If you consider yourself an anime fan, chances are you also partake in related hobbies like reading manga or playing video games. Even though I do like the other two, anime is the hobby I spend the majority of my time, money, and energy on, but I’m always impressed by people who manage to more or less equally balance themselves between all three of these big hobbies…
Before I discovered anime and manga in the early 2000s, video games were the first of the three I was into, and very much so. This was back in the 90s when the popular video game systems were the Sega Genesis and Super Nintendo. A lot of factors made being a gamer back then somewhat easier than it is now: games and consoles were slightly cheaper, video rental stores were plentiful and most of them stocked a good variety of games too, and due to the limited technology of those years, your average game could be completed in just an hour or two. I rented games all the time, bought the ones I really liked (I eventually amassed a collection of about 30 Sega Genesis games and 20 Sega Game Gear games), and even though they rarely took more than a few hours to beat, I loved playing them over and over again. Besides drawing and watching cartoons, playing old-school Sonic the Hedgehog and other games was my favorite thing to do as a kid.
Around 2000 when I got really into Pokemon and started getting into anime and manga, my interest in non-Pokemon video games declined. After the Sega Genesis and Game Gear became obsolete, I bought a Game Boy Color and N64, but only because of Pokemon games. I played maybe one or two non-Pokemon games for those systems, but that’s about it. On the other hand, I was spending a ton of time watching anime and reading manga (as well as starting work on AnimeYume.com!) I didn’t have cable TV or high-speed Internet in the early 2000s, but I still managed to watch a lot of anime by buying VHS/DVDs myself or borrowing them from friends. The majority of manga I read during this time was also either volumes I bought in stores or borrowed from friends.
My balance of anime, manga, and games changed again in the late 2000s and has pretty much continued on the same way today. Starting in 2007 I was in college and got my first job, so my amount of free time became limited. Despite that, my interest in video games besides Pokemon did pick up again around this time. I got the next bunch of Nintendo systems – the Game Cube, DS, and Wii – again, mostly for Pokemon games, but this time I got into a few others too. Harvest Moon, Smash Bros., Spyro the Dragon, modern Sonic games, Okami, and select other games and game series I played a lot on these systems, some almost as much as Pokemon. But due to how things were going then, I didn’t have the time and energy to become that much of a gamer in addition to my anime-related activities. What I mean is that I picked a select few games and game series to get into on the Nintendo systems I bought for Pokemon games, but didn’t get other big-name consoles like the Playstation 1-3, XBox, or PSP nor any of their accompanying big-name games like the Final Fantasy series. Also around this time, the amount of manga reading I did decreased until recent years, where it’s become virtually nonexistent. It may be surprising since at this time manga was a lot more accessible to me than before with the flourishing of scanlations online, but anime too became a lot more accessible since I finally got a good computer with high-speed Internet, and fansub torrents and streaming sites were all over the place. So I gravitated towards the medium I liked the most of the two, which was and still is anime.
And that’s pretty much how my relationship with these three major hobbies still is now – the majority of my free time is spent watching and blogging about anime, the rest is spent with games, mostly Pokemon but the occasional other game too, and I barely read manga anymore. This probably makes it seem like I don’t like manga at all, and am close-minded with my taste in video games. But that’s not the case – I have a ton of respect for manga and video games and enjoy both mediums. But since I’ve became an adult, I’ve found that I want to prioritize my limited free time, money, and energy on the hobby I like the most and gives me the most pleasure, which I’ve found out over the years is anime. The way video games have become in recent years, especially the many RPGs, MMORPGs, and simulation games, they take a ton of time to not only complete, but to explore to their fullest extent with all their side-quests, customizations, world-building details, etc., and I currently can’t bring myself to invest the time and commitment needed for them over anime, blogging, and other unrelated hobbies I have like studying Japanese, going out with friends, and volunteer work at the animal shelter. If I had unlimited free time and a sufficient income, I probably would play more video games than I do now. Not sure if I could say the same for manga though, since anime and manga more or less tell the same kind of stories and I prefer the color, sound, music, animation, and voice acting that only anime delivers (and I judge anime as stand-alone works rather than how faithfully they followed their original manga). It also doesn’t help that I don’t like reading manga on a screen as opposed to an actual book, so that limits my motivation too. Actually, the only manga I have any interest in reading are ones where I’ve seen and liked their respective anime.
