Anime is defined as “a style of Japanese film and television animation, typically aimed at adults as well as children,” however, I feel that to this day there are still many misconceptions about anime, about its targeted audiences for instance, as well as the people who enjoy watching it. Anime often has a stigma for people who don’t watch it and those same people also often make assumptions about the type of people who like anime. As an individual who has watched anime, however, doesn’t watch it religiously - I did wanted to clear up some common misconceptions about anime throughout this article.
A lot of people tend to assume that anime is all the same, however, anime is not a genre and in fact there are a variety of different kinds of anime, ranging from horror to comedy. Not all anime is the same and not all anime is popular. In fact, only a few types of anime get widespread attention and most anime created are done so to appeal to a very limited or niche audience. Another misconception I see all too often is that anime is just a thing for perverts and that all anime is pornographic, which in fact isn’t the case at all. Although such content does exist, most people who watch anime aren’t watching the erotic kind of anime and the accusations of people claiming that all anime is sexual have only falsely changed the public perception of anime fans.
Many people usually don’t talk about watching anime for a variety of reasons. Since many anime fans tend to often be portrayed as perverted individuals or losers altogether, many people would rather not have it known that they watch anime in the fear of either being judged, bullied or frowned upon by those who don’t really understand the innocence of anime and what it really is. Truthfully, since I’ve been in college people are much more open about watching anime and among many students at Becker College, you won’t get judged for watching anime, whether it’s infrequently or avidly. However, I do remember back in high school before I ever really got into anime, that many people did either get judged or sometimes treated different for liking anime.
I wrote this article for people to realize that there are a lot of misconceptions about anime, and to not make this too long of a read, I did leave out many other misconceptions people have about anime, but I did decide to mention the ones I found most important. If you haven’t ever watched anime, I highly recommend giving it a try as there are an infinite number of wondrous stories to be uncovered. However, I didn’t write this article to encourage you to necessarily watch anime, but for you reading to keep in mind that if you’re somebody who’s judged others based on them watching anime, to rethink whether it’s because of any of the reasons I provided. Anime isn’t as bad as perhaps you and many others think of it to be and it is produced for adults just as much as it is for children. Perhaps you too, could learn to like anime!
