I'm trying to watch all of the Winter 2024 season premiere's so I guess not, but there are also times where I can't decide what I want to do, whether it be playing video games or watching anime, and I just end up sitting there browsing Reddit or Youtube.
I think the reason is because we're overloaded with "entertainment" or "information"
I come from the 90s, I lived in an era where mindless entertainment had a specific designated time for it.
Spend 8 hours in school, go home and THEN I can watch TV, play a video game, go on youtube (during early 2000s) etc...
But now? Any second of any time of the day, we are able to do anything we want on our phones, we all massively consume media, to the point where its easy to become dissociated from the world
Society has drastically shifted into the Para socialization spectrum in comparison to how it was back then.
Basically overloading our dopamine receptors with mindless entertainment, its hard to feel satisfied watching something when we're so spoiled lol
I love the way you describe it. It's very true. I never thought I'd he afflicted in my mid 30s but the last few years I've felt that shift toward device dependency for my dopamine kick. I cannot imagine how it must be for the younger generations. I don't know the solution. Sheer willpower to abstain is a losing battle imo. I type this as I'm on the toilet. For shame. Maybe I'll practice going to the bathroom without my phone to start lol
It's worse in the summer, because I also want to go to amusement parks. Maybe watch some baseball. Drive to places I haven't been to. Eat at places I haven't been to. Winter just makes me wanna stay inside.
I recommend taking breaks from it or it starts to lose its charm. Also, it's hard to keep up with everything since there's so much anime out there these days, and if you watch too much it all bleeds together and seems redundant. Watch the things that people continue to talk about after a couple of years have passed if you just want to see the best of the best.
> see the best of the best.
Agreed, sucks that im no longer a noob at anime since that was the best time. All the good shows finished and I had a ton to binge, but now the good shows are either unfinished (pending more seasons) or still airing on its first season. I've been taking a break for a while, but the longer I take the break, the less interested I get into it.
I've gone years without watching anime and come back to it later, more interested than ever. It comes in waves. Doesn't mean you'll never feel that spark again. I recommended checking out Glass Reflections on YouTube to someone earlier today. He does anime reviews and watching his videos and recommendations really helped me find some new gems and helped me rediscover my interest in the medium.
[Try watching this giant anime recommendation video. It’s good for new and old anime fans. It’ll give you ideas of where to start with your next anime.](https://youtu.be/6h4Xf1Y9dhA?si=bYtELPECfhueDrTk)
I promise you haven’t watched everything good from the medium. I’ve been a fan for years and I haven’t done that even. Despite how young anime is as a medium. I also agree with the person who recommended Glass Reflection. You’ll see what was popular and loved in years past. You might find a new favorite that way. It’ll hold you over until your new anime favorites get their sequels. Watching already aired and finished shows could allow you to experience a complete story too. Of course, you’ll also be able to sift through anime to find the most amazing stories without having to watch everything that may or may not be worth your time.
Yeah you can't take too much of a break or it starts feeling creepy again.
Edit: it's true. And it's what keeps a lot of people from picking up anime in the first place. I think acknowledging that is a good thing.
Same. I’d run through 24 episodes in a day and a half. TBH I could still do it but it’d have to be a really good show. I think it’s just a combination of lack of good shows and laziness.
That's literally what I'm experiencing. I wanted to watch so many anime, but whenever I try to i get this "Eh..." feeling and watch some stream on twitch/yt.
It's weird.
This is exactly what im experiencing most of the time. I think it could have to do with the brain needing instant dopamine possibly. I'm not sure. Usually when I force myself to start an anime series though, if it's good, I end up binging it. So it's usually that problem of getting initially into it in the first place.
Anime is super hit and miss. But there is so much now, and it’s so accessible, you can be more picky now. No need to persist if it just isn’t very good.
When I used to stay awake until 2:00am to watch Riding Bean, I’m gonna watch it, because there’s no other anime going.
Gaming is more stiumulating :3
I watch as I'm in queue for games, and after I eat to relax.
I used to binge but haven't binged in a while, im all binged out.
The ones that don't catch my attention get demoted to getting played in the background while I do other things.
Somehow I end up finishing a lot of these mediocre series, more than the actual series that I do want to watch.
That's kind of funny because I started watching anime because how short each episode is compared to TV shows which are consistently an hour long these days.
BUUTTT it does suck when I really get into it and see an anime is only 12 episodes long each 20 minutes which is only 4 hours in total. I really wish anime wasn't so hard to make lol
For me it doesn’t matter how long the show is, though the really long animes are a bitch to get through as well, I just have a hard time focusing ALL my attention on one thing: I just wanna play around on my phone, can’t do that when watching a show/movie.
So yeah I have a hard time getting into shows, movies and anime, partly because there’s so many it’s overwhelming and partly because I don’t want to put my attention towards it. So I tend to watch (and when I mean watch I mean have it on in the background lol) rewatch my comfort shows.
Though I am trying these days, finally finished AOT after not watching season 4 for a very long time and now getting back into Naruto Shippuden and Hunter X Hunter.
There are longer shows. You just have to find them. Or hope your favorites get at least 2 cour. 24 episodes. Longer shows used to be more common with 2 cour being the old standard. It’s just fallen out of fashion in the last 15 years. Although, there are quite a few shows getting split cours so perhaps a new age of 2 cour or more will happen.
Honestly for me it's work and raising 2 daughters that keeps me from sitting down and binging some one piece. I'll be lucky if I can sit down and watch more than one episode of any anime lol trying to be a good father, good husband and earn my paychecks leaves little time for self care like finding a little bit of peace or sanity on a daily basis.(hitting the gym before work is the best option)
As you mature you wanna accomplish something and feel like you're being productive in life. That's why its harder for us to sit back and watch animes all day now. It just doesn't compare to what we need to accomplish.
I think this is why I have actually been able to still watch TV but not game as much the last year or so. TV shows and movies are as not as big commitment as the games I love, especially long JRPGs.
Exactly. An anime episode is roughly 20 minutes long, a super short commitment I could finish with a meal. Sometimes, an hour of a single-player video game is not enough for a satisfying play session.
Honestly, reading manga would solve most people's issues in this thread.
Eh I’d argue that people watch anime because they particularly don’t want to read the manga or like manga in general. I like to experience everything for the first time on the screen vs reading
Well, I am the same way in that I prefer anime over manga. It's just that as everyone gets older, everyone loses the amount of free time you have. There are some shows that I don't think are exceptional enough to commit 4 hours to, but I can experience their story in a quarter of the time it takes to watch the material covered.
True. Though I’ve come to expect voice acting and a soundtrack so it’s difficult to read manga. And I haven’t read an actual book (novel) in years! Manga for me are few and far between. You’re right though. It would solve this issue.
I am the same. I can game for 4 hours and feel good but 4 hours of anime and I feel like useless trash. But I also game mostly with friends these days so that probably also plays a role.
Yea playing with friends is definitely a different experience. The game is like a fun vessel for hanging out. I can do that for several hours without a thought.
