Thoughts on Anime? Are they a distraction? My results.

[ThePoint]

It’s been a while since I last watched anime. But today I went down a mini-rabbit hole for a couple of hours watching some videos about an anime I watched many years ago. 

The result?

It felt mind-numbing.

I felt myself getting sucked into this fictional story. This fictional world, with fictional characters.

I found myself putting time and thought into this fictional world and the fictional characters they had. 

Time and thought that I could’ve been putting into my own life, the real world, with real characters and people I can truly connect with.

In the couple of hours my mind was in this fictional world, it felt that my mind was numbing so fast that it wasn’t as interested in improving itself in the real world, because this fictional world has much more going on.

All in just a couple of hours. 

It was different from a movie, where you watch it once and forget about it. 

Anime’s tend to be much more sophisticated and deeper because they are longer and are series’s. With so much depth, people can invest a large chunk of their lives into these anime’s. 

You know what the crazy part is?

I wasn’t even watching the anime itself, I was watching videos about it.

It felt like I wasted time and didn’t get any returns or dividends from it. It felt like it was lowering my consciousness.

So what are your thoughts?

Should anime be avoided as it is a distraction from consciousness work and personal development?

[Danioover9000]

@ThePoint

20 minutes ago, ThePoint said:

It’s been a while since I last watched anime. But today I went down a mini-rabbit hole for a couple of hours watching some videos about an anime I watched many years ago. 

The result?

It felt mind-numbing.

I felt myself getting sucked into this fictional story. This fictional world, with fictional characters.

I found myself putting time and thought into this fictional world and the fictional characters they had. 

Time and thought that I could’ve been putting into my own life, the real world, with real characters and people I can truly connect with.

In the couple of hours my mind was in this fictional world, it felt that my mind was numbing so fast that it wasn’t as interested in improving itself in the real world, because this fictional world has much more going on.

All in just a couple of hours. 

It was different from a movie, where you watch it once and forget about it. 

Anime’s tend to be much more sophisticated and deeper because they are longer and are series’s. With so much depth, people can invest a large chunk of their lives into these anime’s. 

You know what the crazy part is?

I wasn’t even watching the anime itself, I was watching videos about it.

It felt like I wasted time and didn’t get any returns or dividends from it. It felt like it was lowering my consciousness.

So what are your thoughts?

Should anime be avoided as it is a distraction from consciousness work and personal development?

   Before I give my view, I want to know some specifics first:

   For the couple of hours, you watched Anime, what anime was it? What genre of anime, and what was the story and characters about?

   Are you referring to the modern anime adaptations, or the anime of the 2000's, 90's, 80's and 70's? Because the level of skill, work, quality and detail of modern anime compared to older anime are apparent. For example, a Seinen anime film series/movie will be different to a shounen/shoujo anime or a Chibi anime.

   Also, what videos of anime you watched? Was it anime review channels? Anime critic channels?

Edited September 27, 2022 by Danioover9000

[hyruga]

Well, it depends. It can be helpful.

Anime can make you more creative and be fun to hang around with.

 

[ThePoint]

33 minutes ago, Danioover9000 said:

Before I give my view, I want to know some specifics first:

 

Sure.

33 minutes ago, Danioover9000 said:

For the couple of hours, you watched Anime, what anime was it? What genre of anime, and what was the story and characters about?

It was Death Note.

To be clear, I didn’t even watch the actual anime today. It was videos about the anime. Break-downs of it, analyses of it, etc.

The last time I watched the actual anime was many years ago. 

I stumbled upon this video:

I skipped to random chapters of the video (it’s 10 HOURS long) and my mind got so numb that it didn’t realise that 40 minutes had already passed by. It felt like I was throwing my time away. 

Then I went on death note fandom to learn more about the characters and learned things I didn’t know before.

Knowing more about this anime doesn’t add to my life or improve my life. Not even the justification of “fiction can be inspiring” applies here for me because I wasn’t particularly inspired... I think I was just distracting myself.

 

[ThePoint]

2 minutes ago, hyruga said:

Anime can make you more creative and be fun to hang around with.

How can it make me more creative?

