How well do you retain anime? The results of my mass anime consumption

Before the days of streaming and abundant torrents, I used to watch very few anime series at a time, usually only via dubs on TV or DVDs I bought or borrowed from friends. But in mid-2006, I started consuming more anime at one time than ever before thanks to the flourishing of fansubbed torrents, along with getting a better computer. Since then however, I’ve noticed that as I’m continuously watching new anime titles, my retention of any one title has been diminishing…

During my early years of fandom, starting from when I first got into anime in 2000 until around 2005, I had watched about 30 different anime titles over the span of those five years. But since 2006, I’ve been watching roughly about 30 new titles per year, meaning that the number of new anime I watch each year is five times greater than it used to be! For the past few years I’ve been watching as many titles per year as I used to watch in five years. As was mentioned in my previous post about anime generations, this mass consumption of anime that most of us take part in is simply the result of the times – easily accessible streaming, fansubbed torrents, direct downloads, IRC, Web 2.0, and the desire for fans to sample a little of everything and be hip on all the latest anime in Japan.

So for me, what have the results been from greatly increasing my yearly anime intake? During my pre-mass consumption years, I used to remember almost everything about each series I watched. This was helped by the fact that, since I wasn’t watching a bunch of series weekly at once, I rewatched series much more often than I do nowadays. Thus, for just about all of the anime I watched in my first five years of fandom, such as Slayers, Trigun, Tenchi Muyo!, Digimon, and many others, I had rewatched them all at least twice. I remembered the names of all the characters, even minor characters. I even remembered other details like the names of episode titles, terminology, and background information specific to that series.


I used to remember all their names. Now, not so much.

Since I started mass consuming anime in mid-2006, I didn’t notice how it affected my retention of any particular series until sometime in late ’07 when I began attending university. At the time, I was watching the first season of Clannad as it was airing (among many other series). Midway through, I started noticing that I had trouble recalling what happened in the previous week’s episode. I would watch a new episode, then a few days later, if a friend started talking to me about it, I would be like, “What happened again?” Only until I started hearing about it or when I watched the following episode, I would be like “Oh yeah!” I blamed it on being a university student at the time and all the information I had to cram into my head for classes was pushing out my anime recollections.

However, the trend has been continuing since, even though I haven’t been a university student for the past year. With so many anime coming and going in my mind all the time, I can no longer retain the names of all the characters, details, specific events, etc., in my mind the way I used to. For series that I watch only once, I can always remember the names of at least a few characters, a general summary of what the series is about, how I felt about it, and maybe a few other things. Basically I can retain a holistic knowledge of the series, but I’ll be damned if someone asks me about a specific scene in a specific episode or other particulars, even if I only watched the series a short time ago. I think half of it has to do with mass anime consumption and the other half is simply that my memory sucks XD


I really liked Eden of the East, so I feel like an idiot for only remembering vague details about it

Over the years, I’ve found that I have to rewatch a series at least three times in order to really remember a lot of specifics about it. I’ve done this with a few of my favorites like Azumanga Daioh and Wolf’s Rain. Thus, I can remember a lot more about these two than I can about Nyan Koi!, a series I only watched less than a year ago. It also has to do with how much I liked a series. I thoroughly enjoyed almost all the episodes of Angel Beats!, so I remember a lot more about it than Working!! even though I was watching them at the same time. My retention of anime also has to do with how I was touched by certain scenes. I can usually remember at least one scene in all the anime I’ve watched that stood out to me even if I can’t remember much else about it. For example, in Escaflowne, an anime I watched one time nine years ago, I remember a relatively insignificant scene where Merle licks Hitomi, but I can’t remember more relevant scenes. I can remember this, yet if you were to ask me what happened a few weeks ago in an episode of Kaichou wa Maid-sama!, an anime I’m currently watching, I probably couldn’t tell you off the top of my head. Yeah, my memory is really inconsistent.


It took five viewings to consider myself a (semi) Wolf’s Rain expert

Looking at how mass anime consumption has affected my retention of each series I watch, it seems like I should stop watching so much anime at once and stick to giving more attention to just a few. I’ve thought about it, but I really do enjoy keeping up with many of the latest series as they air and being familiar with so many different titles even if I have to spread my retention thin among them. Most anime I watch are fairly average and dispensable, but I feel it’s important to watch them anyway for the sake of increasing my knowledge of the fandom. Even during my years of mass consumption, I’ve put aside time to rewatch series I really liked, such as Kannagi, Toradora!, and Air. I still have a long way to go in terms of rewatching all the series I especially liked and catching up on older titles, but I’m in no particular rush. Mass consuming anime definitely has its disadvantages, but it’s where my fandom is right now.

