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Correlation between immaturity and japanese media liking


Thyndd

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26 minutes ago, Okarin said:

There's a mental condition called "anhedonia", associated with depression and schizophrenia, and boy, is it sinister. It's the inability to feel pleasure, or more generally, satisfaction. This is fucked up, so please consider how lucky we are to enjoy something like Japanese media that brings us joy and entertainment, even if it's considered the stupidest thing under the Sun.

Unfortunately I know way too well that mental condition. Once you reach that point, everything lose its value in your eyes, you feel extremely tired, without being able to even fight for your own dreams and aspirations; the only thing you do is "living" by the day (and I was extremely generous by using the word "living").

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6 hours ago, きょうすけ said:

The reason for my question is that, frankly speaking, I live in a country not that developed toward otaku stuff in general (the south regions, in which I live, are even more ignorant on this matter). As a result, most of the people here hide the fact of liking anime/manga or any videogame which is not soccer or FPS related (because here, if it's not soccer or a shooter game, everything else is "crap for children").

I'm not sure it's your location or age, which really matters here. Once you reached a certain age (teens?), watching anime is seen as weird and childish more or less regardless of where you are, including Japan. Not being interested in (insert local sport) is apparently really bad everywhere. I have taken some flaming for that from peers and teachers for that one alone. As I wrote earlier:

On 17/3/2018 at 8:50 PM, tymmur said:

It's about the classic "you have to think like me".

This sentence can be applied to everything you mention. In fact it can be applied to more or less everything.

6 hours ago, きょうすけ said:

This holds extremely true for my generation and similar (I'm almost 30), which forced me to hide my hobby till this day. This goes without saying that is very stressful, and unable to show others my tastes without being finger pointed.

I wonder if stressful is the right word, but I guess it depends on the person and the surroundings. Some are more prone to stress than others and the risk of being discovered varies greatly. If you are the sort of person who wants to be nude in the living room with hentai on the big screen, then it could be stressful if you have to hope no family member will come home earlier than usual. If you can somehow be sure not to be interrupted, then the stress from risk of discovery should be minimal.

To me, stress isn't really an issue. What matters more is that it's annoying not to have anybody to talk to. In a way it's comparable with hikikomori despite the fact that I do have face to face contact with other people, usually for hours each day. Fuwa helps in this regard, though oddly enough I have a tendency to feel left out here as well. People mention some awesome VNs/animes and it's not uncommon that I have no interest in those. At first I took what I could get, but now I have apparently become quite picky about what contents I spend time on.

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Forgive me, Kyousuke, but I thought there was a blooming comic-book culture in Italy. That should include manga, but then again maybe not. Funny thing is most of the anime first shown during its explosion, here in Spain in the early 90s, came via Italy (often pre-censored and pretty much always adapting places and names to Europe).

I still remember that Dash Kappei moment where the basket team was supposed to be based in Catalonia (Tarragona, I think), with a magnificent view of Mount Fuji in the background... that's a serious leap of faith there.

My point is that I find strange that manga, at least, is so easily handwaved in Italy.

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6 hours ago, きょうすけ said:

I know that I'm going to derail from the main thread (sorry for doing this, Thyndd), but I really would like to ask @Clephas something about his post:

How is your friend living out his hobby/coexisting his otaku side with his family and his life in general?

The reason for my question is that, frankly speaking, I live in a country not that developed toward otaku stuff in general (the south regions, in which I live, are even more ignorant on this matter). As a result, most of the people here hide the fact of liking anime/manga or any videogame which is not soccer or FPS related (because here, if it's not soccer or a shooter game, everything else is "crap for children").

This holds extremely true for my generation and similar (I'm almost 30), which forced me to hide my hobby till this day. This goes without saying that is very stressful, and unable to show others my tastes without being finger pointed.

He has set up his 'personal room' at the house he is renting for his otaku stuff.  His wife isn't an otaku, but she is understanding of his need to watch anime for ten hours a week in order to remain sane.   Also, some of the other staffers at the embassy are light or medium otakus, so he has people to chat with irl, apparently.

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8 minutes ago, tymmur said:

I'm not sure it's your location or age, which really matters here. Once you reached a certain age (teens?), watching anime is seen as weird and childish more or less regardless of where you are, including Japan. Not being interested in (insert local sport) is apparently really bad everywhere. I have taken some flaming for that from peers and teachers for that one alone. As I wrote earlier:

This sentence can be applied to everything you mention. In fact it can be applied to more or less everything.

