Making Time
February 15, 2008 | Miscellaneous | No Tags
I often get questions from readers asking my opinion of shows I’ve never watched. With older anime, I can understand why some may automatically assume I’ve watched a certain show, but when it comes to newer or currently airing shows, I like to think I keep everyone updated enough on what I’m watching that there should never been any question. Yet, people often assume I watch everything under the sun.
It’s no surprise, though. A lot of serious anime fans I know do watch everything under the sun. Or damn well near it.
So, why don’t I? Lack of time is the obvious answer; I have a job that keeps me plenty busy, not to mention other hobbies I care deeply for. In reality, though, I could watch more anime if I really wanted to. The reason I don’t, however, is because I don’t want to suffer the fate of so many anime fans who throw themselves into the hobby with unbridled gusto, only to run out of energy and give up a quarter of the way out of the gate. In other words, I’m trying to avoid burnout.
Then again, I’ve been watching anime for long enough that burnout shouldn’t really be an issue. But it is. I occasionally go through periods in which my interest in anime is minimized, and while these periods are not the result of burnout, they could very well lead to it should I push myself too hard. Thankfully, these periods typically come and go without much fanfare. I’d like to keep it that way.
Fear of burning out isn’t the only reason I carefully control the amount of anime I watch, however. I was watching a couple episodes of the Magic User’s Club OAV recently, and I was reminded of how much more “magical” anime was when I first watched the show. What was so different about back then compared to now? It was in my early years as an anime fan, for one, but it was also before I started watching fansubs on a regular basis. With fansubs, watching anime is a pretty routine activity. I don’t think it’s any less pleasurable a way of watching anime than, say, marathoning series all at once or focusing on only a few shows at a time, but it is a different sort of pleasure.
And it’s because I often crave that sort of magic that I strategically pass on watching certain new shows that nonetheless grab my interest. After all, if I pass on a show in the present, I’ll have the opportunity to “discover” it at some point in the future. It sounds strange, I know, but I’ve had a lot of success with this approach to picking and choosing anime, and it’s led to my finishing a lot of great shows I might have otherwise not been able to keep up with had I tried watching them on a weekly basis as they aired. I enjoy discovering “new” anime.
That’s also why slow anime seasons such as the current one don’t discourage me all that much. There’s always new anime to watch. I have a list of unwatched shows a mile long. And, of course, there’s value in taking a step back from anime on occasion to focus on something different and new. That’s why I’ve been watching more live action Japanese drama this past week than I have anime. And it’s why I’ve been thinking of taking up mountain climbing this Summer. It’s why I take work so seriously. I don’t want to look back thirty years from now and say, “I should’ve lived a more interesting life.”
And it’s was for that very reason that I allowed myself to get hooked on anime in the first place.
*nods* Mountains, yeash.
I feel that in my early days, anime was such an exotic, and brought interesting perspectives to my normal everyday life, which was amazingly less busy.
I like to think of hobbies as something that amplify my life instead of ruling it. So, I second the idea that it’s a part of what makes it all more interesting.
BTW, I’ve been regularly reading your blog for about two years now. Keep up the good work!
Lol as I read this post I feel like I’m the one who wrote it. I guess us anime ronins have that thing in common - when you started to watch anime back then it was all “more magical” than it is these days
I know that feeling, too. :D
Nowadays, I don’t remember how I can watch that much anime, and still can’t get enough.
But then again, maybe in those eary days, I don’t know anything about Anime-related world. Now instead of watching anime like crazy, I joined in some anime communities. Maybe that is the main reason that I don’t watch anime much like before, but instead doing some anime-related like subbing, translating, or arguing @_@. At some point, we all want to be parts of something related to things we like, right? ^_^
Hmm, so that’s what I experienced earlier in January: a burnout. I’m getting back into watching a ton of anime a day, so maybe I should turn it down. I don’t have much time for it anyway. I need to prioritize more important tasks D:
I kinda agree with just watching enough shows. Watching too many often takes up a lot of time (and not to mention bandwidth) and the habit makes you lose interest a lot more quickly.
Perhaps I ought to venture into other hobbies though; I’ve barely scratched the surface of the things I can truly do in my life, and something I’d hate to think of later in my life is that I’d never “done” anything better with it.
I’m happy that I’m not the only one that felt same way concerning watching anime.
I let the blogging community hype a particular series long enough to merit a DVD purchase in the future. Most of my DVD collections are based on shows from 2001 onwards.
There is a certain “originality” when you watch older series. Most of the shows I watched in the present had some references from earlier shows, so it feels like “going back to the source” when you watch the latter. Besides, I don’t consider myself on the same level as the general otaku if I can’t relate to shows people watch.
I think I prefer to be “on the slow side of things,” because rushing for something feels like running a rat race, one aspect of living in an urbanized, little island here that I find “disdainful.”
Indeed, I also go through those periods in which I lose a bit of interest in anime. However, as soon as a new episode of One Piece is released, my interest surges again… XD
“magical.”
I felt that way about ef and Makoto Shinkai. I felt that way about quite a few other shows over the years. I felt that way about MKR. But I would like to believe I’m pretty consistent about what is magical and what isn’t.
Re: burnout–I’ve read way fewer blogs the past few weeks. It helps to cut down on the meta stuff.