Grew out of anime?

I pretty much grew out of anime in my late teens. I tried to hold on longer than I should have, but so much of it was so hard to watch that I couldn't get through it. (The blatant sexualization of really young looking characters, weird dynamics, etc.) I do still watch some anime, but usually the more popular/mainstream series, whereas before I would watch anything that looked cute. I think 12 year old me thought that anything cute would be fairly innocent, but boy did I quickly learn that was wrong.

I really wish I could get back into it and I hope that someday I find a series that really speaks to me!

Well, here are some recent ones:

Nichijou (A brilliant random slice-of-life comedy; probably the best showcase of Japanese humor I've ever seen. It also has a subtle plotline throughout that's very sweet. Recently it got an English dub, but as I only watched the first 5-ish episodes of it I can't vouch for it yet.)

The Rolling Girls (A coming-of-age story that takes the form of an action-adventure road trip. I'm still a bit sour about it...I wanted a straight-up action anime and didn't get it. ^^; But the all the characters were so sweet and enjoyable anyway. Highlights are animation style and character design, and the music is fantastic.)

Black Rock Shooter (Pure unadulterated EDGE in anime form. XD Also, the mechanics of the story are a bit confusing...but it's an old favorite of mine for the raw emotion of the story beats, and the amazing action scenes that made excellent use of 3D animation before it was cool (and sadly, rarely gets credit for that). Here I'm speaking of the 10-episode TV anime; BRS has a few different incarnations-- the history of the concept is actually pretty interesting)

KARAS (Speaking of edge...Karas is probably the most mature anime I've ever watched. Thankfully, it's 'mature' in the sense that it takes itself seriously, and not just in the sense that it has a lot of blood and violence (and it does~). It's ridiculously obscure, and could easily have fallen through the cracks...I'm really thankful that I got to see it and love it. ^^)

Princess Principal (A steampunk science-fiction series (which is supposed to be receiving a sequel movie in two months...it keeps getting delayed ;_;) about teenage spies. It's probably the most fanservicey of everything I've listed, but nowhere near enough to detract from its amazing heartfelt storytelling and action scenes. The English dub is particularly delightful; it's not perfect, but it's clear that they put an unusual amount of effort into the accents and casting, and I actually prefer watching it because the many English characters actually speak English. ^^; A little less suspension of disbelief, y'know?)

Houseki no Kuni/Land of the Lustrous (A very unique fantasy series, and my current favorite modern anime. You may find yourself a bit bored with the first 2 episodes, but keep watching; I promise it gets better and better. ^^ Unfortunately, we don't have a Season 2 to look forward to atm, but since it was well received, and the manga (which is equally incredible) seems to be coming to a close, I have a good feeling that we'll see more of the gems someday in the future.)

Wonder Egg Priority (This one is actually ongoing. ^^; It's a psychological action series, and basically 'Trigger Warning: the anime'. Seriously, if you're particularly sensitive to any sort of abuse/suicide-related content, you should probably avoid it entirely. But if you can stomach that, so far it seems to be a brilliant show with lovable characters and messages (and spectacular animation!). Since it's not over, I can't technically recommend it, but so far I have a good feeling about it, and this late in the game I'm rarely wrong.)

I love old shows, I love new shows. You just need to know where to look for the adult stuff. There’s plenty of it

You'll get back into it. Part of getting older is realizing the things that you liked as a kid are still cool to like and the only reason you didn't like them in your early 20s anymore is because people looked down on you for it. I stopped watching anime around 20 as well. Now I'm 32 and It's non-stop Dragonball and Naruto all over again

Do you want recommendations?

1. Lupin iii (inspired cowboy bebop in the first place)
2. Space dandy (inspired by cowboy and lupin iii)
   These first two have a way more Saturday morning cartoon for adults feel. They’re both hilarious. Lupin is quite old but I recommend starting with the 1977 series. Not every episode is a gem, but it’s a good time.
3. Death parade (it’s beautiful and made me cry)
4. Kakushigoto (cute father daughter relationship and very funny)
5. Monster (literally the best anime I’ve ever seen. Also the most western and most mature. It literally takes place in Germany with all European characters except the lead, of course)

Same tastes damnnn. Well what about black jack the 1990s ova series, heaven’s design team, sound euphonium and jitsu wa watashi wa

I'm in my early 30s and I still watch anime, just not as many as I used to. Nowadays I follow about 2-3 shows per season, but it really depends on the lineup. The shows I tend to watch are those where I can switch off my brain, relax, and enjoy the ride.

