Scott says he’s an older anime fan, but although anime is generally geared towards a younger audience, there’s something out there for everyone, as explained by the diversity of the genre and its many source materials.

Meta context: This post was originally mostly written in September 2022.

After reading this post by Stitch’s Media Mix, it made me think how old “too old” is. Why do people under a certain age threshold (probably about 12 or 13 at the youngest, because that’s the youngest you can falsely qualify for Facebook and legally apply for Discord) call 25 or 35 year olds “uncool” – sorry, “cheugy”? We should be able to learn from each other, no matter what age we are or how long we’ve been in fandoms for.

I mean, the little kids – the really young ones which still play with toys and don’t get laughed at – don’t think about getting salty about their fandom elders, especially not online. They just want to enjoy their content and merch. We should probably take a leaf out of their book on that front.

Sure, because the average person in this world is living longer due to medical advancements and such, we want more adults in anime now instead of Isekaid 17/18 Year Old #83183, but…is that everything anime fans (of any age) are getting out of this?

…Actually, there is one thing the young’uns could learn from this – some young’uns prefer robots and tokusatsu, as seen by the occasional mecha on the seasonal circuit (see: Back Arrow, AMIAM) and some fans’ enduring love of Gundam (I mean, The Witch from Mercury is out soon, as I write this in late September 2022…). If they went back to the roots of that genre in anime form, they’d have to go back to – shock horror! Cel animation from the 70s or 80s.

You can also apply this to most genres and subgenres – yes, even isekai light novel adaptions have roots in medieval European fantasy works which have been the “food” of fandom since well before these salty individuals were born.

In short, you’re never too old for anime, so long as you can find a space in the fandom for yourself.

…So how about it? Can we all agree to learn from each other and each other’s tastes, rather than dividing ourselves into factions?