Forum - View topicAnswerman - How Do You Get Over Anime Burnout?
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Sakagami Tomoyo
 Posts: 943 Location: Melbourne, VIC, Australia |
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First and foremost, it does help to diversify your entertainment a little. I still watch more anime than I consume any other media, but having at least something different in there keeps things from getting monotonous.
My approach these days is to just watch stuff as mood strikes me. I still follow the current season's offerings, but if I'm an episode or two behind up-to-date on a given show, I don't sweat it. If I'm more than three or four episodes behind on a show, it means I haven't felt like watching it in about a month, so figure I can't be that interested in it and just move on. From time to time, I'll go and watch something older in my collection. Maybe the full series, maybe a few episodes here and there; again, as mood strikes me. The really key thing was realising that I don't have to watch everything that's available or participate in every discussion; that it's okay to pass on something, to say "I haven't been watching that". And that I don't need to finish every show I start. I know people will always ask incredulously "what do you mean you haven't seen <show>?! What's wrong with you?", but you need to learn to disregard that. Watch stuff because it makes you happy to watch it, not out of some misplaced sense of duty. |
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vanfanel
 Posts: 1260 |
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I think one cause of burnout is a misplaced sense of responsibility toward one's backlog, or at the very least, to the money that was wasted in building it. I try to remember that even if I make the mistake of buying faster than I consume, I'm still not responsible to inanimate objects.
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Asrialys
 Posts: 1164 |
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It's probably a combination of other things than just burnout, but my media consumption came to a pretty glaring halt this year. Behind on my US TV shows as well...
Not sure if I'll be able to bring myself to catch up... http://imgur.com/a/njYP7 Note: I started this near the end of 2008. |
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zrnzle500
 Posts: 3768 |
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I've been a fan from a young age and I've been following currently airing shows for 7 years (20+ a season for most of that). I haven't been burned out by currently running anime but I have been close to burned out on watching backlog titles. I increased my pace of backlog watching two summers ago to catch up to One Piece and Detective Conan simultaneously (it seems reckless in hindsight to tackle two of the longest series at the same time, but switching between the two kept things interesting and I was skipping filler anyhow). After I finished both last summer, I continued that pace with the other shows on my backlog. I was finishing series in a day or two, quickly blowing through and then expanding my backlog. Eventually I became hesitant to touch some of the shows and it felt like a chore. I decided that I didn't need to just keep going how I was going and could finish them at whenever I wanted at my own pace. I have inhaled some backlog titles quickly since then but not with the same regularity.
I don't know if I'll be burned out on seasonal anime in the future, but even with watching so many new shows a season, very few shows feel like a chore, and only one this season (I have to seriously consider if I will finish Sagrada Reset). Now I think it helps I don't expect every show to blow me away. Some shows are just a pleasant enough way to spend the better part of a half hour. Ironic enjoyment has its place too (Who do I have to shake at Discotek to make them put up more of Chargeman Ken on their Youtube channel?). Watching a wide variety of genres, including ones I have less experience with whose tropes are unknown to me, doesn't hurt, but that approach isn't for everyone. I've been thinking of rewatching some of my old favorites for a while, but I always find something that has become newly available that I haven't watched which always takes the priority with me. Someday I'll get around to it. |
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WashuTakahashi
 Posts: 415 Location: Chicago, IL |
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My advice is to sort through things you might like by yourself. There's a dozen people who have told me I need to watch shows x, y, and z. And while they may be fantastic shows in their own right, they don't sound appealing to me. Either the plot doesn't sound like my thing, I don't care for the art, or a dozen other reasons. You shouldn't feel the need to watch every popular thing just because it's popular. You're not going to like everything. And while it's true you might miss a gem or two if you don't venture out of your comfort zone, It's not worth filtering through all of the garbage to find the gems.