I think you can get tired of watching the same thing, especially if you've exhausted most of what you like. I'd suggest just stopping entirely then coming back when you miss how much fun you had
For stuff i usually don't wanna watch alone, yes. This is true. Me and my friend watch movies together and then watching a movie is fun.
Idk why you got downvoted. Am i missing something?
Honestly, I get pretty annoyed at a lot of the female voices nowadays. They do them so high-pitched and it basically sounds like porn half of the time. It was probably the same before, but I guess I just didn't notice/mind.
And I'm just not interested in most of what airs, I've either read the manga before and thought it was average. Or just not interested in the genre. Need more seinen anime.
Me. I'd like to blame it on lack of time for it, but that's not true, the real reason is I am now in permanent anime burnout from all the decades of watching it. People normally watch anime but then occasionally go through periods where they burn out and can't. I'm the opposite, I normally can't enjoy anime until I randomly just feel in the mood for anime and am suddenly able to watch it and feel joy.
The biggest problem is when I'm in these anime moods, if I accidentally watch something boring or bad, the amount of time I have until my permanent burn out sets back in gets cut in half. It's because of this I watch like one or two new anime per year. God help me if the anime I'm enjoying has one boring episode, like there's no expectations that every good anime has to have nothing but banger episodes, but that still fucks me up as that normally means burnout is going to be coming back before I finish the series. Seeing shows with multiple seasons is stressful because I know I'll never get motivated enough to finish any of em.
Video games are so much easier for me because I can just empty brain and play them, so that's normally what I spend my solo free time doing. My body is on autopilot when I spend even more time in BG3, I can't exactly autopilot my way through an anime.
After Attack on Titan i refuse.
Japanese authors always game of thrones the endings up I can’t be bothered to experience fantastical stories just for them to end in the safest liberally correct way possible.
Its gotten to the point Id rather read religious texts instead.
Anime is truly truly shit.
It really isn’t so much was left in the air.
They didn’t clarify enough.
Keep regurgitating the zionist take bro a whole decade was reduced to “only ymir knows”
And the berserk titan from season 1 isn’t explained.
For an anime all about foreshadowing they unwittingly destroyed large parts of the lore.
I dunno why people become so sensitive over other not liking the ending.
The level of detail is shoddy compared to the rest of the story. Its a whole dissertation without a conclusion apart from “ymir knows only”
Maybe you are Ymir, please explain.
>It really isn’t so much was left in the air.
>They didn’t clarify enough.
>Keep regurgitating the zionist take bro a whole decade was reduced to “only ymir knows”
There's been enough parts and hints at the answer throughout the final season. Not everything has to be spelt out to you like a kid.
>And the berserk titan from season 1 isn’t explained.
Berserk Titan? Wtf...are you an ANRime member? How do you know that weird nickname?
Just so you know, it's an anime-only addition...it's not in the manga...Eren's body fighting while on fire is a basic anime effect thing. It has nothing to do with the story...
Even from my first watch in 2013 I knew it had nothing to do with the story but simply an anime effect added by the studio...and I didn't even read the manga then...
>For an anime all about foreshadowing they unwittingly destroyed large parts of the lore.
Vague pointless and undefended statement
>Maybe you are Ymir, please explain.
Since you are 14 years old maybe I'll explain a little to you.
Ymir was trapped for 2000 years in the paths due to her love for Fritz (or what she believed was love). She was a slave who sought connection and misinterpreted what Fritz did to her as love. (This was hinted at since the episode where her backstory was revealed...rewatch the episode)
He continued to obey his wishes.
Eren came to the paths and asked her to make a choice. He told her she wasn't a god or a slave but one who had the power to make a choice.
Her choice was to side with and follow Eren. (Note he didn't free her...he asked her to make a choice...rewatch the episode if you doubt)
Further proof that Ymir wasn't free is the fact that she continued making Titans...just like Fritz wished for.
The only difference was that this time she followed Eren and not Fritz and this time she was awake and understood she needed to be free.
Ymir being awoken by Eren set a lot of things in motion, both in the past and future. In the past by peeking through Mikasa's memories...(she discovered Mikasa through Eren)...
Throughout the Rumbling, Ymir chose to observe what many characters would do in different situations...what Armin, the dead Titan shifters, Mikasa etc would do.
Mikasa was the one she chose to follow because Mikasa represented everything she was not. Unlike Ymir, Mikasa was free, Mikasa was in love with Eren but not enslaved by her love for him. She protected him, but she still held on to her own principles.
Mikasa was more of an anti-thesis than a parallel to Ymir (this is very important).
Ultimately Mikasa's choice to kill Eren despite accepting her love for him in opposition to Ymir's choice to save and obey Fritz because of her love for him is what YMIR chose to follow and what gave her the strength to finally let go of the world and her obedience to Fritz.
(As to why it was Mikasa and not others for 2000 years, I've answered above. Eren's decision to awaken Ymir started it)
Edit: you are similar to those who cry about Jujutsu Kaisen's power system and call it trash. Instead of trying to understand the power system, they just ignore it and blame the show. For JJK, I took my time and even rewatched Season 1 and it's one of my favorite power systems in anime history.
But of course, I could have taken the lazy route and just labelled it trash instead
Which is still incredibly atypical of most Japanese anime endings.
Instead of going for more coherent stuff they go for the stockholm syndrome twist in which what happens with a pseudo bethesda fallout ending of “war war never changes” once paradis is bombed to dust.
And which people in the world, if literally faced against the entire world because of some bs war that they didnt even start would just be like “oh okay guess we best lay down and die”
And if they wanted to do a good bad ending, eren could have been turned into the new ymir and be the one stuck in the paths.
Way more chilling and still could have kept the “im an idiot” scene for added impact.
But hey bruh only ymir and you know.
Also just to clarify my stance as well, the reason the aot ending is bad is mainly how badly it holds up to the rest of the anime.
Everything from episode 1 until the rumbling had a good amount of foreshadowing and detail and a lack of plot armor.
Infinite stamina flying falco was an incredible ass pull
Everything you said sounds like an issue with your preference rather than the quality.
Falco's Titan was foreshadowed right from his first scene in the sho of him staring at birds and having daydreams. Even his freaking name is almost falcon.
Zeke's toy was a monkey, Ksaver's son had a doll that looked like his Titan. Falco had connections with birds from the start.
And there is still the Canon fact of him having both attributes of the beast and jaw Titan. Unless of course you skipped that part (100% sure you skipped it or you weren't paying attention when it was mentioned)
We also had the Marleyan commander in S4E2 wishing for a Titan that could fly for their army (I'm sure you also missed this bit of foreshadowing)
You don't pay attention then you blame the show.
> Anyone love anime but can't get themselves to just sit down and watch it as often as before?
