I love anime.

I have loved it since I was a kid, at least since I was a teenager.

Two decades later, my love for it is still going strong. 😉

One might ask, “Why?” I know my family has wondered about that, and a few friends, especially as I’ve grown up and left my teenage years ever further behind me.

Amusing story in that regard:
My brother-in-law thought to get my sister (his wife) into anime, just a little bit, by degrees. He thought to start with a non-anime cartoon with heavy Asian influence, namely Avatar: The Last Airbender. And he, not knowing what horrible thing was about to do, thought to ease her into that… by watching the live-action version by M. Night Shyamalan with her.

…yeah, that did not go according to plan.

It’s another reason why I will punch that man dead in the face if ever I meet him. 😉

I’ve tried to explain it a few times, of course, but somehow or other my explanations have always managed to fall flat. It’s a bit like them trying to explain the fun of football to me. We kind of just politely tolerate each others’ likes. That’s family, ya know? 🙂

When I saw this tag being passed around… well, if I could have given my fellow bloggers the puppy-dog look through the computer, begging to be tagged, I would have.

As more and more of them tagged each other and not me, I felt like a kid waiting for a Christmas that was not guaranteed to ever arrive.

And then, finally… I jumped up and volunteered when Winter Reverie had no one to tag. It was a combination of Donkey from Shrek going “Pick me! Pick me!” and a certain someone else going, “I volunteer as tribute!” Heh, they took note and edited to tag me.

Yay! Thank you! 😀

So, the Rules:

• Write a post about why you love anime. It could be your favourite thing about it or one of your favourite things about it, it doesn’t matter which, but just pick one!
• You can get as personal or as impersonal as you like. You might want to write about how anime helped you through a tough time or something that it has taught you or you might want to write about just how much fun you’ve had watching it over the years. Your choice
• Nominate three bloggers to do the same
• Link back to (the original) post. Ty would love to see what you’ve written and may compile a list of favourite entries further down the line

Why do I still love anime?

Well, there’s a few reasons. In no particular order…

1) I just like it.

Whatever floats your boat, ya know? Like the whole football thing. Others like it, I don’t, whatever. Anime? I like it, others don’t, whatever. Like and let like, I say.

2) All the stories, from my childhood to my adult life.

I love stories.

And I love good times which make good memories.

Whenever I’ve had some difficulty in my life, there have always been stories, and the lessons they teach, to help me. I’m not picky, I don’t differentiate much where those stories come from, be it history, scripture, family anecdotes, poetry, music, pictures, comics, movies, television, cartoons… or anime. 😉

I watched Looney Tunes, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and Power Rangers.

Then I watched ThunderCats and Batman.

Then, Dragonball Z and Sailor Moon. (hey, don’t judge, I was bored 😉 )

Then, Rurouni Kenshin, Gundam Wing, and Record of Lodoss War: Chronicles of the Heroic Knight.

Then, Fullmetal Alchemist, .hack//Sign, and Trigun. Oh, and Justice League, and Lord of the Rings.

On and on it goes, and don’t need to tell you that there are many anime titles out there. 😉

If I didn’t have all these stories surrounding me, I don’t know if I’d be nearly so balanced right now. I don’t know if I’d understand people even as much as I do. (which, I readily admit, is not exactly impressive 😉 ) It’s what I do: I consume what isn’t real so I can comprehend what is.

3) It’s just another medium.

Animation began as just a strange, quirky thing, and it got wackier and weirder pretty quickly. Then Walt Disney came along and used it to make child-friendly movies for the whole family. His success begat an influence which saturated Western animation, turning it not only into something good for families, but specifically geared towards children. And only children. To that end, it got restricted and censored out the wazoo, as did the comics, movies, and television shows of the day.

Meanwhile in Japan, a country that had been shattered and grew again in the wake of terrible destruction, animation did more than just entertain children. As such, there was no such censoring as there was in America. And why should there be? It’s just another method of storytelling, when you get down to it, as valid and useful and impactful as any novel, movie, or live-action television show.

Thus, even child-friendly anime don’t skirt difficult subjects or talk down to kids. It doesn’t hide things that “only adults should know.” Indeed, there are titles that have specifically defied the various forms censorship takes. We can talk about heavy, emotional things that, yes, maybe kids aren’t ready for, or maybe they are.

This somewhat ties into my next reason:

4) Diversity and variety.

Anime on its own is as wide and diverse as all the other forms of media put together, and why shouldn’t it be?

I rush to add that, yes, the industry suffers from fads and trends and tropes, just like any other. However!

There are wacky comedies for the kids and adults alike, there are slice-of-life stories, there’s fantasy, science fiction, action, urban fantasy, horror, survival stories, romance, adventure, coming of age stories, tragedy, drama, revenge… the list is all but endless.

There’s a range of visual styles that range from old-style cartoons to advanced computer animation and everything in between.

There are characters who teach us valuable lessons in their triumphs and their losses. There are heroes and villains and so many different twists on the relationships between the two. Good and evil itself are questioned, challenged, validated, undermined. We can even see ourselves in some of these fictitious people.

The music! It is fantastic, and there are very few types of music which are not, at some point, included. Heck, my love of Fairy Tail first stemmed from its soundtrack! 🙂

The stories can have pretty much anything and everything happen, and it often does. There are no guarantees, even if you think you have them. 😉

In short… it’s just another medium.

So why hate on it?

5) I have no reason to dislike it.

For me, it’s not a matter of having a reason to like something. I’ll like it until I have a reason to actively dislike it.

Sometimes-questionable content notwithstanding, if I’m not going to hate all movies because some of them have similar material in them, then I’m not about to hate anime just because it does the same thing, ya know?

In conclusion:

I love it, because I love it. Always have, always will. 😉

And my family will just have to accept that I’ll keep trying to find anime that they’ll like too. 😉

Now, as for who to tag… hmmm… true, it feels like most everyone’s been tagged already, but I’ll go with:

Moya at the Moyatorium

Shaddowcat at Exploring Anime and Manga

Lina at Tiny Ugly Animal

I look forward to your answers! 🙂