At the start of this year, I decided that I should try to watch more anime. My reason for doing this was simple: I have a lot of close friends who enjoy it a lot and I felt like I was missing out. And, having tried my hardest to consume more of it since the start of the year, I can firmly say that I was missing out.
I feel like, if you haven’t seen much anime, it’s easy to discard it as just being a different art style or as all being the same. This is completely untrue. Not only does anime cover quite a selection of different genres, but it reflects several stylistic choices beyond simple art. There are certain types of music you’d expect to see in anime, a certain level of emtionalism, aspects of Japanese culture and values and lots of other small things which set it apart from types of animation made outside of Japan.
Don’t get me wrong: I am by no means an expert. Since the start of the year I have only watched the entirety of Assassination Classroom and the film A Silent Voice (and a couple of other films in the past.) These two things are very different, but the more anime I consume the more I begin to understand what it really is. It’s been a useful and enlightening experience for me and I will continue to watch as much as possible. It’s a shame that anime is much less mainstream than western animations. I guess the fact that they are international productions is the only thing that stops them from being so widely enjoyed here.
I’ve grown to view anime as a unique medium for storytelling. To discard it would be to discard a wealth of stories. Not watching anime would rob you of a number of fantastic experiences, just like not play video games would do. Or not watching TV shows. Not reading books. Not watching films. Of course, everybody has their preferences, but I would definitely suggest dipping into anime every now and then if you can and I would certainly advise that you don’t ignore a piece of fiction simply because it is anime. Anime is an art form like any other.
(Don’t miss today’s Finger Puppet Show!)
