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Answerman - How Do You Get Over Anime Burnout?

Justin wrote:

I think the first step to combatting that is to stop trying to keep up with current shows. Your time is valuable, your sanity is finite, and frankly, the odds of you being able to successfully predict which shows will end up being worthwhile aren't very good. Wait a season or two, listen and find out which shows people are still talking about months after they stopped airing. THOSE are the ones that, generally, are worth your time.

This is... very questionable advice at best. Unless the OP (and Justin) are very much unlike myself, better than three quarters of what people are "still talking about" are shows that don't interest me in the least.

The best thing to do is limit what you watch. Check the news and early reviews to find out what you might be interested in. And be willing (and able) to drop whatever shows you don't enjoy.


And erase that backlog queue. All it does is feed into a cycle of guilt for never watching any of it.

Heck, one of my old favorites, Dominion Tank Police, has aged rather questionably, and now that I'm in my mid-30s it's much clearer to me that its intended audience was basically 12-year-olds.

@ ultimatehaki , there was a fair amount of talk about Flip Flappers, also my top pick for 2016. Very cool show with a lot of artsy/experimental elements.

True, but the traffic and posts on a lot of, if not most, online forums has declined drastically in recent years. Some of the forums I frequent use to be able to regularly arrange group viewings, and there regular discussions about new shows. A lot of them have dried up, and only a core group of posters remain. Even the forums here at ANN don't get as much discussion as their Facebook and Twitter posts do.

I burned out of anime in the mid 00's, and more or less stayed that way for several years. But one day I happened on a few episodes of Blood +, and before I knew it I was back in.

dragonrider_cody wrote:

True, but the traffic and posts on a lot of, if not most, online forums has declined drastically in recent years. Some of the forums I frequent use to be able to regularly arrange group viewings, and there regular discussions about new shows. A lot of them have dried up, and only a core group of posters remain. Even the forums here at ANN don't get as much discussion as their Facebook and Twitter posts do.

The forum posters haven't died off, they just moved. Reddit.com's anime section is always bustling with life. Any show you'd want to talk about, they're talking about in exhausting detail over there.

Ah yes, burnout. It happens to all of us at some point or another.

Still...5 out of 40 some. How on Earth do so many people have this kind of obsession?

As someone who personally reviews anime, I can tell you that it helps to diversify your media consumption.

Make time for other forms of media, and write thoughts on those. Movies, Video Games, Books, Actual Sports, Comics, non anime related music... and feel free to branch out to things that aren't necessarily media, like food, beer (if you're old enough).

The more you make time for consumption outside of anime, the more you'll come back to it willingly even if you're packing tons of your free time into binging show after show.

I've been struggling with the burnout for the past 5 years and I highly doubt this struggle is going to stop anytime soon. You know things are bad when from 550 shows you've seen 510+ have been completed from 2005 to 2012. Honestly, my biggest problem with the burnout is not the fact that I can't watch as much anime as I used to but inability to actively participate in community, I feel like I've lost a link with the majority of my internet friends, we have nothing to talk about anymore. Still, as long as anime will continue to produce films like Your Name and Silent Voice I'll be an anime fan.

Seconded. Life is too short to waste time on stuff you don't enjoy. I bailed out on three shows this past season precisely because I wasn't having any fun with them. Don't feel like you "have" to keep up, because frankly most likely you won't.

Sometimes you just need to step away even from the things you enjoy and try something else; usually, the time will come eventually when you start to miss it, and you'll be back. I burned out of anime in the mid 00's, and more or less stayed that way for several years. But one day I happened on a few episodes of Blood +, and before I knew it I was back in. Just be patient, let yourself relax, and eventually the annoyances and feelings that drove you away in the first place will disappear.

One other thing I always caution fans: there is so much material out there that you can never watch it all, so don't feel overwhelmed. Just stick with the stuff you like, and the rest will work themselves out. Its quite alright to have missed a series everyone else loved (heck, I still haven't gotten around to Fate/Night yet); it'll still be there whenever you get around to it, so don't worry if you're the only one in your group of friends who hasn't seen something.

Anime, like all entertainment, is suppose to be fun. When it stops being so, its time to re-evaluate.

I also sort of live in a pop culture hole, so to speak, so even if it's famous and well-liked, I probably haven't heard of it. Any tips for rectifying this?

I don't know why, but a lot of anime fans for one reason or another feel compelled to watch all of something, even if they hate it and aren't enjoying it at all. If they watch one episode, they have to watch all of them, no matter how much they aren't enjoying it. This makes no sense.

Um, watch more anime? I don't understand the question as there hasn't been a point in my life where I haven't been watching animation which just happens to be anime these days because of the state of NA animation.