| Do we even need to talk about those hype train jumpers and quitters? In my book if you have stayed around for 4-5 years (a reasonable amount of time to explore properly the media even in small amounts) you are a genuine anime fan even if quite after that. Everyone under that is just a random watcher. |
alshuNov 9, 2022 8:50 AM
| Wait like Ok after reading the title I just imagined myself dying in two years Ig maybe, the only friend I know that quit anime watched it only for abt two years |
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| Apparently that guy doesn't know shit. I've been watching anime for 17 years. But it really depends on the person. The friend who recommended me to anime stopped watching it literally the moment I started watching it myself. So his life span was about 4 month. What a freak. |
| "You only realize the real value of something you discarded when you get the chance to pick it up again." - Rudeus Greyrat |
| The guys above this post got it right. Casual viewers just got bored after some time. |
Help! I need somebody. Help! Not just anybody. Help! You know I need someone. Helpppppp!  |
| been watching for 5 - 6 years. No desire to stop yet |
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| I don't know anything about the data set he's working with and whether it's cross-cultural. It's an average, and this forum is gonna have selection/survivorship bias, but it wouldn't surprise me if the number is roughly true in the general population. It's not just that some people will get bored of anime, but as we grow and develop we can find competing interests and passions, not to mention responsibilities and obligations as we get older. I got into anime more seriously later in my life, and it's only because I've had a weird mix of luck and misfortune that I can devote any serious time to it. I don't see myself dropping anime even if things radically and materially change for me at this point. |
| Mh. I do know some people who "grew out" of watching anime. But it lastet longer than only 2 years for most of them. My friends in school watched from 5th to 9th grade (DBZ started at that time and after that we had very present topics about pokemon with every new generation, yugi-oh, beyblade, one piece and some other stuff), so it's more like 4-5 years. Some of them still do watch anime (at least I know of 3 guys), so its more like 20+++ years for us (26 years for me, as sailor moon and some other anime started 1995 in my country, some others started 1998/99 with pokemon/digimon/dragon ball). Some of them stopped after going to school. Other people I know are casual watchers. They sometimes find something good, watch it and then don't touch anime for years until they find something interesting again. I don't really think it is only 2 years. At least in my environment its more like ~5 years. After that most people I know stopped watching anime for whatever reason. |
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| I mean I kinda get agree, I started to fall off anime about 2 years in, I've just gone 3 years now and I'm mostly struggling to get through seasonals and I've drasicly increased in reading manga and lightnovels and stuff. |
  『ᴅᴇᴍᴏɴ-ʟɪᴋᴇ ᴊᴜᴅɢᴇ ᴏꜰ ꜰɪʀᴇ』 Then her jaw slackened as she muttered out. [I... am the bi◼️?] ☽ † ☾ - ᴅᴇʟɪᴠᴇʀɪᴇꜱ- ꜱɪɢ ᴍᴀᴅᴇ ʙʏ ʜᴜᴍᴀɴᴛᴡɪɢ |
| There have been highs and lows just like with movies and books for me, but I'm still a fan after a decade and I don't think it will change. |
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| I believe there is a novelty and exoticism factor. Most people who didn't watch anime growing up, like myself (except for a few dozen Pokemon episodes from the ages of 8 - 9 years-old, which I neither knew was anime nor knew what anime was or of its existence in general at the time), grew up instead and continually remain immersed in live action television and film in their native language and from their native country, and maybe cartoons/animation in their native language from their native country, if you're from a country like the U.S., Canada, Britain, etc. that also has and produced a number of its own cartoons and animated features. And even then, if they begin watching foreign content, it may be foreign live action films, like a lot of Europeans watching American films dubbed into German, French, Italian, etc. There's something about a foreign language cartoon which does seem particularly new and fresh and novel. But then after watching a few dozen or a hundred or more, the novelty may wear off, as it doesn't seem as much like this new and exotic, exciting world as they begin to recognize some of the commonalities, whether in art style or in the writing sphere in terms of conventional tropes and archetypes, etc. because recognizing those trends and similarities is part of why they may have grown bored of, say, Hollywood films and Western art and media content in the first place, and sought something new. If the new is no longer new or surprising then it faces the prospect of becoming stale like all the rest. I think there's a difference though as well between someone who says "Barring some extreme emergency, I have to watch 2 to 15 anime episodes a day of various series, watch a large number of or all seasonals, or commit to the planning stage of definitely watching hundreds or even thousands more series in the future" versus someone who just watches some episodes here and there of some shows they feel like watching whenever they feel like watching them and not when they don't. In other words, the same way they treat non-anime TV series and films. |
