We’ve probably all come across someone, whether in real life or online, who was once very enthusiastic about anime only to claim later on that they’ve “burned out” on it. I’ve never experienced anime burnout myself, but I have heard many different reasons for it over the years…
Unlike what I discussed in a past post about people I’ve known who’ve lost interest in anime due to lifestyle constraints and changing interests, I think of anime burnout as resulting from a dissatisfaction the person develops for anime itself and not solely because of circumstances in their life (though both could be a factor). The person may finally become fed up with the myriad of cliches in anime after so many years, or they might just grow weary of the animation medium as a form of entertainment. Another possibility is that they eventually see so much anime that little to nothing in any new series they pick up seems novel and exciting to them anymore.
Whatever the reason people have for burning out on anime, whether it took years or months to happen, the word “burnout” to me leaves the connotation that the person may rediscover their enjoyment of anime after a certain amount of time away from it. An “absence makes the heart grow fonder” kind of thing. If the reason they burned out is because of too many overused tropes, maybe all it takes is a number of months, or possibly years, of having no exposure to anime for it to seem new and exciting to them once again. I’ve also heard cases where a notable new anime came along and rekindled a person’s interest in the medium after they heard all the buzz about it from friends and online discussion.
Nowadays, with more anime being produced each year than ever before, and online access to it being easier than it ever was, is there any way people can avoid anime burnout? Like John over on AnimeNation talked about in a recent post, even though most moe, slice-of-life, mecha, etc., anime share a lot of tropes and cliches, there are enough differences between them to make at least a good chunk of them refreshing in some way. To quote what John said, “If every moe anime, harem anime, slice-of-life anime, magical girl anime, and mecha anime was practically the same, the anime industry would have stagnated forty years ago.” So if one is open-minded enough, there’s a good chance you can find many anime in a particular genre distinct from each other if you take the time to watch them rather than read a quick synopsis and say, “Oh, another moe anime” and dismiss it right then and there without giving it a chance.
But what if the reason you’re burning out on anime in the first place is because you’re just plain bored with all the moe, harem, shonen, and whatever genres of anime with their tired pandering? Even though fans complain that moe, harem, and slice-of-life anime dominate each new season, they are certainly not the only genres available. If the reason you feel you’re getting burned out on anime is because there’s too much of these genres, then just don’t watch them. Anime offers a huge variety of genres and stories despite the fact that certain genres are more common. So rather than give up on anime because you don’t like all the fan service in new shows, catch up on old fan-service-free shows or watch the few seasonal shows that aren’t otaku-pandering. It seems ignorant to say that moe has taken over the medium when shows like Sakamichi no Apollon, Space Brothers, and Fate/Zero are airing right now.
Another thing that happens is that people burn out on one specific part of the fandom, which may lead to losing interest in the entirety of it. Anime blogging is a prime example; if someone burns out on blogging about anime episodically, they may become apathetic about watching anime. If they’re a huge fan of mecha anime only and one day get tired of it, lack of exposure to other parts of the fandom might make them just stop watching anime all together rather than seek new outlets to stay into it. I think burnout in this case can be avoided if one is flexible. If blogging episodically burns you out, try different types of posts or a different outlet to express your fandom, like fan fic writing or making AMVs. If the genre you love isn’t satisfying you, branch out into a different one. Not only does anime offer tons of different genres, but tons of different ways to express your fandom, too.
I’ve heard it said that people who burn out on anime are probably not “true” fans. How can a true fan of something burn out on it? Even if they come back to anime later on, since they already burned out on it once they’ll probably do it again. But rather than divide people into true fans and untrue fans based on that, we should look at how they relate to anime. Was it just something they got into because it was popular among their friends? Were they just a fan of the action/fantasy in anime and not really into anime as a medium? If they fell out of the loop of anime fandom for a while, did they develop a “sour grapes” attitude towards it later or did they make an effort to try and get back into it? Even if they burned out and stopped watching anime, did they continue to respect it and humor friends who were still into it only to come back to it themselves years later? There are a lot of questions we can ask about whether someone’s anime burnout may be permanent or not, none of which is set in stone of course. So to finish this post up, I’ll end on the same note as John did in his post – that whether we burn out on anime or not comes first and foremost from our own attitude towards it. As he said:
“A fan that constantly bemoans redundancy and expects nearly every new anime to be bad will invariably eventually find enough evidence to convince himself of his sentiment and become disillusioned and bored with anime. The optimistic anime fan sees each new show as a new possibility, a way to put a new spin on a familiar trope, breath new life into a tired genre…If we assume that every new anime in a tired genre will be an uninspired, uninteresting rehash, we’d overlook anime like Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuutsu, Lucky Star, Evangelion, Toradora, OreImo, Futari wa Precure, Lyrical Nanoha, and Madoka Magica, which would be a terrible misfortune.”
