A recent post by Leap250 talks about how, through our years of being anime fans, we often acquire tastes for certain genres and tropes in anime that we didn’t originally have. Even though I’ve always been pretty open-minded as far as the types of anime I watch, there were a few I was hesitant about back in the day that I like now…
“Realistic” style anime
What I mean by “realistic” style anime is anime that’s designed to look more realistic and less anime-ish, usually with a dark, serious, or mature air to it. A couple of examples would be Cowboy Bebop and Hellsing, which I got my first glimpses of back in the second year of my high school anime club. I was new to anime back then and had seen little outside of kids anime like Pokemon and Cardcaptor Sakura or generally light stuff like Tenchi Muyo! and Slayers – all of which had very anime-ish designs too. So I admit that when I watched episodes of Hellsing and Cowboy Bebop for the first time in club, their style didn’t click with me. I assumed that because their style turned me off, I probably shouldn’t bother to keep watching them. While I never watched the rest of Hellsing, I eventually watched all of Cowboy Bebop because one of my friends loved it. And of course, I’m forever glad that I did as it’s a one-of-a-kind series. I even watched it again a couple of years ago and found that I appreciate it much more now that I’m older. So yeah, back in the day I probably wouldn’t have watched stuff like Death Note or even Space Brothers because of that mature, non-anime-ish style. But I don’t have that problem anymore ;)
“Moe”
Considering the kind of anime I’ve been watching over the past several years, it’s surprising that I was kind of hesitant to start watching “moe” type anime when it began to be popular in 2007. I put “moe” in quotes because it’s not really a genre of anime as much as a feeling one gets, thus it varies by person…but for convenience’s sake, I’m using it for its most common definition of “plot-less slice-of-life anime involving cute girls doing cute things in cute ways.” I watched the first episode of Manabi Straight when it aired and…just couldn’t get into it. Later that year I watched the first episode of Lucky Star (which we all know was not one of the better episodes) and again, I couldn’t get into it. The only similar series I had seen before these two was Azumanga Daioh, but AzuDai seemed more focused on the jokes rather than creating that “moe” feeling with the girls like these series did. I’m not sure what eventually made me start liking moe type anime. It was probably just my changing tastes as a fan combined with moe’s prevalence among anime that made me eventually watch more of it and grow to appreciate it. Regardless, after seeing what a hit Lucky Star became, I watched all of it a year later in 2008 and it became one of my favorite anime =)
“Weird” style anime
Similar to “realistic” style anime, what I mean by “weird” style is anime with bizarre character designs or just general weirdness exuding from them. Examples would be FLCL, One Piece, and Excel Saga, which I again got my first looks at in my high school anime club. FLCL and Once Piece in particular I watched in my first year of high school, I think on bootleg VHS or laser discs since they hadn’t been licensed yet. Having seen little beyond Americanized kids anime back then, I remember my 14-year old self watching the first episode of FLCL in club and being like “What the heck is this?” We watched One Piece at a later time, and while I liked it better, I couldn’t get over how the character designs didn’t look as cute or attractive as the other anime I had seen. But again, as time went on and I matured, I became more open-minded with anime and didn’t let things like visual style alone dictate whether I’ll watch something or not. I still don’t like anime that’s too bizarre, but I rarely have that problem anymore. I watched all of Excel Saga a few years after I got glimpses of it in anime club, and liked it more than I probably would have if I had watched it all in club. And of course, after I became a more knowledgeable fan and saw how beloved One Piece is, I made my dive into the series in 2005 and have now seen over 400 episodes. I never got around to watching FLCL but people have told me I should.
Tsundere
It’s not that I didn’t like the tsundere trope back in the day, I just wasn’t aware of it the way I am now…which is probably because it barely existed in late 90s/early 2000s anime. I’ve always loved Asuka from Evangelion and I liked Naru from Love Hina, and male tsunderes like Inuyasha, so I guess I did have a thing for the trope before I even knew it XD I didn’t start to notice I had a liking for tsunderes until around 2007-2009, when Rie Kugimiya’s tsundere roles were flourishing in popularity.
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I would also list tastes in anime I’ve “un-acquired” but there really aren’t any. Just as I did back in my early years as I a fan, I still love kids anime and I still don’t care for ecchi/fan-service or sports themed anime. The only taste I may have “un-acquired” over the years is mecha anime. I’ll still watch anime where mecha play an important role, like Code Geass and Eureka 7, but when the mecha and their battles (and politics) are too much of a central focus, like with the Gundam series I’ve seen, I’m not interested.
