If you didn't get into anime as a kid/teen, does it make you less likely to get into it as an adult?
| Just curious because most of the fans i knew got into it as kids and most of the adults in my life i tried getting to watch anime hated it with a passion. Like my parents were pretty tolerant of what cartoons i watched, they'd watch spongebob and all that stuff with me but when it came time for DBZ or Yugioh to come on, they hated it or made me turn it off. (I don't mean an age limit, moreso just something you have to get into as a kid to understand the appeal) |
| My waifu is the most wonderful waifu. Mai Valentine. |
| As long as you like hot girls, you will likely continue to like anime so no. |
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| The limit is 14 y.o, it's similar to enjoying Harry Potter, if you haven't started when you were a kid, you won't be able to get into it. |
| If you're a fanboy, please don't waste my time. Watch more movies, please. Kafka, Fu Xuan, Jingliu, Topaz and Huohuo. |
| i don't think a 60 to 80 year old person would suddenly become an anime fan. |
Phosphophyllita said: I was exactly 14 when I got into anime so yeah.The limit is 14 y.o, it's similar to enjoying Harry Potter, if you haven't started when you were a kid, you won't be able to get into it. I guess 13 and 15 are also quite ideal |
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| I didn't start until I was 17, good thing I'm a 14 year old at heart I guess. |
| Depends. I guess the main anime that a new viewer sees when tryna get into the medium is shonen, isekai, and mainstream shows in general which mainly consist of anime targeted towards children and teens. It would definitely be harder but not impossible as an adult. |
Phosphophyllita said: The limit is 14 y.o, it's similar to enjoying Harry Potter, if you haven't started when you were a kid, you won't be able to get into it. I am pretty sure I am not the only member on this site who didn't watch anime at all when they were 14. As a matter of fact, I don't remember watching anime when I was a teenager. |
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| I think I'll always be into anime no matter when I start watching it. |
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| Not really. Age is simply numbers...... |
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| I started watching anime in earnest at age 30 so yea, age is just a number |
| I think people are definitely less and less likely to get into anime as they get older (though I think this is mostly due to factors that don't have to do with anime itself), but I don't believe there's an age where it becomes impossible. My mom is in her late 60s, and she started watching anime 3 years ago. She enjoyed it immediately, and she still watches at least 1 episode a day before bed as part of her routine. She finished the second season of 86 yesterday, she's starting the third season of Natsume Yuujinchou today, and she's really excited to see the Kaguya-sama move in theaters next week. |
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| Dunno. I started watching anime at 20. Many people start even later. |
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| Can't answer for the others. But I started early and then gave a big break, just returning in the year I created this account. |
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| I got my mom into anime. she loves it and she's in her 60s. But I can't convince any of my much younger RL friends to give it a try. |
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perfectionFound said: started at 25 when I grew out of partying and getting wasted lol I was always a nerd tho, played competitive pokemon cards for many years. REAL BROOO started at 23 right when i got out of rehab; no raves for me its all anime now lmao i was like i need something new man, something kinda quirky, but something that i can do in my free time, maybe even trying to feel a part of a subculture again or something. i chose anime; i literally decided "i will get into this, this will be good for me" and it was a good decision, kinda like a hobby of mine now, im not bored out my mind, this new thing in my life, it excites me, anime i mean |
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tomasowa said: To be fair, it all comes down to interpretation. The simplest analogy would be songs on TikTok; most have emotional lyrics but they become viral around the World because of their hilarious interpretations on the social media application. So content messaging can be a separate thing to its interpretation which can also add to its mainstream appeal. Generalising anime tends be categorising the viewership as children whilst omitting the fact creators of franchises are adults, some of who are older than most on this forum. The only place content for children are created by children is in a classroom. Or TikTok. With that in mind, it is not a case of age per se but rather age-appropriateness of content to viewer. Most of anime held in high regard here rely on rudimentary understanding of philosophy, coated with gratuitous shock value but capped at the intellectual