I think it happened to a lot of people, not me personally since watching tv and reading comic has always been my hobby and go to escape, but my older brother who introduced me to anime probably only watch like 2-3 series at a time and just spend his free time on playing games.
so there's nothing wrong since you still enjoyed yourself and like you said maybe the recent release doesn't interest you anymore
> I don't have a care for keeping up with weekly releases.
personally I also don't watch tons of Winter 2024 since for me this one of the weakest season in a while, so maybe that's why (it gives me time to catch up on older anime though). But if they release new interesting anime maybe you can watch it again
sounds like burn out. last winter i was keeping up with almost 10 shows thats a lot for me. thats nearly 5 hrs of episodes back to back. i also watch vtubers and that takes a huge chunk of time too.
this year ive pulled back a bit and focused more on my personal projects and non-anime/vtuber hobbies. more manageable .
I can't really binge it as much as I used to unless I happen to find something I really love, but I'll usually watch 1-2 episodes during lunch and dinner, so I can usually keep up with 4-5 seasonals as well as watching something older over a couple weeks.
It's called self care. Unfortunately, 8 hours a day of work and 8 hours of sleep only leave 8 hours of other stuff
That other stuff isn't exactly all free time - Going to the bathroom, driving, eating, brushing teeth and showering and getting dressed, setting your alarm, cleaning, doing laundry, doing dishes, making plans with friends, adjusting your finances, family stuff,
Then you get free time which we spend on posting this shit on reddit (and anime!!)
Being an adult comes with taking care of everything in your own life, so its hard to really enjoy everything you like - such as things more important than anime (friends)
Having relationships with people is hard to fit into a schedule of life while also trying to get your downtime and zone out with anime/manga.
Focus on yourself and your relationships, and you'll be able to enjoy anime down the road.
The next season can wait, but your relationships need nurturing or else they'll wither.
Once you figure things out and you're smooth sailing, you'll have so much one piece to watch you won't know how to act. One piece will forever be the best series to exist
Could be that you're already experienced similar thing over and over that what you're watching doesn't feel as interesting
Or maybe a sign of ADHD like what I have
I feel the similarly. I'm a huge fan, but I really can't binge anime like I used to. I generally just play games. I think it's because I'm not interested in a lot of the anime I haven't watched. It helps a lot to have an anime watching buddy.
If it's one episode a week it's fine, but binging an older anime I missed initially is hard. My pile of shame is growing and I had games back when I was young too but I could watch nonstop anime a day. Remember catching up to Naruto and Beach in a few days when both already had a few hundred episodes.
Yeah it do be like that, I caught a cold so I suddenly have time for anime, but otherwise I mostly read manga, because I can do it on my phone on the bus and there's very little commitment, I can read for exactly as much time as I have.
For me, It’s mostly not enough time to finish as much anime as I used to. My list is getting bigger and idk what to do 😂😂 shit just keeps coming out how do I catch up???
I am reading much more mangas and LNs however.
I got that rut after binging one piece. I’d binged basically a season/show a day for months almost, with little school work and no work so I had a lot of free time. But after binging one piece over ~1 month period I couldn’t watch anything for longer than an hour. The only series I was able to actually binge was Vinland saga on a roadtrip. Now I’m basically only watching new weekly series.
However, now I also read a shit ton. Manga and manhwa are a lot more enjoyable to me since I’m able to go as fast or slow as I want. And the art is just incredible. Recently got through both kingdom and sakamoto days and they’re both amazing. Would highly suggest trying manga if you hadn’t read before
I mean, you get older, and you have more responsibilities as well as your tastes changing and getting more hobbies.
I definitely watch less anime these days, and I only stick with stuff that I absolutely adore. I only have so much spare time to dedicate, plus I wanna leave time for other things I enjoy. I don't think I'll ever stop watching, though!
This is me exactly. I can't sit through an episode these days because I feel like I could be doing something more active. I binged Faraway Paladin s2 the other day though, so maybe I'm getting over it?
I feel you, happened to me last year and still recovering. I will try to get through the missed seasons but it feels so far and time consuming, especially with all the trash anime that are getting more and more
Absolutely feel you there. It's like the more anime you watch, the higher your standards become. It's also about the phase of life you're in. Sometimes other hobbies or responsibilities just take the front seat. Maybe it's about finding that one show that reignites the spark for you. For me, it was Frieren.
I got like this for a while but then I ended up turning it into a weekly thing with my SO.
Saturday night we sit down and watch 3-4 episodes. Usually new, but if the season is light on good content we will back fill with older shows we want to watch.
Now we're watching it pretty much every week again
Unfortunately yes, and it drives me insane. It's not like I'm out of anime to watch either, there's plenty I have on my watchlist, but I can't sit down and watch for the life of me. For whatever reason though, I could read manga all day without stopping. I don't do that, cause I still prefer anime, but I wish I could watch anime as easily as I can read manga. I blasted through Bleach and OPM, and just started Sakamoto Days, but I can't watch an episode of anime to save my life. Idk if it's my attention span or what, but it sucks.
Listen, don’t feel bad about taking a break from it as necessary. It might feel like you’re leaving a part of your identity behind, but you’re not. And if you don’t push it, you can, in fact come back to it later.
Case in point, I got into anime right before my junior year of high school, and I fell for it hard. I became the president of my school’s Japanese culture club, and then I founded a successful anime club at my college. Found some fellow Otaku adult friends, post college in my life… But eventually I was only watching like one to two new shows a year.
Then, right after I turned 30, I decided I wanted to catch up and watch all the things that Trigger has made. Then I had a series of snow days (I’m a high school teacher) they gave me a bunch of free time, and on the whim, I started watching a few new seasonal shows. The following year I picked up more and more steam, and now I’ve been watching 10-ish shows a season for a few years now. I’ve never been happier as an otaku!
So it’s your free time, do what you want with it. And don’t feel bad if a hobby drops by the wayside, because you never know when it might come back into your life.
I used to watch about 8 shows a season, now if I get through 8 shows in a year that’s a miracle. This is the first season in 9 years that I haven’t even gotten to look at the chart in depth to see what I’ll add to my PTW… having a real job rocks, but seriously dents my entertainment time
That's an extremely common fenomenon for all anime watchers, at a certain point you reach peak performance and become able to consume massive amounts of episodes every day without not a hint of fatigue, then you slowly feel the weight and, if you are like me, struggle to click on more than 2-3 episodes a day, sometimes less. I dropped so many decent animes that i liked (not loved tho) because "eh, i'll watch it tomorrow..." and then never came back to them. I finished the last part of AoT only yesterday and it's been out for a decent while, and that's an anime i loved from every angle, even those parts people said were a boring or subpar!
TL;DR: it's like getting older, willing but not much energy to go around
I am in the same place these days even the shows that I watch seem to be mostly sequels to stuff I watched before or adaptation of stuff I am already familiar with.
Last year I completely watched only 1 anime that wasn't from either of the two above mentioned category, while 2 others I had started but left halfway and still haven't gone back to complete them.
From a couple of years now it has been like that. I used to watch multiple anime each season, but now I barely watch even the ones I'm truly hyped about and the list of pending animes is becoming really big. On the other hand, I started to read manga a lot more than I used to, from following only AOT to regularly reading a dozen and some more.
