.

    • Maeve
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      216 months ago

      Maybe the ones who aged out are the issue.

        • @captainlezbian@lemmy.world
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          426 months ago

          At 16 you should be able to differentiate when it’s the time and place for it. Theater, role playing games, and plenty of other outlets exist for it as an adolescent and adult because it is healthy and fun to continue doing into adulthood.

          • @BB69@lemmy.world
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            -56 months ago

            Exactly. Sad to see that I’m downvoted because people can’t understand that there’s a time and place to let the mind work.

            • @_danny@lemmy.world
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              216 months ago

              It’s probably because your comment leads everyone to believe that you think that the time and place are “never” and “nowhere”

              • @BB69@lemmy.world
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                -106 months ago

                Interesting how the tables turn isn’t it? Not putting thought into a comment and instantly making an assumption rather than thinking about it or even, and I know this is radical nowadays, asking somebody to expand

        • Maeve
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          266 months ago

          Pretend is where most great ideas are birthed. I’m sorry this timeline sucks so bad it sucked that out of you. But yeah, time and place, etc to quality that.

          • @BB69@lemmy.world
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            -36 months ago

            There’s an obvious difference between thinking and Naruto running down a hall wearing a ninja headband and doing handsigns for a jutsu.

        • @Chakravanti@sh.itjust.works
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          56 months ago

          Why not? I’m fucking 40 and while I wouldn’t say all the time, I do it any time I think I can get away with it generating humour to boot. It works cuz THAT’S my excuse. Loki backs me up nearly every single time. How do you think I survived a helmet-less head injury after getting hit by a car on my bike? Even my Nuersurgeon expected nothing and 3 mo this later was exponentially MORE shocked I woke up at all let alone able to speak even if back then I couldn’t finish an entire sentance.

            • @Chakravanti@sh.itjust.works
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              -16 months ago

              It’s like The Stone and the Flute by Hans Bemmann. Totally a fantasy until you realize what level truth is being given with no interest or need for facts. Such being unrelated to what is given.

              And no, I am not a Changeling. I’m a CoX. Not that you’ll ever catch those references. It’s not necessary.

          • Maeve
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            06 months ago

            I’ that makes me so happy. To the devil with the excuse. I felt like it also works; but it’s good to have an excuse when the nails start coming out of pockets, unless you bliss right up over everyone who’s got the nails and hammer.

            • @Chakravanti@sh.itjust.works
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              -16 months ago

              My excuse was was just a step in the path that improved my life. For as horrible as it occured, everything else got exponentially fantastically luckier than that one moment was unlucky. I could list a dozen amazing things that came together right therein after. The guy stuck around, had insurance, got me an ambulence…many many more things just lined up to improve my life right therein after.

              • Maeve
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                06 months ago

                Hanged man energy (hanging on the tree of life upside down) gives that perspective, doesn’t it? It took me kissing death on the mouth a few times before I got the perspective I really needed, though. Whatever, as long as we do the work to get there after the stepping stones appear. They’re not there to walk on themselves!

                Lighter than a feather feels great!

                • @Chakravanti@sh.itjust.works
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                  06 months ago

                  If I get the cash and a good drawing beforehand to be sure a lot of the tiny little details apart of it are done correctly beforehand I’ll have exactly that tattooed on my back. The hanged man.

        • @4am@lemm.ee
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          36 months ago

          Nope you should be a hardworking cog in the machine, a strait laced, early waking, labor generating machine just as the fucking capital owners require of you. Nothing like snapping you into servitude than the scorn of your peers.

  • @dangblingus@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    6 months ago

    There were definitely kids naruto running and doing kamehamehas at recess, but by high school, if it was ever known you watch even some mainstream ass anime, kiss that social life goodbye. Other anime nerds went way too weeb with it, so the only option is to hide your enjoyment and never make any references to anime in order to have some kind of normal experience. These days it’s super normal to watch anime because it was our parents generation that didn’t grow up with it. Now everyone is familiar with it.

