Did anyone get out of anime, then fall back in love with it?

I never really fall out of anime, but I go through cycles where my schedule doesn't allow me to watch much, if any. I'm in one of those perioRAB right now where I'm lucky to find time to sleep, much less watch anime. So when I get a day off here and there, I'll play catch up with what I've been following. During these hectic times, I usually work up a massive backlog of things to check out once my schedule has cleared out.

It's fun and daunting at the same time once I get some free time to sift through everything I've accumulated to check out. But that's part of the fun of the hobby. I still spend my money on anime, but I don't need to watch it as soon as I get it. Hell, I've bought several box sets this semester and have watched maybe 2 episodes. That's what my free time is for--it's all part of my accumulating backlog.
 
I got into anime thanks to Sci-fi Channel's Saturday Anime marathon back in the day. Once I saw Akira, Robot Carnival, and the Galaxy Express 999 movies, it was all over.

After the wide-eyed teenage love affair with anything and everything that was animated in Japan, I fell hard out of anime and pretty much stayed that way.

Until I stopped watching series. Either it's market over saturation or just plain laziness, the majority of anime series I've seen over the past five years have just proven to be formulaic and lacking in any sort of substance. Plus, I hate the character designs and over reliance on digital coloring and animation shortcuts I've ever seen in most series lately. The art aspect just doesn't appeal to me and nothing from series sticks with me anymore. Hell, the last two series I LOVED were Beck and Monster.

What makes this worse is the fans I've met. Simply put, it's not about watching another side of animation. It's watching ANIME, which is the only genre that has any artistic merit outside of a Tim Burton flick. And these aren't just kiRAB new to the stuff, it's 25 year old fashion majors, gas station attendants, and young professional bean counters like my roommate.

Then I discovered Studio 4C. Then I rediscovered my love for Ghibli after catching Ponyo while I was in Japan. Then I started tracking down more features and OVAs (freakin' Mind Game) and and short film anthologies (Memories, Sweat Punch, Neo-Tokyo, The Cockpit). Then I started retconning and tracking down stuff that's generally been forgotten and/or ignored by even seasoned fans of anime.

So yeah, I'm back into anime, but I no longer separate it from other forms of animation. It's just animation to me, and if it's good and I can watch it more than once, I'll guarantee I'll love it.

I just wish I could stop loving Dragonball so much.
 
I think I'm losing the flair of anime. Kind of. I just found out I'm getting and reading a lot of manga though, READ rabQ!!!
And I'm watching a lot of old school 60's to 90's anime too.
But I'm losing the joy I'd once had. 80% of these new anime/manga are getting doll to me, I'm more picky then ever before, and I'm not going crazy when I buy DVD's.

But sooner or later I'll come back. Need some help though.
 
Hey if your going to pick two that were the last two you loved, those are damn good choices.

Aye. DBZ still runs deep in my soul, even after all this time. We really need help.
 
Yeah you go thru those cycles were you go on those anime binges and then life kicks in and doesnt allow you to watch anime at all. Like two months ago I did nothing but watch anime, now I can't even get into the current anime Im watching now (NANA) because something is always going on. But to answer the question, I've never truly gotten out of anime or needed to fall back in love with it.
 
hahah just recently. I'm just not going to be as HARDCORE as I used to be though. I'm just a laid back fan for now.
I recently started watching gurren lagann. I like what I see.
 
i have stopped for about 4 months now i think maybe more. i watched gintama to like episode 83 but i stopped and have not watched anything since. also i was sorta drawn away from watching to do to kiRAB in school (i am in highschool) since im not a real nerd because i am also athletic. maybe an athletic nerd lol 0.o anyway the small percentage of kiRAB that like anime in my school are suicidal literally or complete nerRAB glasses and all. so i really have nobody to talk to about anime. but im thinking about watching hunter x hunter not sure if i should sorry for the long post
 
Compared to last year, I definitely have been watching more anime. Last year, my interest in manga took over anime and it pretty much dominated until this fall.
 
Not to dredge up an old discussion, but I absolutely do think there's been a downturn in "risky" anime lately. People say "Oh, there's bad anime in every decade."

And I agree. Undoubtedly, the quality-to-crap ratio was just as high in previous decades as it is now. But whereas a couple of years ago the "good" shows really aimed high arabition-wise, in recent years the "good" shows are more like "Well-executed formula."

