How popular is anime among older people?

In my experience, it seems like a large chunk of the people who are into anime are usually teenagers, or young adults (early-mid 20s).

Older anime fans are certainly not unheard of and I've seen a few of them both off and online, but they always seem to be in the minority for the most part. Video games also seem to generally have a younger crowd, but gamers in their 30-40s+ are not very uncommon to come by at all (again, in my experience anyway).

I can certainly understand why anime would generally be more popular amongst a younger audience, but the medium is large enough for everyone of all ages to find something they might enjoy, imo.
Are there any 30+ anime fans on this site? For anyone that lives there or has visited, does anime seem more popular among older people in Japan than it does in Western countries?

I am 19 yo and I kind of like it.

So I guess that is that.

OP said 30-40.

You're a teen, not even close to old.

I'm 27, and I enjoy Anime more than ever now, but I haven't played video games in years.

I prefer older Anime over newer Anime, but that probably has something to do with my age.

Japan is an ageing country so I guess there are a lot of seniors in fandom.

You find more 30-40 year old gamers (those who are gaming on PC or dedicated consoles/handhelds) than anime fans, the average age of gamers in many countries is around 30+.

most of older people prefer something that give that real information that give them oportunity in real world. like news or gossip.

or Shirobako or JoJo.

so when you are in the workplace, you talking about jojo with your co-workers?

You would be surprised.

They watch ghibli stuff and think that's the best anime has to offer "throws up"

Inu yashiki (manga) would make a great anime that old folks will like too.

Jojo was really popular when the manga came out, so at least in Japan there are alot of older (30+) fans.

And who talks about their hobbies at work unless your co-workers are really close friends?

I know exactly how you feel, I am 24 years old and married with three kids. I am still into anime and will be until the day I die. I don't play video games and haven't for a long time. In a lot of anime the characters are in our age range such as cowboy bebop, Outlaw star, Lupin the 3rd, and many others.I believe that if you really like something, you should not be ashamed of it, who cares what the hell people say about it or you. lol

Very popular-every time I go into a nursing home the old geezers are sitting around watching anime, it has replaced Lawrence Welk as the new favorite, I've seen many of these old farts chillin' to Golden Time as much as The Golden Girls, or maybe they just got the 2 series confused, I don't know.

My friend is 19 years old and his parents watches anime, dunno they are something like 40-50 :D

I'm 33, and I think that most anime are fairly disappointing by being too "shallow" compared to other mediums. (by this I mean there is a lack of not shallow anime, I'm not saying other mediums don't have a lot of veeeeryyy shallow stuff as well, far from it) They're too quick to remove character background, world building when they make adaptation, and most of the detective anime are either too easy or they break so many essential rules of detective story than calling them detective story is an insult for the genre itself, and so on...
So in a way anime is disappointing because it really gives me the impression that the studio think watchers are stupid, and just want boobs and lots of explosions. Well the worse here, is that they're not really wrong since most anime selling well are like that but... It's the egg and the chick here, did they go that way to sell or did the fanbase went that way because the studio were mostly doing it, don't know...


But while I say that, I still enjoy watching those. I truly deplore the lacks I talked about above in lots of shows, but it's not like I can't find enjoyment in watching.

Grumpy Jii-san is best elderly anime fan. https://www.youtube.com/user/GrumpyJiisan

Too bad though that he hasn't made a new video in 4 years.

Modrn Japanimation is mostly aimed at teens
So..... maybe?
Well my brothr is in his 30s and still watching japanimation so....

What's his favourite japanimation?

Evangelion and some Gundam Series
He even said in the whole family that Eva is a clash of Christian, Islamic, Hindu, Buddhist, etc. Symbols and imageries. (No kidding)

he is your brother afterall so I'm not surprised

Little outside Dragon Ball, in my experience.

I wonder what i did wrong, then.

I'm a 40-something and I watch a little bit of everything. The major difference from my younger days is that I don't invest into it, I won't rally round the flag if people start hating on something I enjoy, and if I don't enjoy something I just don't watch it anymore.

I'm 33 this year, and I've been an anime fan since I was in middle school in 1996. There are ton of American fans my age who boarded the ship of anime in the late mid '90s-early '00s when anime was all over TV, I assure you.

Grew up with different Anime, perhaps?

Besides the Anime I watched on TV, I rented a lot of Anime of VHS, most of which was stuff from the 80s & early 90s.

It tapers off I think. I'm in my early 30's and find that the vast majority of it holds little appeal or comes across as really stupid or odd. The stuff I enjoy I think is really good though, it's appeal just becomes really limited.

I'm sure they are some of that age who still enjoy anime, I just don't know any of them nor am I near that age.

I'm 'older', and I still watch anime for entertainment. Besides, there are still shows I want to see.

Not really sure since I'm part of the newer generation or whatever (18 years old) but there are people in their 30's today who remember renting Akira, Bubble Gum Crisis, and Macross from Video stores in the 80's. I'm sure there are much older people out there who remember watching Astro Boy or Street Racer even if they didn't know they were watching anime at the time.

they are not
older people prefer watch drama and stuff than animu

Really wish I knew some older people that are into anime. Most people my age just watch Naruto.

Madhouse has plenty of mature shows, and they can make more but all these fake ass fans don't support them, then btch about not having enough shows.

Many of the adults I know love one piece. They also don't really like anime since they prefer manga. They only watch anime if it is a really good adaptation of the manga/novel or if the anime is based on an original story. I live in asia so I don't really know much about adults in the west.

