Forum - View topic

Can you get too old for anime?

And i haven't met a single person in their 40s who still likes anime and isn't somehow connected to it as an industry. Whether they own a manga shop or whatnot.

In other words, i haven't met a 40 year old who likes anime and hasn't turn that relationship into some sort of business.

Muhahaha. The dreaded question that eats at the souls of anime-watchers beyond the age of twenty-five.

Or maybe not.

But its a fair question to ask i suppose.

For some, anime seems like this thing you watch with your friends starting as a kid and moving through till the end of college. You hang onto it for a few more years, and then *poof* your an adult with a mortgage to pay, kids to feed, a 9 to 5 job to go to.

Bada-bing bada-boom, your done.

Now, i'm not saying that this is the fate of everyone. But i can't help but noticing from my vantage point mid-way in the process that up ahead of me in the late-late twentys and early 30s, the crowd of anime lovers thins out ALOT.

And i haven't met a single person in their 40s who still likes anime and isn't somehow connected to it as an industry. Whether they own a manga shop or whatnot.

In other words, i haven't met a 40 year old who likes anime and hasn't turn that relationship into some sort of business.

So what do you think? Is this simply a fated process? Life will get more busy and anime will slowly sink into the back of our heads until we're all in our 60s watching our grandchildren watch Lupin III and going "Hey, i remember that!"

Now, i'm not saying that this is the fate of everyone. But i can't help but noticing from my vantage point mid-way in the process that up ahead of me in the late-late twentys and early 30s, the crowd of anime lovers thins out ALOT.

Spoken by someone who sees that 40 mark approaching all too swiftly.)

This phenomenon has already struck in RPGs and struck years ago in scale miniature games. I recently attended Gen Con, one of the world's largest pure gaming conventions, and probably well more than half or the regulars in many of the role-playing areas (especially in the Dungeons and Dragons areas) were in their 30s or older. If you look at tactical miniature games, you can probably bump that up to 40s or older.

Granted, some people do "age out" of such hobbies (or regard themselves as having done so because they see it as a kid's hobby) or simply have life intervene and decide that they have no more time for it (although I've seen people bring their babies to RPG events, so where there's a will, there's a way). But being too old is entirely a state of mind.

(Spoken by someone who sees that 40 mark approaching all too swiftly.)

Did it ever occur to you that, because anime's popularity only really started to boom in the mid-to-late '90s, the big population which first got interested in anime as teens during that time are only just now starting to reach their early 30s?