Anime

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Why does it seem like aspies, nerds, otherkin, otakus, and other "weird" people seem to be disproportionally interested in anime?

I haven't liked anime in the past, but after I saw Mushi-shi and some of Hayao Miyazaki's works, it started to grow on me. I'm currently watching some more mainstream anime. Pretty soon I'll be watching Loups-Garous, a Japanese anime dubbed into English and possessing a French title. No idea what it'll be like, but that's fun.

I love the berserk manga. Pure genius. A lot of kids like me tho aspie or not grew up in the late 80s early 90s back when toonami existed and have appriciation for dragonball pokemon sailor moon etc.

I think it's just because anime tends to be effing mental, and odd bods tend to like mental stuff.

I don't think anime is that popular.

I did not have a lot of interest in it until I managed to get the internet after I finished High School, I watched the kdis shows that were in the morning before school, and my taste really increased when I had some freedom of choice, first Bleach, Bebop, Death Note. But I found niche after moving onto the more cuter stuff after Zero no Tsukaima.

I tend to mostly watch the new shows as they are released, I have some fun talking in forums about them, but I guess I also enjoy that it is not the stuff that I always see in other media. People show their emotionas clearly on their face, there are contriversial issues I wont see elsewhere, shows can be funny, sad, cute, awesome, action packed and deep. Characters can do amazing things if they just push themselves that little bit harder, you do get some characters that are shallow, but other can be trully inspirational.

Its kinda like serious cartoons.

I have only seen a few different shows but they're pretty good

I wonder whether the ASD connection works on the level that Hiroki Azuma outlined in his book on anime geek culture (Otaku: Japan's Database Animals). The way that he claims fans appreciate the medium is through breaking down, examining, classifying and collecting...it sounds complex (it's a pretty intellectual book, but a lot of the theories make sense) but Azuma's portrayal of anime fans includes a lot of ASD traits.

It's also a niche interest that has a lot of overlap with other geeky hobbies, which ASD people are generally drawn to. Maybe the reason is as simple as that, and academics like Azuma are over-thinking it. It's an interesting train of thought though, and I often wonder about it myself.

I've been a fan of Miyazaki's work for years, and absolutely loved Mushishi...a very thoughtful, unusual and underrated series. I didn't like Loups-Garous at all - the original novel is miles better - but I'd be interested to hear what you make of it when you get chance to watch it.

I don't know why there would be a connection between the two, but I like Cowboy Bebop, Neon Genesis Evangelion, and Inuyasha.

Rather there seems to be a connection between aspies and animation in general.
Don´t know why I love animation so much but I always have. I´ve "outgrown" most TV cartoons since they are a bit too "childish", meaning they have annoying characters with no real personality, lousy dialouge and are painfully predictable.
Although that´s true for a lot of anime too, there is a wider spectrum. If you dig around a bit you can find really good stuff. Not that I´m a connoisseur or anything, I really enjoyed Working'! ! and I´m looking forward to the next episode of Gundam UC (a k a Gundam Unicorn).

I'm a pretty big anime fan. I think the draw of anime to aspies may be in the fact that they aren't terribly good at reading people, but anime or cartoons in the general sense show everything exaggerated, so we get pulled in a lot easier.

http://myanimelist.net/profile/Darialan that gives a good list of what I've seen up to now.

I got into drama and emotional animes a little while ago, mostly from visual arts/key studios. They make me tear up a little. Something I hardly do any of unless at a funeral of a close relative. Anime kind of lets me feel things I'm not used to feeling, but still there's a thing about reality that I still miss, because of my aspieness.

I love anime. Evangelion was my first real anime even though I watched dragon ball, sailor moon, and Pokemon. I think EVA will always be my all time fav. I like a lot of nerdy stuff in general though. I'm a very visual person so I feel anime and manga being very visual fuel my interest in drawing and art which I am already good at.

But we like regular shows too... don't we? Don't we people?

I thought I might post My list of watched anime from ANN HERE.
That is about 233 seen in full.

My current favourite that I am watching is Listen To Me, Girls. I Am Your Father!.

Looks like you are a fan of shows like Clannad, Darialan. Definetly one of my favourites, big fan of Kyoto animation and KEY, Kannon, Angel Beats, Haruhi. And you have read the Karin (Chibi Vampire) manga, it is one of the ones I have been collecting.

Last edited by Bradleigh on 23 Jan 2012, 8:32 am, edited 1 time in total.

Lol I thought I'd seen too much anime.

And yet somehow you haven't seen ANY of my favorites, haha.

Btw you should make it more clear there are links in your post. Only reason I noticed was I went to quote your message and it had links in it...

Added some underlines.
I really have mostly watched a lot from the last few years, only going off to watch certain things. What are your favourites The_Perfect_Storm, in shows and genre?

I'm no good at naming genre's but!

Some of my favorites include:

Berserk
Gantz
Kaiji/Akagi
Texhnolyze (can be a bit slow though (very slow))
The Law of Ueki (usually don't like this shonen style but it's so over the top I like it)
Baccano! (remarkably the english dub is fantastic)
Basilisk
Ninja Scroll

The only ones you've seen that I also really like are FMA, Hellsing and Death Note, but they're so insanely popular anyway they don't count! Everyone's seen/heard of those.

I'm surprised at how long my list is already. There's heaps more that I have fond memories of.. There's also a LOT of mediocre ones. If I had to recommend just a few I'd say go with Baccano! and Ninja Scroll. Although if you don't mind violence I'd say f**k it and watch Berserk/Gantz/Basilisk.

How have you seen L: Change the World, and not the first two movies? Blasphemy. (Was it as bad as everyone says?)