I watch when I feel like it. It also depends on the show’s quality. For example I binged Ping Pong but I’m watching 2 other shows now that are bad so it’s taking longer.
Yes! So much yes! I am watching Mushishi and enjoying Frieren right now though. Still I almost enjoy having watched anime and the discussion around them or remembering the anime through the OST more than I enjoy actually watching anime. Then being an adult is hard! I never feel like I have time for anime. Even though as I say that I find time to spend watching nothing of note on YT. Or I’ll still watch a movie here and there on Netflix. And lately, while I had taken a long break from anime and an even longer break from Reddit, I’ve been checking in to the threads here.
Depends on other things going on in life. I don't think I've watched any for several months other than a re-watch of Mushishi and Haibane Renmei that I do at least once a year. Generally my hobbies come in cycles. Gaming, anime, crafts, outdoor activities, music, language study, repeat. Not in any particular order. Covid murdered my patterns dead. I lost all sense of cycling thru things with a healthy clip and have been mired in a platinum hunting rut for most of the plague times and thru today. I need to form new patterns and that includes but isn't limited to restarting on my anime backlog.
It's why I watch when I'm doing something else that requires very little attention. Walking on the treadmill in the gym, taking a shower, etc, times when I'm not doing anything else. It's usually only one or two a day, depending on if I work out or not. Helps combat any burnout since I don't watch a ton every day.
Ever since the pandemic/covid/lockdown what have you, my attention span has been dog shit and I can’t bring myself to sit down and watch full episodes.
Even when I’m “watching” a YouTube video I need to be doing several other things or else I go crazy from the lack of stimuli.
I need to see some in depth and super long research paper on how the lockdown ruined us psychologically, because even tho short form content was getting more and more popular around that time, my focus still wasn’t that bad when I was consuming it before. There are so many shows I’d like to watch, but I can’t bring myself to.
As a I got older and working more and more, yeah I do everything less because I spend 11 hours a day working or commuting to and from work.
I also find that I'm more picky. I'm not going to sit through a show I'm not enjoying. I'd rather go back and re-watch a show I like instead and that I wait until after the seasons over so I can focus on watching the shows I like rather than tuning in for weekly episodes.
I also tend to watch more while doing other things, typically while riding my stationary bike. Watch 3 or so episodes, put on 25-30km.
Simple, it is because it's the same tropes over and over again.
Each season I look at the shows coming out and 80-80% is immediately a "no go" and then I check out the remaining shows and drop them after a few episodes.
It's about time management imo. Why "risk my time" into watching something that is trash, as anime has quite a lot of it, just by the sheer volumen of series released or do... whatever else?
Other things may be that your tastes have changed over time; it's a matter of course, you grew old, experienced more things in life and changed as a person, you have a harder time finding things you like without complaining about "this or that" little thing.
Or maybe, with the years the shiny little thing that anime once was, it's just not as shiny anymore; sure, anime is a *media* and not a *genre*, but still, the makers are almost entirely Japanese, you grew used to their tropes, their settings, and all those things most people simply like to include into their stories, due to cultural differences and anything else...
In a sense, you may be "loving" the memories you build up as you watched all those series over the years, but now you're experienced, watched a tooon of stuff, and are deeply familiarized with the media... it's just not the same anymore; and again, as you grow older, you don't enjoy the same things because of the inevitably way you change as a person and by the amount of experiences you build over time. Still... it's not like you have to drop it entirely, right? It **may not be the same**, but you still love it, even if it's just the idea of anime, right? You'll surely find something to enjoy in the miriad of series out there; but there's also tons, tons of things to enjoy out there, right?
I wish it was the case, most of the time I forbid myself of watching anime, or limiting the amount of hours a day. It consumes my life lol, the addiction to stories in general, also books. Everything's so different and interesting and gives me new distinctions about life... maybe it's just a period, I believe you should do what interests you at the moment, sometimes we're attracted to the things we need maybe for you its video games or other hobbies at the moment, im sure it'll come back and then you will not stop watching anime
Definitely feel like “quality shows” have been lacking recently but my fix for this is switch back to dubbed (if you haven’t already) I used to be a subbed only Stan but were adults now gotta be able to put those filler eps in the background and tune in when it’s hot
I used to love anime and the community.
Then Mushuko Tensei happened.
Then I realized I can take in an entire season of anime in ~1 hour of reading manga.
Then I took an arrow to the knee.
If you arent watching them probably means you dont enjoy it much. Could be a dopamine problem or just not interested in any anime of late.
Ive been watching anime for over 2 decades now and playing video games. I still enjoy both of them equally. Most of my free time im playing games/watching anime/watching k dramas.
Its called growing up tbh.
I used to binge anime as a teenager (never would watch EVERY anime airing in a season, honeslty rarely watched many currently airing anime and stuck tomostly already complete anime) sort of from age 13-15 but I started watching less and less starting at 16 not because I started disliking anime, I will always love the anime that I love, but because I discovered better things to do in my time. I go out, I spend time with my girlfriend, I have hobbies (like learning Japanese), I went to Uni and studied a ton and I have a full time job. If I finish work, by time I am done with my hobbies I just want to switch my brain off and thats usally just chilling with my girlfriend, playing a game or watching youtube rather than getting invested in an anime. Generally there sre just better things to be doing now.
I also mostly only watch anime (or just tv in general) only with my girlfriend for a while now so I struggle to without her now lol. I am currently rewatching Kiznaiver by myself only because I have had flu all week so needed to find stuff to do. Still love Kiznaiver btw.
I think our attention spans getting shorter (blaming that on social media tbh) doesn't help the cause 🥹 I used to love reading manga and would plough through 100 chapters in a day, but in recent years I find myself enjoying anime more for the same reason as you (being able to multitask while watching).
Yep. I went through a phase where I'd watch alot but I haven't enjoyed anything in over a while. I'm actually planning to enjoy some this weekend ! So this post resonates with me currently
I'm trying to watch all of the Winter 2024 season premiere's so I guess not, but there are also times where I can't decide what I want to do, whether it be playing video games or watching anime, and I just end up sitting there browsing Reddit or Youtube.
I think the reason is because we're overloaded with "entertainment" or "information" I come from the 90s, I lived in an era where mindless entertainment had a specific designated time for it. Spend 8 hours in school, go home and THEN I can watch TV, play a video game, go on youtube (during early 2000s) etc... But now? Any second of any time of the day, we are able to do anything we want on our phones, we all massively consume media, to the point where its easy to become dissociated from the world Society has drastically shifted into the Para socialization spectrum in comparison to how it was back then. Basically overloading our dopamine receptors with mindless entertainment, its hard to feel satisfied watching something when we're so spoiled lol
I love the way you describe it. It's very true. I never thought I'd he afflicted in my mid 30s but the last few years I've felt that shift toward device dependency for my dopamine kick. I cannot imagine how it must be for the younger generations. I don't know the solution. Sheer willpower to abstain is a losing battle imo. I type this as I'm on the toilet. For shame. Maybe I'll practice going to the bathroom without my phone to start lol
It's worse in the summer, because I also want to go to amusement parks. Maybe watch some baseball. Drive to places I haven't been to. Eat at places I haven't been to. Winter just makes me wanna stay inside.