If I have to guess, it's a mixture of both. Location due to very low knowledge on everything anime/manga related: the 99% of people saying that they are either cartoons or comics, both of them considered only for a "childish audience" (oh but don't you dare to touch everything related to their childhood days, namely dragon ball, sailor moon, or any other media of the past 25+ years, because they are legit, everything else it's just stupid); it's also age related because it seems that you should "adjust" your hobbies to match your age, apperently, in order to be considered a "normal person" (this leads one of my traumas of the past, with videogames being one of my main hobbies, which caused my school teachers to label me "weird", while smoking cannabis was the right thing to do, yeah. *shrugs*

8 minutes ago, tymmur said:

I wonder if stressful is the right word, but I guess it depends on the person and the surroundings. Some are more prone to stress than others and the risk of being discovered varies greatly. If you are the sort of person who wants to be nude in the living room with hentai on the big screen, then it could be stressful if you have to hope no family member will come home earlier than usual. If you can somehow be sure not to be interrupted, then the stress from risk of discovery should be minimal.

To me, stress isn't really an issue. What matters more is that it's annoying not to have anybody to talk to. In a way it's comparable with hikikomori despite the fact that I do have face to face contact with other people, usually for hours each day.

I think there's way more than simple stress or a continuous stressful situation, at least to me. When you feel like in a cage, hiding everything you like if you don't want to be left out, discriminated or worse is one of the main causes which, to me, leads to chronic depression.

8 minutes ago, tymmur said:

Fuwa helps in this regard, though oddly enough I have a tendency to feel left out here as well. People mention some awesome VNs/animes and it's not uncommon that I have no interest in those. At first I took what I could get, but now I have apparently become quite picky about what contents I spend time on.

I think I'm on this too, aside the decreased willingness to play vns (i'm losing interest in general, but that holds true for everything I used to like), but I'm pretty sure what you are looking for is a VN which can take your interest wholly, rather than its premise, a heroine, or other bits of it.

Those are just my two cents though, so take them with a grain of salt.

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16 minutes ago, Okarin said:

Forgive me, Kyousuke, but I thought there was a blooming comic-book culture in Italy. That should include manga, but then again maybe not. Funny thing is most of the anime first shown during its explosion, here in Spain in the early 90s, came via Italy (often pre-censored and pretty much always adapting places and names to Europe).

I still remember that Dash Kappei moment where the basket team was supposed to be based in Catalonia (Tarragona, I think), with a magnificent view of Mount Fuji in the background... that's a serious leap of faith there.

My point is that I find strange that manga, at least, is so easily handwaved in Italy.

That's the problem. The only famous anime and merchandise related to it are the original ones ranging from late 80 to 90s: Lupin 3rd is one of the most famous here, which is glorified for who knows which reasons; dragon ball is a love letter for my generation along sailor moon for the female counter part, but all the rest is completely misjudged and considered trash.

As for the manga, it's a total shame. Only in my city, there is one comic book store left, all the other have closed, and the guy is still keeping it open for the sake of his love for them. Of course, as I said before, south part of italy is in more than a way a few steps back than the north part, but nonetheless, manga is something very niche (God forbid LN, they aren't even translated or sold here anymore).

 

21 minutes ago, Clephas said:

He has set up his 'personal room' at the house he is renting for his otaku stuff.  His wife isn't an otaku, but she is understanding of his need to watch anime for ten hours a week in order to remain sane.   Also, some of the other staffers at the embassy are light or medium otakus, so he has people to chat with irl, apparently.

I see. Thanks for both explaining and forgiving my curiosity on the matter.

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Oh, I have no problem being lonely, if the alternative is people who drive me mad.

Of course, I acknowledge there are people out there like me, and people who aren't so like me but with whom I can spend a good time. I hope to rebuild my social life someday.

All in all, in adult life you are forced into interaction, I can still play the social game and even enjoy it.

I don't know how it is for you. But yeah, there's the need for social inclusion in everyone's life.

In fact, I don't know if I can endure a ravaging life of loneliness. But I'll try.

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11 minutes ago, Okarin said:

Oh, I have no problem being lonely, if the alternative is people who drive me mad.

Of course, I acknowledge there are people out there like me, and people who aren't so like me but with whom I can spend a good time. I hope to rebuild my social life someday.

All in all, in adult life you are forced into interaction, I can still play the social game and even enjoy it.

I don't know how it is for you. But yeah, there's the need for social inclusion in everyone's life.

In fact, I don't know if I can endure a ravaging life of loneliness. But I'll try.

I'll be honest and say that after what I experienced during all these years, it's only natural for me to seek a more secluded life. Nonetheless a bith of company is always welcome, as long said company respects you for what you are.

Wish you a happy life, no matter the direction you'll take. :)

Edited by きょうすけ
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2 hours ago, Okarin said:

There's a mental condition called "anhedonia", associated with depression and schizophrenia, and boy, is it sinister. It's the inability to feel pleasure, or more generally, satisfaction.

2 hours ago, きょうすけ said:

Unfortunately I know way too well that mental condition. Once you reach that point, everything lose its value in your eyes, you feel extremely tired, without being able to even fight for your own dreams and aspirations; the only thing you do is "living" by the day (and I was extremely generous by using the word "living").

I never heard of anhedonia before, so I had to look it up. It looks to me like something we all have most likely experienced, at least to some degree. The main difference it that for it to be anhedonia, it will not be something which seems to be gone within hours or overnight. I can't really imagine what that is really like, or rather I don't want to try to experience knowing what it's like. It sounds horrible.

One thing puzzles me though. "you feel extremely tired". That's not mentioned anywhere. I suspect it might be due to something else. More or less any physical defect tend to make the person tired.

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1 hour ago, Okarin said:

Oh, I have no problem being lonely, if the alternative is people who drive me mad.

I will not sell myself in order to be together with other people. If people demand something I don't agree with, then screw them. Life is too short to waste it pleasing somebody who aren't even friendly towards you. I will rather have no contact with people than having contact with the wrong people. This has given me problems multiple times, particularly from bully leaders in school when they couldn't control me. However I will have to add that this doesn't mean that I have no contact with the outside world. There are actually some people worth knowing.

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Conditions like heavy depression or schizoprenia are a "delightful" mix of symptoms. Weariness (even if not elicited by traceable causes) is a common byproduct of depression, it's commonly told how the patient stays in bed during long periods of time, feels drained, and so on.

With schizophrenia you have the "lovely" antipsychotics, which aren't religiously used willingly by patients anyway. Those bring their own problems, but at least you shake off the worst.

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52 minutes ago, tymmur said:

I never heard of anhedonia before, so I had to look it up. It looks to me like something we all have most likely experienced, at least to some degree. The main difference it that for it to be anhedonia, it will not be something which seems to be gone within hours or overnight. I can't really imagine what that is really like, or rather I don't want to try to experience knowing what it's like. It sounds horrible.

One thing puzzles me though. "you feel extremely tired". That's not mentioned anywhere. I suspect it might be due to something else. More or less any physical defect tend to make the person tired.

My bad, I worded it wrongly. What i meant is that other than feeling extremely tired (which is a trait pretty common with depression), you feel all those negative emotions on top, pretty much like the icing on the cake (too bad it's not as tasty).

 

40 minutes ago, Okarin said:

Conditions like heavy depression or schizoprenia are a "delightful" mix of symptoms. Weariness (even if not elicited by traceable causes) is a common byproduct of depression, it's commonly told how the patient stays in bed during long periods of time, feels drained, and so on.

With schizophrenia you have the "lovely" antipsychotics, which aren't religiously used willingly by patients anyway. Those bring their own problems, but at least you shake off the worst.

 

Exactly :/

 

45 minutes ago, tymmur said:

I will not sell myself in order to be together with other people. If people demand something I don't agree with, then screw them. Life is too short to waste it pleasing somebody who aren't even friendly towards you. I will rather have no contact with people than having contact with the wrong people. This has given me problems multiple times, particularly from bully leaders in school when they couldn't control me. However I will have to add that this doesn't mean that I have no contact with the outside world. There are actually some people worth knowing.

 

I kept myself telling that all the times, but ultimately I still feel that sensation of emptiness when you are unable to express or at least share in part some of your enjoyment in what you do, which too could be one of the reasons for which i started to lose interest in my own hobbies.

Edited by きょうすけ
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