Why I (Almost Completely) Stopped Watching Japanese Anime



Why I (Almost Completely) Stopped Watching Japanese Anime

Hey everyone, Racxus here! Welcome back to the channel and another blog post. Today I want to talk about something I’ve been thinking about a lot lately: why I’ve pretty much stopped watching anime — or, more specifically, Japanese animation.

A love that started long ago

A long, long time ago, in a galaxy far away... anime was something truly captivating. When it arrived in the West, it felt fresh — with unique art styles, different storytelling, and emotional depth. If you grew up watching Dragon Ball, Hamtaro, Captain Tsubasa, Naruto... well, same here. Those shows really marked my childhood and teenage years.

Back then, I even wanted to learn Japanese and dreamed of living in Japan someday. I had Samurai X wallpapers, listened to FMA and Fairy Tail soundtracks, and was completely hooked on Japanese culture. Gintama changed the game for me — smart, funny, packed with social critique. Anime used to have so much heart and meaning.

The rise of fan service

But then... something started to change. Or maybe something inevitable happened: anime blew up in the West. With more fans came more money — and with money came compromises.

In my opinion, the biggest problem that came with this boom was fan service — content made to overly please the audience, especially by overly sexualizing characters. It became more and more common, and in a lot of shows, it just started taking over.

I'm not saying every anime is like this or that no one should enjoy it. Everyone has their preferences. But for me personally, the constant oversexualization started to feel... off.

The effects of overexposure to sexual content

After studying psychology and learning how the brain reacts to visual stimuli, I began to understand things better. The brain doesn’t need explicit content to be triggered — sometimes just a pose, a certain outfit, or a camera angle is enough to spark sexual stimulation.

Over time, this can affect your focus, your social life, your relationships, even your mental health. I started asking myself: why am I always feeling overstimulated? Is it the kind of content I’m consuming?

That’s when I decided to change. I started avoiding fan service-heavy shows and looked for stories that had more to offer — deeper meaning, better world-building, real character development.

Where did the originality go?

Besides the fan service overload, I also felt like anime started losing its originality. Everything felt like a copy-paste formula: the reincarnated overpowered MC, the childhood friend trope, the same flat villain, and of course — the “innocent” guy falling into the girls’ chests every five minutes.

There are still exceptions, of course. Demon Slayer (Kimetsu no Yaiba) is an absolute masterpiece. Yes, it has some fan service, but it's very minimal. The story takes the spotlight — which proves that you don’t need to oversexualize your content to make something compelling.

My shift to Chinese animation (Donghua)

That’s when I had this idea: why not look for animation from other countries? Western cartoons never really did it for me. But one day, I stumbled upon a site with Chinese anime — donghua — and decided to try Doupo Cangqiong (Battle Through the Heavens), even though the 3D looked a bit dated.

To my surprise... I liked it. After episode one, I kept going. The story got me, the characters pulled me in, and soon I found myself exploring a whole new universe — without being constantly bombarded with fan service.

Discovering a new world

That was just the beginning. Since then, I’ve been watching more and more donghua — both 2D and 3D. They have their own style, aesthetics, and storytelling rhythm. The animation quality has been improving fast, and they focus a lot more on character development and plot progression.

And the best part? In 90% of cases, there’s little to no fan service. Maybe because of China's strict censorship — which, in this specific case, I actually appreciate. I'd rather get a solid story than endless distractions.

What about Korean animation?

I also started exploring Korean animation. Have you heard of Solo Leveling? It’s Korean — and it’s absolutely stunning. Great visuals, perfect pacing, and again... no over-the-top fan service.

Compare that to something like Sword Art Online: season one was amazing, but then it just spiraled into a mess of clichés and fan service overload.

Final thoughts: try something new

All of this made me drift away from Japanese anime and dive deeper into other styles and cultures. It helped me fall in love with animation all over again — this time from a fresh perspective.

So if you’re feeling kind of “meh” about anime lately, maybe give something else a try. Chinese donghua, Korean shows, even European animations — there’s a whole world out there.

Thanks for sticking around and reading all this! Let me know what you think about all this in the comments. I’m thinking about turning this into a livestream or YouTube video soon over on my channel (/@racxus).

See you in the next post!

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