    • @Jorgelino@lemmy.ml
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      96 months ago

      That’s what tends to happen when something you like is ostracized. Either you double down and get even more into it, or you hide it in shame.

    • @Grass@sh.itjust.works
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      6 months ago

      I remember in school a few kids had older parents that didn’t want their kids watching anime because they saw it as propaganda from an enemy country

    • @elint@programming.dev
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      -66 months ago

      The older generations “other” it by calling it by its foreign, non-english anime. Our generation that grew up with it just calls it “cartoons”, and it’s normal.

      • @tigeruppercut@lemmy.zip
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        176 months ago

        Anime as a whole has elements that differentiate it from animation from other regions, so the distinction seems useful.

        Should we also stop using the terms gyro, kebab, burrito, schawarma, and kati, and just say wrap instead?

        • @kofe@lemmy.world
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          66 months ago

          I got yelled at recently for saying I was watching what I thought was an anime. Can you help me understand the difference? Is it just if it’s originally made in Japan?

          • @Syrc@lemmy.world
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            76 months ago

            Honestly, there’s no specific definition everyone agrees to. If someone yells at you for your definition they’re probably an ass.

            The most common one is yes, everything that was originally made in Japan. So “Pingu in the City” is an anime. But some people consider the artstyle first so they count stuff like ATLA too.

          • @elint@programming.dev
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            36 months ago

            Anime and cartoons are the same word, just different languages. If you are speaking Japanese, it is always proper to refer to cartoons as “anime”.

          • @Robmart@lemm.ee
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            16 months ago

            Yes. Anime is just the word Animation used as a loanword by the Japanese, but Japanese animation itself has become associated with the word outside of Japan.

          • @emergencyfood@sh.itjust.works
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            16 months ago

            Strictly speaking, yes. So Avatar, Castlevania and Scissor 7 aren’t anime, while the Tale of the Princess Kaguya is, despite what their artstyle might suggest. (Co-productions like The Red Turtle can be considered anime.)

  • @parpol@programming.dev
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    706 months ago

    You used to be labeled weird for liking anime.

    Nowadays people will call you a pedophile on extwitter for liking an image of a clothed Hatsune Miku.

    • @Arthur_Leywin@lemmy.world
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      -56 months ago

      “oh no, people are calling me a pedophile for liking lolis” As they should. Lolis are why I hate most anime because I know they’re catering to the weirdos that buy their products. The whole “It’s ok guys! This character is 1000 years old but looks like a child” is always and will always be sus.

      • @parpol@programming.dev
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        86 months ago

        You’re free to water down the term pedophile all you want. It only benefits pedophiles and makes you look like a twitter user. Also funny how somehow Hatsune Miku is a loli now.

      • @jbk@discuss.tchncs.de
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        66 months ago

        So just because someone likes something, it has to be for a sexual reason. Alright. I’m not saying there’s no one who’s like that, but it certainly isn’t everyone.

      • @gamermanh@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        -66 months ago

        There are irl women who look like lolis do, should one be called a pedophile for being attracted to them?

        Loli =/= child

        (I don’t care for Loli myself but let’s not label people an extreme thing off of 0 evidence)

        • @Arthur_Leywin@lemmy.world
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          36 months ago

          If the reason someone is attracted to a woman is because that woman looks like a child, then yes. If someone thinks the childlike woman is attractive for other qualities, then the woman is coincidentally childlike in that relationship. In the previous example, a relationship only occurs because she looks like a child. That is bad.

          There’s a subtle difference between starting a relationship because someone looks like a child and starting a relationship despite her looking like a child.

          • @parpol@programming.dev
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            06 months ago

            The way you phrase it makes it sound like anyone who prefers small tits is a pedo, and “normal” people only like big tits, but tolerate small ones.

            Pedophilia is bad because it is a rape fetish, not because of body shapes, and you’re not a pedo for preferring one shape over the other.