Anyway, feel free to share any tastes in anime you’ve acquired or un-acquired over the years =D
*Announcement* After practically a year of being unemployed, I recently got hired as a cashier at a new super market that’s going to be opening in my neighborhood. Tomorrow is my first day of training so I should know by then whether the job is a good match for me. If it is, I’m going to have four full training days this week (9am-6pm) so I probably won’t be able to have a new post again until a week from now. Just wanted to give you guys a heads up so you don’t think I disappeared XD As always, I’ll be on Twitter letting you know what I’m up to and what my blogging schedule will be. Wish me luck tomorrow and see you again as soon as I can~
I definitely noticed that since starting university, I’ve acquired a taste for slice-of-life anime, moe or not. Maybe it’s because I’m subconsciously trying to offset my uni workload, but I never used to be able to marathon those types of shows because I’d get bored easily.
On the other hand, nowadays I can’t stand shoujo anime or manga. I used to read shoujo manga a lot back when I was in my early teens, when I’d only recently discovered manga and my cousin used to buy me monthly shoujo manga magazines from China. Watching shoujo anime now is just sitting through cliche after cliche that I’ve read a million times before and I end up either bitching about the characters to my friends throughout the whole show or not finishing it at all. Neither of which is a pleasant experience, to be sure.
Good luck with your new job! :)
I’ve also found myself not watching/reading as much shojo as I used to, but I think it’s mostly because a lot of shojo manga just doesn’t get made into anime anymore. I think the last one I saw was Kimi ni Todoke a few years ago. And since I don’t read manga much anymore, I don’t know what shojo manga is currently popular. It was never my favorite genre (besides a few choice titles) but I don’t have a distaste for it if it’s done well.
True initially i was introduced to THE world of anime by dragon ball z when i was a kid and tought that it was just another cartoon (in india mostly anything animated is reffered as CARTOON) but when i grew and entered college my taste changed drastically from lighthearted comedy like doraemon and shinchan to fairy tail and ultimately cowboy bebop and now elfen lied.
really as a kid i used to enjoy anime but i can see and feel the seriousness in animes now , so much that it affects my emotions deeply.
anyhow nice to hear about your new job best of luck for your future.
:-)
Your changing tastes sound similar to mine; for me, it also went “first kids anime, then more mature, teenage-aimed anime, and finally dark, adult anime.”
Thanks, I’m happy to report that my first day on the job went well =)
I’ve also acquired a taste for different art styles. Like at first, I wouldn’t touch any manga that had an “American” style drawings, but I slowly opened up and now I’m pretty much open to all sorts of art. In fact, I tend to be disappointed when an mangaka doesn’t have a unique style.
I’ve also acquired a taste for action anime/manga. I rarely read them back when I first started reading/watching manga/anime, but after a few shows with action and a good story, I’ve really started to warm up to the idea of just watching/reading action shows for the sake of the action. I’ve also noticed my tastes have matured a lot and series I would have liked as a teen, don’t really impress me all that much. Fushigi Yugi is probably the best example since I started reading it back in highschool, and due to me collecting a bunch of different manga all at once, I’m still in the process of collecting it. Back when I started collecting it in highschool, I loved it. Now? I still like it but I’m no longer really that attached to it. I’m now mainly collecting the volumes because the story is still genuinely interesting. I’m more into josei and seinen works now as opposed to shoujo and shounen (although I still like works from both demographics, I just notice there is a better chance of me liking something if it is made for women or men in mind rather than teens).
In fact, I’d say I’ve developed more “un-acquired” tastes than acquired tastes. xD For me, I started out liking moe when I first got into anime, but over the years I’ve slowly began to loath it. It is because the market nowadays relies too much on the moe aspect and not enough on the characterization of female characters. And as someone who wants to see good female characterizations, I’ve really come to loath moe as my arch nemesis. I’ve also got tired of a few tropes as well since they come up way too much. I guess it’s fine in moderation, but once something is so saturated within a medium, I get really sick of it. Harem is another example. I used to not mind watching harem shows and in fact, I’ve watched quite a few, but after a few of them, they just became so formulaic and boring. Not even the stupid crude humour could save them for me (yeah I’ve got really bad taste in jokes u__u;;; ). It’s gotten to the point where there has to be a plot or something unusual about it, or else it is a real chore for me to watch.
