I started getting into anime about a year ago, and I found that I really liked it. Well, I really liked it sometimes, but I have posted before about how it pretty much changed my life in some concrete ways. “Hibike! Euphonium” pretty much kickstarted me into getting back into music, and now I’m taking piano lessons, practicing for one or two hours a day, and learning how to compose as well. “Oregairu” actually probably kickstarted me into wanting to get back into the dating scene (“I want something genuine”) which I haven’t really done but at least I’m more open to the idea now. A few other anime impacted me heavily, like “sangatsu no lion”.

I’m waiting for this season of “Hibike! Euphonium” to drop fully, then I’ve blocked out a few hours to binge it. That is happening.

But it’s a victim of its own success, because due to these endeavors, I have no time for anime anymore, and I kind of don’t miss it.

I’ve been slogging through “Harukana, Receive” lately, and it’s terrible. I mean it’s not objectively awful and completely unwatchable, but if you take the swimsuits, bouncing boobs, softcore yuri, and really nice bodies out of the equation, you’ve got really nothing but hitting some balls and eating dinner. And I mean that literally. There’s literally nothing else. At least nothing that I can remember.

And I just don’t have time for that. I don’t have time for any of it anymore. I’m too busy doing useful stuff.

I guess that’s the whole point of really good media, right? Good stories, too, I mean. They should inspire you, they should make you think, they should change your life, and eventually you should switch more to a creator mentality than a consumption mentality.

Consumption can enrich your life if done judiciously, but when it’s all you have, and all you do, of what value is it, really? Consumption adds nothing of value to the world. It’s the same thing as when you spend you time in school or taking classes learning something. If you spend the rest of your life learning and not doing anything useful with your education, of what good was it to learn? If I take composition lessons for the rest of my life, and never write another composition, weren’t those lessons a waste of time?

And if I just watch anime for the rest of my life and don’t gain anything from it, what was the point of spending all that time watching anime?

I guess you could say entertainment has its own point, and maybe you have a point, at that. But my counter for that is, look at what children do for entertainment. They read, they play with their toys (most of which have at least some educational or training component), they play with their friends… most of what they do is geared towards learning life lessons or important skills that they can use later in their life. They find it fun, and the learning component isn’t important to them, but it’s the whole purpose of play. And none of that really changes when you grow up. Your toys get more expensive and their uses become a little less obvious for those purposes, but the purpose of entertainment really doesn’t change.

Some entertainment is a bit like fast food, and serves the same function. Easy, cheap (well, it used to be cheap until Biden got his mitts on the economy), no nutritional value, satisfying for a short period of time, and ultimately really, really bad for you. And some entertainment is a lot more like nutritional food – more satisfying and good for you in the long term, but you don’t get that initial rush that addicts you. Sometimes, very occasionally, it might be a guilty pleasure, but for the most part… it’s much better to cook for yourself.

Don’t you think?

There are some anime I would make time for. The third season of “Hibike! Euphonium”, the second seasons of “Akebi’s Sailor Uniform” or “Bocchi the Rock!” if they ever come out, for example. And there are a few on my watchlist for the spring 2024 season that I may yet make some time for. But all told… I just don’t have time for it anymore. It’s empty calories that are much better spent bettering myself and positioning myself for what may (and maybe will) happen in the future.

And it feels like people (such as many western, and even Japanese, otaku) who don’t realize this are just setting themselves up for failure. Otaku culture is, generally, empty, useless entertainment that does nothing to make the world better. Just like fast food.

I bought a Bocchi figurine yesterday. I have some anime merch and I watch some anime. This doesn’t make me a hypocrite. Because, that the end of the day, it’s the first thing I will (and have) cut out of my life in order to make room for the stuff that really matters.