So how well do you retain anime? If you watch a lot at once, do most go in one ear and out the other? Or, are you unlike me, and actually remember a good amount of details about each one? And if you don’t mass consume anime, are your reasons like those I mentioned in the post, or something more?

No Comments… read them or add your own.

  1. kimaguresan says:

    Um…I remember a lot….too much. But I have a memory that just absorbs this stuff. I’ve been having recent conversations with people about older series, epic stuff from a few years ago, and longer, and I was amazed at how much I remembered to the letter/scene. Wise man once said, “it’s amazing how much of my brain is dedicated to anime”

    I watch about 15 or so shows at a time, and my brain keeps up just fine.

    Consumption is about right.

  2. Yumeka says:

    @ kimaguresan

    Wow, that’s amazing! Wish I had your power of retention XD My short term memory is good for routine things or things that are particularly important to me, but not so much for other things. And my long term memory is good for some things and not for others. I can remember random, insignificant things from when I was in preschool, but I can’t tell you many details from an anime I watched less than a year ago. Yeah, my memory’s really inconsistent XP

  3. chikorita157 says:

    How well? I retain Anime pretty well, especially with series I enjoy… Time after time again, I rewatch my favorite anime when I feel like it…

    As for the Pokemon Anime, I hardly remember since there is so many of them.

  4. Yumeka says:

    @ chikorita157

    Yeah, if it’s a series I really enjoyed, or if it just happened to have many things that touched or shocked me in some way, I’ll remember it better than others. But rewatching is the only thing that will really help me retain it, so I try to do that for the series I feel deserve it.

    LOL, I watched the first couple hundred episodes of Pokemon (dubbed) so many times back in 1999-2001, I not only remember specific scenes and events, I can even recite some of the dialogue from certain episodes XD

  5. Mystlord says:

    Depends on the series for sure. I know that whenever I watch something I’m only vaguely interested in like Death Note or Clannad, I usually don’t pay too much attention to parts that I find rather silly. Even in a recently running show like Amagami or DenYuuDen, I tend to phase out parts that I find stupid.

    But when I’m watching something really interesting like Kaiba or Tatami Galaxy from last season, I still remember everything incredibly vividly even after not watching it for a while. Some specifics are definitely lost on me for series that I haven’t watched in a while though, like even though I love Lain, I haven’t watched that show in like forever, so the specifics are lost on me, but I still remember the general thrust of the show, and personally I find that sufficient.

  6. Yumeka says:

    @ Mystlord

    I haven’t watched Trigun in years, but I remember it pretty well because I rewatched it at least five times. So rewatching helps me retain things the best even if a lot of time goes by.

    Surprisingly, I remember exactly how I felt and my general opinion about every anime I’ve watched regardless of how long it’s been or how many times I’ve watched it. I think I simply have a memory that’s focused on remembering things holistically rather than specific details.

    Which reminds me, when I had to write term papers about books, films, etc., in college, that’s probably the main reason I hated having to cite specific examples – I couldn’t remember any, but I could still write pages and pages about my thoughts and observations =P

  7. kluxorious says:

    lol I thought I have problem with details… XD

    I have no problem remembering the main characters and pretty much how the story goes, if it was good enough and got me excited at one point. But I do not consumed 30 series per year. Just around 20 or so at best. So maybe my brain has more room for computing all these shit? *shrugs*

  8. Yumeka says:

    @ kluxorious

    For every anime I watch at least once, I can remember 1) the names of at least a few characters, 2) a general synopsis of what it’s about, 3) how I felt about it, 4) maybe one or more scenes or events that particularly touched me. Of course, the more times I watch a series, or the more I loved it on first viewing, the more I’ll remember. But yeah, watching fewer series allows you to give more thought and attention to each.

  9. keikakudoori says:

    “Most anime I watch are fairly average and dispensable, but I feel it’s important to watch them anyway for the sake of increasing my knowledge of the fandom.”

    I can agree to this statement. Sometimes I watch shows for the sake of consumption but I realize that’s not always a good thing, therefore I don’t do it as much unless I have real interest in the said shows. The positive sides of mass consumption is that you get great exposure to multiple titles increasing tremendously your knowledge of anime, however, for the same reason a large of knowledge gets lost in the process.