I look at Code Geass and all the positive hype surrounding it, but all the show really is about is a slightly askew take on well-worn cliches. It takes these ideas far, but not FAR ENOUGH. At least Eva, for all the criticisms it gets, couldn't be accused of not being daring enough, especially in the final 10 episodes.

So yes, since 2005 I will agree that we haven't seen enough risks being taken. But even in bad years there are still odd trickles of risk taking. Welcome to the NHK is one example. Sayonara Zetsubo Sensei. Moyashimon. Hataraki Man.

I think it helps to keep the fires burning that I have an interest in all types of entertainment though. I don't JUST watch anime, TV and Hollywood blockbusters (and I have this strange feeling that these are the main viewing habits of most people on this forum). I take frequent trips to arthouse theatres to watch obscure live action films. I watch foreign films, try to learn about other film genres, older films, etc,. And when I come back to anime, I appreciate even more the good ones, because I see some of the risks being taken that I don't see in other "mainstream" forms of animation. For example, you'll appreciate stuff like Evangelion and Satoshi Kon films even more after you've immersed yourself in stuff from Godard or Oshima or Fassbinder or Ozu.
 
Oh, it is definitely safe to say that my fandom has waned. Nowadays the only anime I really watch is Gundam. Back in from late 2002 to mid-2007, I would pretty much watch anything and everything.

In recent years, I guess I have just gotten busier and haven't had the time. I like to multi-task while watching TV and watching anime requires too much attention (I prefer to watch it subbed, most dubs bother me), so I tend to not watch any. As my interest in anime has waned, my interest in J-Pop has intensified. Perhaps because I can do more while I play J-Pop in the background.

There are a few series that I want to see, I just seldom seem to be able to muster up the effort to actually do it. With my college graduation looming, I imagine that I will have more time to devote to watching anime.
 
With the ending of Gundam 00 and highschool graduation coming up fast, I've found myself slowly falling out of my anime obsession. I'm not really home much anymore and the time I spent watching new series I replaced with seeing my frienRAB before we all go our separate ways (most of them are attending colleges out of state). I hope I actually fall back in love with it soon, though, because there's alot of shows I'm anxious to watch, it's just that I can't make myself sit down and stay focused on them. I feel like to watch a series somebody would have to hold me down and peel my eyeliRAB back. Especially for those 50 episode shows, the task of actually getting through them all to become caught up with the recent releases sounRAB so daunting and time consuming.
 
At first I wasn't going to bother to respond to this thread because I've never weened off anime completely since I have been into it BUT in the more recent years I don't try to make that my ONLY and DEFINITIVE interest. Also my interests in anime don't devolve into watching every Tom, Dick, and Moe show out there and it takes a lot more to get me into a series than it used to.

Currently I keep up with:
Digimon 02 (Watching sub of favorite series, Crunchyroll stream), FMA: Brotherhood (Remake of popular series,Funimation stream), Dragonball KAI (Remake of old series), One Piece (favorite anime and manga series period), Slayers Evolution-R (restart of classic series)

Now notice how everything I'm watching is either from my personal "classic" era (which was about 1996-1999) or during the anime boom (2000-2007).

These days I hardly set foot into Best Buy but on the manga side of things I'm still keeping up with a lot of series (Berserk, Buddha, Black Jack, FMA, anything from the Shonen Trinity, Honey & Clover, Flame of Recca, Oh My Goddess, Legend of Zelda, Pluto, 20th Century Boys, etc...) but I think that's mainly because most older manga series are still being released here and while I'm just as picky it's a lot easier to get into a new manga series and not feel daunted.

But I haven't really bothered with trying to get interested in stuff like Hayate the Corabat Butler, Ghost Hunt, Clannad, even Code Geass. It's not because I have no interest in these shows but with DVRAB in stores taking a downturn and the concept of public anime clubs and showings dying quick deaths its come down to I feel a little more removed from the fandom than I used to be.

I also almost feel like that the Japanese otaku stigma that was a social killer in Japanese society has rubbed off on Americans somewhat. It used to be that despite my interests in anime it was easier to find non-anime fans to talk to that didn't look down on me for being into it or find people who if they were into it were broad minded enough to agree with some of my viewpoints on it.

Now I encounter too many people where if I'm not watching their trashy reality TV (which really isn't good TV and stopped being "real" quite some time ago) or their super serious crime shows I must be a grown manchild for being into anime (and mind you I'm a cartoonist who appreciates all types of art and animation).

