Despite watching and blogging about Anime non-stop for over five years, one can eventually get fatigued from watching the same things over again. There are a few notable reasons why some people usually get tired and stop watching, which I will share along with past experience and what I do to prevent fatigue. (Image Source)
Reasons why People Stop Watching Anime
Just like any hobby, it requires effort and time to maintain the interest. However, while Anime has a diverse amount of story lines and genres, some may enjoy it less for two most common reasons:
Time Commitments: I admit that time is a big factor as watching Anime and/or discussing about it takes time. This is not a problem for teenagers or some college students as they have a good amount of free time between their studying. However, it becomes a problem if one decides to watch everything a particular season has to offer. Of course, watching everything does not only give a higher change of a burnout, but its time-consuming. Not only that, some harder majors like science and engineering can eat away time, thus leaving hardly any time to watch anything. Although work can take a lot of time, one can still enjoy Anime if they properly manage their free time and don’t watch everything at a given moment.
Receptiveness: Like things in life, too much of an enjoyable thing can be a bad thing. This can be a problem since a good amount of anime play with the same tropes, clichés, etc. For instance, in a romantic comedy while the characters usually have some differences, it can have a typical weak-minded male lead and a number of cute girls. While one can diversify what kind of show he/she watches, the only real way to recover from this fatigue in my opinion is to take a short break and then come back to it.
While I never experienced time constraints since I haven’t started working, I had some fatigue of watching the same thing (you can read more about it in my previous post). Up to this day, I remain interested in Anime. Still, a good break is a good idea to refresh your mind and regain the ability to enjoy the medium.
What I do to take a break from Anime?
It’s obvious that I limit myself how much what I watch, people do various activities to take a break from Anime. Some may like reading books or watching movies/western animation. Others might like to do outdoor activities or go on vacation.
Believe it or not, I don’t spend all my time watching Anime, but instead doing other things. When I’m at my computer, besides teaching myself Japanese, I usually watch Youtube videos of various Let’s Plays, politics and technology along with various web series on occasion (e.g: Angry Video Game Nerd or stuff on That Guy with the Glasses). I hardly watch any television outside of news and Mythbusters as most of the shows either don’t interest me or is terrible reality shows. In addition to watching videos, I also spend my time surfing the Internet, reading various stuff from tech sites, video game sites, news sites and political blogs.
While some argue that video games can have some of the same tropes of Anime, I also spend a good amount of time playing them, namely Japanese games. Even though the games I play have anime inspired characters, the interactive aspect, the gameplay and the unique experiences is what really sets it apart. In fact, I use Japanese-language games as supplement material to practice what I have learned. Despite my preference for Japanese games, I also play a few western games on occasion, namely Maxis games (Sims and SimCity) and the Portal games.
Lastly, vacation can be very effective way to take a break from Anime even though it takes a good amount of time. Despite this, one can relieve the fatigue of Anime while refreshes his/her mind. While I usually blog about Anime when I’m on vacation, I actually spend my time sightseeing with my family. Even though most of these vacations are usually in the Midwest, namely Wisconsin and Chicago, we still manage to find something fun to do on the trip.
Overall, it’s clear that Anime fatigue is a problem that every fan experiences. It can make watching Japanese animation dull to watch no matter how interesting the story is. While taking a break is a good thing, going overboard with it can have consequences. As mentioned in Justin’s post on the same subject, he said that some people take a long break that when they come back to watching anime, they forgot about the good shows that were airing. At the end of the day, I think moderation is important since it will keep ones interest in Anime alive and well.
What that, did you ever experience any type of fatigue from Anime? Also, what activities do you do to take a break from it?