    I rarely rewatch anime much so I think that’s another reason why I don’t remember well the details of shows I watched years ago. Luckily for us, there are sites where that info is easily available in case our memory fails. I simply shiver at the thought of not having that crucial info available to us.

  10. Yumeka says:

    @ keikakudoori

    Like many things, there’s a good and bad side to mass anime consumption. The good points are, like we’ve said, being more knowledgeable about a variety of anime and having more exposure to different aspects of the fandom. But the bad points are that you spread yourself thin and fail to be knowledgeable about series individually. It’s a question of whether to know a little about many, or know a lot about a few.

    In order to avoid the bad points of mass consumption, I make sure to rewatch and indulge in my favorite titles. For example, my knowledge of Haruhi, Pokemon, Cardcaptor Sakura, Wolf’s Rain, and my other favorites is way above average. So even though I mass consume anime and thus can’t remember much about most of them, I make sure that I become very knowledgeable about the ones I really care about.

  11. f0calizer says:

    I don’t mass consume anime because I don’t feel a deep connection with the fandom that does so, and I simply don’t have the time or energy to follow all the current series or even those from the recent past. (Heck, I haven’t watched Code Geass or TTGL even though everyone looks at me strangely for not doing so.) I post comments on various blogs that talk about the three current series I do follow because I like to focus my enjoyment and hear what other people have to say about them. Also, because of the nature of my work (I teach literature and write criticism about it), I want my anime-watching to be distracting and relaxing, so I try to avoid too much in-depth analysis or commentary on something that is supposed to take my mind off work. So I don’t make an effort to remember a lot of scenes or details or lines from the anime I watch, although I like to retain an overall or, as you say, holistic sense of that series. That just happened today when I was explaining Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu to someone — I couldn’t remember any specific details, but I did remember the basic premise and the overall zany tone of the series. =)

  12. Yumeka says:

    @ f0calizer

    That’s cool, not everyone has to mass consume anime to enjoy being a part of it. The reason I like to keep up with all the popular shows is because I want to increase my knowledge of the fandom and observe the changes that it goes through over the years. Plus I usually end up loving the popular shows anyway. I could go with deep analysis or simple fun when it comes to anime – a little of both is what I like =)

  13. Liza says:

    I’m actually pretty good at remembering the plots to all the animes I’ve watched but I think that actually came from the fact that I usually read a lot of books and I remember almost everything that happened in them so maybe my brain is wired for plot.

    Names on the other hand, I am horrible with. If the anime is not on my extreme love list I probably wouldn’t be able to tell someone on the street the names of the characters in it. However when I watch the anime, I remember all of their names and who is who so it is quite strange.

  14. Yumeka says:

    @ Liza

    I’m actually a bit better at remembering details in books than in anime. For some reason I remember things better when I read them rather than see them. When I was in school, I would always study for tests by simply rereading rather than doing things like flashcards.

    Like I said, I can remember the story/plot of the anime I watch pretty well, just not details. I can also retain at least a few character names. Surprisingly, I’ve gotten better at remembering Japanese names than American names from watching so much anime all these years =P In real life I’m pretty good at remembering names, but not faces.

  15. Nojiko says:

    just a comment on what happens for me… i download so many anime series so its hard to watch 1 episode a week of every series and keep up the memory work…

    usually what i do is if a series i’ve been looking for to watch is out i watch that series right away… so every week i would watch as soon as the release of the episode is out…

    all others usually what i would do is just store it and watch at a future time when i finished downloading the whole series… i would make a weekend out of it to finish 2-3 series(depends on the amount of episodes those series have)…

    sometimes i find a factor(this among many) to remembering what happened in a series is how you watch it… for example: a 24-episode series for me is easier to remember if i watch it from beginning to end in 1 or 2 sittings rather than 24…
    tho its not always the case…

  16. Yumeka says:

    @ Nojiko

    Yeah, looking at how my memory is, I’m probably the type of person who would retain anime better by marathoning like you do rather than watch one episode a week. Problem is I like to keep up with the latest series as they air and new episodes only come out once a week. I really should take more time to marathon series that have finished airing. Gotta work on that!

  17. Christina says:

    I remember knowing every single detail about MKR. X_X

    Also I remember the days when I would go to an anime convention and know every single cosplay. We all had the same VHS and since only so many were available we all knew who was who and what series it was from.

