There were a few times back in 2016-2019 when I would question if how All In I'd gone on Anime might wind up being a phase. I can now confidently say it hasn't, it's here to stay.
What I have become is less motivated to keep up with currently airing seasonal Anime. I'm down to only three for Spring 2025 and there's really one 1 confirmed to be airing then each from Summer and Fall I'm planning to watch, Rent-A-Girlfriend season 4 and Spy x Family season 3. And I was starting to sense this trend during 2024 as well.
There is no active dislike for anything, I do not intend to start saying that Anime is bad now.
No I've simply build up a big enough frame of reference that I now chill out on feeling the need to up my numbers on the Database sites, for now Anilist is my default.
I will continue to expand what I've seen. There are up coming shows I'm excited for. And older shows I haven't finished yet I want to add to when I find time. But I'm now ready to focus way more on revisiting what I'm already a fan of deepening my familiarity with them.
It's not that nothing has changed about the state of current Anime, things are always changing, and I do think there is a good chance I will in the future be seeing the Fall 2023 season as either the first or last season of it's era. But rather then viewing them as changes for the worse they are just changes to a state I'm less personally engaged by, for now at least. I'm happy for all the people who think now is the most exciting era to be into Anime in ages.
What's interesting though is how even the Isekai coming out I've become more selective of what to check out. I was one of the biggest apologists for the Genre at even it's most "generic" and still am for everything I have seen, but maybe now I'm finally feeling the fatigue with the Genre so many others were feeling 8 years ago.
Another thing I remember about 2016-2018 was how I was a big advocate for the Slice of Life and Cute Girls Doing Cute Things genre in it's purest most strictly defined form. I talked about how something like Lucky Star is what I've secretly always wanted to write even back when I didn't know it was already an existing genre. And the thing is I still do, but at some point I stopped actively watching those shows. Part of it was them becoming less common as it felt like the first half of 2018 was the last time we had a bunch. But I also failed to devote any rewatch time to Lucky Star (A show I for a time labeled my second favorite Anime) or Yuru Yuri, and instead found myself spending more time with what are simply the Anime versions of more conventional Genres. And now this season I was watching Mono but put it on hold. A number of things I put On Hold I'm likely to return to, but no guarantee.
So that is something I plan to return to. Though first I want to devote a good chunk of June to Queer and Magical Girl Anime.
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