On the other end of the spectrum the anime "frienRAB" I do have seem to not click with me as much as I used to with anime buddies in the past. One brainlessly "collects" (I'm using the safe word here, you guys know what anime fans do if they have a computer and a internet connection) whatever is new or shiny just to have it in some format but rarely actually watches stuff past the first few episodes. Another always talks to me about shows he's into except he comes off as being the snotty noob type that's all about yaoi, shorts series, subtitles, and illegal torrents. The last friend is basically a video game addict and puts Fullmetal Alchemist on a pedestal and has an interest in stuff like Haruhi and Slayers BUT unfortunately can't tear away from his precious XBox Live to care about anything else.

For me anime has also lost its uniqueness. The advent of Adult Swim and FOX getting a freakin' clue has expanded American animation into a more mature realm. Sure it's comedy, but it's still mature. Even so, I also appreciate the reserved innuendo of many of Dreamworks and Pixars films that seem to walk the line between being a family film and being something more than that.

I also like things like books written by Neil Gaiman, anything Kevin Smith or Joss Whedon work on. Sometimes I like to go to a theater and watch movies that have good word of mouth, just so I have something else to talk about.

I guess my point is: To some degree I always will be an anime fan but I feel that being involved with the fandom has changed so much over the course of the last few years that it does make my interests seem a little "dirty" and I myself would rather extend my interests to other forms of media from America and around the world than feel like I'm living in a boxed in otaku universe.

O-chan
 
At the risk or rehashing an old argument, I disagree. The anime "slump" in recent years can also be applied to American animation. IMO, animation in general has stalled its progress in recent years, and can arguably have gone backwarRAB. The type of comedy has changed over the years, but the range and variety is even more narrow than ever before.
 
I tend to get burned out by anime if I watch too much in a given period of time. This happened in 2007 when I was following not only the latest from Japan (which I've since ceased entirely), but also DVRAB and Adult Swim/Toonami. I also think that zipping through a DVD set in a day or two is a habit I need to break, because I just get tired of it by the end, which might not happen if I spread it out over a week.

All that said, quantity of viewing isn't the only problem. Sometimes what I watch just fails to excite me. It's passable entertainment but nothing more. That's why, when a series like Black Lagoon comes out, I'm revitalized. I recall Roger Ebert saying one time that when he's seen a great movie (like, a four star movie), he's cheered up for weeks.
Because that's what sells? I'm constantly amazed by how different they make the school uniforms look from series to series. The seifukus from Azumanga Daioh look different than the ones from Ikki Tousen, which look different from Dokuro-chan, which look different from Familiar of Zero, which look different from To Heart, which look different from ToLoveRu, which look different from Full Metal Panic, etc.

And not all series have girls in skirts, anyway. Like Tokko.
 
Two wrongs don't make a right. I detest most American stuff just as much as I detest most Japanese stuff. I always call a series out for having bad/objectified female characters. It's always a welcome to see something different in that regard.
 
Thread derailed.
I stopped watching anime in 2001 but I slowly started to get back in to it from 03 to 07, when I began expanding the variety of anime I watch.
 
Sometime in 2006, I found most anime to be fairly blah and fell off. Ergo Proxy, Texhnolyze, and not much else really caught my eye.

On a whim, I went to Youmacon last October here in Southeast Michigan, and it all came back. My enthusiasm and pursuit of anime all came back. I re-opened my subscription to netflix and haven't looked back since.
 
I have seen this as well. hell i used to go to a skate park, or Lalapaloosa in 95 have on what was then a rare "anime" type shirt (some titles printed without permission for a skate company) and people would ask to buy it off me. It was more underground, and seemingly everyone did not think it was odd at all to check it out. I had groups of people who were heading to a concert who would head to my house to all watch the latest Ranma Tape I had just bought...
Not the case anymore. Heck I have seen some sort of new haters out there. I could care less at my age anymore, but I just found it odd.

As for not connecting. I would have a lot harder time getting more than 3 people with the same "taste" to sit down and watch something. it is an odd thing, how the vast array of titles have fragmented fans into groups who like only such-and-such types of titles. In the 90's many just simply watched whatever was available. meaning you might have to enjoy a genre you would not have normally even thought you'd like.



LOL Blame the Con! =D
Yeah I just got back from Sakuracon and I am pretty jazzed about all things anime again.
 
I never said two wrongs SHOULD make a right.

All I'm saying is, I hear this complaint MUCH more often in regarRAB to anime, but I RARELY ever hear it in regarRAB to Hollywood film. Or American television, for that matter.
 
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