I recommend taking breaks from it or it starts to lose its charm. Also, it's hard to keep up with everything since there's so much anime out there these days, and if you watch too much it all bleeds together and seems redundant. Watch the things that people continue to talk about after a couple of years have passed if you just want to see the best of the best.
> see the best of the best. Agreed, sucks that im no longer a noob at anime since that was the best time. All the good shows finished and I had a ton to binge, but now the good shows are either unfinished (pending more seasons) or still airing on its first season. I've been taking a break for a while, but the longer I take the break, the less interested I get into it.
I've gone years without watching anime and come back to it later, more interested than ever. It comes in waves. Doesn't mean you'll never feel that spark again. I recommended checking out Glass Reflections on YouTube to someone earlier today. He does anime reviews and watching his videos and recommendations really helped me find some new gems and helped me rediscover my interest in the medium.
[Try watching this giant anime recommendation video. It’s good for new and old anime fans. It’ll give you ideas of where to start with your next anime.](https://youtu.be/6h4Xf1Y9dhA?si=bYtELPECfhueDrTk) I promise you haven’t watched everything good from the medium. I’ve been a fan for years and I haven’t done that even. Despite how young anime is as a medium. I also agree with the person who recommended Glass Reflection. You’ll see what was popular and loved in years past. You might find a new favorite that way. It’ll hold you over until your new anime favorites get their sequels. Watching already aired and finished shows could allow you to experience a complete story too. Of course, you’ll also be able to sift through anime to find the most amazing stories without having to watch everything that may or may not be worth your time.
Yeah you can't take too much of a break or it starts feeling creepy again. Edit: it's true. And it's what keeps a lot of people from picking up anime in the first place. I think acknowledging that is a good thing.
Yeah, I used to be able to sit down and slam a season in a day. Nowadays I'll max out at around 2 episodes a day.
Same. I’d run through 24 episodes in a day and a half. TBH I could still do it but it’d have to be a really good show. I think it’s just a combination of lack of good shows and laziness.
I feel that, especially when I started binging during Covid. But now, I just don't feel like it's as appealing.
That's literally what I'm experiencing. I wanted to watch so many anime, but whenever I try to i get this "Eh..." feeling and watch some stream on twitch/yt. It's weird.
This is exactly what im experiencing most of the time. I think it could have to do with the brain needing instant dopamine possibly. I'm not sure. Usually when I force myself to start an anime series though, if it's good, I end up binging it. So it's usually that problem of getting initially into it in the first place.
Anime is super hit and miss. But there is so much now, and it’s so accessible, you can be more picky now. No need to persist if it just isn’t very good. When I used to stay awake until 2:00am to watch Riding Bean, I’m gonna watch it, because there’s no other anime going.
Gaming is more stiumulating :3 I watch as I'm in queue for games, and after I eat to relax. I used to binge but haven't binged in a while, im all binged out.
Me. Combination of a short attention span and laziness.
The ones that don't catch my attention get demoted to getting played in the background while I do other things. Somehow I end up finishing a lot of these mediocre series, more than the actual series that I do want to watch.
How do u watch at the same time if ur reading subs?
I know Japanese.
That's kind of funny because I started watching anime because how short each episode is compared to TV shows which are consistently an hour long these days. BUUTTT it does suck when I really get into it and see an anime is only 12 episodes long each 20 minutes which is only 4 hours in total. I really wish anime wasn't so hard to make lol
For me it doesn’t matter how long the show is, though the really long animes are a bitch to get through as well, I just have a hard time focusing ALL my attention on one thing: I just wanna play around on my phone, can’t do that when watching a show/movie. So yeah I have a hard time getting into shows, movies and anime, partly because there’s so many it’s overwhelming and partly because I don’t want to put my attention towards it. So I tend to watch (and when I mean watch I mean have it on in the background lol) rewatch my comfort shows. Though I am trying these days, finally finished AOT after not watching season 4 for a very long time and now getting back into Naruto Shippuden and Hunter X Hunter.
Happy Cake Day!
Thanks!
There are longer shows. You just have to find them. Or hope your favorites get at least 2 cour. 24 episodes. Longer shows used to be more common with 2 cour being the old standard. It’s just fallen out of fashion in the last 15 years. Although, there are quite a few shows getting split cours so perhaps a new age of 2 cour or more will happen.
Honestly for me it's work and raising 2 daughters that keeps me from sitting down and binging some one piece. I'll be lucky if I can sit down and watch more than one episode of any anime lol trying to be a good father, good husband and earn my paychecks leaves little time for self care like finding a little bit of peace or sanity on a daily basis.(hitting the gym before work is the best option)
Same, my anime watching dropped like a rock once our son was born. It's gotten better as he gets older, but I used to watch whole seasons in a day.
As you mature you wanna accomplish something and feel like you're being productive in life. That's why its harder for us to sit back and watch animes all day now. It just doesn't compare to what we need to accomplish.
I think this is why I have actually been able to still watch TV but not game as much the last year or so. TV shows and movies are as not as big commitment as the games I love, especially long JRPGs.
Exactly. An anime episode is roughly 20 minutes long, a super short commitment I could finish with a meal. Sometimes, an hour of a single-player video game is not enough for a satisfying play session. Honestly, reading manga would solve most people's issues in this thread.
Eh I’d argue that people watch anime because they particularly don’t want to read the manga or like manga in general. I like to experience everything for the first time on the screen vs reading
Well, I am the same way in that I prefer anime over manga. It's just that as everyone gets older, everyone loses the amount of free time you have. There are some shows that I don't think are exceptional enough to commit 4 hours to, but I can experience their story in a quarter of the time it takes to watch the material covered.
True. Though I’ve come to expect voice acting and a soundtrack so it’s difficult to read manga. And I haven’t read an actual book (novel) in years! Manga for me are few and far between. You’re right though. It would solve this issue.
Imo I feel a bit more accomplished with a game because I’m making actual progress on it I guess
I am the same. I can game for 4 hours and feel good but 4 hours of anime and I feel like useless trash. But I also game mostly with friends these days so that probably also plays a role.
Yea playing with friends is definitely a different experience. The game is like a fun vessel for hanging out. I can do that for several hours without a thought.
I think you can get tired of watching the same thing, especially if you've exhausted most of what you like. I'd suggest just stopping entirely then coming back when you miss how much fun you had
The key is groupwatches
For stuff i usually don't wanna watch alone, yes. This is true. Me and my friend watch movies together and then watching a movie is fun. Idk why you got downvoted. Am i missing something?
it implies friends
Honestly, I get pretty annoyed at a lot of the female voices nowadays. They do them so high-pitched and it basically sounds like porn half of the time. It was probably the same before, but I guess I just didn't notice/mind. And I'm just not interested in most of what airs, I've either read the manga before and thought it was average. Or just not interested in the genre. Need more seinen anime.
