I'm coming near the end of my early 20s, and I see characters in anime who are 5-7 years younger than me. I can no longer really say that I relate to the protagonists in the same way I once did.
It's so weird, because there are things that are outside my demographic that I still like. Like I totally still like Pokemon, despite the characters being like 10 years old, and I still like things like Sonic, despite Sonic being like 13 - 15 years old.
It's just that a lot of anime invokes some degree of realism, and as such, that realism gets to me and doesn't click with me anymore.
There are some I relate to still - again, Neon Genesis Evangelion was wonderful despite the main character being 14, and I related to the experiences of Shinji with my own teenage years. It really helped me at the time I watched it (which was like a year ago). I relate to Konosuba just because of how meta it is, and it's clear that despite the protagonist being a 17 year old, the target demographic is for geeks, not necessarily a specific age demographic. Generic ones as well like Pokemon I still relate to as well.
Besides these, all these animes which have some realism, when all I see are these high school, college demographic animes, particularly ones that involve romance, I just don't relate to them anymore. I feel like I've grown past them and in fact, I kind of feel depressed watching them because I know they aren't representative of reality for most people.
I even feel weird participating in these communities. When I join a community for something like Konosuba or Neon Genesis Evangelion in some way, I feel like I don't belong because I'm surrounded by kids who are 3-7 years younger than me.
I feel like the universe has mandated me to finally grow up and let go of things like this, that I legitimately enjoy and were a source of real happiness and comfort for me as a cope. But again, they were a source of comfort for me and a source of community for me, and it makes me sad that I feel like I can't enjoy them anymore.
It makes me sad.
It's so weird, because there are things that are outside my demographic that I still like. Like I totally still like Pokemon, despite the characters being like 10 years old, and I still like things like Sonic, despite Sonic being like 13 - 15 years old.
It's just that a lot of anime invokes some degree of realism, and as such, that realism gets to me and doesn't click with me anymore.
There are some I relate to still - again, Neon Genesis Evangelion was wonderful despite the main character being 14, and I related to the experiences of Shinji with my own teenage years. It really helped me at the time I watched it (which was like a year ago). I relate to Konosuba just because of how meta it is, and it's clear that despite the protagonist being a 17 year old, the target demographic is for geeks, not necessarily a specific age demographic. Generic ones as well like Pokemon I still relate to as well.
Besides these, all these animes which have some realism, when all I see are these high school, college demographic animes, particularly ones that involve romance, I just don't relate to them anymore. I feel like I've grown past them and in fact, I kind of feel depressed watching them because I know they aren't representative of reality for most people.
I even feel weird participating in these communities. When I join a community for something like Konosuba or Neon Genesis Evangelion in some way, I feel like I don't belong because I'm surrounded by kids who are 3-7 years younger than me.
I feel like the universe has mandated me to finally grow up and let go of things like this, that I legitimately enjoy and were a source of real happiness and comfort for me as a cope. But again, they were a source of comfort for me and a source of community for me, and it makes me sad that I feel like I can't enjoy them anymore.
It makes me sad.
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