Trying to Watch Beastars Taught Me Something... | Exposure Therapy (Some Animé I Watched Recently)
Now, you are probably hoping for something grand and revolutionary with that title. You are almost definitely a fan of the show and are maybe even hugely vocal about how great the show is. You might be looking for something to reflect your views on it and relish in your enjoyment of a thing that you like.
If you haven't worked out by now, this isn't what this is BUT I want you to stick around.
Rewinding ...
I haven't watched animé in several months. I haven't watched anything at all for a while. Not since completing Better Call Saul about two months ago have I been able to pick up something else because honestly, I haven't been the same since. I stopped To Your Eternity because I was falling out of love with it and writing about it has become a chore and nothing has replaced it. On animé-watching terms, I am in a rut.
So, out of a sheer desperate boredom, I forced myself to watch several first episodes of animé on my list. Why go about it like that, you might ask. I'll tell you.
Cannonballing
To explain my situation in a much more simple way...
I am someone who was afraid of swimming their whole life but recently got over their fear about two, three years ago. Suddenly, I was swimming widths and lengths and laps. I was getting so confident in it that I tried swimming the English Channel.
But something happened to me. It was too much. I got scared, exhausted and panicked. There were no boundaries, no lifeboats, no lifeguards and I was in the middle of the ocean with no assistance. Upon being rescued by a passer-by, I have been petrified of swimming ever since. I had my fears of swimming justified and have reverted back into my initial state of irrational fear.
For the past view months, I have been pacing back and forth outside a kiddie pool, pondering as to whether or not I should dip my toes in the unruly water. Fear not, I will pace no longer.
I leap and cannonball in, ripping the proverbial plaster off and letting the water splash my skin. One problem; it's a kiddie pool. It's too shallow. I broke my leg and I don't know where this allegory is going anymore.
Now replace swimming with watching animé, you have your answer of my opinion about Beastars.
(When I said "much more simple", I was fucking lying)
Exposure Therapy
I decided to watch the first episode from the following animé:
Beastars
Neon Genesis Evangelion
Komi Can't Communicate
Attack on Titan
Persona 5: The Animation
Code Geass (Season Two)
You may have noticed something about my picks there. I won't tell you the pattern because it will come clear in a minute when I tell you my brief impressions of every episode
Beastars
I was kinda excited by this and whilst I routinely never beat the furry allegations, I have to explain yet again that I am drawn to cartoons and animation with animals in it because I find it stylistically cool and a change from the norm. There's also probably some element of nostalgia in there because a lot of my favourite entertainment growing up had talking animals in it because that was in at the time; Cats and Dogs, Garfield, Stuart Little, Underdog. (Yes, whatever age you think I am, I am that age, moving on).
I had a positive outlook going in and in moments, it was shattered to pieces. I have never felt so indifferent about something in all my life. My main takeaway from this is that the use of animals, anthropomorphic or otherwise, to tell a story has to have a meaningful purpose. If this didn't have animals in, it would be boring and bland as fuck because it's just about class and gender roles in a school environment which is almost like every other school thing you've seen.
Will I ever finish it? Yes because I want to give it a chance. It might yet blow me away with something surprising. However, as the old adage says, it's the hope that kills you.
Neon Genesis Evangelion
This is where I realized something.
I am a boomer animé fan.
Everything about this first episode was better than Beastars and I know, it's fucking EVANGELION. I may as well be comparing a souffle with some brown chewing gum that someone left under the table last week. I don't wanna be unfair to Beastars but it is what it is. Sorry if I'm being controversial here but NGE is better. What a hot take.
In all seriousness, everything was just better from the visuals to the storytelling to the world-building to the pacing. Everything is set up perfectly and it made me realize that I like a lot of animé deemed "old" (1990-2005) for the same reasons. This will come apparent as we navigate down the list. I don't need to say any more about this. IT'S FUCKING EVANGELION.
Komi Can't Communicate
I didn't hate this but I didn't love it either. I feel like I can't not give it a chance. It's different and interesting enough that I will click on Episode #2 and continue to get the ball rolling. Don't think this is a positive though; I was teetering on the edge of being drearified by the slow pacing and the tiny uncomplicated landscape.
Then again, it is what it says it is. Komi Can't Communicate. That's all you need to know. Mesmerized, I was not but I'll come back to it in due course.
Attack on Titan
I had seen this first episode before and I wasn't overly impressed by it.
Slow your role. I had my reasons.
I thought it was too overdramatic to the point of it being comical at how depressing and sad that it was. It was like the show was bashing me over the head repeatedly with a newspaper and telling me that they're determined to win the sad competition. I also found the main character to be extremely fucking annoying and I don't know why you're supposed to root for him.
The music was super overbearing and I found the design for the Iggy Pop titan to be unintentionally hilarious. I couldn't take any of it seriously.
How did I feel about my second watch of it? Eh. Pretty much the same.
Don't get it twisted, I trust that it's very, very good and I will get into it, I promise. Just not today.
Persona 5: The Animation
I know, I know. It's been memed to death so I'll keep it brief and just say this. I only watched this as kind of a palate cleanser.
Because the game is so distracted by it's own style, it becomes the main feature and the animé becomes hyperfocused on matching that style which it's never going to achieve and the end result is bland, boring and shallow product that can't even tell the story properly.
Kinda like the game it's based on WHOOPS DID I JUST SAY THAT OUT LOUD.
Code: Geass
Something that puts me off continuing my adventure into Code:Geass is difficult to explain. I clearly loved the first season but the problem I have with finishing it is that it's pretty heavy viewing. Kinda like Attack on Titan, the epic is so good that it's actually overwhelming and exhausting. It sounds stupid, doesn't it? Why don't I continue to enjoy the thing that I like? The answer is that I don't know. I have the brain of a goldfish and would rather swim in circles in my little bowl.
This looked good though. It's Code:Geass, it's gonna be pretty fucking good.
What Was The Point of All This?
I don't know. I wanted a little bit of everything on the menu. A platter, if you will. Was I satisfied? No but that doesn't mean I won't come back to the restaurant. I'll just order something else. The inherent quality is definitely there. Even the worst stuff had something to like about them.
What did you think of this kind of animé posting? I'm looking for different ways to approach writing about shows that aren't blanket reviews cut-for-cut. I thought this was a fun little crash course and if you enjoyed it, I might do another one where I do even more animé in a certain genre. I might watch the first episode of every magical girl animé, every isekai, or every fighting shonen. Just spitballing here.
Post-Script
I can't promise that I'll be back to writing about animé on here. There's no guarantee because life is getting in the way quite a lot at the moment. I'm sure you understand and I have to reiterate that I have not disappeared. I'm just exiting social media because it's bad for my mental health. You can find me on Twitter, Instagram, Discord and even Facebook (if you're really weird) but I don't really have a presence on any of those platforms.
I'm going through a transitional time in my life right now and I could do without the doom and gloom and having eyes peering into my life from all directions.
