Is it odd for adults to watch animation?

FunLover18 · 26-05-2014 08:02PM

RDM_83 again wrote: »

I think there is a bit of a difference between liking something like American Dad, Archer or the Simpsons which are all pretty simplistic and sometimes puerile but have an obvious appeal to adults compared to watching something that is a childrens show aimed mainly at children, I recently had to suffer on the bus overhearing hours of conversation about Pokemon from a bunch of guys and girls in their early twenties (the horror of forgetting your headphones :eek: ).

If they were in their early 20s chances, as I am, than the fact is that Pokemon was a huge part of that generation's childhood; there were collecting cards, stickers, games, TV shows. I don't watch Pokemon anymore but I have had full blown conversations reminiscing about the days when Bulbasaur/Charmander/Squirtle was one of the most difficult decisions in life.

Anyway, you should have remembered your headphones - rookie mistake

alleystar · 26-05-2014 08:18PM

I still like the odd cartoon but I just find anime really creepy. I think it stems from the people who were in the anime soc in college - really weird bunch of people. The fact that some of them properly fancied some of the characters was just plain odd...I guess it's a passion of theirs though so I can't really judge.

Bronies are on a different level though, creepy as fuck.

Princess Peach · 26-05-2014 08:21PM

Ugh I have a friend who is a film and literature snob, like always rubbing your nose in all the arty and obscure crap she apparently enjoys.

Yet she would never watch anything animated, wouldn't even consider it.

You can get any amazing story told through animation though. And it allows for visuals that just aren't possible in live action films.

Or just stupid fun

Aongus Von Bismarck · 26-05-2014 08:22PM

alleystar wrote: »

I still like the odd cartoon but I just find anime really creepy. I think it stems from the people who were in the anime soc in college - really weird bunch of people. The fact that some of them properly fancied some of the characters was just plain odd...I guess it's a passion of theirs though so I can't really judge.

Bronies are on a different level though, creepy as fuck.

I think you may have hit on something there. Its not the cartoon itself that's creepy per se. Although I do find some of the graphic violence and sexual stuff very strange. Its more the entire anime/Japanese subculture that these people buy into.

Anyone who has been to college has seen what type of people join anime societies, and they're all a bit... well weird to be honest. Where I went to university they used to actually dress up and shout Japanese shit at each other. It was incredibly unnerving to see.

26-05-2014 08:23PM

alleystar wrote: »

Bronies are on a different level though, creepy as fuck.

Second last in the food chain is good enough for me. :cool:

Davarus Walrus · 26-05-2014 08:26PM

alleystar wrote: »

I still like the odd cartoon but I just find anime really creepy. I think it stems from the people who were in the anime soc in college - really weird bunch of people. The fact that some of them properly fancied some of the characters was just plain odd...I guess it's a passion of theirs though so I can't really judge.

Bronies are on a different level though, creepy as fuck.

My sister is doing postgraduate research in UCD, but does some part-time bar/catering work to supplement her income. She was telling me she worked at the comic convention in the RDS a couple of months ago. It was filled with every sort of oddball and weirdo. Fat men with beards shuffling around ogling women dressed as space mutants.

Bobwoodward11 · 26-05-2014 08:27PM

lol a lot of middle aged men in shorts!

ryan101 · 26-05-2014 08:27PM

It entirely depends on the animation, animal farm etc.
I really do wonder about Irish adults that watch Japanese children cartoons and amine etc.

GalwayGuy2 · 26-05-2014 08:27PM

I watch anime. It's great and it can't really be compared to western cartoons. Animes weird. IT deals with serious adult issues while being a little bit childish. EDIT: Lyareia's post reminded me of hunter x hunter. That is a perfect example of this. It's an incredibly anime, but the first few episodes are quite childish. And then you have very violent scenes and great character development. Very, very strange.

And it gives the creator complete control over how the story is portrayed.

I still like the odd cartoon but I just find anime really creepy. I think it stems from the people who were in the anime soc in college - really weird bunch of people. The fact that some of them properly fancied some of the characters was just plain odd...I guess it's a passion of theirs though so I can't really judge.

Hmmm, I seem to see this mentioned a few times. So, I thought I thought I'd tackle it.

Anime females are drawn by pervy middle-aged men. Hell, I find them attractive. They look like adult women and are drawn for male fantasies.

And I'm not entirely sure how it's any different to liking Mr.Darcy, Edward Cullen or your man from that windy movie?

Mars Bar · 26-05-2014 08:28PM

Animated films are the business. They are my go to films.

I don't get Anime at all but I wouldn't judge those who do.

I've seen gifs of Bob's Burgers on Tumblr a lot and some of them are great. I decided to give it a go on Saturday but just couldn't take to it.
The early Simpson's was brilliant and I still watch repeats. I used to watch Family Guy, Futurama and South Park but in all honesty, I have grown out of them. That's not to say others should grow out of them though.

26-05-2014 08:31PM

GalwayGuy2 wrote: »

And I'm not entirely sure how it's any different to liking Mr.Darcy, Edward Cullen or your man from that windy movie?

Its really the weird people that make it seems weird, not the act of liking something fictional itself. Then again, declaring a character to be your wife...

ryan101 · 26-05-2014 08:34PM

GalwayGuy2 wrote: »

Hmmm, I seem to see this mentioned a few times. So, I thought I thought I'd tackle it.

Anime females are drawn by pervy middle-aged men. Hell, I find them attractive. They look like adult women and are drawn for male fantasies.

And I'm not entirely sure how it's any different to liking Mr.Darcy, Edward Cullen or your man from that windy movie?

They are not cartoons. Physically they are real people, even if the character they play is not. So I can understand the physical attraction element.
I really don't understand how any sexually mature adult can be sexually attracted to a japanese cartoon sex character, most of whom seem to be cartoon underage schoolgirls. I would be recommending some type of therapy.

keith16 · 26-05-2014 08:36PM

Aongus Von Bismarck wrote: »

Ones that don't rely on toilet humour to get a laugh out of their audience.

South Park does not rely on toilet humour.

Aongus Von Bismarck · 26-05-2014 08:41PM

keith16 wrote: »

South Park does not rely on toilet humour.

From what I've seen of it, it does.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aq-G4HATiC8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f49A89Yqhlw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZIfX3p9LS8

GalwayGuy2 · 26-05-2014 08:43PM

ryan101 wrote: »

They are not cartoons. Physically they are real people, even if the character they play is not. So I can understand the physical attraction element.
I really don't understand how any sexually mature adult can be sexually attracted to a japanese cartoon sex character, most of whom seem to be cartoon underage schoolgirls. I would be recommending some type of therapy.

Lol, that's pretty harsh.

You do realize I was talking about the characters that were in their twenties? There's plenty of them.

Personally, the age thing still creeps me out a little. But, come on, do you really believe an adult male being attracted towards someone in the late teens is a pedophile?

Edit: Just for clarification, were you recommending I go therapy or something? Or recommending that people attracted emotionally to the characters should go to therapy?

Links234 · 26-05-2014 08:49PM

Lyaiera wrote: »

I do know quite a few anime fans who are annoyed at the way anime has gone recently. I don't really watch it (Hunter x Hunter and FMA aside) but they're saying that the Japanese stuff has gotten very, eh, risque. And not in a good way. Lots of "young girls" and fan service, and panty shots. This was from someone who was a big fan of anime. He maintained the signal to noise ratio became absurdly bad and it wasn't worth going through the new stuff to find the good stuff. He still loves the stuff from the 80s and 90s, so maybe he just became a bit hipster.

Also I tried watching Topen Tengun Something Lagan on a friend's recommendation and that put me off anime for quite a while.

Still, I have nothing against. I'd probably go back to it at some time. I have to watch Cowboy Bepop from start to finish at some point. Good for anyone who does manage to pick the best from it.

I'd disagree, but in saying that there is a ridiculous amount of anime being produced these days and there is absolutely no way whatsoever I could imagine keeping up with even a fraction of it. Not only is there more of it being produced now, but there's more being released around the world than ever before, DVD, netflix, crunchyroll, whatever else. I don't think there's a worse signal to noise ratio, it's that there's so much more signal now.

Now with that said, I'm someone who's very put off by fanservice, etc because most of the time it breaks the immersion in the story, it's just unnessecary. So, if we look at the really popular anime shows as of late and see if they're more fanservicey or not, I don't think so. Attack on Titan for example doesn't, or Sabre from the Fate series doesn't seem to fall into the trope of fantasy armor (Cosplay of the character for example). And as well as that, you've got things that are a commentary on these sorts of issues, take a look at Tiger & Bunny for example which is about superheroes who are reality TV stars and are sponsored by different companies, and the character of Blue Rose complains about how the outfit she has to wear is far too skimpy and she hates it, but her sponsors insist on it. So there's a sort of meta commentary there.

Is it any worse? Not sure I could objectively say, but honestly, when I think of bad fanservice, I actually think more to the 80's stuff than modern.

keith16 · 26-05-2014 08:50PM

Aongus Von Bismarck wrote: »

From what I've seen of it, it does.

So you watch it then?

Aongus Von Bismarck · 26-05-2014 08:50PM

ryan101 wrote: »

They are not cartoons. Physically they are real people, even if the character they play is not. So I can understand the physical attraction element.
I really don't understand how any sexually mature adult can be sexually attracted to a japanese cartoon sex character, most of whom seem to be cartoon underage schoolgirls. I would be recommending some type of therapy.

I just googles Anime schoolgirls to see what you were talking about. That is beyond disturbing. How is it even legal for men to watch that type of stuff. The characters are clearly drawn to resemble teenage girls of about 14-15 years old!!!

ryan101 · 26-05-2014 08:51PM

GalwayGuy2 wrote: »

Lol, that's pretty harsh.

You do realize I was talking about the characters that were in their twenties? There's plenty of them.

Personally, the age thing still creeps me out a little. But, come on, do you really believe an adult male being attracted towards someone in the late teens is a pedophile?

Edit: Just for clarification, were you recommending I go therapy or something? Or recommending that people attracted emotionally to the characters should go to therapy?

I'm talking about people who are sexually aroused by cartoons.
I have no idea what you watch or do, I'm not talking about you personally, nor do I want to know tbh.

Overheal · 26-05-2014 08:52PM

Aongus Von Bismarck wrote: »

I think you may have hit on something there. Its not the cartoon itself that's creepy per se. Although I do find some of the graphic violence and sexual stuff very strange. Its more the entire anime/Japanese subculture that these people buy into.

Anyone who has been to college has seen what type of people join anime societies, and they're all a bit... well weird to be honest. Where I went to university they used to actually dress up and shout Japanese shit at each other. It was incredibly unnerving to see.

Those people also weird out normal people who still also happen to watch anime.

They are not the entire culture of anime watchers. Thats like saying everyone who watches star trek goes to sleep in a tactical officers onesie

efb · 26-05-2014 08:52PM

Animaniacs ftw, 34

FunLover18 · 26-05-2014 08:52PM

ryan101 wrote: »

I'm talking about people who are sexually aroused by cartoons.
I have no idea what you watch or do, I'm not talking about you personally.

Are you saying you don't think Andy's mom is absolute MILF?

Links234 · 26-05-2014 08:53PM

Overheal wrote: »

Thats like saying everyone who watches star trek goes to sleep in a tactical officers onesie

They don't?

Aongus Von Bismarck · 26-05-2014 08:57PM

keith16 wrote: »

So you watch it then?

How did you take I watch it, from the sentence "from what I have seen". Surely that indicates I don't watch it, but have seen it.

I'm not a fan of cricket, but I have seen it played.

Links234 · 26-05-2014 08:58PM

Aongus Von Bismarck wrote: »

Anyone who has been to college has seen what type of people join anime societies, and they're all a bit... well weird to be honest. Where I went to university they used to actually dress up and shout Japanese shit at each other. It was incredibly unnerving to see.

Think that's bad? I saw sports fans dress up like their favourite teams, yelling and screaming their lungs of at TVs in pubs and the like... Some of them even go as far as having fights with people who like different sports teams to them. Incredibly unnerving. I think they need therapy.

RobbingBandit · 26-05-2014 08:58PM

I dare anyone to watch Pinky and the Brain and not laugh.

26-05-2014 08:59PM

Links234 wrote: »

Is it any worse? Not sure I could objectively say, but honestly, when I think of bad fanservice, I actually think more to the 80's stuff than modern.

Fanservice is today what gore was in the 80's.

26-05-2014 09:01PM

no its not weird at all

i love adventure time regular show and all of fox cartoon shows

Sarky · 26-05-2014 09:03PM

Links234 wrote: »

Think that's bad? I saw sports fans dress up like their favourite teams, yelling and screaming their lungs of at TVs in pubs and the like... Some of them even go as far as having fights with people who like different sports teams to them. Incredibly unnerving. I think they need therapy.

Disturbing amount of fanfic-style Mary Sue self-insertion, too. They're always talking about how they beat some team, as if they were actually the talented athletes running and playing their hearts out a few hundred miles away instead of themselves, sitting in some pub and shouting at a screen. It's like they have a problem telling reality and fantasy apart. Sports fans are just weird.

Lyaiera · 26-05-2014 09:09PM

Sarky wrote: »

Disturbing amount of fanfic-style Mary Sue self-insertion, too. They're always talking about how they beat some team, as if they were actually the talented athletes running and playing their hearts out a few hundred miles away instead of themselves, sitting in some pub and shouting at a screen. It's like they have a problem telling reality and fantasy apart. Sports fans are just weird.

You know there are people who like sports and anime.

What a crazy world.

Is it odd for adults to watch animation?

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