Anime:

Alexander:

"Being into anime is like being into Looney Tunes cartoons or The Simpsons. Most people have enjoyed cartoons occasionally, especially if they are younger. There is nothing especially noteworthy there, except from the fact that fans of The Simpsons don’t get defensive and emotional if you tell them you think that The Simpsons are not the world’s pinnacle of art and culture. This is a sign of being too invested in a fictional medium. It may also be because anime fans gravitate toward and identify with the exotic. They see in anime, and Japan more broadly, an alternative and “better” culture than their own. A way that the West “should be.” Some form parasocial relationships with “waifus” - I am not sure if that happens to the same extent with Bugs Bunny. Anime becomes escapism and identity for some subset of people who don’t fit in with and who don’t like the culture that they live in. And the fact about anime as a genre is that for every “good story” or “good animation,” there are a thousand terrible, monotonous stories, and a thousand stories that survive only because a huge portion of the male population wants to see underage anime girls. It’s also a genre that is heavily invested in vicarious wish fulfillment. Basically at every age level. You have stories like “I Was A Geek Loser and A Fairy Gave Me A Harem and Magical Powers.” For every original anime with a good story, there are a hundred clones of this. It’s not an original genre overall at all - it just seems cool and different to some Westerners."