Another thing to consider is that the main hobbies of watching anime, reading manga, and playing video games usually entail various “sub-hobbies.” For example, the big anime sub-hobby I partake in is anime blogging, while another fan might play visual novels or make AMVs. A sub-hobby of reading manga could be drawing your own manga or web comic series, and a sub-hobby for video games could be having game nights with friends or playing MMORPGs in addition to console games. I listed my personal breakdown below. Since I hardly consider manga one of my hobbies, I replaced it with something I actively partake in, trading cards.
Watching anime
– Blogging
– Weiss Schwarz
– Going to anime conventions when I can
Playing video games
– Going to Pokemon tournaments when I can
Manga Trading cards
– Pokemon TCG
– My Little Pony CCG (an actual MLP card game comes out in November – I might get into it too)
– Weiss Schwarz
If you’re into anime, manga, and/or video games, how do you balance your time for all three? Are you like me and prioritize your favorite one while giving only limited attention to the others, or are you someone who can be a dedicated fan equally to all three, albeit with some effort?
I’d like to think I manage to balance all of my hobbies, but at the moment with exams coming up they’re falling by the wayside. Anime is something I watch during meals or with my girlfriend, though we only ever watch a few episodes at a time (and I -still- haven’t managed to catch up with my reviews >.<).
Video Games are and always have been a passion of mine. My backlog is ridiculous at the moment because I just don't have the time to play longer games that require a bit more time investment to get anything done. I love MMOs but they're also not viable during Uni time. I've played around with Guild Wars 2 a bit recently and enjoyed it but i'll be going back to WoW during the holidays because of the friends i've made there.
Visual Novels are my recent addition, as well as manga. I always have a Visual Novel on the go and right now they're my staple entertainment during my hour or so of free time before bed. They're easy to pick up for short amounts of time and can be one of the most engaging and immersive entertainment mediums available. Manga is something that will always be a fringe interest I think. The expense of buying them and my dislike for reading them online are barriers to my breaking through into all manga has to offer. I, too, also enjoy colored and moving tales as well, so that's another thing (although I did devour the latter issues of Negima in a very short amount of time).
I'm big on schedules, so all of my hobbies usually get some attention. Video games in the weekend, visual novels at night, reading just before bed etc. My free time is going to become more and more limited, so i'm a little worried that i'm going to miss out on enjoying my hobbies in the future =(
I remember having to put my blog on hiatus for most of the two years I was a full time university student. Pretty much all I did besides school work was watching an anime episode or two before bed XD But thanks to that I did manage to stay caught up with the seasonal shows I was watching then.
I’ve never played an MMO and currently don’t have any desire to, not because I think I’ll dislike it, but because it’s just such an engrossing commitment for someone who has limited free time and a lot of other hobbies that take priority XD I’ve played a couple of fan-made visual novels some years ago, but never got into the medium (I think the only one I’d have interest in playing is Angel Beats! since I love the anime).
I’m also big on schedules too, which is why I always manage to stay caught up on blogging, anime, games., etc. I’m organized to the point where I have a daily planner that I use to write down everything I want/need to do each week so I don’t forget anything!
As seen in my time management editorial I wrote in 2012, I tend to spend a good chunk of the time besides college work on blogging, Anime, teaching myself Japanese and playing video games. While I finished my undergraduate degree and working on my graduate degree in IT Administration and Security, I find that grad school has more work. But time is everything when one is in college as grades matter a lot. Because of that, I don’t do as much programming compared to the past, which my major depends on a lot although I have to program for some projects).
