Why I watch anime...

[JHawkNH]

I began to think recently about my reasons for being an anime fan. The realization came to me as I had noticed that some of the people in my life were trying to live part of their lives vicariously through me. What does this have to do with my love of anime you asked? When I began to ask myself if I was trying to live my life vicariously through someone else, I relieved that in all honesty I have been living my life vicariously through the lives of the anime characters in the series I watch.
This became all to clear recently when I was watching something where the group of heroes was cornered by the bad guy. The bad guy offered to let the group live if they just gave up the girl. (the girl that the main character was in love with) I found myself yelling at the TV, “Like hell I will!”. I realized that I had put myself in the place of the hero. I looked back on my early days in anime I noticed a pattern. I use to watch anime where the hero was cool and always won in the end. I always preferred action to romance and comedies. I wanted to be a hero, to be looked up to and admired. That is not that surprising, how many of us pretended to be fire fighters, or astronauts, or Superman? This was a common dream of many kids and my anime viewing followed that trend. (Trigun, DBZ, ect..)
As I got older my tastes in anime changed. I started to gravitate more towards anime that contained more drama and romance. (yes, this includes harem anime) I found that I wasn’t as interested in a show if it didn’t have at least one cute girl. And the main shows that I wanted to watch had a main male character that had a cute girl as his love interest. I believe the reason for this is because this is the type of life I desired. Don’t get me wrong, my life is pretty good. I have a good job, a nice house, friends and family. But the one thing I want most seems to be the only thing that I could never get, the love of my life. I would probably rather take on all the evil geniuses bent on world domination, then spend nights at home dreaming about what it would be like.
I believe because of this anime has become less of an entertainment to me and more of a crutch I use to get through the parts of my life that I am not happy with. In this case I guess that would make anime my drug of choice.
So what do you guys think? Is this common or have I just lost it?

[Hiki]

I still want to be a super hero!! And I constantly yell at everything... computer (screen), books, television, games, you name it. I also hit myself when someone on tv or in an anime or whatever makes a stupid mistake.. but I don't think I don't watch anime is a crutch for me, though. But I can totally see why it would be. For me it's doing creative things that is the crutch So I don't think you have lost it! But then again... most people think I'm crazy so maybe you have lost it

[oldwrench]

I thought maybe more people would answer JH on this one.

No JH, there is nothing wrong with living a part of your life through anime........ or movies....... or books......... and before that, through bards telling stories. We need a way to escape our everyday lives into a world more pleasant, or more exciting, than the one we live in. From the time our mothers first tell us stories till we grow old and die, our imaginations take us into many different worlds. We all want to be the hero sometime.

Why do I like anime? They are good story tellers. There is such a hugely diverse range of subjects. It's colorful, often cute, often intense. Many of the things done in anime would be very hard to do in live action. I've been a scifi fan for many years, I've read more books than I want to count. Anime has some of the best scifi action you can find. I really enjoy some good humor, and anime has some of the best, and often cleanest, humor around, like Azumanga Daioh, Fumoffu, or Lucky Star. There's a world of entertainment in anime.


And besides........ cute schoolgirls in short skirts......... cute girls with cat ears......... cute schoolgirls with big guns........ ah.... what's not to like????

[Sakura]

Sorry I do not watch much anime anymore.

[oldwrench]

But you do have other forms of entertainment....... Your games take you into another world of imagination, same as any of these other things.

[Sakura]

I think it's "spicing myself up"

Characters in manga and anime are generally cute. It's probably envy.

When you cannot compete with beauty just add long hair and ribbons and go on a diet. This is things every girl *can* change. As in, not given by birth. I was trying these three but no longer. I had a hair cut and use ribbons only because I have them. Dieting is definitely not my problem.

So: "I want to be a character in anime"

[Kira]

I don't watch anime much myself either. Mainly because there really isn't anything good coming out. I think the 80s and 90s was its biggest boom, but now since its more consider the norm, a lot of generic stuff is being produce. Especially now, since at first Anime was Japan version for Star Trek...but its becoming more kids friendly...well mainly a lot stuff coming out in America.

I first got into when I was at my grandfathers house, he had the TV on and the Spanish ver. of Ronin Warriors was on. I couldn't understand it, but the art was amazing. I grew up reading comics, and it looked a lot like a comic come to life.

Thats right around when PBS started airing anime and UPN(now CW) got Sailor Moon and Ronin Warriors.

[JHawkNH]

Hey Kira,

Try checking out "Glass Fleet" and "Code Gease". I think you would like those.

[oldwrench]

If you like a good twist on time travel, and a nice highschool angst, romance, try "The Girl Who Lept Through Time". It's an interesting anime movie, a girl finds out she can leap backward in time. There are some very interesting twists in the story. Another rather new one that's a psycho thriller, Paprika, is pretty good.

[agito_0291]

Hmm... I was hesitant to watch that (The girl who Leapt Through Time). It was good then? I guess I'll have another look. Oh and I second Paprika and Code Geass as things you should watch. Both are very good (Code Geass especially).