So much truth…I hope I never become so disillusioned as to not see the potential of new series. I want to be able to enjoy every anime for the uniqueness it holds, and appreciate it for both its good and bad qualities.
I hope to be able to do the same as well. I’ve loved animation as a medium my whole life, so I don’t think I’ll ever completely stop enjoying anime. At the most I may just not watch it as much as I am now but I hope I’ll never totally give up on it.
I remember, when I burned out of gaming, a few years ago, I did feel like there is nothing new ever made, and some soullessly formulatic, completely automated industry is taking over the place of my childhhod entertainment.
Even though logically thinking, I know that probably there were still some niches that I could have found interesting, I lost the very willpower to look up these niches.
I guess it must be similar with anime. You are right that if people would be open-minded enough, they wouldn’t burn out, but in other words, we could also say that the lack of open-mindedness is the very problem that causes burnouts.
So I guess saying them “be more open-minded” isn’t a very constructive advice for them. It’s like ordering a lazy person to “be more diligent”, or an absentminded person to “be more attentive”. (in the sense, that their reply could only be: “d’uh, of course I’m trying to be, but evidently, I’m not succeeding”).
I liked your and John’s comments about optimism. I try to think of myself as an optimistic fan. I always found cynicism and pessimism quite pointless, even in general situations, but for a subject that I’m supposed be a fan of, they are even counterproductive.
I mean, there are more than enough haters to do all the hatin’ for me: so let me actually like the things that I like.
I actually used to be very much into games when I was in elementary and middle school, but eventually my interest shifted to anime. I still enjoy a new game now and then (and I’m dedicated to Pokemon games) but what it came down to is not having enough time and money in my life to be both a gamer and an anime fan, so I had to decide which I enjoyed more…and that’s anime.
I can see how being open-minded only works if the person has such a characteristic to begin with. All I can say is try to be open-minded, and if you still burnout, then that’s just how it is. Anime should be enjoyed so there’s no point forcing yourself to enjoy it if your interests have clearly changed.
And yes, there are plenty of people who say they’re anime fans yet hate on anime more than love it. So I too prefer to keep the optimistic, “glass half full” outlook when I watch =)
I guess I alluded to this in my comment last time (has it really been almost 10 months?!), but I still think one of the factors for some people can be when they can no longer relate to or appreciate the shows that are most popular. This can increase the perception that “all anime is [x]”, even though that certainly isn’t the case.
I recently had a conversation with a group of fans who got into anime during the upswing in the U.S. market, and whose anime experience was defined by the sort of serious-story/stylish-action anime that were quite popular in the U.S. at the time. When the U.S. market collapsed, the demand for those shows dropped (since they were generally more popular overseas than domestically), so now there’s a perception among this fanbase that they’ve been abandoned. Even though it isn’t true, it feels to many of them that anime is “all moe-shows” these days because their perception is tainted by whatever’s popular and dominating the fan conversation (just like the shows they liked were dominated the conversation in their circles at the time). The net effect is that the market changed, but their own tastes had not changed along with it, and the shows that used to dominate the conversation in their circles are now relegated to a smaller niche with many fewer productions. Even if they try to get into “whatever the kids are watching these days”, it just doesn’t excite some of them the way anime used to. So I think all this is certainly one of the factors that leads to burn-out; the market is always changing, and people’s tastes won’t always keep up.
I think it helps for me personally that my own favourite shows didn’t have as much of an upswing, so I’m more used to being a “niche within a niche”. Plus, because I’ve never watched that many shows at a time in the first place, I don’t feel like I’ve been “over-dosing” on tropes and things I don’t enjoy. If anything were to happen to me, I suppose I would drift away more out of shifting priorities than by this sort of burn-out.