level of a teenager. These would include every so-called edgy title that gets glorified in Posts of late. A sensible adult would be able to see this and feel both patronised and bemused at the sub-par intellectual pursuit on offer, myself included. Other anime, however, are created with full understanding of the immature nature of their realities but does not try to pass it off as four-dimensional chess. A good example is Lucky☆Star and its daily teenage life skits, from the standpoint of teenage intellect. A sensible adult can understand the logic, may even have gone through a similar period, and will enjoy the humour. Interestingly, there also seems to be a correlation within their art styles. Simplistic art usually equated as childish seem to be the preferred medium for more mature-minded messaging. Elaborate and detailed art, however, seem to be the preferred fluff for the most infantile-logic tropes ... I'd give this post of yours a thumbs up if MAL had such a feature. Reminds me of a quote by CS Lewis When I became a man I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up. |
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| If I were 60, my reaction to anime would be like 'what the fuck are these Chinese cartoons for pedos?!' and I would be right. |
| If you have time to think of a beautiful end, then live beautifully until the end. ” -Gintoki Sakata |
| I think it depends but mostly yes I got into anime when i was in the 9-10 year range and became a "big fan" from the age of 12-13 ig I would hv still liked anime even if i watched it as a 26 or 39 year old although it would be with significantly less attachment yo this medium. Apparently there is a thing where as your age increases you are less likely to try out new things or sum shit |
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| I believe it depends on the story of the anime, I believe that something more adult can attract. |
Phosphophyllita said: The limit is 14 y.o, it's similar to enjoying Harry Potter, if you haven't started when you were a kid, you won't be able to get into it. Nah, the only anime I watched as a kid was Pokémon and Yugioh, and those two don't count. |
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| Most people at some point in their life will lose the ability to appreciate things wildly different to what they're already familiar with, so the chance of someone getting into anime reduces as they get older, but the age at which this happens varies wildly and it doesn't even have to happen ever. |
epidemia78 said: When I became a man I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up. As for me the excessive over reliance on children in anime made me borderline allergic to high school. |
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JaniSIr said: epidemia78 said: When I became a man I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up. As for me the excessive over reliance on children in anime made me borderline allergic to high school. I think you are just allergic to anime tropes in general. most characters don't act like actual kids or any different from the adults. Violet Evergarden is supposed to be 14 or something? She could have been aged 22 and it'd make no difference. |
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epidemia78 said: They kind of act exactly as adult as the plot demands it. Like they are both a 60 years old war veteran at the age of 14, and a loser kid who can't talk to girls...JaniSIr said: As for me the excessive over reliance on children in anime made me borderline allergic to high school. I think you are just allergic to anime tropes in general. most characters don't act like actual kids or any different from the adults. Violet Evergarden is supposed to be 14 or something? She could have been aged 22 and it'd make no difference. Yea, she's 14, but if they don't actually tell her age, I'd just assume she's simply short. lol |
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| I didn’t get into anime until well into college |
| I feel like its unlikely once you get out of high school and if you don't watch anime by the time you're 24/25 you'll never like anime |
| I don't think there is. A lot of my friends started getting into anime during lockdown (2020). They may not be a big fan of the medium, but they watch anime from time to time even now. |
"Nobody could laugh at someone who's trying their hardest" -Machio- |
| There shouldn't be any problem getting into more "mature" anime, but trying to get a 30 yr old into some full blown weeb shit is another story. lol |
| If you reply back to me and I never respond, I lost interest and don't care. Sorry about that. |
| I became a fan around 40. Now I’m 52 and can still fanboy with the best of them. ;) |
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| Considering how old some people get into things I doubt there's a cutoff point. I don't think Grumpy Jii-san was watching Japanese black and white short films in his childhood. I did get into anime as a teenager, but there's other things I've gotten into when I was older. There's no real age limit for hobbies. Also, considering how mainstream anime is now there's probably a lot of older people who casually started watching anime just because it was available and looked interesting. |
