This Week in Anime

Running on Empty

Sylvia
Indeed, Coop, we live in strange times. And fandom, in all its many incarnations, needs no additional help being strange. Now, this may come as a surprise to readers, but I did not always consider myself an avid anime fan. Maybe I still wouldn't call myself that! It's not like I popped out of the womb holding a gunpla. My path here was long and circuitous.

True! Maybe someday we will bear witness to the Anointed One. The Kwisatz Haderach of anime nerds. Lisan al-Weeb. But until then, you all are stuck with us.

So you and I are, admittedly, outliers in that we have professional obligations in this space. People like us are not the norm in the greater fandom, and for that, I count myself lucky. I get to write, and people pay me for it. That's wild! But that does come with the pressures and stresses of a job. I can't really say that anime is my "hobby" anymore. It's a living.

As cool as that is, it does come with the drawbacks of a job. It's a lot more difficult for me to watch anything "casually" anymore. I usually feel like I need to keep my finger on my screen capture button, just in case I need to write about the show in the future or have an appropriate accompaniment for an upcoming "This Week in Anime" article. Or I'm watching something and end up distracted by how I'd review it. There's an irrationality to that mindset which I am sometimes able to combat, but that extra bit of mental taxation goes a surprisingly long way.

However, I would also say that our situation is inextricably linked to the internet at large. Across all fandoms, there's been this push in the 21st century to monetize everything. Every hobby is a potential hustle. Everyone has or needs a side gig (or multiple!) thanks to stagnant wages and increased costs of living. People are not encouraged—or allowed—to have fun for the sake of it anymore. And I think that attitude bleeds into the fabric of these spaces, whether or not participants actually have a job related to fandom.

Like, fandom contorts from a refuge into another resource ripe for strip mining. And I don't think that's great!

It's a vicious cycle! I won't ignore a chance to blame capitalism for all of this—and I do blame capitalism for all of this—but it relies on willing participants, and the most willing are those who are going to be the loudest or most neon-colored. Because there's that perverse incentive to be so, because you might financially rely on being the center of attention. To be clear, fandom has never been bereft of people vying for the spotlight for self-absorbed reasons, but the added stresses of capitalist zero-sum competition have definitely made things more exhausting.

On all accounts. I'm just a girl who stumbled into this gig, and I count myself lucky for all the cool connections it has afforded me. I was a guest on the Anime Feminist podcast recently! I felt so flattered to be invited, and I had so much fun doing it. That's the wonderful side of it that pulls me out of the fandom pits.

But I mean, show me the incentives, and I'll show you the outcome. The current attention economy online monetarily rewards the quickest and most reactionary content, so there's a real race to the bottom to cash in on anything remotely controversial. And constant exposure to that type of discourse, even when you don't seek it out, wears on you.

It's all about community, at the end of the day. That's why the notion of "fandom" exists in the first place. We're hard-wired as a species to seek out like-minded people. I didn't intend on finding Final Fantasy forums or Tenchi Muyo! fansites when my family finally got dial-up internet. I just found myself there when I searched for the things I was interested in at the time—things I was too self-conscious to bring up with my IRL friends.

The internet certainly isn't ALL bad. But the consolidation of practically all fandom spaces into a few gigantic social media sites has been largely terrible.

Would that every social media site had a highly queer admin who was thoughtful and open to constructive criticism.

And I mean, fandom drama has been so prevalent that there were entire LiveJournals dedicated to cataloguing it. Esoteric interpersonal beefs have been engraved onto the ancient texts. There's a charmingly human side to that, for sure, but only to an extent.

There are a few problems that the right piece of brightly colored plastic can't solve. But if we're talking about ways to deal with fandom burnout, my first piece of advice would be: that's not really a problem! Odds are, you don't have an occupation related to it, and you shouldn't be dedicating your precious free time to something that's draining you. Find something else you want to do or try, and give it a whirl. Why not?

Taking a tolerance break is never a bad thing. I had years of my life when I didn't really watch or think about anime because I had other stuff going on. And it's not like I didn't have plenty of good series to check out when I circled back to it.

Sadly! I've personally dedicated more time to reading books this year, and that's been really good for me. Both as a way of exercising some atrophied grey matter, and as a way of doing something that's purely for me, not for my wallet or for my "reputation." Even more than hopping fandoms, I'd recommend a diverse art and hobby diet at all times. Reading books, watching movies, listening to music, teaching myself some Japanese—all of these things, and more, have helped me appreciate and think about anime more richly and satisfyingly. Even (especially!) if that wasn't my reason for doing those things.

If you're hyper-focused on anime to the extent that you're keeping up with dozens of currently airing shows each season...well, that's your prerogative, and there's nothing intrinsically wrong with that. But I think you run the risk of tunnel vision and finding yourself in those harsher, more cliquey corners of the fandom space. A cosmopolitan media diet helps ameliorate that risk, if you ask me.

Even at my most locked in, I don't think I ever kept up with more than ten shows in a given season. And I've still watched enough anime to land and keep a freelancing gig at an anime news website. It's about quality, not quantity.

Also, I have to advocate for the healing power of touching grass before you burn out. You can take that literally, but I mean it more generally in the sense that it is ridiculously beneficial to extricate yourself from the computer and do stuff outside your room. I work out three times a week, and I kinda hate how much it improved my physical and mental wellbeing. Everyone is right. It really works, and there's no good shortcut for it.

Not that I'm advocating for every couch potato to get swole. But a little consistent physical activity goes a long way. Plus, the gym is a healthier place to vent your frustrations than a "what's happening" text box that thousands of people could potentially read.

I am so over winter. I don't want to see another snowflake until next December.

Oh yeah, if there's a sport that interests you, chances are there's an anime you can watch about it! In fact, firsthand familiarity with the sport usually enhances the anime-watching experience. And vice versa. Yuri!!! on Ice, for instance, taught me things about figure skating that enhanced my exposure to this year's Olympics.

Anime can be a gateway, not just a cul-de-sac.

I guess what we're trying to say is that burnout is very real and affects all of us, even in the places we go to relax. There's no one-size-fits-all answer for that. It's the unfortunate reality of our ultra-plugged-in world. But I think we can all be kinder to ourselves and more open-minded at the same time. If you enter a fandom with a pure heart, chances are you're going to meet other cool people. And cool people won't hold it against you if you happen to have a different set of interests than they do. I love hearing my friends talk about shit I know nothing about! At the end of the day, none of this fandom stuff is that serious, nor is it immutable. If we can figure out how to survive it, so can you.