Forum - View topicCan you get too old for anime?
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ShadowTrader
 Posts: 231 Location: NJ |
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@quoththeraven
I refer you to a similar thread started by me years ago, How Old Is Too Old To Still Be Watching Anime?, only because it was discussed for 18 pages and you might find some sort of answer to your questions there. Of course it was focused more on the industry tailoring the medium to the ever aging anime fan in order to slow or regress what you call the "fated process," but it might help none the less. [/url] |
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Garo7
Posts: 3 |
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Well, for one thing, there can be a few problems lurking for the aged (and in-particular, the ancient) anime lover:
#1 My sister told me I would probably get fired if I colored my hair, I think that's number one. I told her, look, silver-gray only looks good when you are like 20, really hot, and it's been dyed, ok?! You know, like the captain in Full Metal Panic...?! I mean, my stylist thinks it would be cool on me... I am just talking a little darker here, you know some black maybe, and some like real tasteful purple-bluish highlights, you know? No she says, you'd get fired for sure. Ugh... ARGH!!!! #2 No one my age gets-it, that I know of anyway, hell, my sister's kids don't even get it, and the oldest one is like 16. They just look at you all weird, and then at each other and one of them says, "He's into An-i-meee..." and they exchange looks and roll their eyes or something and giggle. Geeez... People like think you are looped or something, and oh well maybe I am... because Kira Yamato and Lacus Clyne, Athrun Zala, Cagalli Yula Athha or Spike Spiegel are FAR more real to me than whatever current pop-idol or famous star happens to be in the public eye this month, or year. Argh... #3 All the people that understand-it are really young, which only serves to further isolate you by making you feel even older, and even more out of synch and weirder in the grand scheme of things. I mean, at a real cool place or cosplay function, you'd be like the only old bastard there all dressed-up and like some mascot or something, and they would laugh at you too, right?! LOL #4 I mean, I suppose if you are married, or have a significant other, and they understand (even if they don't quite get-it or like it) and they tolerate it then you are fine, but try being say over 50, single, and an anime lover. Good luck - you'll fill your house with the most incredible and beautiful collection of rare anime art and figures and statues, brilliant portraits, and glass display cases, and be afraid to let anyone see it... you'll realize one day that even though the only person in the world with a cooler pad than yours is like the president of marketing at Gainax or Bandai, you aren't him! Which basically makes you, what...? Oh wait... they have a term for it, what was it? Oh, yeah, it's called ALONE. LOL #5 Oh, and this is a really good one: Because so many of the characters are 'underage' and yet way sexier than anyone you know in real life, well... of course... yes, you are a pervert too. lol #6 When I was really young, in grade school, I wanted to somehow get bitten by a radioactive spider, but not die, like really bad, so I could be Spiderman. But now...? After watching Cowboy Bebop all the way through, and crying over Lynn's death, I want to be like 25 years old, really skinny and Japanese, with really long black/green hair, and live on a spaceship. It's a problem, ya dig? Well, I hope some of you get my point... if not then at least hope that ya got a good laugh. - Garo 
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nobahn
 Subscriber Posts: 5120 |
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Garo7--
I would like to take this opportunity to welcome you to the fora!   
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Garo7
Posts: 3 |
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Thank you, nbahn... most kind of you.
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bonbonsrus
 Posts: 1537 Location: Michigan, USA |
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Awww, so encouraging to see many older fans here. I knew there were quite a few here, but my memory being what it is, I forget who is in the club with me! hehehe
I am apparently the same age as Petrified Jello (over 40.) Of course, I am not in the industry in any way. I didn't even come to really know what anime was until I was over 25 or so I guess. Growing up I always loved cartoons and that hasn't changed. it's simply expanded exponentially. I can't see my love of anime diminishing as I continue to grow older. I recognize that even though many here are in the older age demographic responding to this thread, I DO acknowledge that it does seem to appeal more to younger viewers. I personally don't know others close in age to me that will watch it, let alone like it. I have met a few younger fans, but it's hard for me to talk to a 20 something guy about anime. My daughter just jokingly said to me today that she thought I'd go through withdrawals without watching anime though. I laughed and asked her what that would like like, 'the shakes' or what? and She said, "for you, yeah, I think it would." My children will watch sometimes with me, but my interest did not develop from them, and they on their own don't seem to have the same love that I do for it. I seriously doubt they'd bother watching it without me. |
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ShinnFlowen
 Posts: 141 |
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I believe Money, Social groups, and Time restraints are all responsible for anime fans giving up on their hobby. I'm sure everyone understands how time and money would restrict ones ability to watch anime, but the social factor is the one that limits the importance of anime. Whether it be family, work, or friends it is hard to relate or communicate with these groups when watching a niche show so it is inevitable that one would be put with a dilema to stop watching anime or not.