To me, my interest in Anime has been the same while video game interests increase. Since my little sister and I are hard core gamers, I own a lot of video game consoles, mostly Nintendo and Sony’s. Of course, Anime sometime gets me interested in playing some of the source materials such as the Idolmaster (which I own Idolmaster 2 and 3 PSP games) and Hyperdimension Neptunia (Idol PP and Rebirth 1). However, I feel that the biggest influence to my drastic changes to my video game interests has to be teaching myself Japanese as there are games that never release Japan or I felt that their releases will get messed up. Of course, If I never teach myself this language, I would never played Atelier games, Tales of Hearts R (especially for the fact that Namco has a very bad track record of localizing Tales games) and Monster Monpiece. To me, while I have negative feeling towards western games since they are dominated by shooting games, I tend to be biased for Japanese made games, namely Japanese RPGs. As for visual novels, I don’t have the time since they take a long time to complete.
On the other hand, I understand that the financial situation is also a big factor in determining which hobbies to take. I admit, video games as a hobby can be expensive as video game consoles cost a lot of money and games cost a bundle (more so if you decide to import them, unless you wait for a budget version). This is why I put off buying Anime series and buy Japanese video games instead since I’m more interested in that. I am currently saving money and hoping that I can get a job after completing my masters degree, which will possibly give me a better chance for a job since there is a high demand for IT jobs, especially in security. I realize people have student loans to pay off as well. Considering the political showdown I have been in Washington in regards to the shutdown and that the job market isn’t doing that well as a lot of the jobs are part time, I think fans are less willing to spend on stuff they are less interested and more on what they enjoy currently.
Yeah, college definitely takes priority, but that’s great that you still manage to balance anime, gaming, and blogging fairly equally despite working hard on your Masters =D
I played the Japanese versions of Pokemon Pearl and Black, and I agree that they’re helpful with learning the language. But since I have other outlets for studying Japanese that are more helpful to me, I don’t get games in Japanese as a regular thing…I’ll only be getting the English version of X for now. I too don’t spend much money on actual anime series as opposed to character goods, and lately, trading cards. And since I’m not a big-time gamer, I only spend money on games and game consoles once in a while.
As someone who’s experienced first-hand a lot of your computer expertise, I have no doubt you’ll get a great IT job someday ;)
They already revealed that Pokemon X and Y has the ability to play in any of the 8 language no matter what copy you have since all the games are basically the same copy. So, it’s still possible to play it in Japanese without having a Japanese copy.
Oh, I didn’t know that – that’s awesome =D I’ll have to try the game in Japanese at some point too.
Finding a way to balance multiple interests is hard. For me personally my favorite hobby seems to change weekly, but I try and find time every week to enjoy all my hobbies. Most evenings I have something going on with friends after work (especially this time of year) and my weekends are usually full of stuff. I do try and make one day a week where I have nothing going on and try to leave time open in my evenings. I’m a huge multi-tasker though.
My interest in manga and anime has gone from being a favorite hobby 4-5 years ago to now I rarely watch anime or read manga. If I do watch an anime, I do something else like craft. I can’t sit and watch something, so I’ll sew, paint etc while I watch. Video games I have to carve out time and generally I only get to play 3-4 hours a week during a busy week if that.
Since I’m a teacher, I do get more weeks off than most professions, so I utilize that time to enjoy my hobbies more. Generally, I just focus on the hobbies I’m most interested in at the moment and make a list every week of things I want to do fun wise. As strange as it sounds, it works!
