This Weeks Geek - Outgrown?
/A few weeks ago during a podcast ZeldaQueen said she felt that she may have outgrown anime. This came up after she had started watching Rosario + Vampire which involves a number of panty shots. This got her thinking that most anime is not made for someone her age. With more anime becoming immature and juvenile she feels that the shows being made now are not one's for her. I had to argue with this though. Currently watching Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, this show is not made for younger audiences. The conversation made me wonder though, what does it really mean to outgrow something?
Lets look at anime for this (since that is where we started anyway). When someone says they have outgrown anime it seems odd to me. Anime is an extremely large genre. Yes, there is a number of fan service based anime out there. Rosario + Vampire has the cool concept of a human in a high school for yokai (demons), but it is a harem anime with a large number of panty shots. High School of the Dead is a zombie survival series that has girls with balloons in their shirts. Then we have Queen's Blade which is a female only battle royal that has an abundance of nudity and fetishs at play. The first two have things that are make them kind of redeemable but are given the fan service to appeal to younger male audiences which detracts from the more mature audiences. Queen's Blade is just horrible and really should not have gotten a 2nd season. These are the anime that you tend to outgrow.
Just as with clothing though, once you outgrow one thing you grow into something new. Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood has very limited fan service. The focus on this series is the Elric brothers getting their bodies back to normal, and while at it they start to unravel a plot that involves the entire country. Then we have Death Note. The series is filled with plot twists and convoluted plans. Lastly I recently watched Rideback. In this series the main characters, a former ballerina, takes a shine to using a specialized motorcycle called a rideback that can stand up on it's wheels like a person does on their feet. Despite a girl whom wears a large number of dresses and then rides a motorcycle there is no fan service in this series despite the perfect chances for them to insert it. I don't remember a single panty flash. All of these series are pretty serious and are aimed towards adults. These are the types of anime that you grow into.
Anime is not the only genre that this happens in. Video games have the same transition as does general television. Eventually what you used to like will not interest you, but in the same field you will find something else interesting. In video games you move from typing training games to Super Mario Brothers to Call of Duty (I am not saying there is anything wrong with Super Mario Brothers, but it is an example). In board games you move from Candy Land to Risk to Settlers of Catan. Can you think of a time when you started to outgrow your hobby only find something different about it that kept you interested?