I hope in my future that the friends we have that watch anime still exists so were are not alone in our enjoyment of the hobby. |
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Garo7
Posts: 3 |
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There is something different about the anime format, the Japanese anime format... something quite unique, and something very special.
I think it's about art. In that sense, art being drama, fiction, art, music, beauty... all art is useless in a practical sense externally and priceless in an artistic and real sense internally, as it really is for one thing: To bring a greater meaning to people's lives. Perhaps not everyone is ready for this type of message, the one that art brings us, inside. Not ready to dream, not ready to feel, not ready to let go of what is around them, to let something else in, something other than the things that life fills us with by nature of our very existence here in this world, at this time in history. Time, schedules, duties, career, peer pressures, expectations both from others outside, and even those we generate from within... it takes real courage to turn away from those and believe in something intangible, something seemingly silly, something that not many really understand. It is something requiring faith, but in that, we aren't believing in Jesus, or a God of some type, or some worthwhile power or force to come and save the world and all the lost and hurting souls in it. Rather, it is just belief in a an imaginary character, or imaginary world or place, something worthwhile for us, something to save OUR own soul... just the one... that part of it that might otherwise get lost to all that other stuff, all those other things that tell us what and who to be, how to think, and how and what to feel. It is a seeking of the ultimate freedom, and that is why it burns so strongly in some... it is a cerebral journey, and no one who has not been there to that magical place, that place inside that it takes us to, can ever truly understand it. I speak of the art of fiction, of storytelling, of grand and epic legend... and I feel that anime in it best form is among the best and strongest of this. The art form of anime, I believe, brings three things - three forms of art - together, and in a very special way. Music, drama, and imagery, or 'still-art' for lack of a better term. In that sense, it is like a reading a book in that it is 2-diemsional and therefore it requires the use of the mind and ones imagination to fill in the gaps. This makes-it unique, and powerful in a very special way I believe. We bring with us much of what we find there I feel... and it allows us that ability to find-it there. Perhaps none of this makes sense... but I am simply trying to understand what it is about this format that is so powerful for me, and for others. And while it is true that it is unique in many ways, I feel yet there is something more about it, something more basic to, and in the nature of it, that lends itself to conveying a most powerful experience of self-realization. In this way, it is truly precious among the art forms created by man through the ages, and will always be so. For those who have the time and patience to go there, to take that journey, to really see and understand what it has to offer, and where it can lead you, and take you. I will always be grateful to those who create-it... and grateful that I am here to witness it... to feel it... and to know it. And that my friends is what fiction, and in particular Anime means to me. Yes, my friends, I do agree... may there always be more than one of us. Yes indeed... - Selah |
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EricJ
 Posts: 876 |
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The moment I hear "Am I too old for (name popular trend)?" I immediately picture someone shallowly in search of his own identity by the people he sees around him--
Or, as C.S. Lewis is so net-quoted for writing, "When I became an adult, I gave up childish things...Like wanting to look 'grown-up', and the fear of looking 'childish'"
He further added, "Am I supposed to hate ice cream just because children like it?" I've heard of people literally terrified of going to a Pixar film by themselves--PIXAR, no less--because they genuinely believe a "family film" marker means the theater will be rented out for an entire birthday party of kids, like the trailer for Oogieloves' Balloon Adventure. Leaving aside the rather openly bigoted subtexts, I can personally vouch that no such experience has ever happened to me going to a Disney, Pixar, or other such film I should by all logic consider "beneath" my mature station in life, and I suffered no loss of dignity for going to Toy Story 3 by myself. If you worried you might, your loss, but you might want to get a crowbar and open that mind before you wait to rent the disk in secret with the blinds down, lest your neighbors shun you for your true-confessions. It's particularly true of anime, where the best shows celebrate the fact that even the "coolest" looking main character can still have goofy, eccentric, occasionally embarrassing feet of clay...If they can live with it, so can you? Who better to understand the glories of self-deprecating geekdom than an anime fan?
(Ironically, it's the Japanese who live most in fear of being identified as an "anime watcher" beyond the age of 16--and thus being labeled a "loser", "pervert" or "creepy pedophile"--with the same terror males have of eating any dessert that might be even remotely enjoyed by girls. Me, I live in the good ol' US of A, with our freedom of the pursuit of happiness; bring on the Macross and the Ben & Jerry's.  )
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Bugnin
Posts: 575 |
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This is a touchy subject with me as well. I got into anime in my late teens, so my fandom peaked in my early 20's. From 2002 to 2011 (age 20-29), I attended every Otakon, despite living in three different parts of the country over that time. It was my summer ritual. In 2004 I came into a windfall of cash and actually made it to Anime Expo in Anahiem, CA.