i can confirm for myself that most of my friends that have watched anime have died in the last several months, we're the outliers next on the chopping block |
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| I was such an avid watcher as a kid, man. Now I'm so lazy and unbothered to even pick up anything new unless it has like a god-tier premise (which doesn't happen much). I feel like I won't watch any anime next year or the year after that, and I'm fine with that. |
| i mean, i have watched anime my entire life, but i've recently gotten way more into anime in 2019, so it's been like 2ish years. |
| Idk if it's anything about anime itself. I have some friends who don't watch much at all anymore just because they're adults with jobs and stuff now. The ones that do still watch it a lot are ones that go to sleep late or something, so they're having to go out of their way to watch it. I'm in grad school and don't watch it as much as I used to (though I still read a lot of manga). There just isn't as much time as there was when we were kids. And after you get past your first 100-200 shows, you start having a harder time finding that show that sucks you in and makes you binge a season in a day. More often at this point you watch a couple seasonals and then have 1-2 other shows that you slowly/steadily chug through. |
Is Blue Box my favorite manga? Not yet...Yes. Yes it is.  |
| possibly I think interest always comes and goes though |
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| I've been watching anime since before I could read and I don't have any plans to stop. So it sounds like BS to me. |
| well now that I started working it has been harder to keep up with seasonals and stuff, but I wouldn’t ever just stop watching it completely |
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| I 100% agree, randos who refuse to watch worthwhile things burn out within 2 years. I've seen it happen a lot. it's very common with those who parrot "anime is trash" |
| 馬鹿げた倫理 全部ガラクタで |
| That may be true for people who have shingeki no kyojin and kimetsu no yaiba in their favorites. |
| Imagine how boring this world would be without Japan - a comment at youtube |
| Well, I don't have anime friends that I could actually talk with so I don't know, but I think it's because of some people grow up and need to focus more on important things than wasting their time watching some drawing dudes fighting over pointless things, and I also think people quit because they run out of good anime to watch and spend their time more on playing games/social media. |
_shxroDec 12, 2021 3:58 PM
| Getting strangled to death by Rin's thighs wouldn't be a bad way to die. |
| This is possible, most people commenting saying they haven't stopped watching anime after x years are an outlier and the people that stopped literally can't voice their opinions because they left the anime community. But definitely there are veteran anime viewers that quit anime because of life problems. |
| So if Jonathan Clements theory is correct then most people who watch anime are casual viewers who only watch the medium for a very limited time window. I would say it is true that a big chunk of the target audience for anime tends to fall into the teenage/early twenties category so there is perhaps some truth to this. Still I would expect most people to watched for a longer timespan than two years although I guess a significant number of people would stop watching anime after leaving uni or getting a job. I can see that trend ending though as with the advent of streams and on-demand TV it is easier than ever to continue watching anime long beyond the typical period. The popularity of anime has gone up noticeably in the last 10 years. I would not place too much weight on what people see or say here as the people who post on MAL are not representative of the general population. For example I would expect the number of hardcore anime viewers to be overrepresented in this forum when compared to the average Joe on the street. As such you will get lots of people saying they have watched anime for donkey's years... |
| I can only speak to my experiences. There was a five-year period over which I voraciously consumed anime, but over the past few years I've gone from watching four+ hours a day to around just one and from watching mostly seasonals to watching maybe one or two new shows each season while rotating between several older shows I've been wanting to see. I don't see myself ever quitting anime but I have been getting more into manga of late and that may end up consuming the largest share of my time in the future. |
 A society which fails to uphold empathy as its foremost guiding principle is doomed to ignore or even defend the exploitation of its most vulnerable members. |