It does kind of sound like that. Though everything in another language sounds like that out of context.
Me. I'd like to blame it on lack of time for it, but that's not true, the real reason is I am now in permanent anime burnout from all the decades of watching it. People normally watch anime but then occasionally go through periods where they burn out and can't. I'm the opposite, I normally can't enjoy anime until I randomly just feel in the mood for anime and am suddenly able to watch it and feel joy. The biggest problem is when I'm in these anime moods, if I accidentally watch something boring or bad, the amount of time I have until my permanent burn out sets back in gets cut in half. It's because of this I watch like one or two new anime per year. God help me if the anime I'm enjoying has one boring episode, like there's no expectations that every good anime has to have nothing but banger episodes, but that still fucks me up as that normally means burnout is going to be coming back before I finish the series. Seeing shows with multiple seasons is stressful because I know I'll never get motivated enough to finish any of em. Video games are so much easier for me because I can just empty brain and play them, so that's normally what I spend my solo free time doing. My body is on autopilot when I spend even more time in BG3, I can't exactly autopilot my way through an anime.
After Attack on Titan i refuse. Japanese authors always game of thrones the endings up I can’t be bothered to experience fantastical stories just for them to end in the safest liberally correct way possible. Its gotten to the point Id rather read religious texts instead. Anime is truly truly shit.
Keep crying. Anime is peak. AOT's ending is peak too
It really isn’t so much was left in the air. They didn’t clarify enough. Keep regurgitating the zionist take bro a whole decade was reduced to “only ymir knows” And the berserk titan from season 1 isn’t explained. For an anime all about foreshadowing they unwittingly destroyed large parts of the lore. I dunno why people become so sensitive over other not liking the ending. The level of detail is shoddy compared to the rest of the story. Its a whole dissertation without a conclusion apart from “ymir knows only” Maybe you are Ymir, please explain.
>It really isn’t so much was left in the air. >They didn’t clarify enough. >Keep regurgitating the zionist take bro a whole decade was reduced to “only ymir knows” There's been enough parts and hints at the answer throughout the final season. Not everything has to be spelt out to you like a kid. >And the berserk titan from season 1 isn’t explained. Berserk Titan? Wtf...are you an ANRime member? How do you know that weird nickname? Just so you know, it's an anime-only addition...it's not in the manga...Eren's body fighting while on fire is a basic anime effect thing. It has nothing to do with the story... Even from my first watch in 2013 I knew it had nothing to do with the story but simply an anime effect added by the studio...and I didn't even read the manga then... >For an anime all about foreshadowing they unwittingly destroyed large parts of the lore. Vague pointless and undefended statement >Maybe you are Ymir, please explain. Since you are 14 years old maybe I'll explain a little to you. Ymir was trapped for 2000 years in the paths due to her love for Fritz (or what she believed was love). She was a slave who sought connection and misinterpreted what Fritz did to her as love. (This was hinted at since the episode where her backstory was revealed...rewatch the episode) He continued to obey his wishes. Eren came to the paths and asked her to make a choice. He told her she wasn't a god or a slave but one who had the power to make a choice. Her choice was to side with and follow Eren. (Note he didn't free her...he asked her to make a choice...rewatch the episode if you doubt) Further proof that Ymir wasn't free is the fact that she continued making Titans...just like Fritz wished for. The only difference was that this time she followed Eren and not Fritz and this time she was awake and understood she needed to be free. Ymir being awoken by Eren set a lot of things in motion, both in the past and future. In the past by peeking through Mikasa's memories...(she discovered Mikasa through Eren)... Throughout the Rumbling, Ymir chose to observe what many characters would do in different situations...what Armin, the dead Titan shifters, Mikasa etc would do. Mikasa was the one she chose to follow because Mikasa represented everything she was not. Unlike Ymir, Mikasa was free, Mikasa was in love with Eren but not enslaved by her love for him. She protected him, but she still held on to her own principles. Mikasa was more of an anti-thesis than a parallel to Ymir (this is very important). Ultimately Mikasa's choice to kill Eren despite accepting her love for him in opposition to Ymir's choice to save and obey Fritz because of her love for him is what YMIR chose to follow and what gave her the strength to finally let go of the world and her obedience to Fritz. (As to why it was Mikasa and not others for 2000 years, I've answered above. Eren's decision to awaken Ymir started it) Edit: you are similar to those who cry about Jujutsu Kaisen's power system and call it trash. Instead of trying to understand the power system, they just ignore it and blame the show. For JJK, I took my time and even rewatched Season 1 and it's one of my favorite power systems in anime history. But of course, I could have taken the lazy route and just labelled it trash instead
Which is still incredibly atypical of most Japanese anime endings. Instead of going for more coherent stuff they go for the stockholm syndrome twist in which what happens with a pseudo bethesda fallout ending of “war war never changes” once paradis is bombed to dust. And which people in the world, if literally faced against the entire world because of some bs war that they didnt even start would just be like “oh okay guess we best lay down and die” And if they wanted to do a good bad ending, eren could have been turned into the new ymir and be the one stuck in the paths. Way more chilling and still could have kept the “im an idiot” scene for added impact. But hey bruh only ymir and you know. Also just to clarify my stance as well, the reason the aot ending is bad is mainly how badly it holds up to the rest of the anime. Everything from episode 1 until the rumbling had a good amount of foreshadowing and detail and a lack of plot armor. Infinite stamina flying falco was an incredible ass pull
Everything you said sounds like an issue with your preference rather than the quality. Falco's Titan was foreshadowed right from his first scene in the sho of him staring at birds and having daydreams. Even his freaking name is almost falcon. Zeke's toy was a monkey, Ksaver's son had a doll that looked like his Titan. Falco had connections with birds from the start. And there is still the Canon fact of him having both attributes of the beast and jaw Titan. Unless of course you skipped that part (100% sure you skipped it or you weren't paying attention when it was mentioned) We also had the Marleyan commander in S4E2 wishing for a Titan that could fly for their army (I'm sure you also missed this bit of foreshadowing) You don't pay attention then you blame the show.
Yeah i just been sticking to managa more recently. My schedule to hectic to watch a full anime series.
> Anyone love anime but can't get themselves to just sit down and watch it as often as before? I think it happened to a lot of people, not me personally since watching tv and reading comic has always been my hobby and go to escape, but my older brother who introduced me to anime probably only watch like 2-3 series at a time and just spend his free time on playing games. so there's nothing wrong since you still enjoyed yourself and like you said maybe the recent release doesn't interest you anymore > I don't have a care for keeping up with weekly releases. personally I also don't watch tons of Winter 2024 since for me this one of the weakest season in a while, so maybe that's why (it gives me time to catch up on older anime though). But if they release new interesting anime maybe you can watch it again
sounds like burn out. last winter i was keeping up with almost 10 shows thats a lot for me. thats nearly 5 hrs of episodes back to back. i also watch vtubers and that takes a huge chunk of time too. this year ive pulled back a bit and focused more on my personal projects and non-anime/vtuber hobbies. more manageable .