The only way it can make me more fun to hang around with is if the people I’m with relate to watching anime. 

Most people who watch lots of anime tend to not be the type of people I want to surround myself with. That doesn’t mean all anime watchers are like that but they tend to be.

[Arthogaan]

There is always a chance that some video/tv show/movie will inspire you but 99% of that time is wasted.

Edited September 27, 2022 by Arthogaan

[Twenty]

I don't watch anime I watch the real movie. 

[integral]

Anime was my child hood and it definitely shaped my mind in many ways. 

Stories are powerful teachers.

 

Edited September 27, 2022 by integral

[Twenty]

*leave*

[Max_V]

there is much retardation in all the questioning of “does this lower consciousness”, “does that lower consciousness”

a medium like anime or writing or music or whatever, can all have different levels of consciousness depending on the individual case. It is up to you to sense it and decide if you want to interface with it or not. 

[hyruga]

5 hours ago, Twenty said:

I don't watch anime I watch the real movie. 

 

You mean this?

 

 

[Yarco]

Anime copers are going to get mad about this statement, but I've never met someone who was super into anime that was a healthy and well-balanced person. They all have uhhhh extremely quirky personalities, to put it lightly.

I guess you could say the same about people who watch western cartoons like Family Guy or Rick and Morty too. Or even just people who binge Netflix, Disney+, Amazon Prime, etc in general. People who play too many video games. People who collect Funko Pops.

But there's something particular about the weeb that's distinctly broken within them, that attracts them to anime, I think. To seek out anime and become engrossed in it, it's a different level of escapism than someone who watches western shows.

Are the characters and storyline better and way more developed than western shows? Idk, I haven't watched an anime since I was like 13. I got into DBZ, Cardcaptors, Gundam Wing, etc for a time. But at the end of the day, even if they're superior, you're still watching cartoons as an adult.

If it's a guilty pleasure that you engage in for a few hours a week, fine.

If you start talking about anime to normal non-weeb people, proselytizing to them in an evangelical way about how great anime is, then you've gone way over the edge. If you watch so much anime that you start to throw Japanese phrases into your everyday conversations, or take on the mannerisms and style of anime characters, it's definitely time to take a break.

Edited September 27, 2022 by Yarco

[Danioover9000]

   Was this thread inspired from the thread above?

Edited September 27, 2022 by Danioover9000

[LSD-Rumi]

@ThePoint Finding a good anime is like finding a jewel in a bile of shit, it is this rare. 

I liked berserk 1997 which I watched recently

[NoSelfSelf]

@LSD-Rumi Beserk is amazing they made 3 part movies worth watching! Its same as 1997(modernized)but it covera stuff after eclipse(week ago they made a mamorial version of those 3 movies they added some scenes)

Thats why i have profile cover here of beserk ?

Recently watched kaiji survivor anime its better than squid games imo

 

Edited September 27, 2022 by NoSelfSelf

[spiritual memes]

31 minutes ago, KH2 said:

All entertainment is a distraction and a waste of time. All of it. That's my stance on the matter.

The time you enjoy wasting, is not wasted time

[spiritual memes]

The whole point of personal development and consciousness work is so that you can enjoy life more. If you genuinely enjoy watching anime, then what's the problem? Some of you guys (including myself sometimes) are so consumed with personal development that you forget to enjoy life. 

[spiritual memes]

1 minute ago, KH2 said:

Well in that case, here's the question we should keep asking ourselves, whenever we descent into the depths of hedonistic rabit hole:

"How long can I enjoy watering the garden, while my house is on fire?"

Not a very good analogy. A fire is an immediate threat which requires a few minutes of action to completely fix. A better analogy would be: How long should I spend grinding XP in a video game before actually having fun in the game.

[spiritual memes]

Just now, KH2 said:

The analogy wasn't just about your life. It was also about society as a whole.

Even if you lived a good life - the kind of life you always wanted - society is still burning. You still shouldn't just be watching Netflix, and play video games.

Someone spending an hour or 2 watching netflix is going to have zero impact on whether society burns. 

[Twenty]

6 hours ago, hyruga said:

 

You mean this?

No. the Death Note. I watch the real one. Somehow, somewhere in the past.