Forum - View topicAnswerman - How Do You Keep Up With So Much Anime?
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Zin5ki
 Posts: 6680 Location: London, UK |
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Gold coins to a cat, as they say. If only it were possible for individuals to temporarily swap streaming services across regions while remaining legally kosher, much like how guest passes can be issued using Crunchyroll. That way, those with no interest in current offerings would at least be able to pass their access to a more enthused third party. A pipe dream, of course. |
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pluvia33
 Posts: 194 Location: Dayton, OH, USA |
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My main recommendation would be to change your mindset and don't be afraid to drop or put things on hold (more or less indefinitely). Maybe if you feel less nailed down and committed to what you watch, you might be able to have more fun with it again. Explore a bunch of different shows. Watch the first one or two episodes of series and then feel free to drop whatever you're not enjoying. Shake things up with different forms of anime like weird short films or really old vintage stuff or even watch some really "bad" stuff for fun. It can be hard to get out of a funk, but good luck to you. |
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CheezcakeMe
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Every season my husband and I load up on pizza and booze and marathon the first episode of everything over about a week. (We don't consume pizza and booze the whole week I swear!) Then we discuss what seems good enough to keep watching. Some seasons it's ten shows, sometimes just one.
You don't have to watch every show, if you hate certain genres like moe or Mecha they're pretty easy to pick out and push to the side. I also keep an ear to the ground for shows that might've had a weak start but improved with time. Usuallylly through ANN. And it makes for a fun celebration every 3 months. |
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Dr.N0
Posts: 149 |
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Blackiris_
 Posts: 535 |
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Experience has taught me that it my pre-impressions or first impressions are almost always right. I almost never read story descriptions, they mean nothing because tons of good shows sound boring on paper, and tons of interesting ideas turn out to be garbage. The execution means everything.
So I usually try to consider the production circumstances more than the story concept. Manga and Light Novel adaptions almost always tend to cover only part of the story because the source material is still ongoing, and light novel adaptions almost always bore me with very few exceptions because they tend to be extremely generic, and even the more memorables ones tend to fall back on lame, overused tropes and the typical otaku fare. Never trust the hype if you don't share the mainstream taste. I care a lot about aesthetics. Works that look unusual or different from the usual anime fare, like Ping Pong or Mob Psycho 100, are more likely to pique my interest. They are also much more likely to be different from the norm in terms of presentation and storytelling quality. It's not so hard once you have figured out what you're looking for in an anime. My problem is that I tend to feel I have to keep up with all the works that remotely interest me although I could use that time much better to watch some older works that I know are much better than the average season anime. That's why I sometimes get burned out, so I tend to focus only on the works I really like nowadays. |
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SaitoHajime101
 Posts: 281 |
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I'm a married, full-time working guy. Here's my piece of advice, don't worry about what others say and worry about the need to keep up with each season, let alone watching whats popular. I personally use anime as a stress reliever; I don't watch it with the intent of critiquing it in any way. I enjoy shows for what they are, good or bad. There are very few shows I've dropped, and most of the time it's because I didn't have the time to watch them at that point and just never gone back to them.
If you're in my shoes, that's the biggest advice I can give. Use it as a stress reliever, not something you have to do almost religiously. When you turn it into that, it becomes less of a stress reliever and more of a part time job. 
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mangamuscle
Posts: 2658 Location: Mexico |
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It is easy as A,B,C:
1. Read the coming season anime chart, I use: http://livechart.me/ 2. Wait until fansubdb uploads a torrent with most of the previews of the new series of the season. I get a feel of all the series in one go (instead of hunting for dozens of sites to upload their preview), because some series sound like crap in paper but look glorious and viceversa. 3. Drop anything that crosses the line. I am pretty forgiving, but once a series does something I know I dislike, bang, zoom, to the moon!
I will disagree, the industry will simply stop overexerting itself and reduce by about 10% the amount of broadcast minutes of animation, which is still a water hose level of new material. |
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Rederoin
 Posts: 1427 Location: Europa |
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I just watch the episodes the day they come out, and drop a show once I dont feel like watching it.
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#862175
Posts: 2 |
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Speaking personally...
