Forum - View topicAnswerman - At What Point Are You No Longer A Fan?
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nobahn
 Subscriber Posts: 5147 |
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Otaku agents have been dispatched to your home to confiscate your nerd card.  
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princess passa passa
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Oh I feel you on this, though I'm not sure I was an otaku (couldn't afford it
 ) but I back in the early 2000s when I was in uni, I was watching EVERY anime that came on TV then it became worse when I found online streaming. With that I was able to follow the seasons in real time and I also felt that I had to finish a series I started.
I did this for a couple of years til I burnt out and left the anime community, thinking all of it was garbage. But I grew older and wiser (and had less time). Now I treat anime like any other entertainment medium like movies, I don't try to watch every movie that comes out or every tv show. I find what I like, use tags to avoid certain series and drop any series early on that is not worth my time. Basically, release yourself from the pressure of because you like anime, you have to interact with it in a certain way. |
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Chiyosuke
 Posts: 394 |
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I probably fell out of my otaku life cycle at around 2006. Still possess a great love for the medium, but it's damn near daunting trying to keep up with everything now. Not to mention a large %age of what's being pumped out is moe. I can't deal.
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Animechic420
 Posts: 1733 Location: A Cave Filled With Riches |
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Watching anime has pretty much become my life-long hobby ever since I was little. I tried to watch any and all things Japanese animation. They were far more entraining then American cartoons(story wise). I couldn't get enough of them.
Now, it's beginning to feel like the industry doesn't care what it puts out. Everything's the same. I don't watch all anime like I used to because they're mimicking the one I watched not to long ago(school anime). Nothing feels real about it anymore. The lack of psychological, sci-fi, horror, drama and mystery shows hurts sometimes. Lately, I've just been picking anime that have those tags or look a little different from what I'm used to seeing. Ever now and then there's something worth watching. |
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penguintruth
 Posts: 8501 Location: Penguinopolis |
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When I got into anime, there was already a huge backlog of fantastic titles from decades of it. The new good stuff just hasn't had the time to congeal yet.
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Wingbeats
 Posts: 272 Location: Boise, Idaho |
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I've been a fan of anime since I was....7 or 8 years old? When Digimon and Pokemon came out on TV. However, thanks to subscribing to both Crunchyroll and Funimation, I suddenly have the ability to STREAM ALL OF THE THINGS.
It's glorious. But while I call myself weaboo trash as a joke, I still don't really consider myself an Otaku per say....I don't buy much anime stuff outside of the subscription fees, and I work full time as a biologist and do many other hobbies as well. Point is, there is lots of kinds of fans at all kinds of time periods, and no one is gonna steal your anime nerd card. 
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belvadeer
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I can honestly say I've been a casual at this point for the longest time, but I was more frequent way back when. A lot of the seasons of new anime that have gone by have almost nothing that gets my attention, and it's rare I find one show that keeps me watching these days. I definitely consumed my fair share of anime and manga during my university days, but it's all a memory now.
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Lactobacillus yogurti
 Posts: 852 Location: Latin America |
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I think that most people just become more selective with the series they like as they grow older. We don't have the time, money or energy to splurge on series that eventually become more and more repetitive, and we start finding our comfort zones.
I had a time in 2012 where I was watching a series almost every day. Now, the series I watch simply span Friday, Saturday and Sunday, but for a while, I wasn't watching anything at all. Such is life. |
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Estelle the White Mage
 Posts: 51 |
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I remember getting burnt out a year and a half into discovering anime, when I essentially watched most of the "best" ecchi and harem shows available.