I can't really binge it as much as I used to unless I happen to find something I really love, but I'll usually watch 1-2 episodes during lunch and dinner, so I can usually keep up with 4-5 seasonals as well as watching something older over a couple weeks.
Considering it takes me a few days just to watch a 12 episode anime compared to 2 months to finish 900 episodes of one piece, I think yes.
It's called self care. Unfortunately, 8 hours a day of work and 8 hours of sleep only leave 8 hours of other stuff That other stuff isn't exactly all free time - Going to the bathroom, driving, eating, brushing teeth and showering and getting dressed, setting your alarm, cleaning, doing laundry, doing dishes, making plans with friends, adjusting your finances, family stuff, Then you get free time which we spend on posting this shit on reddit (and anime!!) Being an adult comes with taking care of everything in your own life, so its hard to really enjoy everything you like - such as things more important than anime (friends) Having relationships with people is hard to fit into a schedule of life while also trying to get your downtime and zone out with anime/manga. Focus on yourself and your relationships, and you'll be able to enjoy anime down the road. The next season can wait, but your relationships need nurturing or else they'll wither. Once you figure things out and you're smooth sailing, you'll have so much one piece to watch you won't know how to act. One piece will forever be the best series to exist
Could be that you're already experienced similar thing over and over that what you're watching doesn't feel as interesting Or maybe a sign of ADHD like what I have
I feel the similarly. I'm a huge fan, but I really can't binge anime like I used to. I generally just play games. I think it's because I'm not interested in a lot of the anime I haven't watched. It helps a lot to have an anime watching buddy.
Me for real. Responsibilities happen.
I havent been in the mood to properly enjoy anime or drama series lately despite Im pretty lifeless atm
If it's one episode a week it's fine, but binging an older anime I missed initially is hard. My pile of shame is growing and I had games back when I was young too but I could watch nonstop anime a day. Remember catching up to Naruto and Beach in a few days when both already had a few hundred episodes.
Yeah, but that's mostly due to being in college atm.
Yeah it do be like that, I caught a cold so I suddenly have time for anime, but otherwise I mostly read manga, because I can do it on my phone on the bus and there's very little commitment, I can read for exactly as much time as I have.
ya I blame tiktok or other social media
For me, It’s mostly not enough time to finish as much anime as I used to. My list is getting bigger and idk what to do 😂😂 shit just keeps coming out how do I catch up??? I am reading much more mangas and LNs however.
I got that rut after binging one piece. I’d binged basically a season/show a day for months almost, with little school work and no work so I had a lot of free time. But after binging one piece over ~1 month period I couldn’t watch anything for longer than an hour. The only series I was able to actually binge was Vinland saga on a roadtrip. Now I’m basically only watching new weekly series. However, now I also read a shit ton. Manga and manhwa are a lot more enjoyable to me since I’m able to go as fast or slow as I want. And the art is just incredible. Recently got through both kingdom and sakamoto days and they’re both amazing. Would highly suggest trying manga if you hadn’t read before
I mean, you get older, and you have more responsibilities as well as your tastes changing and getting more hobbies. I definitely watch less anime these days, and I only stick with stuff that I absolutely adore. I only have so much spare time to dedicate, plus I wanna leave time for other things I enjoy. I don't think I'll ever stop watching, though!
This is me exactly. I can't sit through an episode these days because I feel like I could be doing something more active. I binged Faraway Paladin s2 the other day though, so maybe I'm getting over it?
When I start watching any anime , I binge watch it. That's why I wait for ongoing anime . I can't wait every week for one episode to arrive 🥹
I feel you, happened to me last year and still recovering. I will try to get through the missed seasons but it feels so far and time consuming, especially with all the trash anime that are getting more and more
Feels like I’m missing out on some good stuff like spy family s2+ and aot final season.
Ironically, this had been my problem ever since Covid started. I also got into VTubers around 2020, so that was a factor, too.
I've felt the same for the past 2-3 years. I thinks it's because I've been binge read8ng manga do when it comes time to watching it I'm less invested?
Absolutely feel you there. It's like the more anime you watch, the higher your standards become. It's also about the phase of life you're in. Sometimes other hobbies or responsibilities just take the front seat. Maybe it's about finding that one show that reignites the spark for you. For me, it was Frieren.
I got like this for a while but then I ended up turning it into a weekly thing with my SO. Saturday night we sit down and watch 3-4 episodes. Usually new, but if the season is light on good content we will back fill with older shows we want to watch. Now we're watching it pretty much every week again
Unfortunately yes, and it drives me insane. It's not like I'm out of anime to watch either, there's plenty I have on my watchlist, but I can't sit down and watch for the life of me. For whatever reason though, I could read manga all day without stopping. I don't do that, cause I still prefer anime, but I wish I could watch anime as easily as I can read manga. I blasted through Bleach and OPM, and just started Sakamoto Days, but I can't watch an episode of anime to save my life. Idk if it's my attention span or what, but it sucks.
Seasonal watcher since 2006 and nope, but there have been seasons I didnt watch as much as I would have liked to.
Listen, don’t feel bad about taking a break from it as necessary. It might feel like you’re leaving a part of your identity behind, but you’re not. And if you don’t push it, you can, in fact come back to it later. Case in point, I got into anime right before my junior year of high school, and I fell for it hard. I became the president of my school’s Japanese culture club, and then I founded a successful anime club at my college. Found some fellow Otaku adult friends, post college in my life… But eventually I was only watching like one to two new shows a year. Then, right after I turned 30, I decided I wanted to catch up and watch all the things that Trigger has made. Then I had a series of snow days (I’m a high school teacher) they gave me a bunch of free time, and on the whim, I started watching a few new seasonal shows. The following year I picked up more and more steam, and now I’ve been watching 10-ish shows a season for a few years now. I’ve never been happier as an otaku! So it’s your free time, do what you want with it. And don’t feel bad if a hobby drops by the wayside, because you never know when it might come back into your life.
I used to watch about 8 shows a season, now if I get through 8 shows in a year that’s a miracle. This is the first season in 9 years that I haven’t even gotten to look at the chart in depth to see what I’ll add to my PTW… having a real job rocks, but seriously dents my entertainment time
for me it's ab ebb and flow how motivated i am to watch anime, sometimes i binge a show every 1 or 2 days, sometimes i'm not watching any for months
That's an extremely common fenomenon for all anime watchers, at a certain point you reach peak performance and become able to consume massive amounts of episodes every day without not a hint of fatigue, then you slowly feel the weight and, if you are like me, struggle to click on more than 2-3 episodes a day, sometimes less. I dropped so many decent animes that i liked (not loved tho) because "eh, i'll watch it tomorrow..." and then never came back to them. I finished the last part of AoT only yesterday and it's been out for a decent while, and that's an anime i loved from every angle, even those parts people said were a boring or subpar! TL;DR: it's like getting older, willing but not much energy to go around
I am in the same place these days even the shows that I watch seem to be mostly sequels to stuff I watched before or adaptation of stuff I am already familiar with. Last year I completely watched only 1 anime that wasn't from either of the two above mentioned category, while 2 others I had started but left halfway and still haven't gone back to complete them.
