When you're growing up, you feel like your parents are everything you strive not to be. At some point in our lives, be it years or weeks, we all look at our moms and dads as the epitome of uncool. It just comes with the parental territory. They have to police their kids and keep them from doing things that they deem unsafe. You don't really respect or understand those ideas until you get older. I thought I never would, and here I am realizing just how right they were.
Of course, that doesn't mean your parents are right with absolutely everything! In my internet/real life travels, I've noticed something about a majority of parents. When it comes to anime viewing, parents really don't seem to understand why their kids are into it. It's like a completely foreign world to them, no pun intended. Is it really all that hard to grasp?
Some of the issues might stem from the cartoons that were around when your parents were kids. They were used to cartoons being all in the same style. There were either Warner Bros. style cartoons with wacky slapstick and visual gags, or Disney films that were events in and of themselves. I truly respect both of those styles of animation, but I also understand that there's more than those types. You parents just don't seem to get that!
I know it took awhile for my parents to see what anime was all about, and even now I really only have one parent that appreciates anime. It's almost like some parents don't see how cartoons can be serious instead of just silly, and they are for all ages instead of just kids. It's a mentality they grew up with, and if we've learned anything about parents, it's very hard for them to roll with the changes that today's generation embraces.
How do you parents feel about anime? Do they give you trouble for watching? Do they watch with you? Do they not understand anime and don't bother to try?
I could not get them into watching it, even if it was possible. I could try, but they wouldn't really be that much into it
ReplyDeleteIt was worse while I lived in Jamaica, having a guardian (a devout Christian) who shunned anime as the "devil's work". She somehow targets Dragon Ball Z and Yu-Gi-Oh a lot.
I was never barred from watching anime, but one anime-related thing I remember was putting up an anime image as a wallpaper on my user account for the computer that was there in the house and she wanted me to take it down.
Slowly developing that rebellious gene (realizing that Mom lied when she said we were related), I decided to keep up, arguing that it was my user account and what I did with it wasn't affeting her in any way - something along those lines.
It took a while and tons of arguing, but she eventually backed off. I could've done much worse, honestly.
Also, I remember a friend who lent me a manga interpretation of the Bible (it was a funny read) and when my guardian caught sight of it, she went into her berserk Christian mode and almost (well, more of a toss) threw it out of the house.
I returned it the next day (I retrieved it soon after she toned down) and my friend had a good laugh when I recalled the situation. He said the words clearly: Parents just don't understand.
However, there was one little spark.
My guardian's husband (Christian but much calmer and cooler) watched an episode of Dragon Ball Z with me when it was still on Toonami. Good old days, man. :)
Yeah my parents don't know a whole lot about it, but I assume they don't mind. I remember when I used to watch Naruto on Toonami and my mom would come in and always say "Believe It!".
ReplyDeleteAnd I too am a Christian Sylverstone and I am sorry you were treated that way :<
When I first started watching anime my mom would tell me that she didn't want me watching it because it was porn and I would argue with her and tell her that it wasn't a porn and it had no nudity in it at all.
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