Anime is pretty popular among autistic people. However, aside from being obsessed with Voltron as a kid, I never got into it. I’m wondering what I’m missing.
In a lot of them the main characters are all different bright primary colors if you squint. I find it significantly easier to follow stories with something like that to differentiate and identify the characters
That reminds me of my friend. He doesn’t process faces like most people. If someone changes something about their appearance, he has a hard time recognizing them as the same person. For example, we were watching the new season of House of the Dragon. When one of the main characters showed up, he didn’t recognize them because they had aged 2 years, so their face changed slightly. See below.
Prince Jacaerys Valeryon season 1:
Prince Jacaerys Valeryon season 2:
Yeah that transition would throw me for a loop. Those two pictures look like two distinctly different people me. That seems like the kind of story I’d need to read rather than watch to get anything out of it, haha
For me it’s about the simple portraiture of emotions. It makes it very easy to follow. Also the fresh view on storytelling compared to american, french or german comics.
Plus the oversaturation of boobies.
the fresh view on storytelling compared to american, french or german comics.
I don’t understand what you mean by this. Can you elaborate pls? What’s the difference?
I don’t have many examples at the moment. Just that there are differences in the ways stories are told. Strengths of the main characters, role of supporting characters, motivations of characters, worldbuilding and so on.
One example for american stuff would be (based on the marvel movies up to infinity war) that “power fixes everything” shtick. Like Tony Stark getting a new, better power core and is instantly cured from years of toxic poisoning.
Ah, so the American stuff seems simpler and shallow?
Btw, I do not watch super hero movies because they seem so literally formulaic. It’s all the same variables and operators with slightly different values for each story. Maybe I could give anime super hero movies a try if they’re different from the standard American ones. If so, have any recommendations??
Yeah, I shouldn’t have picked the marvel movies. I don’t think they are all necessarily simple and shallow, just that there is a certain recurring themes that one can spot. My point was just very obvious in Iron Man 2.
Many Anime are made with kids as their target, so they may introduce a cool new theme but then tend to fall into repetitiveness.
What I liked about early anime were the translater’s notes. Fanmade translations with subtitles that included additional context, mostly on the top of the screen. It explained the context of the current dialogue, or what a phrase means.
I can’t really recommend something without knowing your preferences. With that said, I currently watch “Kaiju No. 8”. Often recommended (that I also watched) are “Attack on Titan”, “Rise of the shield hero”, “Konosuba” “Ghost in the Shell” and “Code Geass”. From the top of my head. Note that all of them are vastly different stories. Short notes:
- Kaiju No 8: A world where Kaiju (monsters like Godzilla) are constantly attacking cities. There is a special force that deals with them. The story is about a guy that is part of the cleaning crew, but desperately wants to join this special force.
It’s very funny with some darker scenes mixed in. Pretty gory.
- Attack on Titan: Humanity in a renaissance like setting is pushed to near extinction behind three rings of giant walls. The enemies are giant, human lookalike titans that eat people.
There is constant agony and desperation, but also hope. Very captivating, mostly serious. Also has one of my favorite “fuck you” moments when the main character saves his friend.
- Rise of the shield hero: Isekai, where four people are summoned from our world to a new, RPG-like world.
I don’t know how to sell the story without spoilers, so I won’t go further into it. Mostly a serious story. There is betrayal and politics.
- Konosuba: The full title is “Kono Subarashii Sekai ni Shukufuku o!” or “God’s Blessing on This Wonderful World!”. Also Isekai. The hero dies in our world and gets reborn in another, more game-like world. He is lazy, stubborn, sleazy and gets easily misunderstood.
Very funny anime. More of a slice-of-life style than an evolving story. There IS a story though.
- Ghost in the shell: The movies are one thing to recommend, and I do, but they can be a bit harder to follow, as they are rather old and slower paced, and also less self-explanatory. The series Stand Alone Complex is a bit more modern, plays in the future where every part of the body can be replaced by kybernetics, even the brain. The hero is part of an elite police force, tasked to bring down organized crime and is dealing mostly with heavy weapons and hackers.
Pretty confusing and serious, it’s a pretty good, futuristic, dystopian police story.
- Code Geass: In the future the world is almost completely taken over by Britannia. A boy from Britannia dumped in a sector of Britannia formerly known as Japan is the hero. He wants to live and survive with his disabled sister, but gets caught between a fight between the military and japanese insurgents and is forced to participate.
Very psychological anime, many plot twists and an almost absurd setting. Mostly serious.
Thank you very much for suggesting and summarizing those animes. Based on your post, I want to give Rise of the Shield Hero a shot first, but Code Geass and Konosuba look appealing to me too.
What do you think of Blue-Eyed Samurai? My friend recommended it to me. I saw the first episode, but it seems to be taking a while to get started and already appears a bit formulaic. I was watching it with a friend that feels the same about formulaic plots, and she was predicting the rest of the entire series. Are we wrong about the plot and does it get better?
Glad I can be of help.
I haven’t seen Blue-Eyed Samurai yet, sorry.
The formulaic approach is something we cannot escape completely, I fear. It’s why I am trying different media from different countries.
The formula is a bit less obvious with an older target audience. Here I can also recommend older stuff like Trigun, Cowboy Bebop or Black Lagoon. It’s been a bit since I saw those, so I won’t summarize them in fear of spoiling or misremembering something.
With anime I also try to skip the intros and outros, as they often contain spoilers, or rather hints. I usually watch those on YouTube after I’ve finished.
I feel like your question is similar to:
Movies are pretty popular among neurotypical people. However, aside from being obsessed with Star Wars as a kid, I never got into it. I’m wondering what I’m missing.
Well, if I was NT and only liked Star Wars, I might ask that question.
I’m not saying it’s a bad question. But it might be hard to answer since there are so many kinds of anime.
Oh, okay. I guess what I’m trying to understand is what makes watching anime more prevalent among autistic people than others. Being autistic myself, I’m wondering if maybe I’m missing out on something because I don’t understand how to appreciate it. For example, I did not like reading Russian literature at first, complaining that the plot was too slow and they spent too much time on irrelevant details. Once someone explained that the purpose was to understand the psychology of the characters, and that the plot was secondary to that, I was able to appreciate it. Maybe something similar is happening with anime. Another thing is that maybe figuring out why autistic people find anime more appealing than other people might give some insight into autism and better understanding ourselves.
Those are some fascinating ideas to explore. I hope you get comments that illuminate.
Also Voltron is awesome.
Robots: cool!
Cats: cool!
Robot cats: mega-thrusters are go!