LOL, I guess we’re kind of opposites in that my favorite hobbies haven’t changed much in many years – they’ve been watching anime and blog/web site work for over ten years! XD Once in a while something will come up, like a new video game, that will become my favorite thing for a while, but so far I always end up going back to anime. I’m also the opposite in that I don’t watch anime while doing something else, like eating. Especially if it’s an anime I’ve never seen before, I want to give it my undivided attention and make sure I catch every word of dialogue and visual nuance ;)
That’s a tricky one… Anime is also my main hobby, but I do play quite a bit of computer games. And on my recent trip to the US, I was able to get Final Fantasy XIII-2, Ni no Kuni, and Disgaea 4 for my PS3… And the new anime season starting… Ugh… I’m actually pressed with time a bit :P
However, I’m a very patient person. So I will play 1 game at a time (Ni no Kuni right now) until I finish it, and see what shows I want to watch this season. Then I will play the others, and it will probably take me a year or so to finish all 3. But, no hurry :)
That’s probably how I handle it. Just dedicate my free time to the one at a time, until I get done with all of them. I’m not big on schedules, so I will either play, or watch anime depending on how I’m feeling that day, and keep going until I’m done with all of them. No schedules that may get messed up, or any hurried feeling either… Of course, it helps that I can read light novels at work (in between my other tasks), and watch some anime at work on slow weekends (I work Sundays, so no bosses around). But still, I try to not set a fixed schedule that could get messed up, or would stress me if I cannot keep to it. So I’ll just patiently churn through all the stuff I have, even if it takes me a long time (Watamote is pending, as well as other anime and games… Still, no hurry) :P
Since I’m not a big gamer, I also rarely have more than one game I’m currently into (usually a Pokemon game). Sometimes if no new game comes along, I get an urge to play one and will buy one I think I’ll like, usually one that’s already been out for a while. But since anime is my main hobby, I’m always caught up on that =P
LOL, I couldn’t live my life without having schedules XD That’s how I’ve managed to stay so organized and rarely forget to do things, whether major or minor. But I guess everyone’s different :3
Glad to hear you got some good games during your trip!
It’s so true that most of us anime fans seem to dabble in video games and manga, too! I’m certainly no exception – currently, I balance video games and anime more or less equally, while reading manga has been sent to the backburner for a couple of years now. Occasionally I’ll get the urge to read a load of manga all at once, but it’s pretty difficult to do all three, invest enough time in all of them and still have enough time left over to study and do other important things.
Aside from the obvious similarities between the three, I do wonder sometimes if it’s a certain personality type that makes people interested in these hobbies, because it seems that people who like one of them are much more likely to like another one of the three than a person who isn’t into any of them. Or maybe that’s just my studying getting to me…
I think the reason people who like anime also like games, and vice versa, is because they offer the same kind of fulfillment – fictional escapism more or less. Whether you’re just watching fantastical events unfold (anime) or controlling them yourself (games) they both appeal to people who like to indulge in fantasy. That’s how I see the similarities at least =P
For me, the reason why I got interested in anime and manga is because of Pokémon.
My cousins used to love video games, but after high school, their interests waned off. However, they live in Japan, and things are different over there.
I do find your theory true. I’ve seen some people who only play video games, or only read magna, or just watch anime, but some also manage to do two or three of those. I play some Mario and Pokemon and watch 4 or 5 anime at a time. One of my friends plays MMOS and loves Soul Eater.
I’m more of a anime and video game person, coz living in the South means theres a lack of manga to be found anywhere. ? Most of my anime/manga/video game friends also like Star Wars, Star Trek, Lagos, etc. So maybe theres more to this than we ever thought.
It’s true that a lot of my friends/acquaintances who are into anime are also keen on manga and video games. I’ve always been just into anime though – I’ve read one or two manga titles before and occasionally pick up the odd light novel as well, but only as a passing curiosity. I don’t and have never personally owned any gaming console, and my only ‘sub-hobbies’ are blogging and fanfiction. I’m fairly busy with just these on top of working full-time though, so I too have a lot of admiration for people who somehow manage to balance a lot more.
I also know a few people who are “anime only” but pretty much everyone I know who partakes in at least one of the three mediums also partakes in at least one other to an extent. Generally speaking, I know there are plenty of people who only play video games and don’t watch anime or read manga, and plenty of anime/manga people who don’t play any games. It’s funny because back in my early years of fandom almost everyone I knew who liked anime also read manga, but in recent years I’m meeting a lot more people like myself who only watch anime. Maybe it’s because people’s lives are busier nowadays and there’s little time for both, and/or because anime has become much easier to access in recent years.
