Anime and Aspergers

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The creation of these artificial worlds do give people a way to avoid the intractable problems and boredom of the real world. I got fascinated and sucked into Anime just by reading two of the books in the bookstore. It just keeps going and going.... I never bought a book, realizing I could end up spending a lot of time and money from my life for nothing. I did enough of that with science fiction 40 years ago when I was going through a hellish adolescence.

Harry Potter is devised to give people artificially clean witch role models, real incantations, real names of demons and realistic witchcraft tools. How many of them will end up in the real, seedy witchcraft?

The only anime show I've ever been able to watch is DragonballZ. I haven't watched it in years. Occasionally I watch adult swim on Cartoon Network, and I switch the channel if an anime show comes on. Robot Chicken and Metalocalypse are acceptable.

I like anime and manga, but "big eyes" don't attract me so much, unless story is interesting or really awesome. I prefer the drawing style of Samurai Champloo, for example.

I love it because it gives me a cartoon medium (if you get what I mean) for my thoughts and dreams. All my dreams and thoughts are cartoons, and anime is very cute and expressive and funny, and I can use it.

Just to clarify my original point. . .


Anime is a product marketed to NTs. The popularity to anime in America is because a lot of ordinary "normal" kids have become fascinated by stories that are rich, compelling, and emotionally moving.

Certain titles, especially involving giant robots or collectible monsters, appeal to some aspie children.

The art style emphasizes facial expressions and emotion in a way that live action or real life can't. Some aspies are attracted to these characters because they are easier to read.

In an attempt to market these stories to emotionally insecure, teenage NT Japanese males, the writers of some stories include cute, female characters with varying degrees of spectrum disorders. These characters are seen as non-threatening, and are very popular among boys who don't know how to talk to girls. There are far more Sailor Mercury websites than there are for any of the other sailor scouts. Some aspies may identify with these bookish, introverted heroes.

The Japanese have noticed that more and more anime fans are dropping out of society and living in a subculture of internet, bookstores, maid cafes and cosplay shops. Others are simply becoming urban hermits living locked inside their apartments and spongeing off their parents. For a view of these things from inside the culture, download Densha Otoko and Welcome to the NHK.

I'm not claiming that anime is an exclusively aspie thing, but that aspies may interact differently with anime than NTs do, and that I find this difference interesting.

Thank you.

I only like two "animes", and those are Evangelion and Pokemon. The rest do not appeal to me.

I don't like it either. It's a yet-another-stupid-hype, and I'm not into it. Since this fever is on, many talent artists are on, being without their real style, only copying a scheme, and that makes me just sick. Anyway, what's so special about it? Why do everybody have to draw those distorted faces?
(Anyway, I don't understand any kind of hype. Neither any console hype, not the mac/ipod/iphone hype. Why do people tend to lose their heads?)

I guess you could say I'm obsessive about anime, a friend got me into it about 2 years ago and I have stockpiled and watched at least 500GB's of it in the intervening time. Sometimes I wonder what I did with my time prior to getting into it.

As per the orginal posts question; while there are some anime characters which can only be described as some spectrum if not out very own spot of colour e.g. eureka. I think most of the traits that are protrayed by women in anime is down to the culturaly differences between Japan and western society. Esp. where emphises are placed on what makes women attractive eg cuteness in Japan vs "sexyness" in America. Just a guess but if anime had evolved in America instead of Japan I'm guessing that all the characters whould have unwieldingly large breasts a la Tomb Raider. Because of this emhises on cuteness alot of the characters have very childish traits in their personalities, almost to the point of a disorder. But I belive that the effect the designers are going for is to have the cutest characters possible rather than characters which arn't emotionally threating.

Of course this tread will spin off topic and degenerate into a like/dislike anime thread. So addressing the people who don't like anime I'd just like to say that chances are most of the anime you have ever seen is the childrens anime, dubbed with out-of-sync childrens voices e.g. Pokemon (although I'm sure there are adults, and I know a few, who enjoyed it). Judging anime based on this is akin to watching barney and deciding that you dislike all tv/movies; just as tv/movies have genres so does anime (big stomping robots is a genre all on its own ). Anyone who wants to give anime a real go, I recomend you watch Death Note or Ghost in the Shell. Also anime must be watched in Japanese, dubbed versions are almost always out-of-sync and have loose translation and voices that don't suit the characters. Oh and the distorted faces thing is called chibi and again its just meant to look cute.

I like some anime...I learned to like it when I got older. I like Miazake films...There was an anime club that would meet at my place for a while on Sundays...(often on the same days as the comix jam-which was had a high atendance of Aspie-suspects..if anyone showed up at all)...
I sorta got into the serial the Rose of Versailles..When I was little i found the weird eyes and whatnot disconcerting.

I've been into anime (and anime-styled video games) since I was 8. I watch a show (or play a game) so that I can get to know the characters. I enjoy the characters because I can love them as much as I want because they can never reject me, betray me or hurt me. To me, the characters aren't just ink on paper; they are my friends who keep me company in a world where it's impossible for me to make and keep real friends.

Ew.

If I'm feeling like a dose of Asian escapism, I'll take a Bollywood movie, thanks.

Most anime bores me. I just really don't get it. There are a few I've seen that I like though, Like FLCL and Cowboy Bebop.

I'm a NT and I like anime but I can kinda understand why some people just don't.

i like anime or the story lines, music and art Clannad is my fave all the girls are a bit off beat esp. fuuko