Also, 100 times yes on dropping anime you aren't enjoying. It used to be really hard for me to quit shows. I'd promise myself/friends I'd give any series at least 3 episodes to prove itself. And after 3 episodes it'd feel like, "Well, I made it this far...guess I should finish." Just this and last season I probably dropped 3 shows each between 3-6 episodes. I realized the plots very interesting at first, but the execution didn't draw me in. I felt WAY better removing those shows from my simulcast lists than crawling through them. I've also started dropping shows that weren't what I expected after 1-2 episodes. Your time is precious and if you're not enjoying it, don't hesitate to drop it! |
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DmonHiro
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Ah, burnout. I've herd so many stories about this but never experienced it myself. I think many people make odd mistakes when consuming anime. Mistakes like never dropping a show, or insisting on watching X number of shows per season. To me, it's simple: watch what I like. Over the years (I've been watching anime for 15 years) I've become pretty good at knowing what shows I will and will not enjoy. Usually only need one episode to know I won't like a show. Sadly the opposite isn't always true. Just because I liked the first episodes doesn't mean the show isn't going to go off a cliff by the end. If that does happen you should follow Justin's advice and bail out immediately. There is no reward for finishing a show you did not enjoy. Some peope say you can't form a true opinion on something if you haven't experienced all of it. To qoute an angry video game reviewer: If the cheff comes and farts on my plate for my main course I'm not staying for the desert.
tl;rd: Just have fun. |
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tempest21
 Posts: 8 |
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I've become a victim of this as well. The best way to cure burnout from anime is to walk away from it for a period of time. Watch some of your favorite movies or broadcasted television shows. I've found that simply watching something different, like The Flash, NCIS, Shark Tank or some other dribble that's broadcast or on cable, that it usually snaps me out of that burnout and then I eventually go back to watching anime again. For me, I go through anime burnout a few times every year, it's nothing new.
You just have to find something to occupy your video watching. Just find something to occupy your time and eventually, you'll get back into your favorite anime shows. |
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FireChick
 Subscriber Posts: 2483 Location: United States |
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This article! Goodness, I'm actually going through an anime burnout right now, which has persisted since early 2016. Ever since 2010, I watched an episode of anime once every two hours, every single day, especially during the summer when school was out. I watched anything I could find. Now, I can barely watch an episode every other week, even my favorites, and I feel bad, because anime has always brought me so much joy, from my childhood and even now. Lately I've been watching more live-action stuff, Western animation (like LoliRock, Redwall, Long Long Holiday, etc.), and playing more games (Harvest Moon, Child of Light, etc). I really hope I can pull myself out of this burnout, because I really love anime and manga, and will never stop doing so.
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belvadeer
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I think it's best to just stick to a small selection of shows, rather than loading up on ten or more shows per season (I don't even know how people manage to watch that much).
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crosswithyou
 Posts: 2899 Location: California |
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Easy. If you're staying current, you're really only watching maybe one or two shows/episodes a day since not everything airs the same day. |
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Top Gun
 Posts: 4793 |
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Eh, I think that's only true if you make "the backlog" into some sort of menacing mental specter. I buy anime far (and I mean far) more quickly than I actually watch it, but it doesn't bother me all that much. I take pleasure in the act of building my collection itself, and I look at what I buy as investments for the future. Even if it takes years, I'll get around to them at some point down the line. I also haven't really suffered from never officially "dropping" something, though admittedly I've had several things "on-hold" for years on MAL that I'll almost certainly never return to. I tend not to watch or buy things until well after they've finished, and by that point I've heard enough feedback about them that I'm fairly certain I'll wind up enjoying them. Either that or I've just been very lucky, take your pick. 
