Updated November 8, 2022 by Ernie
People that don’t watch anime like to judge. It’s something out of their comfort zone, something that can be considered unusual and weird. They can’t understand it, they don’t know a thing about it and yet they act as if they do. It’s kind of annoying isn’t it?
Table of Contents
There is a proverb, it’s a famous one that we have all heard way too many times in our lives: Never judge a book by its cover. Well, the same concept applies here.
Thing is, because of all the finger-pointing and reprimands that we received for watching anime, some of us became ashamed of loving something that not everyone appreciates.
I used to have a safety tab prepared on my laptop and always be on the lookout waiting for someone to barge in my room so I would be ready to change the screen at lightning speed so I could watch anime in secret without having anyone nagging me about it.
Well, no more! I am not ashamed of the things I like! I am free to watch whatever I want, especially since what people believe about anime is completely wrong.
Usually, there are five major misconceptions people have about anime. Let’s look over them together and prove to the world that the way they think is unfair and out of place.
Oh, and by the way, now I watch anime on the big screen at home in front of everyone and managed to get my sister hooked!
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BIGGEST MISCONCEPTIONS ABOUT ANIME
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Anime is for kids
Now that’s rich. Did you know that there are R-rated anime series and movies? Do you know what R-rated means? Let me enlighten you. R-rated series are series that are forbidden for children.
Why? Do you ask? Well, simply because there is too much depicted violence, by violence I mean death, blood, torture things like that.
They can contain lots and lots of offensive language. And the major point would be that they most probably contain sexual activities, incest included, as well drugs. Not to mention anime with deep hidden meaning, the kind where you have to read between the lines to comprehend.
As you can see, the content is quite mature, made, and targeted for adults only. Some of the most famous R-rated series would be:
- Redo of Healer
- Attack on Titan
- Tokyo Ghoul
- Highschool of the Dead
- Highschool DXD
- Ninja Scroll
- Goblin Slayer
And don’t get me wrong, those are not some exceptions, if I had to list them all, I could go on for pages.
And this is not the only reason as well. Other anime are just too complicated for kids to even understand.
Here I’m talking about anime with genius MCs who come up with elaborate plans and strategies that even we, adults (I’m 24 btw), have difficulty understanding if they didn’t have the courtesy to explain the plot in detail to us.
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Others are based on the timeline continuum, on phenomena like the butterfly effect, time travel, or even political matters.
Make your seven years old watch this kind of stuff and tell me if he gets a thing. Here are some examples to make it easier for you:
- Steins;Gate
- Jormungand
- Legend of the Galactic Heroes
- Alderamin on the Sky
- Evangelion
- Erased
- Death Note
Okay, I think this is enough proof to convince you….
For all the parents out there, you might have never thought twice about letting your kids watch any kind of anime thinking that nothing inappropriate will be depicted, however, my advice for you would be to start looking at the age rating from now on. Some anime are NOT for kids after all!
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Most anime fans are not conforming to what we call “Normal”
Bro, do you really think that you are completely normal? Wake up call! Nobody is! And we are not weirder than others because we watch anime too.
Sure, some of us get over-excited about a series, or an upcoming episode, but hard-core fans of sports for example are the same. It’s just that you find sports within the norms, so you see nothing wrong here. And just so you know, not all of us are like that, it’s just that some are more passionate than others
Do you think cosplay is weird? Don’t you like to disguise yourself every year at Halloween and wait impatient for that awesome day to come? Well, Cosplay is the same, it’s a costume, nothing more, nothing less.
How can it be wrong to find attraction into anime characters? They are aesthetically beautiful to begin with. We are free to love, as long as we are not hurting the people around us. A lot of people are weird, yet we embrace them. So how come you won’t accept us?
Like I said before, the only reason why you believe anime watchers are weird is that you think anime is weird.
Well, I think reading psychological books is unthinkable or I don’t know staying, however watching people stream their online games is boring, but some human beings like it. Do I think they are weird? No! Everyone is free to do and watch whatever they want, just who are you to criticize them for it?
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Anime teaches you nothing
Anime is full of Life Lessons, there are a lot of insights you can take and a lot to learn from different anime characters. Thing is, if you never watched an anime in your life, how can you know? Let me tell you a bit of the life lessons anime taught me over the years.
Shall we start with One Piece? One of the most marking events of the series was the time the brother of the MC, Ace, died in the arms of his brother while protecting him.
What we learned from it is that the death of a loved one shouldn’t make you fall into despair, on the contrary, it should be a motivation to come up greatly.
Assassination Classroom is a series where a class had the task of killing their alien-like Sensei who threatened to destroy the world.
That same Sensei taught his students as well as us that we should never stop learning about ourselves as well as the world around us. He taught us to always have a second blade ready for the worst situation, which means a plan B that can pick us up if we fail.
In Yuri!!! On Ice, we learned that people who look extremely confident most of the time aren’t. They hide their insecurities behind a façade. It’s a defense mechanism they use to get through life.
Now let’s move on to Tokyo Ghoul. The MC who was a sweetheart unable to hurt a fly was forced to turn into a monster for the sake of his friends. Sometimes, circumstances force people to change.
Now here is one we should all listen to. Toradora showed us quite vividly that it’s a super bad idea to get married while you are still in high school.
Now that one hit me hard, there is an anime called Mr. Osomatsu. Well, this one taught us that even losers have unmeasurable value.
Last but not least is a lesson that I learned from Fullmetal Alchemist. This one showed us that emotion and feeling do not make us weak, they make us stronger!
To be honest, I could continue all day, every anime had a life lesson it was ready to teach us. I didn’t even go over Naruto, that one had like a hundred lessons all in one show.
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Anime isn’t realistic
Yeah, you’re right. Why waste your time watching people with superpowers have at it while you can watch super real people soar through the skies destroying planets with gauntlets?
Anime isn’t realistic if your only argument is that there aren’t real people acting in it, I can’t argue that.
However, superman, ironman, batman, vampires, zombies, werewolves, are they realistic to you because they have human beings acting as the characters? Why not criticize the whole comics community for watching unrealistic stuff while you are at it.
The truth is, anime mirrors reality. The authors take inspiration from real life events, real life problems kids and adults have to deal with throughout their lives to write their stories.
Even if they decide to depict them through a Sci-fi or fantasy genre anime, the deep psychological message is still there, it’s just more of a more subtle message, a shadow of reality.
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Anime can be addictive
Anime are amazing. I wish I could stay all day and all night watching my favorite MCs adventures, but I don’t and I’m a hard-core fan through and through.
I have a job, I have a social life, I work out, and a day can pass when I don’t have the time to even watch an episode.
Anime isn’t more addictive than any other kind of series out there. I don’t even know where that misconception came from.
We have priorities in life, we take care of those priorities, and then when we have some time to relax, we fire up our laptops, make some popcorn, up on an episode and enjoy the show. Nothing weird here.
Of course, some people end up getting addicted, however, there are others who get addicted to other stuff like sports, or other series (with real people), some people are addicted to eating for example.
I mean addiction isn’t something specific to anime, it’s ridiculous and that’s all I have to say about that.
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Conclusion
I think I made pretty convincing points out there. To be honest, this blog was kind of personal for me cuz I’ve had to deal with people judging me for watching the thing I love, and I believe a lot of anime fans had to go through the exact same thing.
I hope this blog opened the eyes of some anime haters and maybe I managed to make things easier for some of you as well. If you liked this then you might be interested in these recommendations!
