Forum - View topicHave you ever stopped being a fan for a while?
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the Rancorous
 Posts: 2249 Location: Sac, Ca USA |
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I used to post here a lot, years ago, but slowly stopped as my fandom for anime also... kinda slowed and then even stopped for a good while. I remember Demon Slayer and My Hero Academia were the main new things, and I never even finished up Attack on Titan even though I really liked that one. I slowed down on keeping up with each new season until I simply was not following anything new at all. I thought it was just burn-out, but eventually, I just was not seeking out anime anymore.
Now, I've got a teenaged stepdaughter who loves anime, and so I restarted my Crunchyrol sub for her to enjoy, and I decided to try and hop back into anime myself. My interest was also kind of brought back by the live action One Piece as I quite love that adaptation! Honestly, I feel like one of those characters who wakes up after a long cold sleep/exile/whatever: everything is familiar, but very different at the same time! The Funimation brand is no more  , Evangelion is on Netflix with a new Dub, every streaming app has anime in spades, the Negima series' are apparently no longer available, and it was pretty dirty coming onto the ANN site just to see that Haruhi Suzumiya is 20 years old! I remember buying vol 1 at a local FYE when it came out!
Honestly, I feel a bit overwhelmed! And, a bit worried that I might now be "one of those" fans as very few new/newer things I've checked out have really grabbed me. I found myself going back to older stuff I remember liking, and so far, the only new thing that has really been re-awakening my fandom has been Dan Da Dan, I've been loving that crazy show and the way season 2 ended, I hope there will be more. But, I'm not trying to make this a recommendation topic, I'm more curious in hearing other experiences from long time fans as well as maybe discussing what more I have missed (new trends, industry-shifts, etc.). I know I'm never going to get back into keeping up with everything, but I hope to at least get back into being an actual fan if possible. |
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Tony K.
 SubscriberModerator  Posts: 12058 Location: Frisco, TX |
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I had a couple of hiatuses, from like, '07-'09, and maybe '18-'22.
The first hiatus was definitely burnout. I think I watched a bunch of 52+ episode series and just got really busy with life and decided to take a break. The second hiatus wasn't even burnout, but yet another busy life thing. I'm not sure if the fandom every really disappears. If you like the medium for what it is, then you're pretty much a fan for life. I've seen people claim they "used to like anime, but then fell out of it" and I think to myself, they probably never even scratched the surface if all they ever watched was Dragon Ball Z and nothing else. That's like saying, "I ate a cheeseburger a few times, but I don't really eat food, now." Gimme a break with that casual attitude. |
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Blood-
 Bargain Hunter Posts: 25599 |
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I date my anime fandom from January 2009 and from then until now I've never really stopped being a fan. In fact, for most of that time, my anime consumption has remained pretty steady and high. Generally 100+ anime TV series per year with OVAs and movies thrown in.
The only thing that is sort of new is that when it comes to currently running shows, I'm a bit feast or famine. Like in the Winter, I was following 30-ish currently running shows. This season I'm at six. However, I don't see that as a lessening in my anime fandom as much as I do that some seasons just happen to have more or less titles that attract me. I guess maybe one way my fandom has diminished is that I'm less tolerant of sticking with a title that isn't doing it for me these days. |
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EmbraceMe
 Posts: 2021 Location: Growing old and jaded. |
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I [jokingly] call this the "retirement phase" which I've been in since maybe 2019/2020-ish to current. Like others say, I'm still a fan of the medium but just not consuming as much as I previously have. That means not watching simulcasts anymore or really watching anything some years. Occasionally, something will pique my interest and I'll give it a watch. I recall a thread about watching less anime and I went into my reasons there. The short of it being there's too-much-isekai, switching to manga as an easier/faster medium to consume slop, and maybe becoming pickier. I still sort of actively follow the news cycle hence why I'm still here though more of a lurker role.
I think this is where I feel very disconnected from the anime fandom now. Anime has also become very mainstream with how available it is. I recall the past days where you had to dig for stuff as not every show was licensed or translated. Also the days where people mocked you for watching anime. Now, that's not really happening (which is a good thing!) but, anecdotally, everyone who watches anime now calls themself an anime fan. Most fans I've seen (in real life, Reddit, etc.) really only talk about current things and, 80% of that time, it is shonen titles like JJK, Demon Slayer, One Piece, etc. Many times, the people talking about those series say it's the best thing ever which makes me feel disconnected from them. I understand there are different levels of fandoms (casual and deep) and I shouldn't gatekeep as sharing hobbies is a nice thing but... Can you really call yourself a fan if you've barely scratch the surface of something? Maybe I have too much of an elitist mindset of what it means to be a fan of something. Fandom also probably means different things for different people, too. (I also don't want to devolve this thread into the semantics of fandom). |
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asg.d.law123
Posts: 2 |
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Same. Watching 100+ shows each year but sometimes, pick a single show so long I just have to cut everything else.
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Tony K.
Subscriber Moderator Posts: 12058 Location: Frisco, TX |
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That's a big one. Anime availability is way more widespread these days. 20 years ago, streaming wasn't even a thing, and we'd have hunt for fansubs. Now, you basically just go to Crunchyroll for like, 85% of the market share of anime. But then Netflix, Hulu, Tubi, and YouTube even have a bunch. It's actually a bit ridiculous in comparison the way streaming has restructured what you can find on the Internet, now.
I would say it's less about the what someone watches, and more about the how/why they do. I'm 42 and have a friend at work who is 26. He's a fairly big fan of shounen, especially One Piece, which I've yet to experience myself. But he also thinks Attack on Titan and Frieren are among the greatest titles to ever exist. His reasoning for the latter two is about how they handle their subject matter and are also deftly cerebral and epic in their own ways. Even if a person hasn't seen a lot (which he actually has), I would still be impressed if a person who only watches all battle-shounen or all mahou shoujo could still break down their opinions with enough good eloquent reasoning that their fandom supersedes their lesser exposure. Another example (non-anime-related) is a friend of mine who's 37 and loves sci-fi, especially Star Wars, but has never watched Star Trek, other than the Kelvin movies. I know he loves sci-fi from all the other movies we've talked about. But just because he's never watched a Trek series, I wouldn't say he's not a sci-fi fan. He gives pretty good reasoning for everything else sci-fi we talk about (one of his top-10 films is Pacific Rim, and he also loves a lot of kaiju movies). I would say "depth" (qualitative reasoning) can make up for "depth" (quantity). As long as that kind of creative-brain exists, it's just a matter of giving it more exposure, if that makes sense. |
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Beltane70
 Posts: 4182 |
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I’ve been a steady anime watcher ever since I officially became an anime fan back in the end of 1986 and have never had a time where I stopped watching since then. Anime has been such a big part of my life for the past forty years that I can’t imagine not watching anime. Plus, if we want to get technical, I’ve been watching anime since 1978 if you count the dozen or so anime shows that were dubbed and released on US television back in the 70s and 80s.
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gsilver
Posts: 759 |
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I think that I can personally attribute this to finding friends to watch anime with, like I did around 2011. Once that happened, there was much less of a need to watch anime on my own, so I did greatly reduce the anime that I watched by myself. Not strictly then, because that was at the same time that I started going to the gym for long stretches watching anime on a tablet on the exercise equipment, but once that stopped (combination of losing local gym access as well as overall health declining) I still got out of the habit of watching anime at home, alone. The group I watched anime with slowly dropped out until it was just one or two people who would show up.
Since I moved, I don't have anyone locally to watch anime with, and I'm still not watching much. |
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