Watching anime and blogging about it is also my “main hobby,” with gaming a little bit below that. I’m in my last year of grad school and am also working part time, so I’m big on scheduling blocks of time to do stuff. It’s pretty easy for me to drop in an episode of anime during meals or before bed, or at least much easier than it is to pick up a game. I like long RPGs and simulators, mainly because I can get just a handful each year and sink a ton of time into them on the weekends to still get my fix. I don’t really keep up with gaming news or what new titles have been announced unlike with anime. That said, my brother’s main hobby is gaming, so he tends to let me know when something I might like turns up. Manga has really fallen on the backburner because of this. I still like to pick up volumes now and then, but I’m years behind in some of the titles I’m collecting. The only series release that I followed really closely recently was the Sailor Moon re-release. I’m also planning to get the sped-up releases for Attack on Titan since I’m obsessed with it, but otherwise manga is not really my thing. It’s much easier for me to just follow seasonal anime.
I’m similar to you in that I don’t keep up with gaming news (besides Pokemon) and what all the currently popular games are, while I’m very up-to-date with anime (since it’s my main hobby). Sometimes a year might go by without me playing a new game besides dabbling my old games here and there (since I’m someone who can play a game I love over and over without getting tired of it, sometimes playing the same levels/missions over and over) – but when I do get a new game, I also sink a ton of time into it to get my gaming fix :3
Balancing hobbies can be pretty hard sometimes. Right now, for example, I’m in the middle of preparing for an interdisciplinary research paper and I feel drained working on it. The work itself isn’t so much an issue as coordinating how I will tackle the various pieces; the first part of my bibliography is still a tad messy since I didn’t quite figure out my threshhold for how much work I could handle at once and my mom was in the hospital. One thing that helped me (and has always helped throughout college) are clear deadlines; when the timeframe is more visible, I can balance things better.
My hobbies tend to end up interconnecting and blending with one another, anime and manga being my primary ones; they tend to color other hobbies that serve as vehicles (e.g. sports and racing video games). With the exception of the odd JRPG, video games tend to be vehicles for my anime and manga fandoms more than anything else.
In addition, my video game hobby tends to possess organizational bents; right now, I am currently working on organizing some fictional rosters and schedules related to the games NASCAR Racing 2003 and NASCAR The Game: Inside Line (NTG:IL), most of which revolve around anime and JRPG’s. For NTG:IL, figuring out who goes where comes down to various factors, particularly how much I like a character or how powerful a character is relative to how well a particular driver or team did during 2012 (the season NTG:IL’s cars are from). I also sort out the drivers using meta-themes – themes that are applied to multi-car teams, usually based on a grouping within the main theme of the roster; to use and example for NTG:IL, if the theme of the roster is the Railgun anime, the four main girls of Railgun may all go to Hendrick Motorsports because (a) Hendrick Racing has four entries belonging to highly successful drivers in real life and (b) in this example, I place more status on the four main characters proportional to the others, hence why they wind up with a powerful, well-equipped team.
Phew, I had a lot to say. :)
I also do better with clear time frames and deadlines. I remember back at university I would sit down with all the syllabuses from every class I was taking that semester and my pocket planner and literally schedule out everything I would work on each day of the semester. Some may find that crazy but thanks to that I never turned in anything late and was always caught up with assignments and studying.
The Nascar games you’re describing sound interesting. Glad you’re having fun with those XD
Like you I used to read alot of manga when I was younger and before I had descent internet. However now I primarily watch anime and play video games. I generally balance out my video games/anime time fairly equally without much trouble (that is assuming I have the free time XD).
What’s funny is, even though there are a ton of scanlation sites for manga which you mentioned, I still absolutely love reading manga in it’s original form the most. I buy manga occasionally when I can find good deals but I usually don’t given my budget =P regardless though, I still try to read manga on occasion but it’s really taken the back seat over the years.
