Forum - View topicCan you get too old for anime?
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Alan45
 Village Elder Posts: 9840 Location: Virginia |
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@t-Roy
Well, if it doesn't work for you, it doesn't. I have no problem keeping up with the threads I'm interested in. When I come to the forum, each sub forum shows which threads have been posted in since I was last there. If I didn't open any of them it doesn't take more than a couple of minutes to review. Of course, I don't mess with other forums. |
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A Mystery
 Posts: 1886 Location: Netherlands |
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I'm surprised this thread is still alive! I mean, when Alan popped up and 'revealed' his age, this question was clearly answered. No. You're never too old to enjoy anime.
If someone showed up and told us his 80 year old grandfather fainted from watching anime, THEN I'd reconsider my answer. |
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yuna49
 Posts: 3804 |
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I've dealt with the problem of following this forum by adding a bookmark to the "Search for New Posts" link: animenewsnetwork.com/bbs/phpBB2/search.php?search_id=newposts. At least then I see new content in one place. However the phpBB software has a problem keeping track of my last visit. If I accidentally go off the list of threads, re-running the search will typically say I have no new posts to read. Then I'm forced to open the Anime and Talkback subforums separately to read what is missing.
I'd love to see ANN adopt vBulletin or some other forum software that supports things like thread subscriptions. I doubt that will ever happen though. The supposed upgrade to the current forum has been mooted for a few years now but has never been implemented. |
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String Chess
Posts: 5 |
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This seems like the wrong place to be asking that.
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Jose Cruz
 Posts: 1773 Location: South America |
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Animation is a medium. Like literature, music and film, it has no age. Though the type of animation one enjoys changes with age. When I was 5-6 I liked Disney's movies, now they do not attract me anymore, they feel rather "retarded". Now the type of anime I enjoy the most are seinen series, well, since I am 26, it's the type of series that aim at my demography. There are few anime titles aimed at older demographics (like, over 40). But, with the aging of the otaku population, the target age of animation made in Japan will tend to get older! So I expect to always have substantial animation to watch that I find interesting until I am 90.
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Jose Cruz
Posts: 1773 Location: South America |
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Indeed. Anime has a coolness factor in it. It's an extremely aggressive medium in the sense that anime series like Hidamari Sketch (for an extreme example) are characterized by extremely amplified aesthetic elements: colors are super bright, contrasts is enormous, character features are all super distorted and amplified. After I watched a huge volume of anime, mainstream American TV series like Game of Thrones, appear to be so "tame" and uninteresting, so conventional in their aesthetics. In Japan, though, as Miyazaki said, manga is the dominant visual language of Japanese mainstream culture. As a result these visual characteristics that we deem so innovative and "fresh" if compared to mainstream western stuff, may appear conventional and hence less interesting from that perspective. |
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Jose Cruz
Posts: 1773 Location: South America |
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While it's true most cute girls doing cute girls are shallow stuff some of the stuff associated with moe is really great. For example, Madoka has super kawaii but it's an artistic masterpiece, it's from the same writer as Psycho Pass by the way. By the way I am 26, quite young compared to some people here, but I might say that I became a hardcore fan of the medium after I turned 23, while I started watching anime when I was 5, it was only when I was 23 that I was bored of conventional hollywood films and I decided to try something different, so I watched Spirited Away and became hooked on the medium quickly as I finished watching all Miyazaki's filmmography. |
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Jose Cruz
Posts: 1773 Location: South America |
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Well, if you follows the evolution of otaku targered anime, in the late 1980's and 1990's it mostly consisted of stuff featuring sex and violence. Stuff like this: 
Clearly aimed directly at the 16-25 old male demographic. Now if you look at the pattern, Otaku anime such as K-On actually appears to be targeted at older adult males, the mid 30's guys who desire to have kids. Moe anime is a way to for these childless people to fulfill their desire for having cute kids at home. So, as the otaku population ages, so the target audience of otaku anime ages as well. Therefore, I expect that the quantity of anime aimed at middle aged adults to increase significantly over the following years as the target audience of these titles ages as well.[/img] |
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katanafiend
 Posts: 4 |
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No,never. Death is not an excuse either!
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yuna49
Posts: 3804 |
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You'd think so, but I don't see the actual output of anime series to be following demographic trends. The proportion of teens and young adults in the Japanese population has been on the decline for a least a decade or two. On the other hand, as a somewhat more than casual observer of anime productions, it seems to me that the number of shows featuring adult casts fell precipitously after the recession hit and has not really recovered. I've wondered about this dichotomy for a while now. Perhaps it's because the target market for anime merchandise of all sorts is just so highly concentrated in the 16-25 demographic that production committees don't see much value in pursuing older viewers. Perhaps it's because anime is one of those things Japanese (and other) people outgrow as they become more involved in the adult world. I keep expecting to see an upsurge in productions aimed at older viewers, but they still remain a rare breed. |
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Touma
 Posts: 2651 Location: Colorado, USA |
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^
I do not know anything about the intentions of the people in the anime industry. I just want to say that "featuring adult casts" and "aimed at adult viewers" are not the same thing. I am an adult viewer, a very adult viewer, and I do not want to see shows about characters like me. I want to watch attractive, young people. Not ugly old men, like me. As far as I am concerned shows such as K-On! and Hidamari Sketch are aimed at me, even though their casts are most definitely not adults. I do believe that shows that are about adults are aimed at adults, but that does not mean that shows that are not about adults are not aimed at adults. I think that the number of shows with adult casts is not really significant in this context. |
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Errinundra
Moderator
 Posts: 6525 Location: Melbourne, Oz |
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I'm with yuna49 on this. The number of shows with an adult sensibility, while never large, seemed to have dried up since the crash. Sure, there are some anime with adult characters, eg Fate / Zero, but they seem to targetted to the demographic that yuna49 mentions.
