In the past, I shared my thoughts on how I watched Anime. With that, it’s time to take a look at two more aspects of watching Anime that I haven’t talked about yet, rewatching shows and watching Anime with other people.
On Rewatching Anime
You might be wondering, why you would rewatch a show? I think there are many reasons you want to such as anticipation for a sequel or you simply want to watch a favorite series over again. Most fans typically do not rewatch shows they already watched because it takes time to watch a show over again when it can be used to finish the backlog, currently airing shows and other things.
To me, I do not typically rewatch shows or episodes nowadays because I would rather spend the free time doing other things such as programing, playing video games or teaching myself Japanese, especially if my time will become limited in the future when I start working. However, most of my rewatching experiences happened during my childhood since I didn’t have broadband Internet or cable television. As a result, I spent most of the time watching any anime I own on VHS or recorded and reruns such as Pokémon, Digimon, Cardcaptor Sakura (the butchered dub), Yugioh, etc. on television.
When I decided to start watching anime again during my freshman year, I have rewatched some episodes of Haruhi, Lucky Star and Kanon. However, my rewatch activities started to drop off when I started discovering more shows that matched my developing tastes. While there are some occasions that I rewatched a series such watching Clannad with the English dub on DVD out of curiosity and writing 4 separate posts sharing my thoughts on the Clannad After Story rewatch, the last show that I watched all the way through again was The Idolmaster anime in 2012.
While I do not have that much free time these days since I would rather spend my time on other things as mentioned earlier, there are benefits to rewatching shows. First, you might discover things that are important to the story that you might have overlooked when you watched it the first time. I have been there, especially when I watched the Idolmaster without being familiar with the franchise. After playing the games, I got to know the characters a lot more to the point where I can get some of the references in the show.
Perhaps another reason you would rewatch a show is out of nostalgia or to gain another perspective of the show. As you would expect, personal experiences changes as time go on and you may view a show differently years from now. Of course, there is also the enjoyment factor in watching shows that you enjoyed in the past.
While rewatching is nothing special nowadays compared to the past when widely accessible fansubs and streaming is not a thing, it’s something that most fans still do once in a while. Perhaps when I feel like it, I might go and take a look back at some of my favorite shows that I enjoyed in the past.
Group Watching
I have to admit that I have a limited experience with watching shows with other people. It’s mostly because I never participated in my college’s Anime club. While I watched shows with other people online, the experience was mixed at best. Still, I have to admit that it was interesting to listen to other people’s opinions about the episode or show they just watched and even debate about certain aspects of the show afterwards. In other words, you can see how other people feel about same show from their point of view.
At the same time, some people can ruin it for others for the fact some people can be disruptive, which in turn ruins the watching experience for everyone else. I won’t mention names, but there have been a few instances where a viewer has been disruptive to the point that other people could not talk about what they are watching. As you would expect, it can diminish the watching experience in general.
For me, while group-watching sessions was an interesting experience, I usually watch shows alone since I do not necessarily have the time. Moreover, I want to watch shows without any disruptions and then come up with my own thoughts afterwards. Even so, I’m willing to have another go at an Anime convention in the future.
The shows I watched with other people are Fractale, Madoka Magica, Hourou Musuko, and The Idolmaster (rewatch), and 6 episodes of Haibane Renmei (rewatch).
With that, what are your thoughts about rewatching anime and group watching? Do you rewatch shows often or not at all? Also, do you prefer watching Anime with a group of people or alone? Feel free to share your experiences
I think your two reasons for why anime fans re-watch series is spot on. In my attempts to rekindle the old memory for my love of SNAFU I re-watched the anime earlier this year. This had nothing to do with the return of the sequel. I actually had previously decided to watch it since I wanted to revisit the hilarious situations and the realistic depictions that occasionally pop up in life through SNAFU. All of this would, of course, further help me gain more understanding of the series.
I do agree that there are some things in real life that can relate to the show months after watching the show. But in general, I do agree that rewatching gives a sense of nostalgia after some time passed by, especially if a show that one enjoyed quite a lot.
I tend to only re-watch things I really, really enjoyed, and also series that are nostalgic to me.
I have watch anime in groups before, but not conventionally. My Mumble/Skype group livestream anime whenever we want to watch a series simultaneously. It’s really convenient since some of us don’t even live in the same country.
Same here since the shows I rewatched so far are usually my favorites.
But yes, the introduction of voice over IP applications like Skype definitely made it a lot easier to watch shows with others without being in the same location. In the past before broadband internet became widespread, one have to watch with others in the same place. Of course, the only difficulty is to arrange such a watching event online. :p
I very rarely rewatch shows, but I think another reason why people want to rewatch shows is simply that they want to relieve in the same emotional investment again they felt when watching it for the first time. Like how I want to relieve in the yuri goodness of Sakura Trick or the badassery of Black Lagoon, there are of course other shows which are of the same atmospheres, but it’s just easier to get back to the ones which did it better than the rest. Your other reasons are spot-on though.
Not much input on group watching since I very rarely does that too, lol. But I can certainly see that issue you mentioned actually happening.
Yep, that can be true, especially if one forgot the show he/she watch for years or just want to enjoy it like it was the first time…