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Forum - View topicAnswerman - How Do You Get Over Anime Burnout?
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#861208
Posts: 423 |
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This times a thousand. I'd say I'm fairly burnt out on action shows - any story with fighting in it at all, actually, not just anime - and I'm just watching idol shows now. They're happy and fun, and a lot of them have surprisingly deep character writing (StarMyu and Marginal #4). So, if it has fighting in it, unless it's Code Geass or Touken Ranbu, I'll skip it. And I just never got into sports shows, despite the fact that for years, 90% of bishounen-anime fandom has been about them. I'm just not interested. |
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Animegunclub
 Posts: 127 Location: AyeTeeEl, Jawhjah |
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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. |
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TasteyCookie
 Posts: 423 |
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Justin is 100% right on this. I have experienced burnout before on Western TV shows. I had just bought a Hulu subscription and ended up watching 25+ (hour long ep.) shows in just a couple months. It got to the point where so many of the shows I was watching were not enjoyable in the slightest. Yet I continued to watch them and now, several years later, I still barely watch any Western TV shows. It ruined it for me.
Just to echo what was said, NEVER force yourself to watch something you don't enjoy. Bad experiences tend to stick particularly more than good experiences, especially when forcing yourself. So if you ever find yourself in the "Why am I watching this?" boat, than bail and move on to something else. Anime as an entertainment medium has the benefit of being one of the most broad visual entertainment mediums with hundreds of thousands of entries. Another hint is to avoid talking about/focusing on shows you dislike. I have burned my enthusiasm of anime a couple of times by arguing with people about shows I dislike, when i could of instead started talking about shows I enjoy instead (in which there are far more.) |
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KH91
Posts: 6176 |
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How do you get over anime burnout? That's simple...watch through it. Doesn't matter if it's 1 or 2 episodes a day compared to the 5-10 (or more) you usually do. As long as you keep watching, you'll eventually get back into it. Or...you can take a day or 2 off (remind yourself you have a backlog to get through and that it's not getting any shorter) then come back watching 1 or 2 episodes a day compared to the 5-10 or more) you usually do then slowly increase the number until you get back into it. But that's just me. lol
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Top Gun
 Posts: 4793 |
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I think Justin's point about currently-airing series is a good one. You don't have to force yourself to keep up with 6 or 7 newly-premiering series...hell, you don't have to watch ANY newly-premiering series if you don't want to. Wait a few months or a few years, see what really stands the test of time, and then pick out what appeals to you at your leisure. The shows aren't going to vanish just because you're not watching them this very instant. (Well, so long as they're not on a streaming service that loses the rights without any warning...)
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chronos02
Posts: 272 |
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Well, I have been watching anime, daily, since 1995, safe for short periods such as summer vacation in the middle of nowhere, and the week-long school trips to the countryside. Still, I have never had an anime burnout as a whole, it has happened with genres, such as mecha anime, adventure, etc. (it has never happened with slice of life for some reason), I simply stopped watching those genres for a while, like maybe 2 cours, but then got them back up into the menu, while removing another genre. Oh, nad I tend to watch around 7 shows each cour, more or less, and I combined that with weekend marathons for backlog shows.
On the other hand, I have been burnt out by games, and I had periods of non-gaming for over 2 to 3 months, but then some interesting game or another got me hooked again by watching the next part's trailer or the like, making me go back to the first one and clearing them till I reached the new release... I can't really share a method to avoid and/or get out of a burnt out state, but for those genres I've been tired about, I usually give them an oportunity by forcing myself after half a year, since experience told me there's always something fresh even for well established genres. |
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Paiprince
 Posts: 593 |
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I'm gonna be blunt here and go against the flow and say if you even experience an ounce of regret of watching anime, that just shows you don't actually like it. Someone who invests in this hobby should stick to it, both the good and the bad. Like a commitment. You don't just bail because you're at your low point. If anything, take it as a lesson for you to pace yourself. No need to quit cold turkey, but just find the right time to keep up with the binging.
The self professed "anime elitists" are usually the ones who go through burn out and never really gotten over it. Do you wanna be one of those jaded reprobates that scatter about in this scene? |
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MajorZero
Posts: 359 |
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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.