That is a good point that a big enough change in the market can make older fans lose interest…that can be said for general TV shows and movies too; people who were around when TV was new feel that everything is crap nowadays because it’s just so different than it was in their day and the currently popular, cliche reality TV shows or whatever make them unable to see the few hidden gems that may exist. I think it comes down to how much you want to stay invested in the medium even though it’s changed from how you remember. If you want to take the time to search for the few non-moe shows that are more like what you used to like, that’s great. If you don’t want to take the time to look beyond the popular shows and would rather find another hobby, that’s fine too.
I think the reason I haven’t become disillusioned with anime even though I’ve experienced a lot of change in the market over the years is because I just love animation in general (also why I still love Disney and Pixar movies). So as long as anime will always be, well, animated, I don’t think I’ll ever completely stop enjoying it ^^
One thing that can happen which you can’t really do much about; if what originally appeals to a viewer about anime is how insightful and non-cliched it seems — because the cliches and tired old insights they are seeing are the cliches and tired old insights of another culture. Until they learn the culture, and this is no longer the case.
There are two types of novelty that a Western anime fan can experience. The sort that comes from the medium continually evolving, better creators experimenting and refining the art and moving onto new subjects; this should never go away, unless something catastrophic happens. But the novelty that comes from discovering a new culture and a new medium is probably going to fade eventually, so if that’s all that’s keeping you interested…
I’m still enjoying fandom immensely, I think the number of quality titles around, and some of the technique being used by the more forward-facing studios has never been better, and all sorts of things are suitably interesting me, moving me, absorbing me and such. But I think there might be a certain “lightning in a bottle” about my early days which can never be recaptured.
A point of comparison would be Utena and Penguindrum. While I was very, very happy about Penguindrum, I still find Utena to be slightly superior. But I’m very suspicious about this opinion, I suspect an objective observer would find Penguindrum benefiting from the director’s increased experience, the the assistance of advanced computer animation and 15 years of everyone in the medium refining its techniques. In the end, I just find Utena has more impact, I find the ideas more fundamental and powerful, things which make my mind think “this is really important” and care more. But maybe this is just because I encountered them for the first time here, so I remember that process of discovery, and I’ve come to closely associate them with Utena images, nothing else will ever be able to compete with that.
It’s six years now since something (Haruhi) entered my group of “absolute top favourites”. Is it really true that despite all the advances made in the past six years, the experiments of SHAFT and KyoAni refining the depiction of people through anime to perfection, that nothing else with that sort of personal appeal has managed to be made in the last six years? Or is it just that my group of absolute top favourites is now full, and doesn’t need anything else?
Very true that if the only thing that you like about anime is how new and different it is from things you see in Western entertainment, then that will eventually wear off. At that point, unless you’ve discovered other things to like about it by then, you’ll probably find yourself burning out.
I can understand what you’re saying about Utena versus Penguindrum – certain series that I watched in my early years as a fan when anime was so novel and exciting to me will always make me slightly biased towards those series on a personal level. I don’t think it’s a bad thing necessarily as long as I can find equal merit in new series too, which I can.
And as for your last point, it is something to ponder but I wouldn’t worry about it. Most of my top 10 anime have been roughly the same for many years, yet I still enjoy anime as much as I did back then, if in a more knowledgeable, mature way I guess. One thing I really enjoy is the surprise of discovering a new series that makes it into my top favorites. Inuyasha was my #1 favorite for five years and I never thought something would replace it…then came Haruhi. Who knows what may come next.
It did happen to me partially and is a very slow/painful process. Years ago I was able to watch 12-15 episodes a day of anime in week-ends, but year after year I’ve ended up lowering my episode count.
Now I risk puking for more than 3-4 episodes on week-ends…:(
Hmm, that does sound like the signs burning out…but as long as you’re still enjoying the few episodes a week you watch, it may just be that you’ve developed other interests and obligations over the years so you can’t help but give anime less of your time and motivation.
I’ve been viewing anime for years and indeed had some months in which watching an episode or two a day was enough for me. However, that does not mean I’m fed up with the medium. Rather than looking at it as signs of an upcoming “burn out” I’d like to think of it as watching “on a low flame”. We can’t always marathon a series, but when the right series shows up it may rekindle our “anime flame” anew. Anime-viewing is like life – it has its ups and downs.
Compared to how I used to be, where I marathoned anime all the time, I’ve been watching it on a “low flame” the past several years with 0-3 episodes every night. But like you, that doesn’t mean I’ve lost any interest in the medium, just that this viewing schedule now suits my lifestyle better ;)
I’m actually kind of hoping for a burnout so I don’t get too distracted during my first year of college.