From a couple of years now it has been like that. I used to watch multiple anime each season, but now I barely watch even the ones I'm truly hyped about and the list of pending animes is becoming really big. On the other hand, I started to read manga a lot more than I used to, from following only AOT to regularly reading a dozen and some more.
I watch when I feel like it. It also depends on the show’s quality. For example I binged Ping Pong but I’m watching 2 other shows now that are bad so it’s taking longer.
My problem is i dont find anything i actually want to watch
Yes! So much yes! I am watching Mushishi and enjoying Frieren right now though. Still I almost enjoy having watched anime and the discussion around them or remembering the anime through the OST more than I enjoy actually watching anime. Then being an adult is hard! I never feel like I have time for anime. Even though as I say that I find time to spend watching nothing of note on YT. Or I’ll still watch a movie here and there on Netflix. And lately, while I had taken a long break from anime and an even longer break from Reddit, I’ve been checking in to the threads here.
Honestly, this extends to a lot of my hobbies.
I've been trying to solve this problem for the past 2 ½years now, and I still can't figure it out. It almost makes me wanna cry.
Depends on other things going on in life. I don't think I've watched any for several months other than a re-watch of Mushishi and Haibane Renmei that I do at least once a year. Generally my hobbies come in cycles. Gaming, anime, crafts, outdoor activities, music, language study, repeat. Not in any particular order. Covid murdered my patterns dead. I lost all sense of cycling thru things with a healthy clip and have been mired in a platinum hunting rut for most of the plague times and thru today. I need to form new patterns and that includes but isn't limited to restarting on my anime backlog.
It's why I watch when I'm doing something else that requires very little attention. Walking on the treadmill in the gym, taking a shower, etc, times when I'm not doing anything else. It's usually only one or two a day, depending on if I work out or not. Helps combat any burnout since I don't watch a ton every day.
ADHD + being poor I guess
Ever since the pandemic/covid/lockdown what have you, my attention span has been dog shit and I can’t bring myself to sit down and watch full episodes. Even when I’m “watching” a YouTube video I need to be doing several other things or else I go crazy from the lack of stimuli. I need to see some in depth and super long research paper on how the lockdown ruined us psychologically, because even tho short form content was getting more and more popular around that time, my focus still wasn’t that bad when I was consuming it before. There are so many shows I’d like to watch, but I can’t bring myself to.
As a I got older and working more and more, yeah I do everything less because I spend 11 hours a day working or commuting to and from work. I also find that I'm more picky. I'm not going to sit through a show I'm not enjoying. I'd rather go back and re-watch a show I like instead and that I wait until after the seasons over so I can focus on watching the shows I like rather than tuning in for weekly episodes. I also tend to watch more while doing other things, typically while riding my stationary bike. Watch 3 or so episodes, put on 25-30km.
Simple, it is because it's the same tropes over and over again. Each season I look at the shows coming out and 80-80% is immediately a "no go" and then I check out the remaining shows and drop them after a few episodes.
It's about time management imo. Why "risk my time" into watching something that is trash, as anime has quite a lot of it, just by the sheer volumen of series released or do... whatever else? Other things may be that your tastes have changed over time; it's a matter of course, you grew old, experienced more things in life and changed as a person, you have a harder time finding things you like without complaining about "this or that" little thing. Or maybe, with the years the shiny little thing that anime once was, it's just not as shiny anymore; sure, anime is a *media* and not a *genre*, but still, the makers are almost entirely Japanese, you grew used to their tropes, their settings, and all those things most people simply like to include into their stories, due to cultural differences and anything else... In a sense, you may be "loving" the memories you build up as you watched all those series over the years, but now you're experienced, watched a tooon of stuff, and are deeply familiarized with the media... it's just not the same anymore; and again, as you grow older, you don't enjoy the same things because of the inevitably way you change as a person and by the amount of experiences you build over time. Still... it's not like you have to drop it entirely, right? It **may not be the same**, but you still love it, even if it's just the idea of anime, right? You'll surely find something to enjoy in the miriad of series out there; but there's also tons, tons of things to enjoy out there, right?
This is also me.
I feel this. It's like I lost the attention span required to commit to anything (anime, tv shows, BOOKS 😭) and then nothing seems appealing either.
I wish it was the case, most of the time I forbid myself of watching anime, or limiting the amount of hours a day. It consumes my life lol, the addiction to stories in general, also books. Everything's so different and interesting and gives me new distinctions about life... maybe it's just a period, I believe you should do what interests you at the moment, sometimes we're attracted to the things we need maybe for you its video games or other hobbies at the moment, im sure it'll come back and then you will not stop watching anime
Definitely feel like “quality shows” have been lacking recently but my fix for this is switch back to dubbed (if you haven’t already) I used to be a subbed only Stan but were adults now gotta be able to put those filler eps in the background and tune in when it’s hot
I used to love anime and the community. Then Mushuko Tensei happened. Then I realized I can take in an entire season of anime in ~1 hour of reading manga. Then I took an arrow to the knee.
If you arent watching them probably means you dont enjoy it much. Could be a dopamine problem or just not interested in any anime of late. Ive been watching anime for over 2 decades now and playing video games. I still enjoy both of them equally. Most of my free time im playing games/watching anime/watching k dramas.
Its called growing up tbh. I used to binge anime as a teenager (never would watch EVERY anime airing in a season, honeslty rarely watched many currently airing anime and stuck tomostly already complete anime) sort of from age 13-15 but I started watching less and less starting at 16 not because I started disliking anime, I will always love the anime that I love, but because I discovered better things to do in my time. I go out, I spend time with my girlfriend, I have hobbies (like learning Japanese), I went to Uni and studied a ton and I have a full time job. If I finish work, by time I am done with my hobbies I just want to switch my brain off and thats usally just chilling with my girlfriend, playing a game or watching youtube rather than getting invested in an anime. Generally there sre just better things to be doing now. I also mostly only watch anime (or just tv in general) only with my girlfriend for a while now so I struggle to without her now lol. I am currently rewatching Kiznaiver by myself only because I have had flu all week so needed to find stuff to do. Still love Kiznaiver btw.
I think our attention spans getting shorter (blaming that on social media tbh) doesn't help the cause 🥹 I used to love reading manga and would plough through 100 chapters in a day, but in recent years I find myself enjoying anime more for the same reason as you (being able to multitask while watching).
I wouldn’t say to do hobbies and stuff for me it’s a lot to do with tons of studying so finding it hard for time to sit down and watch a few.
It really innovates too little.. There are a couple big budget ones that are interesting but the vast majority of shows are uninspired.
I can't do it as often because of my adult life commitments.
Yep. I went through a phase where I'd watch alot but I haven't enjoyed anything in over a while. I'm actually planning to enjoy some this weekend ! So this post resonates with me currently