These days anime has grown to dominate the mainstream. What was once a rare and weird hobby is now commonplace to most Americans younger than 40. With the anime community exploding in popularity, you may have tried to introduce your parents to the medium. I know I certainly did. After witnessing great shit like Death Note, I sat my Dad down and enlightened him to what the Japanese have been cooking up. Later I tried the same tactic with my Mom. And at one point I asked my uncle his take on anime as he’s a big binge watcher and consumes a ton of live action films and series. These attempts resulted in mixed outcomes.
Looking back on my efforts upon having too much time on my hands the other day, I came to the realization that my family contains all levels of opinion on anime. My mom simply could not get into Death Note at all after around five to six episodes. She thought the plot was intriguing, but asked me “How can you care about these characters? They’re not people, they’re just drawings.” The medium of animation was simply too much of a departure for her to appreciate. When it came to my uncle, it seemed like he understood why anime has an audience, claiming it's pretty similar to the cartoons of his day. However, he argued that such content always had the connotation of being “for kids” and not true artistic cinema. Therefore he never bothered to check it out much and still hasn’t to this day. Lastly, my Dad grew up watching Batman, Spider-Man, Superman, and whatever other comic book heroes he could. To this day he still has a small comic collection that he holds dear. Can you guess his take on Death Note? He thought it was a captivating watch that explores why taking justice into your own hands and bypassing the legal system can be a dangerous thing.
If you get this look, it's probably joever.
Essentially how each family member interacted with animated content during their childhoods and teenage years seemed to have a big impact on whether or not they ever entertained the idea of watching anime (with or without me as I learned my Dad took it upon himself to watch Steins;Gate later on). Lord knows I’m not trying to blame my Mom or anything either, comic culture and heroes were not usually marketed toward girls back then. I just thought it was interesting to see the entire spectrum of views on anime in one family. Oh, and I’m the one taking the role of full-on weeb who loves this shit in case that wasn’t obvious. Have you ever tried to show anime to your parents or family? What were their reactions? Have you been able to get another person into watching anime? Trap your parents, tie them to a sofa, and binge an acclaimed production in the comments below!