| considering i watched anime (as fan, not randomly tv slots lol) fro 2006 to 2012, stopped, and returned in 2018 'till now, that guy doesn't know nothing. (though i'm not necessarily following seasonal anime, i'm still considering myself as anime watcher lol) |
| Dunno, I'd have to know how he went about checking with people who quit watching anime. Seems difficult to get reliable numbers, and 2 years isn't very much time. I don't know anyone who's quit anime myself, but I have met people like that user who made a thread asking if people felt they had seen everything anime has to offer. |
on 
| Hmm, maybe there is a lot of turnover. The people I talk to have usually been watching for a lot longer than 2 years, but the people who don't last very long probably aren't invested enough in the medium to even join platforms like MAL. |
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| I guess , I've been watching seriously for about a year and half but i've been intrested in and watching anime for 5 years now, I don't know how long this hobby will last but i plan to enjoy it till the end |
| Signature removed. Please follow the signature rules, as defined in the Site & Forum Guidelines. |
| Probably, a lot of people starts to think at that time that they've already watched "everything". It like, when they reach the top of the "average-ness" they decide to quit. In my case I've been watching anime for almost 20 years (more if you count my hiatus) and I'm still going strong. And just in case, I'm your average funtional adult with a job and despite that I can enjoy my hobbies. |
 |
| This what happens when all someone watches is battle shonen or CGDCT. |
 ☆☆☆ "There's a huge difference between one and infinity. However, compared to the difference between existence and non-existence, one and infinite are nearly the same. I am the child destined to become the best witch... no... The greatest Creator in the world...!" -Maria Ushiromiya ☆☆☆ |
| After 2 years on seasonal diet you die of genre malnutrition. It is known. |
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| So an anime watcher's mortality rate is really high. I kinda agree since it's typical for anime to have dark themes. |
| My Story TLDR There were a lot of things I needed explanation for. It's not a daily event after all. Proof of My Story |
| makes sense. I feel like here on mal most people have surpassed that which also makes sense |
 ManWild |
| Well, I've been watching anime for 11 years so I've watching 5.5x that... so I say no. A lot of people watch around 4 or 5 years before quitting (mostly). From what I've noticed anyway. |
 |
random777 said: According to Jonathan Clements (A known author who researched and put out multiple books on anime industry) The average anime watcher lifespan before he grews out or stops watching is around ~2 years. Do you agree with this? Do you know people who stopped? I think i agree,anime seems to have a lot of turnover over the years compared to something like video games.And i personally know people whos last anime watched is over decade if not two decades ago.Although i think the lifespan should be more like 2-5 years. Beyond that its less likely for a person to permanently quit. Do you have a source on where he said that? |
| Shoot first, think never. |
| I just completed 2 years watching anime and I don't see myself quitting it anytime soon. |
  "I wonder if anything will ever change? Will that day ever come?" - Okazaki, Tomoya "Nothing can stay unchanged. Fun things… Happy things… They can’t possibly remain the same." - Furukawa, Nagisa |
| It just a shifting in media from anime to manga cause of time problem, but I do still watch anime though. |
ReinysDec 13, 2021 7:12 PM
   “Don’t cry. Not yet. Just feeling the frustration is enough” |
| For context: The brutal, commercial realities of the industry have brought some unwelcome truths to light about the nature of making cartoons all over the world. Average cartoon consumers will only stay in their demographic bracket for a maximum of two years. They buy the toys for one show as a child, then might move on to the cards or the console game tie-in for another, and if the animation company is lucky, they may even turn into serious fans, buy Newtype for a couple of years, and become regular consumers of the more rarefied world of straight-to-video animation. If the company can hold their attention for long enough, they might even be steered into erotic anime for a while. Eventually other concerns--a day job, marriage, children--remove most of the audience from the world of animation, although these same concerns may drive them into the similar world of live-action television drama." (J. Clements, The Anime Encyclopedia p. xviii) But this is not even his point here; he is discussing the problems of lack of originality and quality, and brings in the short expected lifespan of the average show as a factor. In other words, there's no point in making this season's mecha good (he wrote before the isekai boom), since it will be forgotten in a couple of years and by then there will be a whole new generation of people to sell the next piece of garbage to. |
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