“So if one is open-minded enough, there’s a good chance you can find many anime in a particular genre distinct from each other if you take the time to watch them rather than read a quick synopsis and say, “Oh, another moe anime” and dismiss it right then and there without giving it a chance.”
Case in point for me: Yuruyuri. Promo art made it seem bland and awful, but it was actually pretty funny. (But in the same vein, how come you haven’t watched a single sports/board game anime? Giant Killing was very good.)
“It seems ignorant to say that moe has taken over the medium when shows like Sakamichi no Apollon, Space Brothers, and Fate/Zero are airing right now.”
And next season we’ve got “One of them is my Younger Sister!”and “Chitose Get You!”among others. The hope is overwhelming…(damn the obsession with little sisters)
Instead of cutting down on anime watching when I was at college, I decided to put the blog on hiatus instead. You watch more anime than most people I know, so I’m pretty sure you can still keep up with some of the latest shows even while you’re in college. I did fine watching the same amount of anime I’m watching now while living on my own and taking 4-5 university courses per semester. So I think you’ll be find just cutting down on your anime watching a little without needing to burnout completely ;)
I just haven’t found any seasonal sports anime that caught my eye. I’ll keep Giant Killing in mind (though you know how bad I am at picking up older shows ^^a)
As for the little sister/fan-service shows, like I said in the post, they just happen to be the dominating trend along with slice-of-life and moe now. You never know when that trend could change, so all you can do now if you don’t like those genres is watch the handful of shows each season that are different. But like you experienced with YuriYuri, you never know when when you may end up liking one you almost dismissed.
Burnout is a pretty terrible thing. If I burned out on anime then a good chunk of my spare time would have to be devoted to new things… which is odd to imagine! But I think to prevent it, it’s important to watch anime in moderation. I do think that compared to my high school days I definitely have a lower tolerance for series that I don’t enjoy, which is also a mechanism to avoid burning out. If I was bound by duty to complete every crappy series I had the misfortune of starting I’d probably be very reluctant to continue watching anime just because there’s no pleasure to be derived from it. Time is precious, and there are loads of good anime out there, so no point making myself suffer.
Also, as you said, there are more and more new series coming out each season, and having optimism that they will each contribute their unique flavor to the anime medium is a good way to look at it. Each season usually has its handful of moe or slice-of-life or whatever, but there are always original ones too, such as Space Brothers or Apollon. Unless you only like a certain genre then most likely you’ll find something to enjoy each season.
Moderation, as well as not forcing yourself to keep watching an anime you don’t like, are great ways to avoid burnout. I do know a lot of fans who stick with a series until the end regardless of how much they hate it all the way. Whether that makes them more likely to burn out in the future, I couldn’t say, but I certainly couldn’t do that despite my good anime tolerance.
I’m sure my life will get busier at some point and I may have to cut down on anime viewing, in which case I’ll have to be more choosy of the anime I watch. But as long as at least some good series come out each season, I don’t think I’ll ever totally give up on anime.
I hope I never burnout either, but I am open minded, and like very different kinds of anime. Anything from mecha/fantasy, to slice-of-life/moe, can be good as long as it offers something interesting. I agree that only liking one genre can bore you much quicker. There hasn’t been a good mecha anime in quite a while already. So expanding a little can be good. Trying out anime that does not immediately appeal to you can bring a few surprises. Oreimo (I disliked it at first, but it turned out really good), Yuri Yuri (another one with a weird premise, but turned out quite funny), Mirai Nikki (interesting premise, and really good character in Yuno), etc. That may wake new possibilities in anime :)
I agree we should not call out people who burnout as non-true anime fans. That’s just not true. It’s ok to get tired of something you like, and take a break. A good break can be helpful. I’ve learned that with computer games. I like them a lot, but I tend to go all-out with a new game, and burn myself out. Now, I play then quite a bit, but take frequent breaks to do other things. It ends up being much more enjoyable, the game lasts longer, and burnout happens less often.
We all know ourselves best. So I guess it’s just a matter of avoiding what we know will burn us out. Always seek out the balance, and take any hobby for what it should be. Just for fun :)
The more open you are to different anime genres, the more shows you’ll be able to enjoy. There’s nothing wrong with liking only one or a few genres, but your choice of anime, especially seasonally, will be less diverse.
