I think I understand why mainstream anime is so autistic. It literally is. - Wannabe high IQ rant about weeb stuff incoming.

[KittyGremlin]

Before anything, I should note that this won't be a generic "haha weebs are so autistic and retarded and stupid and should be gassed" thread. I genuinely have some thoughts I want to share which may or may not have some value. From here on, the word "autistic" won't be used as an insult but rather as a very literal concept. Also this critique doesn't apply to all anime, but rather the contemporary reality of the industry.

Now, I don't watch a lot of anime and I heavily choose with my gut feeling as to what I should watch so take my opinions with an iceberg sized lump of salt. It's literally autistic. And I don't mean to use that as a random insult, it literally is. I don't mean to say that the characters themselves act autistically (though many do) but that the way in which they are written is almost like they're trying to make them appeal to the emotionally infantile. The characters not only often express themselves in an exaggerated way but also display very surface - level emotions and also lack subtlety in that regard. While you could shrug a lot of this off because the fact that a lot of anime are intended to overlap in terms of appeal with the 12-14 year old demographic that is still an age at which kids are far more advanced in terms of emotional development than the characters the shows portray. And looking at an even younger demographic, most shows dedicated to it still have simplistic, exaggerated, yet far less overtly offensive and annoying characters. Now, I may be wrong on the latter point since my experience with such shows is literally a few decades old but it's hard to not notice the difference. And all of this does point to the conclusion that anime is at least partially aimed at people on the autistic spectrum - the characters, their emotional expression really aligns well with that group.

Therefore, anime is, at least partly, literally autistic.

So yeah, that's my dumb ramble. Do you agree? Disagree? Am I a homosexual?

 

[Witthel]

So really it should appeal to the entirety of the KF userbase.

 

[Pargon]

"I don't watch a lot of anime"


"Mr. TendieMan, thank you for volunteering to testify before Congress regarding fiscal irresponsibility. Would you first like to discuss your qualifications?"

"Well, I don't know much about the economy, but--"

"Thank you, next testimony." gavel gavel

 

[KittyGremlin]

"I don't watch a lot of anime"


"Mr. TendieMan, thank you for volunteering to testify before Congress regarding fiscal irresponsibility. Would you first like to discuss your qualifications?"

"Well, I don't know much about the economy, but--"

"Thank you, next testimony." gavel gavel

As long as you can't prove my statements wrong, they are still valid.

 

[CockPockets]

"I don't watch a lot of anime"


"Mr. TendieMan, thank you for volunteering to testify before Congress regarding fiscal irresponsibility. Would you first like to discuss your qualifications?"

"Well, I don't know much about the economy, but--"

"Thank you, next testimony." gavel gavel

DO you watch a lot of anime?

 

[Woke Blue Muttlema]

I can see what you mean and I personally think its tied to how japanese culture has shifted in the last decades with workaholism and depression being stables of the national perception in and outisde of Japan. A lot of anime provides escapism on an explicit way with the rise of isekai and fanservice has sorta of crippled the youth's perception of reality which has extented to the West already. Could we say that more autistic media is a reflection of an autistic society or even a consequence or would be saying that an ideal society would be inherently autistic based on its more superficial traits?
If anything today we exist on a semi state of inaction tied to our own cynicism which makes us gravitate towards media that inspires us even if said media exists on a highly idealic realm where although morals are grounded there's a real sense of purpose.

 

[Pargon]

DO you watch a lot of anime?

Senator, I decline to answer on advice of counsel.

 

[Crazedking]

There is always exception but just avoid anything with school/slice of life related stuff and you already managed to avoid like half the tropey garbage.

Eventually you become good enough at spotting the other garbage tropes from Isekai X to moeblob to crazy murder games. But yes, the vast majority is aimed at children. Shonen which is a descriptor for an entire genre means Little boy which is whats its aimed at for instance.

The anime medium has some pretty amazing stuff but a lot of the mainstream is literally aimed at children for them to buy toys/figurines.

 

[LofaSofa]

 

[Drain Todger]

Anime is a medium, not a genre. In some shows, they ham it up and act like autists, and in some shows, they're relatively more normal. It depends entirely on the theme they were going for.

See, check this out:

Inspector Lunge is literally autistic and does method of loci shit to store crime scene info in his head, but he's somehow less autistic than Domon. Funny how that works.

 

[L50LasPak]

I've had a theory I've been nursing for awhile that a higher proliferation of technology and a heavier population density is more likely to create people who show signs of autism. It has been shown that people living in urban areas are more prone to schizophrenia but psychologists seem to be constantly revising that statistic.

What is definitely inarguable though is that countries like Japan and South Korea have very tech savy, very comsumerist cultures. I think there's a correlation between being spoonfed metric tons of pop culture from a young age to developing into a shut-in. Plus with the level of tech proliferation, a kid that likes to read or watch documentaries can quickly develop a genius level understanding of a wide vareity of topics, at the same time never really needing to engage with their peers or develop any social skills to obtain that information. Combined I think these two factors explain why anime is so autistic and why weebs exist.

 

[Dread First]

Moral of the story kids? The manga's always better.

Hayao Miyazaki never actually said that anime was a mistake, but he damn sure thinks it for a reason: because anime in the current year is all self-parody and escapist fantasy than meaningful works of art.

 

[Stoneheart]

It has always been since they started to just copy the dragon ball z formula..

 

[KimCoppolaAficionado]

Have you watched daytime TV? Soap Operas (and most Law and Order spinoffs) are also all about characters who act in emotionally infantile and simplified ways, because this generates mass appeal; normies want to turn their brain off for most media and just passively take in the plot. Same thing with all the CW shows, a fuckton of Netflix Originals, etc. You are taking a general trend (mass-market/normie entertainment is usually braindead) and overspecifying it.
If you want some anime that are more emotionally-deep and artistic, here's a (non-exhaustive, non-comparative with each other) list of productions from the past decade alone:
-Anohana: the Flower we Saw that Day
-Tower of God
-Your Lie in April
-O Maidens in Your Savage Season
- Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken!
- ID: Invaded
- Mob Psycho 100 (yes, really)
These are just off of the top of my head.

 

[albert the programmer]

It should be noted that the social media users that talk about mainstream anime would enter waster their time watching things like Jin-Roh or Angel Cop.

The latter being far more serious than the former: