Zach | Bluesky

Transcript4 Panel Comic

Panel 1: an Apple Tree saying “The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree”

Panel 2: an Apple saying “Anime is trash”

Panel 3: the tree winds up…

Panel 4: …and throws the apple as far as possible with a FWOoOSH

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[–] 33 points 20 hours ago* (last edited 19 hours ago) (22 children)

When I was in 8th-9th grade I was obsessed with anime. Used to get the fansub VHS mailed to my house to watch them. These were the days of 28.8 and 56k modems. You weren't watching full episodes of any quality. LOVED anime. Now I can't stand it. It's unbelievably cringey to me. I'm 43 but I feel like it's been very difficult to watch for a long time. I remember in college people were watching Naruto and I was just bored to tears. Voice Acting, writing, etc really is trash for the most part. There's some exceptions, Studio Ghibli, Akira, maybe a movie or two. But just can't get into it these days. Anyway that's my story, tune in next time on old man rant.

Edit: so exceptions supposed to be some exceptions

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  • [–] 22 points 19 hours ago (5 children)

    The vast majority of anime is aimed at minors, not a huge surprise that you aren't as interested anymore at 43. It also seems pretty repetitive nowadays, though IDK whether that was already an issue 30 years ago.

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  • [–] 14 points 17 hours ago* (last edited 17 hours ago) (4 children)

    I've only recently realized how weird a lot of anime is when you think about it. Slavery, child soldiers, pedophilia by proxy of being reborn, racism, anime is filled with so many morally questionable tropes that you sometimes don't really think about because it's presented in an entertaining and comedic way most of the time...

    Overlord is an anime I enjoy, but if that regime existed in real life they'd be comparable to the NAZIs with the amount of death and destruction they bring

    Weird to think about, still enjoy watching anime though

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  • [–] 2 points 3 hours ago*

    I just started overlord S2 and ouch, they fucking invaded the lizardmen tribe then made them their vassals after killing their chiefs...and brought one back?? I cannot and will not explain it will but it felt very much what a fascist would do lol, i will end the season in the hope that it gets better but...

    I pirated it anyway so at least i don't give 'em money if it's in a bad faith :P

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  • [–] 1 point 4 hours ago

    That speech he gives to that Prince before he destroys their land was such bullshit considering they manufactured the whole situation in the first place. It only really works as a fascist power fantasy. The thing I'm not sure about is whether Momonko was deliberately written as a loser being propped up by an overpowered character and guild or if the writers are on his side and themselves admire and aspire to be like that character.

    But it feels like fascist propaganda.

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  • [–] 1 point 7 hours ago*

    Oh definitely, there's a ton of questionable stuff. Though at least some of those are pretty much only because a series aimed at school children will have school-aged protagonists, like most of the child soldiers.

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  • [–] 7 points 15 hours ago* (last edited 15 hours ago) (2 children)

    I feel like the industry as a whole refuses to innovate and modernize and is just stuck in a rut of appealing to 15 year olds with slide deck level animated content and dated and frankly in 2026 offending characteristics, forgetting all of us 30+ people with disposable income who want stories with depth and animation with quality. One thing I always liked about Ghibli is that even if the protagonist of a movie is a young kid it, they never made the movie itself childish or pandering to a younger audience, if anything they were willing to take the risk of gently exposing adult and even difficult topics in such movies like Totoro for example, that one scene of the big sister coming across her little sisters shoe by the pond is seared in my memory.

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  • [–] 3 points 3 hours ago (1 child)

    This isn't a problem with anime so much as it is with localization. Most of what makes it out of Japan is shonen, stuff aimed at boys aged about 12-18. There's also shojo (same age group, but girls), seinen (adult men), josei (adult women), and kodomomuke (under 12s of both genders). Seinen in particular has an absurdly broad range of genres. For example, Ghost in the Shell is a foundational cyberpunk work, but Spice & Wolf is a slow burn romance about medieval barter economics.

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  • [–] 10 points 19 hours ago (9 children)

    I'm close to 40 and I have some modern, mature, suggestions if you're open to it.

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  • [–] 6 points 18 hours ago (6 children)

    Sure but I don't want overwhelming options. Maybe one or two. Something where they act like humans might actually act, and no underage grossness please.

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  • [–] 20 points 17 hours ago (3 children)

    Not sure what your style is but my most recent suggestion has been Dorohedoro. Sorcerers rule one side of the world, and shove non sorcerers into The Hole. They hop in and out of The Hole whenever they want, experimenting on people as they wish. Main character doesn't know why he has a lizard head, and is immune to Sorcerer magic. Gritty, unpredictable, great world building.

    Another: Under Ninja. Japan is full of ninjas, and of course undercover ninjas as well, hence the title. Can't say much without spoiling it, but the main character is in a high school trying to out ninja a rival clan that is undercover. Surprisingly serious, great animation, and a few gags.

    In both, IMO, the characters are fairly grounded and act like real people would.

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  • [–] 8 points 16 hours ago (1 child)

    I thought I'd seen dorohedoro and that is not what I remember at all. Gonna have to watch it (again?) I guess

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  • [–] 2 points 15 hours ago

    There's a LOT in the show, I binged season 1 and came in right when season 2 started and ended this year. 2-3 years between seasons is going to be ROUGH to keep up with, but the world itself has so many layers it kind of reminds me of Fifth Element.

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  • [–] 4 points 15 hours ago

    Dorohedoro is such a breath of fresh air compared to the typical cookie cutter anime, both its art and story and characters feel unique to itself, the only issue is how complicated the storyline is, but I just tune in for the ride even if I can’t keep track of the plot

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  • [–] 3 points 13 hours ago*

    No-one recommended Frieren or To Your Eternity? Those are two off the top of my head that seem aimed at a more mature audience, and avoid most tropes. Extremely high quality animes with great writing and storytelling. Even the elves act more human than most other animes.

    Re:Zero is also good, but has a moderate amount of "underage grossness" in there you have to ignore.

    This is a wildcard recommendation, but I initially thought Jobless Reincarnation was going to be garbage for the exact reasons you said. I actually ended up enjoying it a lot, though; from someone's identical recommendation on this very site. But it's hard to explain why you might like it without spoiling anything. Even though the MC is horrible at the start, I'd say he acts the most like a real human, especially in regards to growth and character development.

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  • [–] 2 points 18 hours ago* (last edited 8 hours ago)

    I'm in the same boat. I still watch one or other anime show that I find interesting like DoroHeDoro or Heavenly Delusion. Also, every year I look up the best anime movies released last year and watch a couple of them. Tried to watch Made in Abyss a couple of months ago but didn't connect, it feel cringe and the art style looks like for 5 year old kids.

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