It’s true that some can truly be a fan of something even if they take breaks from it. Like Frootytooty said above, it could be a form of moderation to avoid total burnout. As long as they don’t lose all interest in it during their time away from it, they’ll eventually come back to it if it’s something they really enjoy.
I certainly watch fewer shows now than I used to, but I wouldn’t call anything up to now a burnout with anime. I dunno…I can’t sympathize with people who run into an anime burnout by becoming tired of the same tropes and whatnot. The only thing in my life I could say I felt “burned out” about is Rubik’s Cube. The reason I stopped was because I had reached the point where I literally could not find a way to get faster. I could still place top 5 in a competition, but I couldn’t find a way to progress. Add to that the fact that competitions happen basically 3 or 4 times in a year in a location near me, and I couldn’t find any motivation. If I wanted to learn another event in Rubik’s Cube (say 4×4 or blindfold), it would likely take me months to reach a level where I was competitive. I’d say anime viewers have it easy…all of the shows are just there and more are coming out each day. Let me finish off by saying that I don’t think it’s bad to feel burned out about anime…it just irks me when people complain about it.
Wow, I didn’t know Rubik’s Cube-ing was such a big hobby, with it’s own competitions and such. But anime has the advantage of being more than a hobby of getting good at a certain task – it encompasses thousands of shows, movies, manga, games, characters, etc,. and even more ways to relate to them. With so much to offer in terms of fandom, it seems like burnout is less likely to happen than a fandom that involves just one series (like Star Wars or Harry Potter). But it really just depends on the person.
Actually I went through the same thing a while back. For 17 years of my life I saw anime occasionally through Toonami(Tom is back bitches) and what I borrowed from a friend that was a fan, or watched online when I visited someone who had it(got Internet access in 2011) and even then it was something to do when I wasn’t hanging out. THEN I got internet and I found out I’d missed so much I suddenly found myself outside my “bubble”. I watched countless shows non-stop when I had spare time instead of doing what I used to.
Then I just got fed up with it. Same thing over and over and I felt I was actually stressed out to keep up on what was coming out, and I stopped doing all the other things I’d enjoyed, so it seemed perverse to me at a point. After 3 months of not watching a thing, I realized I DID enjoy anime(I’m going to Anime Expo! Should be fun) but that I didn’t need it to invade on my life as it was doing. So even now, I’m like 3 weeks behind but I’ll just watch it if I have time or if it behooves me to do so, rather than make it something I HAVE to watch. It’s casual like it was and I like it better that way. I read about it, or follow what’s going on but it’s on my time very leisure. So my little craze burnt me out, and now it’s a sparing hobby like it once was, balanced in-between life and other hobbies.
That’s a good story and I’m glad you found out that you really do enjoy anime, just not in the intense, stressful way you were making yourself watch it before. If something you once enjoyed doing starts seeming like a chore, instead of giving up on it right then and there, it may be best to try and change how you relate to it and incorporate it into your life first. As your story dictates, that could help avoid an eventual burnout ;)
I think I remember you saying you’ll be going to Anime Expo. I’ll be sure to announce on the blog if there will be a blogger meetup again this year, and then you can come meet me there if you’d like =)
I had something similar but nothing severe. As my story goes, I love ecchi and comedic anime. These two combination are a good pair for a show but I’ve grown old of it as it have become too cliche in way too many anime. Thank goodness, this was a few years ago.
Then, I started to shift gears to anime that have a much more serious story line and most important of all it must be meaningful, in a way. A good examples, for this season would be Sakamichi no Apollon, Space Brother, Jormungand and so forth.
I do occasionally, watch some moe, random and cute anime episodes like Acchi Kocchi.
Yeah, the great thing about anime and all its genres is that if you grow tired of one genre, you can watch many different ones while still staying in the anime medium =) Glad to hear branching out to different kinds of stories helped fix your almost-burnout ^^
I don’t actually know anyone who has “burned out” on anime, so I don’t know what goes through their minds. Everyone I’ve come across either still watches anime or stopped long ago because they got out of that phase in their lives.
I actually don’t know anyone personally who burned out either – I just hear random people online talk about it from time to time. Just like you, the people I know are either still into it or stopped being interested long ago because it was just a passing phase in their lives.
How you get anime burnout, i need it.