Looking through the recommendations, I'm surprised that no one brought up Golden Kamuy! It's similar to Fullmetal Alchemist in nature, where you have comedic moments mixed in with the serious moments, and it has a compelling plot. Though, the author is a bit of a... strange person, so you may find some of the comedy a little too outrageous and/or unusual, but I'm having a blast with it.

I’m different because I actually picked up anime a few years ago and fell in love with a lot of it. I don’t watch it all the time cause of other priorities but still haven’t fell into boredom with it. I think spacing how much you do of something however can make that thing boring over time. Too much of a good thing can be bad and all that stuff...

I really should stop reading threads that I know will make me mad

I just go back and forth between different mediums. I watched anime as a kid, kinda was done with it, hopped back in in my late twenties because I found a title that interested me a lot and I was like "Yo, I should revisit anime!" For me it was S1 of One Punch Man, which really was so beautiful and hit a really personal chord with me in how it related to success and creativity and capitalism--just a really well done season (S2 sucks, unfortunately, because the anime industry is weird and gives shows to different studios)

So I think you just have to find the right anime for the right time in your life. I didn't like Deathnote when I first saw it. Then, I started watching it in 2020 with my Bro and was like "OK maybe Deathnote was exactly on the nose about a lot of things that are prescient right now" and now I like it.

I agree there's an overwhelming amount of trivial childish anime that is oversexualized, I think that has more to do with a small industry that uses the same creators over and over and is really hard to break into--some directors make childish things that are stereotyped and oversexualized and they just keep getting hired. Anime has a really big problem of only hiring people that they know, instead of taking a risk on new artists, and generally not paying people enough.

That and kids is the biggest market to sell animation to, so they get most of the attention. There are adult animes, there's just less of them. And as for anime that was really wild and progressive for it's time, those risk taking anime were made at a time it was cheaper to do that, especially in Japan. Now it costs so much money to produce animation in Japan, I don't think we'll see another cowboy Bebop anytime soon.

As for problematic stuff, the best way to combat that is if their advertisers and investors pulled from their problematic projects. That's how things have worked in other creative industries that were making problematic stuff, and why Western animation studios are so incredibly careful. It's not much of a big deal if people on the other side of the world are like "I'm done with anime" youknow, that's up to the big money back in the mainland. Not much we can do about it.

I see this problem as less "growing out of anime" than it is "growing up requires you to exercise more choice with your time." Since anime is just a medium and not a genre or specific structure, there really is a wide variety to choose from, not all of which are going to be presented to you straightforward and might require you to do some searching to find. If you base your idea of "anime" on what you just hear about from most people, you're going to get a limited selection of genres that likely appeal to whatever's trending at the time. When you're a kid and less familiar with archetypes and tropes, everything is new and exciting to you, but as you gain more knowledge you have to put more effort into finding new things (provided that's what you want and not just comfortable, predictable stories for escapism).

It's like saying you "grew out of films" because the only films you're being exposed to are whatever big blockbusters are being marketed (maybe less so nowadays considering the pandemic) and you feel like all films are just loud action movies. Or saying you "grew out of television" because you're only being exposed to safe family sitcoms or convoluted dramas.

Anyway, if we're doing recommendations, one recent anime I haven't seen mentioned yet would be Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken, which is about three high school girls who found a club for making their own anime. It completely avoids most of the problems of how mainstream anime handles young girls - none of the characters are sexualized or made overly cute and the main three girls are pretty rounded out as people and fairly unique in terms of not falling neatly into specific archetypes. The show as a whole also goes really deep into the process of creating anime and, considering the number of artists on this forum, I feel like a lot of people here would be able to connect strongly to the themes.

I actually really got into anime when I was at the end of college. Part of the fact was that in high school we had to stay up till forever to watch anime on Toonami and I usually had school and it was also hard to find sub/dubs online. Then when I got to college I didn't have time with sports and classes.

Now I actually have a bit of time here and there to watch series but it's very different than I would have watched in high school or college. I'm really picky now what I watch just because I don't have the time or energy to watch 10 different shows at once.