    Now not so much. Sometimes that is good and sometimes that is bad. It is fun knowing that there is so much more to the anime work now. But it is terrible to really “love” a show and only watch it once and remember nothing. I am super guilty of that as well but in the day with so many animes at our finger tips it is hard to watch an entire series twice now!

  18. Yumeka says:

    @ Christina

    I’m still pretty good at identifying cosplayers, if not the exact names of the characters, then at least what anime they’re from =)

    If I really love an anime the first time through, I’ll definitely watch it again; it just takes me longer to get to it nowadays because I have to find time in between the other shows I’m watching. But if it becomes one of my favorite series, like Haruhi, that’s different – I’ll usually watch it at least a few times before too long.

  19. Bonehimer says:

    I share a similar problem with retaining and remembering details about shows. Especially for the ones I watched around 07 when I started to marathon multiple shows in one or two sittings in the sake of strengthening my kung fu as fast as possible. But due to not remembering anything from this shows it seems like I was doing nothing but wasting my time for the sake of saying “yeah, I watch x show.”

  20. Yumeka says:

    @ Bonehimer

    “But due to not remembering anything from this shows it seems like I was doing nothing but wasting my time for the sake of saying “yeah, I watch x show.”

    I sometimes feel this way, but as long as I can remember a few things about the show that I couldn’t look up online, such as how it made me feel, my opinion about it, what I liked/disliked, then it’s not a waste of time. As Emerson once said, “Time enjoyed wasting is not wasted.”

  21. Odin Force says:

    Anime comes and goes. There are always Animes that we have watched before, but cannot remember the exact details. I have Animes that I really like when I was a kid, but cannot remember even the titles. Also, there are Animes that were interesting when watching for the first time, but you don’t want to watch them again, simply because the endings were not to your liking.

    However, I believe everything has made an impact on our personal life and our way of thinking. So I don’t really question myself whether I should remember all of them, or just a few of them. I simply enjoy Anime as a way to improve myself.

    That said, I play GO quite well thanks to Hikaru. I read books about quantum physics and time-space science thanks to Doraemon (heh) and Haruhi. I learn to appreciate others’ circumstances more thanks to Honey and Clover and many slice-of-life Animes.

    In other word, my whole life is the proof of what I have retained from watching hundred Anime series, not how many details I can remember. When time passes by, the Animes that remain clear in my minds would reflect my current way of living (and maybe, also the true essence of my soul).

  22. Yumeka says:

    @ Odin Force

    Nice, I also feel that as long as I can remember something interesting about every anime I watch, I don’t feel like I wasted my time. My accumulated knowledge of having watched so many different series, even if I wasn’t thrilled with them or if I don’t remember much about them, makes me a more well-rounded fan =)

  23. I feel the best part about anime retention is reminiscing it with fellow fans. I was just talking the other day with a friend about how great Cowboy Bebop is!

    For me, I tend to remember my favourite series more vividly than others (obviously) but the memory tends to be a bit random or centers around some of my favourite scenes. For example, I can’t remember a lot of the details from The Twelve Kingdoms (with it being knee deep in plot and complexity, I salute anyone who can), but I do recall the climax in episode 39 so well. Ditto for Azumanga Daioh where I can remember certain standout episodes better than others. I guess, in one way, it’s nice not remember so much from your favourite series since it does make rewatching it that much more exciting since you barely remembers what’s going on! I currently have series such as Infinite Ryvius in that list (Now and Then Here and There would be in there to if not for the fact that the only thing I remember is now depressing it got in some parts!)

    In a way, I wish I have time and afford to watch as many animes as you do. I do feel when topics revolves around newer animes, I would have no clue of what’s going on:(

  24. Yumeka says:

    @ aquabluesweater

    I think we remember our favorite series more since they impacted us so much (obviously we’re more inclined to remember things we either really liked or really disliked rather than things that are so-so). And like the Escaflowne example I gave in the post, I too remember the most random scenes from certain anime sometimes. The only reason for this I can come up with is that they must have personally been significant to me in some way even though they’re not significant to the series itself.

  25. Bio D says:

    I retain everything I watch, then forget to bring my bag to school.
    I’m wired that way.

  26. Justin says:

    Urgh…this reminds me of how I remembered I watched so many animes while I grew up…only to forget them and worry, “B-but I watched Eureka Seven! I swear! I just don’t remember much about it!”

    It sometimes depends on what anime I think. It does matter how many times you watch as well.

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