By “American style drawings” do you mean manga made by Americans or anime/manga with character designs that look more Western-style? I never had a problem with the latter (unless they were the “realistic” or “weird” styles I talked about in the post) but I remember avoiding the manga by American authors I would see in bookstores via Tokyopop releases. That was probably pretty closed-minded of me…but then again I never read much manga to begin with so I only wanted to read the popular titles.
I also adored Fushigi Yuugi when I was in high school. I haven’t seen/read it since but thinking back on it in recent years (and watching someone’s live-stream review of it) I’m sure I’d be able to point out its glaring flaws and cliches I didn’t notice back in the day XD
I won’t watch moe shows unless something stands out about them – K-ON for example has gorgeous animation and genuinely funny humor at times. But if it’s just moe with nothing funny or interesting, I’ll pass. Since moe is highly dependent on personal taste, it’s hard to say which one I’ll like or not…but I’ll definitely avoid the ones with excessive fan service XD
The latter, Japanese artist drawing with a very Western style (example: Sanctuary by Ryoichi Ikegami and Buronson). I’ve always preferred cartoony aesthetics to realism, so it was quite the hurtle for me, but I’m glad I’m over it because otherwise I would have missed out on quite a few great manga. :) I never really had a problem with American artist drawing in the manga style. I didn’t really buy a lot of them (just Shutterbox actually), but it was more that I never got around to picking up more series. There was one other one that I wanted to try but never got around to and that was Bizenghast (which both looks and sounds awesome and I still want to track it down later on).
Well, it’s more like shows that are trying to push for moe, fail to inspire the feeling in me because I simply do not have the personality or mentality to feel that way about characters. Instead, I just see really weak characterization that said companies/animation studios try to hide by pumping out moe to the max through either “cute girls doing cute things” or really contrived melodrama. This realization is what is fuelling my ever growing hatred. It’s fine if said animation companies want to add some moe to a character, but it really should not be the sole defining trait about them. I like plenty of characters that could be considered moe (Sakura Kinomoto, Fate Tesstarossa, etc.), but what makes them different from say Chi or Tohru Honda is that these characters weren’t made with just moe appeal in mind. They have actual character growth and very distinct and well developed personalities beyond just typical moe traits*. That’s basically my big issue with moe. It seems that ever since companies realize how lucrative it is, they have stuck to just making 2D character cut outs that have the moe traits, rather than actually making good characterizations that could appeal to both the moe crowd and everyone else. I don’t blame them. It’s easier to do it when the fanbase exists and doesn’t ask for more, but as someone who values characterization even above story and aesthetic, it has really become a massive torn in my side.
*By this I mean to suggest traits that are often used to produce said feelings from the viewer.
I guess we all start with limited tastes and then expand on it. I started with more mecha anime, or serious movies (Robotech/macross, vampire hunter D, Nausicaa and the valley of the wind). Sci-fi or heavy fantasy was all I needed. I really had no interest in slice-of-life, or comedy, and even less for the “moe” kind. Then Kanon came along followed by Clannad, which introduced me to the slice-of-life genre, with some comedy as well, while maintaining the fantasy side of things I liked. After that little pebble, it just became an avalanche, and I started trying so many things.
Now, I like comedy, slice-of-life, moe, kids anime, weird anime, pretty much anything that can pull me into it’s world, and make me feel something. I guess it’s just an acquired taste; not something you will start out liking, but will grow on you :)
I can’t say I’ve un-acquired my taste to any theme. There are good sports anime out there (not all, but some), there are good anime in all genres, so it’s still worth giving them a shot. You should still give Chihayafuru a chance when you can :)
truly said with our age our mind also broadens up :-p
but can you help me adapt to this world of anime . As of now i m stuck on where to start my anime journey . From my past experiences i have learned that the animes which overpopular tend to disappount on long run but many not so popular series give a nice and pleasant experience
p/s can you give me some good anime to start off with
Cowboy Bebop
Full Metal Panic
Evangelion
That’s always a tough question :) Where to start. If you are completely new to anime, something like Sakura Cardcaptor could be a good place. It’s an anime for a younger audience, but it does have a good over-all plot, and can be enjoyed by all ages.