Seems like manga has taken a back seat for a lot of us (see some of the above comments). I think it’s because anime is a lot more easier to access than it was back in the day, and it takes more effort to read through scanlations online than to just stream an anime episode. I too still like reading manga in paper format – if someone lent me manga volumes of series I like, such as Fruits Basket or Attack on Titan, I’d probably read them ;)
Going into and balancing what I like to call – a pentalogy of my otaku hobbies – anime, manga, games, visual novels and light novels is always the toughest of all. Often times, I find myself forced to sacrifice a few titles in my backlog, or to lessen down my anime-watching of new seasons.
Both anime and games had been with me for the longest time ever. My first game console was the PSone – I remembered playing various games on it Spyro, Crash Bandicoot but one of my most memorable games during the PSone era was playing Xenogears – it ended becoming one of my favorite RPGs in PSone, aside from Final Fantasy. Sometime later, we got a PS2 and accordingly, a PS3. In contrast, I guess my gaming history aligned itself more with Sony than yours, which was Nintendo^^”
If I were to make a comparison on all five of my hobbies, admittedly, games and visual novels perhaps are the most time-consuming ever. Anime and light novels are somewhere in the middle while manga is probably the most quickest and easiest to catch up on. I can understand taking a backstage in gaming in that case – the usual RPGs take about 20 to 200 hours to finish, though other genres tend to be shorter. What I normally do nowadays, is to make use of my marathoning anime-watching style format. While waiting for every new seasonal anime, I try to pop up a few games and visual novels and if I still have some more to squish in, perhaps some other anime I had left out in my backlog, before getting back to the new anime. I tend to read manga and light novels while I’m out and about with my phone, though I still do read a bit at home too if I get the chance. This schedule is most comfortable for me atm, but I’m still missing out on a lot^^”
Sounds like you have your hobbies planned out well =) For me, marathoning anime takes more time since I have to spend a few hours at a time to get through episodes. Watching seasonally lets me watch just one or two episodes that I squeeze in the hour before I go to bed. If I had more free time I would marathon more often since I have a big backlog of series I still want to watch XD
I love all 3, I usually follow both manga and anime of a series. And also, gaming is other of my favorite hobbies.
I have it pretty rough. I work a job that pays my bills and leaves a tiddlebit to include into my hobbies and otaku way of life. I also work out at the gym 6 days a week for at least 2.5 hours a day. I work night shift, so that is from 11pm to 7am. Add the time between work and home and that’s between 30 minutes to an hour of driving. Driving between the gym and home adds another 40 minutes. So that’s an extra 70 minutes to 1.7 hours sent driving each day. Added to my 8 hour workshift, that’s 9.7 hours used up. Plus the gym equals out to about 11.7 hours a day usually. I sleep for 7 hours. So that’s 18m7 hours a day. Leaving me little over 5.3 hours to fully indulge myself daily in anime, manga and videogames. I handle subgroups as well. I am developing my own manga, which each sitting takes about 3 hours. I set my Sundays, definite day off; to be 8 hours of gaming and 5 hours of anime. I wake up early every Sunday so I can fully indulge with the highest amount of pleasure in my needs. On my rest days from the gym, Friday and Sunday both have the same schedule. Except for 8hours of work on Friday. I’ve found its easiest to balance out my indulgences in this way. However it does take a toll on my social life absolutely. I mainly only socialize with friends via Facebook messenger, online gaming and at the gym. I will set three days per month towards going to the movies or mall. Which I have to mentally force myself to do haha. Since id rather just be at home indulging some more. Being an adult isn’t fun when you’re and otaku, however I dont plan on giving up my way of life anytime soon. Yeah, woman I meet are usually gym girls and dont care for my fanbased lifestyle of the videogames and manga and anime genres, however if it means giving up my hobbies to be with one, not a chance in hell will it happen.