If there's any place where I've flirted with burnout, it's from that rarest of commodities: basic cable broadcasts. I was first introduced to anime as a defined medium I could recognize when I started watching [adult swim] back in 2005 or so. Since that point, I've watched literally every show that has aired on [as]/Toonami, and especially in my early days any number of repeat runs. (Hell, I even made it through the entirety of SyFy's ill-fated Ani-Monday block.) I can honestly say I've enjoyed the majority of the offerings over the years, but there have been some mediocre shows and a few flat-out stinkers, plus some lean times for the block as a whole. It really starts to feel like work when I'm a few weeks behind and have a bunch of episodes piled up on my DVR, but overall I still enjoy it, and it's exposed me to shows that have wound up becoming some of my all-time favorites, so I stick with it. |
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DerekL1963
Subscriber Posts: 1122 Location: Puget Sound |
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That's kinda the point of this thread - other people who are not you do make it into a "menacing mental specter". |
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Hiroki not Takuya
 Posts: 2667 |
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Having loved anime for 55 years and never experiencing "burn out", I'd say watch a variety until you know what the characteristics of shows you like are and gravitate towards shows that have most of those. Occasionally check out something different if it looks good or gets good reviews from people you whose tastes you trust. Otherwise, don't watch. And for sure, if you aren't enjoying a show after a few episodes, drop it (unless you really get into disliking it
 ). These days especially, there are too many shows to watch...
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Hypeathon
Posts: 1176 |
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The part in bold I especially agree with. What I'd like to add to that is depending on how much anime you've watched, you can take advantage of the ANN encyclopedia and learn more about the directors, writers, composers, character designers, storyboarders and what-not that worked on some shows you've liked and might discover some interesting things about those people based on other projects they've worked on. When Viz Media was first releasing their new dub of Sailor Moon, I eventually learned about the main directors, Junichi Sato, Kunihiko Ikuhara and Takuya Igarashi and all of the works they've directed since then. Ikuhara I was already aware despite not having any of his titles at the time, but knowing that Igarashi and Sato had directed shows that many have watched or have at least heard of at one point or another made me want to watch these shows for the first time or revisit them. It started with me feeling compelled to watch Kaleido Star, an anime that I've seen artwork for browsing on Funimation's website on occasion, then Pretear, then Princess Tutu, followed by Aria the Animation, and then I got around to watching Revolutionary Girl Utena and Mawaru Penguindrum for the first time last year. Doing all of this while learning the way the directors do what they do led to revisit two of Igarashi's works, Ouran High School Host Club and Star Driver, both I watched around the time as Bungo Stray Dogs. Not only did I manage to further appreciate what Igarashi did but it made me like his works even more than I thought possible, Star Driver being especially surprising since just about everyone wrote that off as Studio Bones next mecha show that, "tried to be the next Code Geass/Gurren Lagann", but failed to do so. I think most who watched it weren't even aware that it was a reinterpretation of The Little Prince story. Nowadays, I try not to think of a work being made by a studio as much as said work being made by a director/writer. This gets into what I think is a really helpful remedy for anime burnout which is developing a more enlightened perspective about the anime you watch. For me, learning about the anime I am watching or have watched don't end with who the director or writer is. It also involves learning the storyboard artists, the animation directors, the art director the background studios, CG directors, etc. (having watched Shirobako months after I started going down the Sailor Moon rabbit hole helped with this). I even found myself spending time learning about anime adaptations of manga from magazines and demographics that wasn't just Weekly Shonen Jump and Shonen. I learned that a majority of manga source material and tie-ins of popular Magical Girl anime for younger audiences have ran on Kodansha's Monthly Shoujo Nakayoshi: Sailor Moon, Shugo Chara, Cardcaptor Sakura, Tokyo Mew Mew, Precure and Magic Knight Rayearth, to name a few. To be more enlightened towards what you watch, it helps to keep asking yourself many questions about where in the Japanese animation industry the shows you've watched come from and all the different people involved in making them. You might find yourself going certain rabbit holes where you discover or prioritize watching anime that may not have caught your eye otherwise. |
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TheJaceX
Posts: 38 |
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Oddly enough my usual burnout killer is the opposite, after a small break I'll pick some 12 episode series that looks enjoyable enough and binge it. For some reason the act of finishing a show remedies burnout. Now of course don't watch trash and expect it to help. But usually to avoid real burnout I switch mediums every few series, I'll watch an anime, then read a manga, then play some games, then read a comic etc. This keeps everything decently fresh.
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