So you want to give Anime a try?

Hello, everyone. It’s been awhile, hasn’t it? At first I wanted to just let this blog die off but recently I’ve decided to bring this back after a successful project on Twitter.

But anyways, there’s a lot of stuff happening between my gushing review of Stand By Me Doraemon and today. Too many to count but highlights include folks being stuck indoors because of a pandemic. So you’re stuck indoors and a lot of time on your hands...what to do? Well, you finally decide to take the anime plunge but where to start? Good news, I’m here to help with that with a few pointers that might help you take the plunge. Welcome to the wonderful world of anime, folks.

First things first, I’m gonna say that anime is not for everyone. Like every other hobby, it’s like a club, open to everyone but not everyone’s gonna be in so if you are really curious and want to know more, follow on through. But if you’re there just because it’s fashionable, I suggest you to re-think taking the plunge and do something you really enjoy. The hype bandwagon is a fleeting one and last thing you want is to be neck deep in something you really don’t want but you did because it’s “the in thing”.

Especially when you're neck deep in a Shonen series that usually run 50+ episodes

Number two, this is a veritable time-intensive hobby. Well, every hobby is but you have to make time for this regardless if you’re doing it casually or seriously. Don’t go “but I have no time for this”...if you like something, you make time for it. Maybe set aside an hour or two on the weekends or something, just set aside some time if you can. Proper time management and all that stuff

Number three, reviews are not gospel and ratings on a website doesn’t necessarily denote its quality. Sure, it might help for you to make a choice for your first step in what show to watch BUT you have to keep in mind that reviewers are people too, so as much as they can say their reviews are objective, their biases do get in the way of things. Maybe there’s a character they don’t like or a trope they don’t agree with or they are a huge fan of the series that they’re willing to overlook the flaws. As for the latter, well, the rating websites are quite partial to more of the mainstream and what’s popular right now but it doesn’t actually denote their quality, it just means that more folks are watching that (or possibly manipulating the score. Possibly.). So your best bet is to form your own opinion on things by well, experiencing it yourself. Maybe the critics aren’t right, that show or OVA they say is trash is actually pretty good, right? You’ll never know if you don’t try it yourself (but if you have to suffer, suffer with friends.)

For instance, MD Geist has been known to older crowd to be the quintessential bad anime...when it's really not.

 

And on the flipside, an overrated series but people insist it's the greatest thing ever since sliced bread.

 

Number four, at the end of the day, animes are made for the Japanese audience and market so the ones making it are gonna take that into account. Not saying the audience outside of Japan isn’t important BUT their priority will always be “Japanese audience first, everyone else second” so the shows are gonna play into Japanese sensibilities first and foremost. So keep that in mind....but also keep in mind that anime overall doesn’t reflect the views of the Japanese people as a whole. That’ll be like me basing my opinion towards say....the USA from 80’s B-tier action movies or something. So before jumping at shadows over something portrayed in an anime, keep a cool head. Remember, never attribute malice to what could be attributed to misunderstanding or the rule of funny

 

Number Five, don’t just form an opinion about the whole genre or the whole medium in general based on one show or one out of context clip or picture...or a meme. This is a major pitfall anyone can fall into every time and some folks who think they know it all from one show or meme or one read through on websites and they think they get to dictate what’s good for the whole genre or medium. Not exactly true as most times, the stuff they asked already exists, just that they don’t look hard enough. Not a problem but always remember, research is your friend and you don’t have any excuses this time since information is literally at your finger tips. So what are you waiting for? For them to jack the Internet directly into your brain?

Pictured here: A character that got dragged through the mud because of memes and bad jokes

 

 I hope these are sound advice for your sojourn into the wonderful world of anime. If you have any inquiries, please ask them below and I'll answer it down there or I'll bring it up next entry. And always remember, have fun, OK?