Getting Into Anime (when you’re old)

A couple of comments on my last post about Violet Evergarden were from people who either haven’t watched anime before or haven’t watched it in a while. Now, I’m not an expert on anime, but I did get sucked down this rabbit hole recently, so I feel like I should inflict it on a few more people… Uh, I mean that I have something to say about getting into anime later in life. It’s a bit of an extreme case for me, I’m pushing toward 60 steadily, but this is meant to give some suggestions for anyone not coming to the subject having watched anime from a young age. Or if you just want to try something new, whatever works.

I’m going to give as many examples as I can from Netflix, because they have a fairly substantial anime collection and a lot of people have Netflix subscriptions. I will also be taking some examples from Funimation and Crunchyroll, both of which provide free-with-advertising videos as well as trial periods for their subscription services if you feel like giving them a go.

Couple of notes.

Anime is not a genre. Anime is basically a shortened form of the Japanese word for animation (which is an English borrow word, so we use a word from Japanese which they borrowed from English), and it has many genres of entertainment beneath it. If you like Anime A, there is no surety that you’ll like Anime B, but the same is true if you change like to dislike.Anime is not for kids. In fact, some anime should never be shown to kids. Just as anime is not a genre, anime is produced for all age ranges. Viewer discretion is advised.Anime and hentai are not the same thing. Actually, if you’re Japanese, hentai isn’t a thing. The word hentai is Japanese, but it means something akin to pervert. The Japanese would describe what the West calls hentai as ‘pornographic anime.’ Still, most anime you can find on Netflix and the other streaming services is absolutely not hentai.Dubs and subs. I’ve focused primarily on series with English dubs available. This is more accessible, I think. If you get into it, you’ll end up following season shows, and that really means subtitles. Due to some truly awful dubs back in the day, there’s something of a prejudice against dubbed anime in the fandom, but the truth is that modern dubs can be just as good and they’re almost always easier to watch. Go with what you like, but it’s usually easier to start with dubs unless you happen to understand Japanese.

On to the good stuff.

First, the classics. Akira is a post-apocalyptic cyberpunk anime with violent biker gangs, body-horror, seriously OP psychic powers, and space lasers. It’s one of the first anime I ever watched, long before I really got into it. I didn’t like it, but recently I thought to give it another go and, well, I still think it’s overrated. I can appreciate the animation more, and I believe I’m a minority viewpoint, but I don’t like Akira that much.

Similarly, I tried to get into Neon Genesis Evangelion and I failed. It’s got a somewhat compelling story, but I found the characters entirely unsympathetic and it didn’t hold my interest beyond about eight episodes. It is, however, considered awesome by the majority of fans, so it’s probably worth a crack. Unlike Akira there are a bunch of Evangelion series, so if you like them, there’s plenty to watch.

Ghost in the Shell… Both of the above two are available on Netflix, GitS isn’t (at least in the UK). You can find two of the four Arise films on Netflix, the live-action movie, and their own series Ghost in the Shell: SAC_2045, but the original movie isn’t there and neither is Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex (upon which SAC_2045 is based). Funimation has pretty much everything GitS-related aside from the live-action movie and SAC_2045. Now, I don’t hate the original animated version of GitS, but Stand Alone Complex is better. SAC is closer to the manga all this is based on. It’s funnier, has more and better action, and I’d argue it covers the themes the film does in much greater detail without the confusing rubbish of the last few minutes. Anyway, GitS is the basis behind Aneka, Fox, and Tatsu, so I’d consider it a worthwhile view in any form.

Anything by Studio Ghibli… and I have to admit that I keep meaning to watch a bunch of these and I never get around to it. Studio Ghibli has produced so many classic examples of anime, it’s just about impossible to list them all, but you can find a list of most of them on Netflix who have a huge bundle of Ghibli films available. Noted examples in no particular order: Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away, Naursicaa of the Valley of the Wind, Kiki’s Delivery Service, and Howl’s Moving Castle. There are a bunch of other ones.