I try to watch the first episode of EVERYTHING. It broadens the palette to experience things you'd normally avoid... and sometimes you end up watching something you'd never expected to. I'm also about a year behind. This doesn't bother me. Everything else will follow from that, really. You won't be short of stuff. Some things will grab you immediately. If you feel like you're getting jaded, take a break (or perhaps watch the first episode of something you're sure you'll hate). Personally I also put reviews of everything I watch on my website (currently 84 for 2014 and 65 for 2015), which makes me think about what I've watched and acts as a diary. |
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zrnzle500
 Posts: 3767 |
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I watch around 30 new series every season, not because I feel I need to but more I have the time and interest. I'll try to avoid repeating the advice of others so I'll add when looking at shows in genres or with premises that interest you, I like to look at the director and series composition's prior works to get an idea of what you can expect in terms of execution and style. You can get some surprisingly good shows from lightly resumed directors (Re:Zero) and flawed works from ones you respect (Erased unfortunately) but I find it a useful method. It especially helps with tempering one's expectations which I will third(?). After finishing One Piece and Detective Conan I have been having some trouble with finding backlog titles but since Funi and CR are getting together, I might just do a deep dive into Funi's catalog so I can drop the subscription (I don't really do dubs).
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Suena
Posts: 289 |
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I say stick with the genres you prefer, and avoid the ones you don't. Cute idol girls? Gunfight action? Slow burn mystery?
If it's hard for you to identify at a glance which type an anime is, there are lots of people who will be happy to write up a list of recs. Once you've exhausted your favorite genres, or when you're ready for something else, then the top-rated series on MAL is a good place to look (it tends to change at the beginning of each season, so you can see which ones people are excited about). I usually pick about 20 interesting-looking series to watch before the season starts, but I usually only end up following 10-15 seriously. Usually 1 or 2 get dropped because they're not quite for me, and the others I never even get around to starting because I don't have the time  But there will always be time later to try them out.
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H. Guderian
Posts: 1255 |
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Keeping up is less important than discussing and enjoying the things you are watching, new or old. No one can keep up, but we can all still contribute to each other's enjoyment.
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Greed1914
 Posts: 4426 |
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As someone who didn't download fansubs, and didn't watch simulcast, but waited for dubs later on, I never got into a pressing need to keep up with everything. Broadcast dubs are still a fun change for me, but I still pick shows largely on genres and premises that seem interesting. I was initially intimidated by trying to keep up with a dozen plus broadcast dubs this season, along with my backlog, but I was able to cut that down quite a bit by skipping shows that weren't in my preferred genres. It isn't foolproof since I've come across shows that I liked despite the genre, but those are rare enough that I am comfortable waiting for reviews of the full season/series.
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Neko-sensei
Posts: 283 |
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Lots of great ideas for choosing shows here, so I'd like to add a note on time:
If you watch too much (as I do), you will feel loads better about yourself if Anime Time is also Exercise Time. I have a light weightlifting routine I can time perfectly to two episodes of anime + one short, for which I queue up shows of which I know I won't be taking any screencaps (this season, things like Cheer Danshi and Days), and an exercise bike that has seen an obscene amount of use thanks to this rule. The only downside here is that if you do this right, you need to buy a new exercise bike about once a year because you've spun the old one into oblivion... (I also highly recommend taking the time to go out and ride your real bike so you can gape in wonder at your own increased abilities.) |
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Black_Kendoka
 Posts: 18 Location: Cincinnati, OH |
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To provide a little context, I've been watching anime since the mid 90s, and that included some popular selections from the 70s and 80s, whenever I was able to get access to them through Sci-Fi, high school anime club, or my uncle's anime collection at the time. Since I have seen so many series over the years, it's a lot easier for me to pick and choose which shows I want to watch since I'm familiar with the genres that interest me and those that don't.
As for keeping up, I don't even bother. I'm sure that it's easier said than done in some circles, but I just don't feel the pressure to keep current with the current season. There are some series that I've been able to follow from week to week, but there are many more that I end up waiting until they are finished before I give the show a few episodes to see if I like them. Being a adult with a lot of things going on really takes out a lot of time to sit and watch anime of such a large capacity. I do sometimes wonder how people keep up with so many shows at once as teenagers... |
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