In contrast, you can have shows about school children, but done with an adult eye. A recent example could be Flowers of Evil, which I think is part of the reason why its forensic critique of its adolescent characters was loathed by so much of the anime audience. Anyway, there are still enough shows made for the 16-25 demographic that are interesting enough to watch and the occasional show for an older audience. We must be grateful for the crumbs falling our way.
I half agree with this. Rin Kaga is the six year old daughter I wish I'd had, while Ohana Matsumae is the sixteen year old daughter I wish I'd had. On the other hand, Rin Tohsaka is the girlfriend I wish I had when I was sixteen and Mireille Bouquet the girlfriend I had when I was twenty six (bullets and all). The girls from K-On! don't cut it either way. (By the way, Jose Cruz, see how I had responded to multiple posts in one post. You should do the same.) |
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yuna49
Posts: 3804 |
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Obviously I watch shows with attractive young people, or I wouldn't have anything to watch. Still there have been shows like Bartender with a cast of older adults whose stories resonate more with me than shows about the travails of kids in high school. Every so often we get a gem like Hyouge Mono, but they remain few and far between. |
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mdo7
 Posts: 6253 Location: Katy, Texas, USA |
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For me, I'm never too old to watch anime. I can watch any new anime coming out these day. So it depend on a person perspective if they think they're too old to watch anime.
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Jose Cruz
Posts: 1773 Location: South America |
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Of course, Madoka is obviously not aimed at 14 year old girls. It's an adult show aimed at adult viewers. That doesn't mean 50 year old, but mostly in the 20 to 40 year old range. Tough Kazuo Koike loved it and he is 80. But Koike likes violence and brutality as found in Madoka but which are regarded as juvenile aesthetic elements.
Well, I don't know your age but the average age of people who purchase merchandise characterized as "moe" are males in their mid 30's. Older than typical anime fans.
Not at all. Stuff like: K-On, Strike Witches, Kill Me Baby, Yuyushiki and Hidamari Sketch are seinen manga, hence, targeted at adult audiences from ages 20 and up. While the characters are clearly not mature people they act in a way to please the "cuteness" receptors of adult viewers. I believe moe shows are a mechanism through Japanese society deals with the lack of children. If you plot number of moe shows and proportion of children in the population they are certainly inverse trends. Of course, stuff like Ghost in the Shell, Ping Pong the Animation, Monster, Honey and Clover, is obviously adult with associated manga targeted at strict adult audiences as well. I noticed that as a 26 year old male most of my favorites are classified as seinen manga. Either as obviously adult stuff or moe stuff. Stuff made for my demographic group.
Define "adult sensibility", the sensibility of a 21 year old or your 56 year old sensibility?
Fate Zero magan's is seinen. Hence it's not aimed at teenagers. I think it's aimed at males in their 20's.
Well, from the shows I know I have the impression that anime is currently: 10-15% - Kiddie shows (under 14 year olds) 40-50% - Teenager shows (between 15-19), though older Otaku that keep the market strong 30-40% - Seinen and Josei shows (aimed at ages between 20 and 50, note that in Japan you are considered minor until you are 20). Now, there is a huge difference in sensibilities between a 21 year old and a 47 year old. Shows like Fate Zero are seinen but target the 21 year old, shows like Monster, also seinen, target the "mature" adult audience. The manga where monster was published has 82% of it's readers over the age of 30 (thus it's average age of it's readers is probably around ca. 45). The top selling seinen manga magazine cover looks like this: 
Ghost in the Shell and Akira were published in this magazine. Aggressive testosterone driven stuff clearly aimed at the young male adult public. However, looking at the 3rd highest selling manga magazine, where Monster was published and whose readers are over the age of 30, 82% of the time, cover looks like this: 
Among anime films there are films like Porco Rosso (aimed at tired middle aged men, according to Miyazaki), and films like Ghost in the Shell (more 25 year old adult type). I think you are confusing middle aged sensibilities and "adult" sensibilities. Though I agree that a very small number of anime directly targets the particular sensibilities of adults over the age of 40. Which appears to be your definition of "adult sensibility".
K-On is adult oriented show, not made for teenagers, the manga is seinen by the way. I think it's public is mostly people in their 30's because I read that data on the demographics of the people who purchase moe merchandise shows they are males in their 30's. While as a 26 year old I know that a show such as Kill me Baby is targeted directly at my sensibilities. Indeed, I knew the manga was seinen. It's muscular aggressive humor is the type that appeals to males in their 20's and 30's. Though I agree with you that very few manga/anime is made directly for those over 40 which are more than half of Japan's population now.
Ok. |
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