Last summer...I didn't go. Not that I didn't feel like any less of a fan, but for the first time, real life was pulling me and my old otakon buddies in different directions, and it seemed like we all had moved on. I don't think you can get too old for anime, but the way you experience it certainly changes as you get older. Every year you gain more and more responsibilities, and you have less and less time. I'm sure the older folks in this thread will have a good laugh at a guy starting to feel his age at 30, but it's hard not to notice that every summer at Otakon, you're a year older and the rest of the crowd seems to stay the same age. |
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Alan45
 Village Elder Posts: 9867 Location: Virginia |
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@ Bugnin
You need to ask yourself if your primary focus and enjoyment was anime or the fandom surrounding it. The convention crowd is certainly part of anime, but it is hardly the only part. It is possible to enjoy anime and manga without ever going to a convention. A lot of people have commented on the everlasting youth of convention participants and you can certainly age out of that. That doesn't mean you have to leave anime. Right here on ANN is a great refuge from the convention crowd. For the record I was 52 when I discovered anime and have been at it for 15 years with no end in sight. For obvious reasons I have not attended local clubs or nearby conventions. My fandom is online, mostly here. It is interesting how this question pops up every couple of years. |
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Bugnin
Posts: 575 |
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Oh, as I said in my previous post, I don't think you can be too old to enjoy anime.
The convention scene was something I always enjoyed, but I'm never going to just give up anime because I gave up conventions. That's just one part of the fandom. |
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dragoneyes001
 Posts: 873 |
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I'm older than you and still watch anime. sure there are some series I'm unlikely to watch because of the nature of the content being too young or simplistic. yet anime has what many cartoons in the west lack. some credibility as well as adult themes. if the series is good what age you are has no relevance of if you'll enjoy it or not. |
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EricDent
 Posts: 997 Location: Georgetown, TX |
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Currently 41 here, still love anime!
Though to be fair with work I don't watch as much as I used to. I personally know a married couple in their late 40s who have a daughter. They go to conventions, watch anime, and play Pokemon TCG. In fact the woman of the pair, made (or still makes) the fan-guide to Sakura-con every year. Their daughter also was on Monica Rial's Facebook/Twitter as well (she is very cute). Some of you guys/gals know who I am talking about. At an UT Anime Club meeting I saw somebody who had to be in their 60s. I think one of the reasons that so many people stop watching anime is the "stigma" that all animation is for kids. They feel the peer pressure to quit. I also know somebody in their late 50s who is still into comic books, and other cool things. He is a microbiologist at a hospital. |
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Jon182
Posts: 105 |
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When all is said and done, anime is just a hobby, not a way of life. People grow out of hobbies all the time. I agree with Eric, one of the main problems is how worried you are about the perception of others. To a large extent, it doesn't matter what others think about your hobby, but what you believe does.
On the other hand, not wanting to grow up, or take responsibility can be a problem...that is completely unrelated to anime. People should realize that their dreams of piloting a Gundam, or marrying an anime character are never going to be realized. Sorry! I try to enjoy anime for what it is. I also try to expand my horizons so I can enjoy anime more. I read books about Japanese culture and history for example. I'm also reading books about Japanese martial arts and mythology, because that interests me at the moment. That's just one way that I try to keep my interest alive. Other people may approach this differently. P.S. Sorry if there are any grammatical/spelling errors in this post. I think that writing on-line gives one a certain amount of leeway with regards to grammar. Teachers can be a bit too pedantic at times. |
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Exaar
 Posts: 279 Location: Delaware |
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Just want to chime in here - I'm not old (turning 30 next month), but I'm certainly older than a large sector of the anime fanbase. Every time I glance at the forums over at Crunchyroll the top posts are all about 'cant watch anime cause of homework' or 'parents wont let me wear anime shirt to school' and boy do I feel like the old guy then.
That said, though, anime doesn't really strike me as something you grow out of. Might as well say 'can you grow out of TV?' Because anime isn't a genre, it's a medium, a type of animation. Because of the fact that anime ranges in subject and tone all across the board, chances are you will always be able to find something you appreciate. Your tastes may change - I know mine sure did. When I first got into anime I was all about shonen action shows like Naruto and Bleach. Nowadays I wouldn't touch those with a 10-foot pole, but I love intense/witty dramas like Steins;Gate or Madoka. There are romantic comedies, space operas, violent fantasies, cutesy school-time stories. It seems like, really, there's almost something for everyone, the real unifying characteristic being the anime aesthetic (or range of aesthetics). And if you enjoy that visual cast, that's really a function of your aesthetic taste and not your age. Some people may lose interest over time, sure, but with the large range of subject matter the medium of anime covers, chances are a fan of any age who enjoys that aesthetic animated look will be able to find at least a few shows every year which appeal to them. |
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