And now let’s move on to the more modern stuff, which I generally prefer, to be honest. Having said that, there’s a specific genre I can’t seem to get into, that being:

Shonen Battle. Shonen literally translates to boy or youth, it’s the designation for manga and anime targeted at teenage boys (no, not that way; get your mind out of the gutter). Shonen battle anime does exactly what it says on the tin: it gives you over-the-top battles, generally spanning multiple episodes, tournament arcs, and usually younger male protagonists. Shonen Battle is the physical embodiment of power creep. There’s always a bigger, badder bad guy, and there’s always a bigger, more OTT power the protagonist can pull out of his arse to defeat him. Classical shonen battle is (you guessed it) Dragon Ball and all its franchised follow-ups. Also in the famous category are Naruto and Hunter x Hunter. They aren’t on Netflix, but My Hero Academia is, and that’s one of the most popular shows in the genre currently. I got about eight episodes into MHA, got bored, and stopped. I got a little further with Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba, which I definitely think is a cut above the rest regarding the animation, but these shows all seem the same to me. I keep hunting for one I like, and I’m not doing well.

Also in this category, sort of, is One Punch Man, though it’s very much a satire rather than a straight take. It’s the story of an ordinary man who manages to make himself so powerful that he can take down any enemy with one punch. He then becomes entire disillusioned because nothing is a challenge any more. It’s funny. Season one is on Netflix. I recommend it. If you like it, season two is on Crunchyroll.

If you tried Violet Evergarden and liked it, you may wish to try a few more of its ilk. There are a bunch on Netflix: A Silent Voice, Your Name, Your Lie in April, Anohana, and Erased. Anohana in particular is known for making grown men blubber. I can’t really recommend any because I haven’t watched them. I’ll save them for the next time I want a cathartic experience.

I should mention JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure. Haven’t watched, don’t want to go down that rabbit hole. It’s… weird. Just from clips on YouTube, I know it’s weird. Netflix has two seasons of it, and it’s very popular with people who cannot shut up about it online.

What got me into anime this time around was A Certain Scientific Railgun, so let’s cover that franchise. The A Certain… anime series are getting pretty voluminous at this point. A Certain Magical Index is the base series, taken from a light novel series. That got a manga spin-off concerning a girl who can fire coins at hypersonic speeds, hence her nickname of Railgun. One of the villains of her arc (actually appearing in both Index and Railgun from different viewpoints) goes by the name of Accelerator, a boy able to manipulate vectors and one of the most OP characters there is. He got his own anime, A Certain Scientific Accelerator. Index and Railgun have three seasons each, Accelerator currently has one. There’s also an Index film, The Miracle of Endemyion, which just turned up on Netflix, but you’d need to go looking on Funimation if you want the rest. The worldbuilding in this franchise is great and the setting is partial inspiration for the Death’s Handmaiden setting as well as some aspects of Ultrahumans.

The other inspiration for that series is The Irregular at Magic High School. The first season of that is on Netflix, but it is subtitled Japanese. If you want to watch the second season, you need to go looking on Funimation, but there’s a dub of that (but the sub is better). If you want to watch the movie… Well, I had to order it from somewhere on Amazon. It was scripted by the author of the light novels, but it’s not really required viewing.

Some of my favourite anime falls (at least partially) into the Slice of Life category. On Netflix, there’s Love, Chunibyo, and Other Delusions. One season on Netflix, a second available on Funimation. Two films on Netflix. Elsewhere you can find Nichijou, Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid, Interviews with Monster Girls, The Helpful Fox Senko-san, and numerous others. Those last three are my go-to anime to watch when I’m feeling down, particularly Monster Girls which manages to be wholesome, funny, sexy in the right way, and touching. As with most Slice of Life (otherwise known as Cute Girls Do Cute Things), nothing happens in an interesting way.