Other good places to start, would be anime with more of a single theme. If you would like to start by the action route, Gundam 00 could be a good start. Lots of action and complex plots, and not much that could drive you off anime quick. For a more slice of life, or the cuter anime, you could try Natsuiro Kiseki. Not too heavy on the cutesy stuff, and a pretty good story. For a more heavy and serious setting, Death Note could be good. Those tend to focus on a single theme, so it’s a bit easier to watch for people not used to anime.
If you are feeling a bit daring, then anime that mixes a lot of themes together (very serious plots mixed in with comedy, etc), then you could try something like Code Geass, or Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood. They are very good, but the mix of themes could be a bit shocking if not used to anime.
Others may have other recommendations, but as you said, it is probably not a good idea to start with very famous anime series. They could run for very long, or be some of the more quirky ones (Evangelion is very famous, but not a good anime to start with in my opinion). Hope this helps a little.
thanks actually i have already seen cowboy bebop and elfen lied thats what caused this thematic confusion in me
i m very much interested in watching anime with plots which are really good and i guess i will be watching gundam 00
my friends are not hugefans of anime but they recommended fairy tail for me whether its good to start with or not
For recommendations of good plot-heavy anime, I would also recommend Death Note as well as Wolf’s Rain, Code Geass, and Fullmetal Alchemist. Also Trigun – people who like Cowboy Bebop tend to like Trigun too.
You’re right that it’s natural for our tastes to change over time as we grow-up, especially if we got into anime at a young age. I’ve found that the older you are, the less likely your tastes in things will change…but it could happen.
When I was younger I wasn’t totally hooked on action/fantasy/sci-fi in my animation, I was just used to it because that’s all I’d see before I was exposed to the slice-of-life genre in anime. Like I said in the post, it took a while for me to warm up to moe/slice-of-life, but I’m glad I did =)
you are so down earth when it comes to anime
yes it really takes time to generate a favourable liking towards slice of life
and if u r saying its good then my future goal will be definetely to watch such anime
even KAL recommeded one too
i guess right now i should appreciate your help
so……..
THANKS
A cashier job is usually easy enough but can get either boring or stressful depending on the working environment. Hang in there and tell us how it went :)!
Well, the reason this particular cashier job is kind of hard is because it’s for a supermarket, and cashiers are required to know over a hundred key-in codes for the many produce items that the store offers. Of course they don’t expect you to know all the codes on your first day, but they want you to know them all soon enough. Luckily I’ve been studying and am off to a good start with memorizing them, so it shouldn’t be too hard with practice. I also need to be able to recognize the unusual food items, like being able to differentiate American parsley from Italian parsley. But once I have that and the codes down, it should be fine.
I’ll probably post my own version of this soon-ish. But the biggest case for me would be mecha series as of last year. I watched so much mecha last year.
Congrats on the job! Hope you’ll stick with it. :)
I can’t remember the last mecha series I watched (besides the Gurren Lagann movies and new Evangelion movies). Maybe it was the second season of Gundam 00 back in 2009?
Thanks! So far so good with the job…I hope it stays that way!
Congrats on the new job! =D
So you also found One Piece’s character designs un-cute at first. ;D I admit I still find them hard on my eye, but who knows, I may start watching it at some point. I watch nearly everything else that’s shonen after all.
I’d say my tastes are pretty much the same as when I first became an anime fan: yaoi, shonen-ai, shonen, mecha, bishonens, samurais, et al. There are always exceptions (Death Note for its exceptionally well-told suspense story; Diamond Daydreams for its simple but beautifully-rendered josei stories), but I always come back to attractive men, Japanese history, exciting action scenes and young men coming of age overcoming enormous obstacles.
Yeah, I had a hard time adjusting to One Piece’s character designs when I started watching the series in 2005. It was harder still because those early episodes, before the major cast of characters were assembled and fleshed out, weren’t the best. But once I got to episodes in the 60s (when Chopper is introduced!) I started loving it (skipping filler episodes can make that go faster). Not that episodes before then weren’t good, they just didn’t fully pull me in yet.
I’ve noticed your tastes haven’t changed much ;) But it’s all good. I think when people get into anime as kids and then stay with it as young adults, their tastes are more likely to change over time because they’re growing up and maturing as people at the same time.
My tastes are mostly the same over the years, which are open anything expect for a few specific genres. The only real difference is that I’ve began to have a better appreciation (and respect) for “crappy” concepts like anthropomorphized weapons, fighter planes, etc. You’ve read my post, you know what I mean ;D
Cashier job is a stressful one. Take care and have fun! Let me know when bacon is on sale, thanks.