              • @parpol@programming.dev
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                06 months ago

                Since the context is Hatsune Miku being a loli, and the only childlike traits she has being small tits (sometimes), I used it as an example.

                But also, there is no absolute definition of what a loli is. Being short and flatchested is enough for some to label the character a loli, even if said character is an adult. And a character can be in middle school but still not be considered a loli. The actual age of the character is not generally important in labelling the character a loli. It is a body type.

                • @Arthur_Leywin@lemmy.world
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                  6 months ago

                  Ah so we’re going with the “there’s no clear definition” argument. I know you know what I mean because no one takes the time to say:

                  “Nowadays people will call you a pedophile on extwitter for liking an image of a clothed Hatsune Miku.”

                  You know what I’m talking about because no one would care if you said a character like Kiyomi Takada from Death Note was clothed or not. But you made it crystal clear that you meant clothed because there would be something very wrong otherwise. You can have the last word if you want man, all of you guys are just making excuses for yourselves.

          • @yamanii@lemmy.world
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            -16 months ago

            There really isn’t, just reads like you are one of those that call preferences “fetish”, I’m allowed to not find skinny people attractive.

            • @Arthur_Leywin@lemmy.world
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              26 months ago

              Google “loli” and tell me that’s something you’re okay with full-grown adults being attracted to and that it’s a “preference.”

      • @Pat_Riot
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        196 months ago

        Well that tells us all what kind of anime you watch, creep.

        • @Arthur_Leywin@lemmy.world
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          06 months ago

          Have you ever seen Mushoku Tensei or Seven Deadly Sins? These are both very popular and highly regarded anime. Did you find anything wrong with them?

          • @Pat_Riot
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            16 months ago

            I’m not familiar with either. I rather enjoyed Ghost in the Shell, Ninja Scroll, Akira, Dominion Tank Police. Some of Gundam is alright. I grew up watching Macross and Starblazers. I am rather a fan of anything Miyazaki. Death Eater is constant laughs as is Full Metal Alchemist. Sword Art Online and Black Lagoon are on my radar. Nothing I have watched has struck me as problematic, but I look for things that look interesting to me. Do you take exception to any of my selections? How are you choosing that you find material that you find offensive repeatedly?

          • @Pat_Riot
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            36 months ago

            How is it you know so much then, sport?

            • @JamesStallion@sh.itjust.works
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              -16 months ago

              This might shock you, considering the co pletely unrelated nature of this thread, but anime is kind of popular. Ever heard of Taylor Swift?

              • @Pat_Riot
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                16 months ago

                Heard the name. Apparently she flies around in a private jet a lot. Seems to irritate the Internet. Couldn’t tell you the name of any of her songs though. What does this have to do with you only watching creepy anime and then feigning shock when that’s clearly what you are looking for? How does it relate to my choosing shows and movies that aren’t piles of half dressed children? You protest too much. It seems disingenuous to me.

      • Kiwi_Girl
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        66 months ago

        Hey JamesStallion, did we have the same version of Mushishi?

      • @4am@lemm.ee
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        66 months ago

        My man out here talking about the parallels between One Piece and Honey Boo Boo 🙄

        Seek help, brother

    • @phorq@lemmy.ml
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      206 months ago

      Oh good, as long as I don’t watch Dragon Ball Z I’m not a loser… Whelp, back to Rent-A-Girlfriend!

    • @Honytawk@lemmy.zip
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      6 months ago

      Ok, so because I don’t like DBZ, I am not allowed to like other anime?

      What kind of dumb gatekeeping is this?

      DBZ is shit, slow and boring. The battles all look the same, just different things exploding. It freaking takes forever for something to happen.

      God, I saw an entire episode where the only thing to have happened was them drawing names to see who they were going to fight in the tournament in the next episodes. 20 minutes with absolutely nothing happening. How can people even enjoy that shit? Any other form of media would get blasted with people calling it boring. But yet anime and DBZ get a pass?