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Merxamers
 Posts: 720 |
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This post struck a chord with me. Since i just finished grad school, i've been watching more anime this season than i ever have before; this season alone I've been keeping up with Re:Creators, Grimoire of Zero, WorldEnd, My Hero Academia, and Kenka Bancho Otome, not to mention the huge dvd backlog I've been going through (F:S/N, The World God Only Knows, Record of Lodoss War, etc.), and the shows i've "been meaning to watch this season" (Sakura Quest, Attack on Titan S2, Alice & Zoroku, Rage of Bahamut S2).
I'm a grown adult who works a full time job and has other responsibilities; i just can't keep up with everything. I think i'll try to be more discerning on which shows I watch from now on, even if i feel guilty for not keeping up with everything my internet friends are watching. |
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Vizo
 Posts: 171 |
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I don't think I ever experienced anime burnout.
This site has been helpful for me when filtering which animes are worth watching or not. I often use the "find similar anime based on genres & themes" feature and if less than five of the first ten other franchises don't interest me, I pass on it. Since I started using this method, I enjoyed nearly all the anime I decided to check out. The best series tend to be ones that sell me on their premise with few exceptions (ex. Dagashi Kashi). An interesting cast can help too. Plus, there are genres I'm fond of and some I just don't care for. A friend recommendation can be a show's saving grace as I probably would've missed out on fine anime like No Game No Life and Overfiend without at least one. |
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Zoneflare
 Posts: 524 |
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I took a semi break where I didn't watch much during a five year span. Wish I never did get burned out cause now I'm stuck with a huge backlog of stuff to watch lol.
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Jinbei
Posts: 55 |
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About 2 years ago I had a similar thing happen to me but it wasn't a burnout per se. More like I had watched a stack of heartfelt, epic and thought-provoking and masterful anime classics in a row(Cowboy Bebop, Saikano, Mushishi etc) and I couldn't find anything new to watch since I had grown accustomed to awesomeness. Nothing felt good enough to make me continue until the second episode, since the first episodes never moved anything inside me.
Then I kept a short break and watched some comedy like Seitokai Yakuindomo and Danshi Koukousei no Nichijou and managed to get my urge to watch some other anime as well, starting with the seasonal shows and a movie or two. Now my problem is that I find it hard to find new seres since during my 16 years of Otaku-dom, there's hardly any series left that suits my tastes and rewatching isn't my thing. The summer season, though, has a lot of stuff that I expect to fall in love with starting from Shouhoku no Altair to Saiyuki Reload Gunblast... |
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HeeroTX
Posts: 2046 Location: Austin, TX |
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Considering you reference "bishounen-anime fandom" as the reason sports anime are notable, I'll say this. Based on what I've seen of the fujoshi fandom you can look at promo images for whatever sports show (like Newtype magazine highlights or posters in online shops) and then you'll get what bishounen-anime fandom is getting from the show. I read all of Prince of Tennis, I thought it was a fun manga about tennis. It is STILL very popular with fujoshi, and not ONCE in the entire run did any guy in that series do ANYTHING other than play or train for tennis. But from the bishounen fans you'd think they spend half the series making out, or at LEAST going on dates or something. No, they're ALL singularly focused on TENNIS. |
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EricJ2
 Posts: 4016 |
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It dates back to the previous column about why everyone bragged about their DVD collections: In the early late-90's days of DVD, there was the mix of fan desperation/zeal that "You HAVE to buy everything!", and now that new kids and relieved post-Bubble disk fans can enjoy the new 21st-century freedoms of streaming, the sense that "You HAVE to stream everything!" No, you dooonnnn't.... 
It's a bad habit with me too, and I still feel guilty that I might decide to drop The Eccentric Family (yes) after a few overly writer-indulgent episodes--there's still that primal conscience nag of "But how does the story come out?--but if you're going to brag that Streaming grants you "The new freedom to binge!", don't find yourself slave to some mentality that you're forbidden NOT to. The remote works both ways. Me, I thought the question was over longtime series burnout in general, ie. why there "Just aren't any more good series" in the pandering/fan-demonizing Otaku Era for us old 90's vets who've seen all the great mainstream ones. I'll confess that too--I'd spent the last fifteen years saying there had "never been another great comedy" since Azumanga Daioh, only to eat my words getting hooked on Outbreak Company, or finding myself yet another hopeless slave of Kemono Friends. 
Remember, taste comes with experience, and its how you wield that taste that determines a learned master. |
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DeTroyes
 Posts: 521 |
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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. |
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