As far as my tastes in general, I’ve actually become less tolerant/more critical of anime than I was when I was younger. When I was in high school I thought every anime I saw was great and amazing and like nothing I’d ever seen before. But once I got older and started watching multiple new series every season, I of course started noticing the many typical anime cliches and tropes, and started getting more critical of them. I’m still fairy open-minded and tolerant of even mediocre anime though, just not as much as before.
Thanks, the job is going well so far =D
Awesome for sharing your thoughts on this one Yumeka :D
Art styles are definitely an acquired taste for me as well. Mostly because it took some time for me to appreciate old school animation as supposed to the things we see now. Actually, now that I think about it and look at my watched list even, I haven’t really watched that much realistic style anime. There’s Death Note, then the Aoi Bungaku series, and I guess Bakumatsu. I guess it’s the eyes, but I still get off-put at times when I watch ’em. As for weird style shows, I guess I have SHAFT to thank for bringing me up in that matter, lol
Have fun in the new job by the way! ^_^
The early anime I watched was from the 90s, so I got used to 90s character designs right away. Nowadays with the overall style of anime characters changing since then, as well as advances in animation technology, it becomes harder to watch the old stuff. I still don’t have any misgivings about watching 90s anime, but going back to the 80s or earlier…I don’t know, the character designs and animation quality are just too outdated for me to spend a significant amount of time looking at XD
Thanks, so far so good with the job.
Really like this post. I’ve been watching an imouto harem anime this season for Sakurai Takahiro which I would never watch otherwise. Can’t say there will be more imouto harem anime in my future but I do catch myself enjoying some of the elements (however mild, I could still live without all the obligatory foggy shower confessional scenes).
I’m not much into harem anime and imouto harem anime…can’t say I have a taste for that XD The closest I’ve gotten is OreImo, which I like (though it’s not really harem). But hey, whatever floats your boat =)
Yeah, I guess if this is a “tastes I’ve acquired” post then my comment is off mark, b/c I can’t say I’ve acquired a taste for either imouto or harem. But it’s good to know more abt the genre conventions.
I loved OreImo – that’s one I would never have predicted that I would even watch but I got sucked in. Was wondering what you thought about the anime v. manga thing there, the character design in the anime is standardized but when I went back to the manga after watching the series, the art there looks really sis-con centric w/Kirino looking like she’s eight and drawn pretty provocatively – seems like the manga really is imouto genre while the anime was more meta and about fandom. I don’t know how to “receive” OreImo as a whole b/c the things I like in the anime are undermined by the more overt sexualization aspects of the manga, even tho the storyline seems the same. So technically am I not an OreImo fan even tho I love the anime?
(Talk abt going off topic! Sorry!)
Since entering college, I seem to have taken to magical girl anime as well as ones with a distinctly European setting. Between my first semester and now, I have become a fan of classics in the Mahou Shoujo genre that I wasn’t terribly fond of prior such as Sailor Moon and Nanoha. Another change in taste would be liking (some) JRPGs (along with most of their subsequent anime adaptations) and anime based off of visual novels such as Valkyria Chronicles, Fate/Stay Night, Lunar Legend Tsukihime, and recently Angel Beats.
I actually watched more magical girl anime when I was younger, Sailor Moon being my first ever anime and Cardcaptor Sakura being my first anime in Japanese. Other than that, I haven’t seen many other magical girl anime except for a few episodes of Tokyo Mew Mew, and of course, Madoka Magica last year. I haven’t gotten into JRPGs because I just don’t have the time for both intensive gaming and anime.
Oh, and glad you got to watch Angel Beats!. That was one of my favorite anime from recent years =)
Yeah iv’e come to the realization that i really enjoy anime based off visual novels as well, such as fate/stay night iv’e watched every installment of the anime and am now venturing onto play the games.
I wish you well with the job! Employment is a good thing :)
Thanks!
Have you ever given an anime with a really weird and experimental aesthetic – like Franz Kafka’s A Country Doctor or Kemonozume – a go?
I tend to shy away from series where the art style/character designs look too “weird” or “artsy” for my taste, especially if they pretty much don’t even look like anime. I took a glance at Kemonozume on MAL and it looks like it’s one of those series for me. Unless it gets a lot of hype among the general fandom, I probably wouldn’t check it out.
Fair enough, but you might miss out on some real gems that way!
What about Tekkon Kinkreet?