        • @Honytawk@lemmy.zip
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          26 months ago

          I know it was a joke, I just don’t like how people treat DBZ as some sort of de facto anime every anime enjoyer must enjoy. It goes beyond that single comment.

          I got triggered, because I really dislike DBZ and can’t fathom why people enjoy it.

          It isn’t just DBZ either, any 1000+ episode anime only gets that far because of the extremely slow pacing and constant flashbacks: Naruto, One Piece, …

          Netflix proved how much faster it can go when they remade One Piece. Since they skipped all the fluff and went right to the important and fun bits.

          Maybe I’m just getting too old and would spend my time with fun things rather than wait an hour and a half for a character to do one special move. I can watch an entire movie in that time.

          – end rant –

          • @ceenote@lemmy.world
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            6 months ago

            I said that because DBZ is well known enough that even people who don’t like it, like you, know what super saiyan is. If DBZ didn’t exist I’d have said something like “if you’ve never unnecessarily explained what Pot of Greed does, you’re not a real anime fan.”

            It’s the one that lets you draw two cards.

      • @cafeinux@infosec.pub
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        316 months ago

        You seem to have been really triggered by that innocent and random comment. Would you like some mint tea?

  • HubertManne
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    256 months ago

    Its a little wierd for me as nerdy. geeky, fen. Being part of a subcluture had become part of my identity but now they are just normal ole things.

    • @Trainguyrom@reddthat.com
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      256 months ago

      Dude so many of the wierd nerdy subcultures are mainstream now! So many of the things that made me uncool when I was in school are now trendy, and trends that appear to be here to stay at that!

      • @Obi@sopuli.xyz
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        26 months ago

        For me the one that feels the weirdest is electronic music, whenever I hear drum and bass in a commercial or some mainstream video game or something it just feels wrong. For me it was something deeply counter-current that involved a whole lifestyle and philosophy and placed you in fringe of society, and now I just saw doctor who raving it out in the last Christmas special, a family friendly household show. I don’t necessarily hate that it’s happening or anything but it’s just bizarre haha.

  • Dr. Coomer
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    196 months ago

    And look at what’s happening now. Entire cosplays at school when it’s not even Halloween.

    • @jasondj@ttrpg.network
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      6 months ago

      Plot twist, this was the US Naval War College, and “Sailor Moon” was the nickname for the obese cadet that liked anime and had plumber-crack.

  • @AlexWIWA@lemmy.ml
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    146 months ago

    I didn’t like anime for so long because the fans of it in the 00’s had some very eccentric behavior.

  • @chatokun@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    146 months ago

    I’ve been into Anime since the 90s, always had friends and wasn’t ostracized for it. Some people asked questions about tentacle hentai and Akira, but since was I never found any intereet in either all I could talk about was stuff I’d seen and I’d just tell em that.

    I guess the closest thing to a real negative reaction was my mom walking in on the opening scene of Ranma 1/2 Movie 2, where Ranma, having been at the beach as a guy, was now running around topless as a woman. She didn’t accept “that’s really a guy who just got splashed with water.”

  • @spudwart@spudwart.com
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    6 months ago

    Anime kinda polarized itself by the time I stopped watching like 5-7ish years ago. Idk if it’s changed now.

    But back when I stopped watching your options were:

    • Shonen Reboot/Continuation
    • Generic Candy-Colored anime girls at high school show.
    • Rare 10-60 Episode mini-series that had no right existing in that era.
    • Jojo.
    • @HandwovenConsensus@lemm.ee
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      16 months ago

      Now you have “fantasy isekai with a protagonist that’s so overpowered it removes all conflict or stakes from the story.”

      I seriously don’t get the appeal. I know it’s wish-fulfillment, but can’t our wish-fulfillment include overcoming challenges?

  • Dr. Coomer
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    86 months ago

    I still dont get anime. There are like 2 or 3 that I’ve watched, but I can’t really get into it.

    • @Alsephina@lemmy.ml
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      186 months ago

      That’s like saying you don’t get movies, or cartoons. You’re just not watching the genres you’d like.

