Oldtaku: Anime for Grownups

An otaku is an anime/manga fan (it has worse connotations in Japan, but here in the west it’s fairly benign). And old, is, well, anyone over 25 who’s still watching and reading the stuff.

What the heck do you do when you’re in your thirties, cranky, and still like anime and manga? That’s me. I’ve seen it almost all too many times before, and most new stuff is ‘been there done that’ and aimed at young teens or pre-teens. Frankly, it’s insulting.  Now, I am not saying teens are stupid – obviously there are many teens who are smarter than adults. But even the smart ones lack the experience and the ‘been there done that’ to be properly jaded.  Everything is still fresh and wonderful – you have to envy that, but you can’t go back.

But there are still a few gems every now and then, like Mushi-shi, that won’t insult you as an reasonably intelligent adult. It doesn’t all have to be Name of the Rose, but you shouldn’t have to settle for the generic crap that is most anime and manga.  Hard as it may be to believe, there are series you wouldn’t feel ashamed to show your parents or non-fan friends.

I watch at least the first new episode of everything and 95% of it can be summarized and dismissed with just one phrase (like ‘harem show‘) so I’ll do that for you, and most shows can be fairly judged after one episode, but a few like Higurashi can’t, so I’ll tell you how many episodes I’m basing my opinion on.

My main goal here is to build a database/backlog that I can refer people to when they ask me to recommend something. This happens fairly often, and I end up regurgitating the same things every time, so why not commit them to a public record?

The reviews are generally light on names and plot details because for the most part they don’t matter. See also grownup anime.