The more that I consumed, the more I got burnt out. Simply because I had watched most of the available anime from that genre, or that the ones I found at the bottom of the barrel simply couldn't top excellent shows like Kiss x sis, To Love Ru, Rosario Vampire, Kanokon, etc. Some weeks I would miss their respective episodes that aired, and would simply give up until the rest of the season finished. Not to mention life gets in the way with the opportunity cost: I can watch this anime now, or I can put it off and play MMOs with friends. The anime ain't going anywhere. I transitioned from consuming about one anime series every few days, to a few per anime season like the writer mentioned. Heck, I haven't even finished the "Absolute Duo/How to Raise a Boring GF" winterish-spring season, before I can even touch the late spring season's stuff, then get to this summer's. My "To Watch" list has it's own word document it's so long now. |
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EricJ2
 Posts: 4016 |
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I've been in since the days of VHS, and I know the long (or short) road from Otaku to Experienced Casual Fan--
The Otaku thinks he's discovered some secret pop-cultural treasure trove, wants to live only on a diet of his new "discovery", and wants to share the secret with what he believes is the new private cabal he's found his way into. The Experienced Casual Fan knows that there's plenty of this out there, that there's good and bad just like any other media, can spot enough familiar tropes to know the Good when he sees it, and cultivates those interests with other experienced fans. (Ie., the ECF isn't "jaded" or "giving up", he's just been around enough to know what he's looking at, and isn't necessarily thrilled that he's just gotten hooked on his new Cartoon Network Thing.) We could likely go into a whole Jeff Foxworthy "Redneck" routine here, but: - If you'd rather read con announcements than go to them...you're probably not an otaku. - If you've never watched an episode of One Piece in your life...you're probably not an otaku. - If you can explain why a series with at least three girls in it is not necessarily "a harem series"...you're probably not an otaku. - If you can complain about Eva without using the word "Shinji"...you're probably not an otaku. |
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CallumKeyblade
Posts: 536 |
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I don't know if I'd call myself a fan of anime as a whole, I'm more of a fan of a couple of shows. I'd probably say I was a Love Live! fan rather than an anime fan at the moment. I've never really done the whole buying merch, knowing all the voice actors, etc thing before so it's a new experience. I don't know how people have the time/money to do it for multiple shows.
I do still buy quite a few manga series though. I love reading physical volumes of manga because it's nice to enjoy media that isn't pixels on a screen for a change. I think I'm collecting around 22 series at the moment? (It sounds like a lot but I'm usually only buying around 5 volumes a month so it isn't too expensive.) |
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DmonHiro
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I guess you're a very casual anime fan.
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vangelionite88
 Posts: 285 |
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its alot like love, you choose to want something to be in your life long after the thrill and novelty of it leave your system. anime is mostly passable, but it still manages to give me a chuckle or a feel from time to time.
my curiosity has mostly been satiated. but theres still more to come, I just have to keep an eye out for those gems. |
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Lord Geo
Posts: 2671 Location: North Brunswick, New Jersey |
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I got into anime & manga right when I was finishing up high school, so during my college years I would buy up all sorts of manga (for the bus rides between campuses), anime, & even a few model kits & figures (I've never been big on poster & wall scrolls, though I do have one scroll). Since finishing college six years ago I've definitely slowed down on my purchases, but I still have a backlog of stuff to watch/read.
Really, the only thing that's mainly changed is that I have no real sense of urgency to watch what's brand new. While there are the occasional new shows I keep up with (JoJo, Seiya, Ushio & Tora, etc.), I've mostly been trying to whittle down my backlog & do some re-visits of stuff I saw in my earlier days as a fan. My advice for those who are feeling burnt out on what's coming out now, but want to keep enjoying anime/manga, is to check out some older titles. That way, you can pick & choose for yourself without having to worry about staying recent & topical. There's an entire ocean of stuff out there to check out, and you never know what might catch your interest, even if it isn't exactly considered an "all-time classic" or whatnot. Work at your own pace, find what works for you (while challenging yourself to try something different out once in a while), and just be happy with the way you're consuming a product. I eventually learned that watching new anime just because it's what everyone else is doing & is topical just doesn't appeal to me. Different strokes for different folks, you know. |
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Hoppy800
 Posts: 3331 |
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While I don't entirely get burnt out on anime in general, I do get burnt on genres and concepts, I had almost a full year of ecchi burnout last year, with Cross Ange making me pick up the genre again, I had instances of Shounen burnout off and on for 12 years all caused by long runners which is why I don't watch long running Shounen anymore. As for being a fan I don't know, I seem to be more of fan of the general anime artstyle and music/voice acting than anime itself. I watch about 50-70 anime a year, but I tend to focus more on the voice cast and character design in a large percentage of anime and have watched anime for said voice cast and it's also a big deal in games, because the first two things on my mind when a game announces is the battle system and voice cast for the characters, having a cast that I recognize or newer talent that I'm following (ex. Misaki Kuno) increases the chances of me buying the game.
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