There are a lot of older people at anime cons, like 30-60 year olds. They just aren't on MAL.

I am 44 years old, and I watch anime regularly. The first series I saw were heavily edited and Americanized series that were broadcast in the late 1970s/early 1980s. Two that I remember well are Gatchaman (Battle of the Planets) and Space Battleship Yamato (Star Blazers). At that time, I just watched them along with other cartoons, and I didn't pay much attention to their origins. Cable TV was not widespread yet, so most people (myself included) just had access to a small number of broadcast channels. In my area, there were five initially, and a sixth appeared in late 1978. With so few choices, I often ended up simply watching whatever was on, and that included these Americanized anime series.

I have always been a fan of animation in general, so it is only natural that I would be interested in anime. However, it took me until about two years ago to finally get around to it. While I had seen some anime on occasion previously, I finally decided to take a closer look, and I found that there were certain types of shows that I liked. In general, I seek out comedy, relaxing escapist shows, weirdness, and shows that are so bad that they are funny. I usually avoid action-oriented series - this is the case for all media, not just anime.

So far, I have not taken up manga. Although I see nothing wrong with comics as an art form, they have never appealed to me. This is purely a matter of personal taste; the medium must be incompatible with my reading interest or my way of approaching reading materials.

As for video games, I have been playing them since the 1970s. I'm a member of the first generation that got heavily into video games, but the games that existed when I was a child were very different from the games that people play now, and I must admit that I have a bit of a preference for the older style. I may be part of this older cohort of gamers, but I have definitely not kept up with the times. With anime, however, I have kept up with the times and often watch recent shows, although I will also watch anime back to the 1910s, and I don't concern myself much with when a series was made. Perhaps being as old as I am, I have a different perspective on the ages of things. To me, something from the 1990s is so recent that it might as well have been made yesterday, while to many people here, the same thing will seem like ancient history.

I don't know how many older fans there are, but there seem to be quite a few, and our taste is quite diverse. We might not make up a large percentage of the users on MAL, but we are here, and some of us are even fairly active.

Bruh start reading manga, Berserk is waiting for you.

It's also worth noting that many of the people who make manga and anime are 30+, and I'm sure they look at their own work.

I'm 34, and I'm kind of a fan, but my interest is waning. I think I've seen pretty much everything I've wanted to see. It might be time to start reading more manga.

It's probably a matter of exhausting material and getting jaded, rather than age.

I've noticed everyone tends to go crazy when they first find anime, and then their enthusiasm wanes over time regardless of their age.

Nice read! Glad to hear that people who were watching anime and playing video games decades ago got to see both grow and become what they are today.

I don't think it's that in my case.

I have an affinity for "mature" anime. My favorites back in the 90s were Ninja Scroll, Fist of the North Star, Battle Angel, Akira, Ghost in the Shell, etc. I liked dark, psychological, stylish anime, and I still like it. Today, there's not as much of this kind of anime to choose from. There are some modern shows that I really enjoy like The Tatami Galaxy, Mushishi, and Kino no Tabi, but these types of shows are few and far between.

Well I'm with you there, in there not even being anything airing now which looks interesting. At this point, my Plan to Watch list is so uninspiring that I routinely drop shows from it without even giving them a chance.

31 and same as that

1st anime would probably be alice in wonderland early / mid 90's

lol talking JoJo to your boss or at a meeting is asking for a demotion or getting fired

I'm 31 and have been a fan of anime and manga since high school. I haven't consistently been obsessed with it all those years... I go in spurts where I will watch it obsessively for a while and then I'll take a break for a few months before watching again.

Even though I'm an adult I still prefer anime with pre teen or teen characters. I think it has something to do with reminiscing about days when I was younger haha.
When I found out the main characters in monster were adults I almost decided not to watch it. I don't know maybe it's weird to not want to watch characters my own age in anime.

I am 50+ and I have been watching anime before most of you have been born. I watch all genres and will probably continue watching forever. Age doesn't really have anything to do with watching anime or reading manga. It's a personal form of entertainment that people choose. You don't hit a certain age, then say "Guess I'm this old, so I have to stop watching what I like". It's ludicrous to put an age limit on anime.

A friend of my uncle is 41 years old and watches Naruto and thinks is the best anime ever made.

they kinda stop watching it though
My parents can name a lot of old manga (eg. Tezuka, Attack No.1, hoshi no kyojin? Rose of versaille) but obviously they dont read afterwards
in my experience most people stop once they hit about marrying age
although i did recently talk to a 35 yo about the wonders of madoka magica

At least in the United States, I think it's a generational difference, but one that is degrading and will continue to degrade.

The style of anime that we know today emerged during the 1960s, and the United States didn't start importing anime until the 1980s. So Generation Y was really the first group of Americans to grow up with the medium. I think as Generation Y grows up, the age gap will disappear. Personally, I'm 21, but I expect to remain a fan for the rest of my life.

But that's just me theorizing. I am not sure what the age demographic for anime in Japan, or anywhere outside of the US for that matter.

I'm 28 (will be 29 later this year), and I watch anime almost every day. I love lots of animation in general, I'm not ashamed of it.

Well, I'm 30 and I still watch it. In my group of friends, I'd say there's at least five other people who watch anime. The oldest being 37 (biggest LotGH fan I know) and the youngest 29.

That said, I don't think any of them comment on forums or anything like that. There's still a stigma against older people watching "cartoons" and that's probably why they keep their hobbies to themselves.