      • Dr. Coomer
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        36 months ago

        Ok, what would you recommend? If it helps, the stuff I did like was the promised neverland, chainsaw man, and some of full metal alchemist.

        • Im gonna suggest two slightly different anime from everyone else. Black Lagoon and Saga of Tanya the evil.

          Black Lagoon is basically a show about some mercs in south east asia during the 90s, and the weird shit they get up to also it can be rather melancholy at times.

          Saga of Tanya the evil is about some poor bastard who picks a fight with a god and promptly gets reincarnated as a little girl in WW1 Germany, where they proceed to succeed downwards into a frontline role when they just want to be a rear line officer. Also they commit technically not a warcrimes.

          • @Warl0k3@lemmy.world
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            I see this recommended all the time to people just getting into anime, but I’ve found that if someone doesn’t get anime they really won’t mesh with a hyperviolent and slow paced slice-of-life. I think it’s the same thing as people that insist Akria (or buckaroo banzai) makes sense - once you’re on your 30th rewatch, have the manga and read enough reviews about it, you lose the perspective of someone new discovering it for the first time.

            Said as someone who dismissed anime for years because I figured it was all self indulgent wank like bebop (I love it now, but boy is it not a great intro to the genre)

          • @Alsephina@lemmy.ml
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            06 months ago

            The Tokyo Ghoul anime post-s1 is a rushed mess lol.

            Which is a shame cuz the manga is fucking fantastic

    • @CluelessDude@lemmy.zip
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      26 months ago

      I feel it’s same way with people that enjoy series for example, different strokes for different folks, I grew with dbz it was huge where I lived to the point kids would skip classes to watch it, so watching anime grew from that, I don’t enjoy shows like Game of Thrones or things like Family Guy, but there’s others of the same genre that I do watch, again preferences do matter, maybe you won’t enjoy an anime series but maybe you will just a movie something like Redline, Spirited Away…

      What I’m trying to say is don’t feel pressured into liking it, do you.

      • Dr. Coomer
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        26 months ago

        I don’t feel pressured, ive just tried it a few times and could really get what made people like it so much.

    • Ataraxia
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      26 months ago

      Because modern anime has a lot of mass produced trash. It’s no ranma 1/2 or utena or Saint seya or macross, Gundam, cowboy bebop, outlaw star, cat’s eye, lupin iii, etc… there are ton of well produced anime before 2000 that are actually good. Some are confusing messes but at least look amazing. I tried watching bleach and the newer stuff is just so boring and cringey.

      • @Syrc@lemmy.world
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        26 months ago

        I mean… there’s plenty of good stuff post-2000.

        And plenty of stuff pre-2000 sucked, you just didn’t hear about it because only the big hits got imported.

    • @Grass@sh.itjust.works
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      -76 months ago

      You probably aren’t autistic enough. The way anime is directed, and more often then not the main content tend to be quite autistic. I especially always found romance in anime to make no sense, but after seeing autistic people in my social circle get into relationships it was almost identical to what I was struggling to understand. The cast of cutesy characters in anime of that sort almost always have a few characters that are autistic. Key for example had a semi non verbal girl in one of their works, and the recurring chuunibyou has gotten a “holy shit that character is me as a kid” from a few people with Asperger’s that I know.

      • @Riven@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        56 months ago

        They hated you because you spoke the truth lul.

        No but seriously, besides your use of those terms you’re not wrong. The characters in a lot of anime don’t act like regular people (I get it they’re in non realistic situations). Especially in romance, it’s one of my pet peeves actually. You helped this girl up from a fall/defended her once/said something nice about her/is your childhood friend once, whan yall were kids and now she’s in love with you and wants to marry you forever. It all stems from the nature and target audience of anime, they’re aimed at kids/teens mostly and have to be relatively simple and they have to repeat key info relatively often which makes them seem autistic sometimes. I’m not saying all anime is like this, just most of them plus I’ve noticed it’s been getting better and better since I graduated high-school a decade ago.