I've wondered about the motivation of people, including myself, to watch so much anime, like it's a competition.
I can't speak for other people, but for me I enjoy logging all the anime I watch and tracking it on sites like mal graph (the statistician in me anyway). Yes, it is a bit obsessive and demonstrates the additive side of my personality.
But for me, there are many worse, much more damaging hobbies to be addicted to than anime.
I don't feel pressure to watch more than anyone else, or have the best watching stats to show off in discussion threads. Having been exposed to a decent portion of anime out there, I know how many great shows there are, and I'm always finding more.
In the past July alone I watched Katangatari (scored a 10/10), Koihime Musou, Hinamatsuri, Bokuben S1 & Kenpuu Denki Berserk, all which made a huge impression on me.
I almost feel as if it's fear of missing out on watching all the great anime that the medium has to offer. The biggest barrier I have discovered, is simply wading through all the shows available to find the really good ones (ie the shows that I'd score 8/10 or higher).
A large majority of shows I tend to score a 7 or 6/10; they're good or fine shows, but I want the great shows. So for me it's researching shows, finding recommendations and discovering what I like, which is always changing.
Only recently (within the last few months) have i started to get into the shoujo tag (I saw Kamisama Kiss and fell in love with the show). And my passion for SoL only began last year. Then there's always hidden gems, such as Diary of our Days At Breakwater, that is currently airing. I love fishing so to find a cgdct show with girls going fishing was amazing. It has stunning scenery and is quite a fun watch.
I know that I don't have to watch anime and if I don't feel like it then I won't. Today I've only seen a couple of episodes, it's nice weather so I've been listening to trance in the sun instead, yesterday I spent all morning reading Witch Hat Atelier (superb manga btw) rather than watching anime in bed like normal.
Looking at mal graph my average time is 283 mins per day (4 hours 40 mins), so that works out as between 10-12 episodes a day. I try to resist watching anime just for the sake of it to improve my watching average or hit x number of anime per day. |