I have to give credit for this prompt to YOMU. I saw the post last week and I thought it was a great idea. It really got me thinking about some of the anime that I love and how odd my tastes are.
This is a bit of a tricky question for me because I have long given up on being perceived as cool or an arbiter of tastes and I now recommend pretty much everything and anything that strikes my fancy without much thought. I probably shouldn’t do that. It has definitely led to people being confused/disappointed/horrified by some of my suggestions but what is a lazy girl to do?
Moreover, the prompt is incomplete. Who am I recommending these anime to? I mean Cowboy Bebop tends to be a really safe recommendation for a gateway anime. Not much to complain about there and it’s got a lot of solid elements to show off the medium even though it is starting to show its age. But I wouldn’t recommend it to that one friend who is not into anything sci fi adjacent or the other one who will definitely find it too out there. I would find a nice SOL for that one.
So for any given anime, there is probably a least one person out there who I would recommend it to.
But I’m being a big ol pedant here, aren’t I?. That’s not the spirit of the post at all. What they are asking is, is there any anime I quite like and wouldn’t recommend to most people and well, I had to really think about it. My first instinct was to say Sarazanmai. That’s a real weird show but also not weird enough to recommend it on weirdness alone and I loved it. But then I realized that I had personally recommended it to a whole bunch of people so that would be a lie.
In fact, I recommend weird anime that have a pretty high chance of flopping with the person I’m suggesting it to on a regular basis. I believe in taking chances with the media you consume as you never know when you might stumble across something that totally captures your imagination. And isn’t that just the best feeling? When you get completely engrossed and consumed by a piece of media. I’m not talking about falling into a fandom as I have no experience with that, but just that moment when you get mesmerized by a story and it blends into your world. I love that moment. I want my friends to have as many of these moments as possible. So I try to make them watch weird anime in hopes of finding the right rabbit hole. It rarely works but when it does. Oh mama!
So out go Kyousougiga, Humanity has Declined, Penguindrum, Zvezda, and the like. You ride with me, you’re gonna go down some surreal roads.
Ok so what’s next…
I figure that anything that can be misinterpreted as a fetish is probably a little hard to recommend but I’ll be honest, I don’t think I have any anime that falls into that category in my favourites. Or I’m blind to it which is quite possible. Actually, I guess Zvezda has its moments in that regard. It’s not that I don’t enjoy some questionable shows once in a while. I absolutely do. But so far, I haven’t found one that really left a mark on me and I can’t say that I can really name one at the moment.
And then it hit me, Idol anime!
Here’s the thing, I watch a lot of boy idol anime. And the reason I enjoy them is more on a so bad it’s good sort of thing. But the nicer version of that. There is such a wealth of loving kitsch and the creamiest of cheese in these anime. And I use to think they were unintentionally hilarious but I’m not so sure anymore.
There’s a general idea that you cannot manufacture camp. Camp is something that has to be organic and unintentional or else it’s not really camp. I’m beginning to think that idol anime are proof that that isn’t quite true. They are the exception that proves the rule. Or maybe it really is unintentional in which case all I can say is: brilliant!
Do I really looooooove idol anime? Well no, not really. The reason I don’t recommend these shows is that I know that if you don’t happen to have my specific sensibilities and sense of humour, there probably won’t be anything there for you. And even I have to be in a very specific mood to enjoy them. So it’s not like I’m saying these shows are brilliant and people should watch them more but I don’t have the confidence to champion them. It’s more of a, I know these shows aren’t great (with some notable exceptions) but I still like them. A lot!
Ok, now I just spent a paragraph making it sound like all Idol anime are trash and I feel the need to correct that.
When I say bad, I don’t in fact mean bad. They are for the most part mediocre. Average little anime shows, often made on a shoestring budget with a commercial tie-in to a mobile game or just an industrious amount of merch. They can be a little soulless, a LOT formulaic, and occasionally interchangeable. But these are all criticisms that can easily be applied to the medium at large. Anime is possibly more commercial than most storytelling venues at the moment. I love it but there’s no point in hiding that fact. And idol anime is a good representation of that aspect.
But they are also generally well-meaning and generally harmless fluff, which is more than I can say about a lot of shows. And the formulaic aspect of the genre can be quite comforting. Sometimes you are in the mood for something specific and more often than not, idol anime will deliver that well… something specific. The characters might be on the shallow side and use trouble backstories as development but they tend to also be completely unobjectionable. Unproblematic anime husbandos! I can’t deny that I have often found watching a little idol anime at the end of a long day to be relaxing and enjoyable in a very simple sort of way. What’s wrong with just plain dumb fun. And the camp is really quite extraordinary at times. And dahhling, I can appreciate a good camp!
But you shouldn’t watch idol anime. It’s not for you, you wouldn’t like it. It’s sort of a niche thing and really it’s pretty bad. You should watch some real anime. Try Kyousougiga, I still tear up at the family picture. Or like Demon Slayer – it’s an amazing-looking show!
