Shocked said:Protaku94 said:
The one that clearly comes to mind is Tokyo Magnitude 8.0. The spoiler made me pay attention to smaller details and hints I would have missed about the ending, and when the plot twist was revealed, I felt it had more impact than it would have if I wasn't spoiled.
You get the same experience from watching spoiler-free the first time, then rewatching knowing future events ahead of time. That being said, it requires rewatching, and not everyone's up for it. It's nice to know what to look for, that's for sure. For example, knowing the types of symbolism that appear in Utena helped greatly in identifying them in key moments during my first run through. That doesn't require knowing the solution to the show's mystery though.
The real problem with spoilers is not knowing being able to be surprised. You can't experience the anime as it was intended, so foreshadowing and plot setup get thrown out the window. Still, it what it
does do is give a
different experience depending on a show. For an anime that depends on shock value and lots of tragedies, knowing spoilers ahead of time would actually turn the show into an inevitable downward spiral. You know what's going to happen, and there's nothing anyone can do about it. All you can do is prepare yourself, as the viewer, for what's to come. It's different than getting blindsided by the plot, but at the same time, you run the risk of just waiting around for something to happen. It becomes less about the ending and more about the build up getting there, but for shows which are built around the ending, the journey there will be a long crawl full of "yeah, yeah, I know what's gonna happen, get to it already."
For shows with death spoilers, it's hard to get attached to anyone since you know they won't be sticking around. With shows whose final villain is a mystery, the whole mystery becomes pointless, as it becomes a waiting game for the characters to figure it out. When done intentionally, like a historical show that treats future events like destiny, it becomes a show about inevitability. When done unintentionally, such as a show making things too obvious or the viewer knowing spoilers ahead of time, you might just be bored out of your mind waiting for things to happen.