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| No absolute age limit, but you're more likely to get into anime in your teens and 20s than you would be at older ages. Younger minds are open to new experience, and of course a lot of the storytelling, character demographics, and subject matter of anime are more relatable to those who are or recently were in that age range. And once you reach your 30s, you tend to have more responsibilities in terms of work, relationships, and childcare, which limits the time and mental energy you have to get into a new and foreign entertainment medium. And there's a lot to deal with that's second nature to hardcore anime viewers, whether it's dealing with anime's visual language, foreign names that're harder to remember, the possible need to read subtitles, and the terminology/vocabulary of the medium and the viewerbase culture. It's much easier to just put on something more familiar and convenient. With music, they've scientifically mapped out that people tend to stop paying attention to new/popular music at age 31 or 32, so I'd put the "anime propensity dropoff point" somewhere between 30-35. Of course, it's not impossible for first-timers at those ages and beyond to see and enjoy some anime, but it's usually either the super-popular mainstream shows, or something that appeals to their specific interests -- not "Seasonal Cheat Skill Isekai Slave Harem Slow Life Anime #28." I'd also remark that there's a bit more chance of much older people in places like the USA appreciating anime than in decades past, since those who grew up during or in the immediate shadow of World War II were more likely to see Japan as "The Enemy," a place that was either sinister and evil, or foolish and backwards. Or maybe both. |
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| It's not age, it's about a person's preconception. If they are prejudiced towards something, they likely won't give it the chance it deserves. |
| Imagine a Grandma watching anime. ........You done yet? |
Young_ForeverFeb 8, 2023 7:56 AM
| I honestly don’t really think age matters. One of my best friends was a huge anime hater for some time and in his late 20s he decided to give anime a try. He ended up liking attack on Titan and demon slayer. |
| For people who take all their cues on how to live, talk, and think down to cultivation of their own interests based on the dominant trends of their biological age and age brackets (along with other groupings such as nationality/national culture, sex, etc.), and treat them as sacred directives they internalize to the hilt, sure. It's not something I ever related to even from the youngest age from my the time of my earliest conscious living memory at 2 1/2 years-old. Questions like whether any given person will give anything, not just anime, a chance, and the degree to which engagement in such things by those individuals is inversely correlated with any tangible downsides (such as primarily and most importantly, physical danger and health effects) is more a matter of the degree to which the person in question is reflexively tribalistic, prejudiced, and closed-minded.Which many people are even at the youngest possible ages. |
WatchTillTandavaFeb 8, 2023 8:22 AM
| It's not black and white, just different shades of grey. |
| Be happy with what you have to be happy with |
| For me it was the opposite way around. I started watching kids tv on a black and white set until I was about 7. So when I saw cartoons in colour I thought they were amazing, but I only saw cartoons on Saturday morning tv here in the UK as we didn't have satellite tv. If I'd had access to the internet or satellite tv (Toonami, Cartoon Network, Nickelodeon etc) I would likely have loved anime, but I didn't, so it wasn't until I was an adult and had the chance to explore anime that I fell in love with it. Part of my love for anime, especially shows like One Piece is indulging my inner child who wasn't able to experience these shows. |
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| I think this is like every other aspect, too. As you grow up you have established yourself a own environment, interest field, hobby spectrum. The further a new aspect is from your original environment/hobby spectrum the less likely it will awake a interest of you. The older the people become the less likely they will pick an interest in new things or even try to learn new things. It is really hard though to find the exact spot of age, I would say it depends more on the individual character of said person. |
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Axerix_DeezNutz said: Parasyte got me into anime too! Good old times.I mean fuck I fucking loathed anime seeing it as some overrated stupid shit after seeing DBZ scenes with my hispanic school friends but no after I saw parasyte:the maxim when I was 17 fucking hell I finally genuinely liked it |
| If you have time to think of a beautiful end, then live beautifully until the end. ” -Gintoki Sakata |
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