What else… Oh yeah, isekai. Isekai isn’t really a genre, it’s a set-up. The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe would be isekai, if written by a Japanese author. So would A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court. Aneka is, by some tokens, an isekai. Basically, take someone out of their normal environment and toss them into another one. It’s a literary convention which allows exposition without making the characters look stupid: they need to explain things to the noob. The one that really kicked off the isekai bandwagon was Sword Art Online. I can’t recommend it because I haven’t watched it and thanks to the deluge of reviews denouncing it as trash, I probably never will. I suspect that, if you like it, you’ll love it, and otherwise you’ll hate it. It’s on Netflix, however, so it’s available. Angel Beats is also on Netflix and is supposed to be a lot better, though I only kept going for a few episodes.

In an isekai class of its own is Konosuba. Correctly, it’s Kono Subarashii Sekai ni Shukufuku o! which translates as God’s Blessings on this Wonderful World! It’s a character comedy, technically a satire on the isekai genre, but really more like a sitcom. There’s a film, The Legend of Crimson, which I went to the cinema to see. You don’t have to, but you will need to try out Crunchyroll to watch it. At least you can watch all of it dubbed (though the subbed version is at least as good, maybe better, depending on preference).

Oh, another isekai worth watching is The Saga of Tanya the Evil. This one has some excellent world building and some interesting philosophy, if you’re willing to look past the setting which has been heavily mistaken for Nazi Germany. It’s not, but I can understand how people might see it that way. Personally, I liked it enough to buy it on BlueRay. There’s a series and a film on Crunchyroll. It’s well worth the viewing, but the film has never received a dub. Oh, and the music in this one is awesome too.

I nearly forgot the slimesekai! That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime is a bit like Konosuba, but it’s more of a deconstruction of the genre than a satire. Like Tanya, it features an older protagonist (prior to their death anyway), but Tanya gets reincarnated as a human (of the opposite sex) while Rimaru gets reincarnated as the world’s most powerful slime monster. It’s a funny series, getting kind of dark as things progress. Season two is running on Crunchyroll at the moment (subtitled), while the dub is available on Funimation (coming out a couple of weeks after the Japanese version).

And Ascendance of a Bookworm is on Crunchyroll too. Watching that pushed me into writing The Empress’s Mage.

I could keep going for pages… Quick-fire round:

PSYCHO-PASS (Funimation) is good and added some colour to Tatsu. (You’d get the joke there if you watched it.)Cop Craft (Funimation) was one I enjoyed. A sort of reverse isekai.Overlord (Funimation or Crunchyroll) is another isekai I should’ve mentioned already. It’s a bit different. Funny as well as very dark in places.The Rising of the Shield Hero (Funimation and Crunchyroll, I think) is another isekai which I’m less fond of.My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom (Crunchyroll) is a very funny isekai with a twist.One Piece is a very, very, very long anime which you’ll have to find for yourself. Has a lot of fans. Probably not for the beginner.So, I’m a Spider, So What? (Crunchyroll) is an iskai with a twist so big it corkscrews and a weirdly sympathetic protagonist. Currently being dubbed, but you get 24 episodes in the first season.The Misfit of Demon King Academy (Crunchyroll) takes the concept of the overpowered protagonist and dials it up to 15 (11 wasn’t high enough). There’s argument over whether it’s a straight comedy or meant to be taken seriously. Whatever, it’s funny. In the first episode, the protagonist beats someone to death just using his heartbeat.Blend-S (Funimation and Crunchyroll) is ‘cute girls doing cute things’ dialled up to 11 with a subtle hint of unintended sadism. Funny, but only available subtitled.I’ve been Killing Slimes for 300 Years and Maxed Out My Level (Crunchyroll) is cute girls do cute things in another world. Well, I think it’s funny and you may too.

I’m going to stop now. I’m sure there’s stuff I should’ve mentioned and haven’t. If you want to give more anime a go, these are some ideas for what to try. Just remember, pretty much everything is an acquired taste. If you do find something you like, let me know in the comments (and I never usually say that).