How is anime different to other media in how it makes you feel?

This will sound depressing but it's not supposed to - Anime is a really good form of escapism for me.

It doesn't have to be as deep as it sounds, but whether there's a lot on my mind or I'm stressed about something, thinking about a cast of characters or a world from an Anime could have my mind occupied for a while, almost like a refresh.

It's always fun to just turn brain off and turn an episode of Anime on.

I'm not sure why it's different with Anime but I'd assume it's because it's not "real life" or "live action", typically the worlds are more colorful, the characters (not always, I like some darker shows) are brighter, things like this.

I find it more interesting. the humor doesn’t feel forced. the story holds my attention longer. they do a better job handling heavy topics.

For me I can enjoy anime because it's simpler.

I struggle with social cues and whatnot, but anime is often very in your face with visual clues, I wish real life had that. So I feel I can understand character emotions more than I can people in real life.

Sometimes this is done as a comedic device, but for me it allows me to have "social subtitles".

Compared to other animated mediums, the most striking difference of anime is the quality of voice acting. I understand various languages and I can assure you that Japanese Seiyuu are unparalleled in the world, they are able to convey emotions better than many actors and have a mastery of their voice that I haven’t found in any other animated show. 

Luckily, US voice actors (and also French, which has probably the best pool of voice actors outside Japan) are catching up.  

that's both a really tricky and interesting question. culturally speaking lot the genres that exist in anime/manga and manhua almost feels exclusive. we don't really see Isekai and Power Fantasy as a genre in wester media. besides that Japanese manga in particular like to explore interesting premises and world building in their work and go all the way, this isn't to say western media doesn't do it, but we see it much less frequently.

One thing in particular that I appreciate, Japanese writers generally have lot of philosophical undertones in their writing, again I'm not saying all Japanese writers are like this or that it's exclusive to Japan, but Japan has a huge culture of storytelling and an infrastructure built around it so you are more likely to notice it because of the frequency and the quantity of it. however philosophical writing sort of comes with a downside, because philosophy aspect is really easy to fuck up with how the story develop, specially in the subtext. and it can just leave you feeling super disappointed by what you watched. this happens enough time to be worth pointing out.

You're just not watching the right stuff. Try some K-dramas (even Squid Game), you'll feel things for sure.

\> Western shows and movies don’t seem to hit the same way for me, even if they are cartoons lol but I can’t quite pinpoint exactly what the difference is?


This right here points to the first issue you have to overcome.

You gotta stop putting Japanese cartoons (yes, i am deliberately calling it that for emphasis) on a pedestial.
Yes, anime tend to make more use of whats possible in terms of animation, which allows for more varied and thus notable experiences, But that doesn't mean there western shows that aren't notable in their own right.
The Avatar Franchise from Nickelodeon takes everything i like about One Piece and puts it into a more compact package. Sure, it doesn't reach the heights of One Piece, but it also had moments that One Piece didnt match until very recently.Then there's Gravity Falls, that one will forever be one of my favorite shows of all time, it's short, knows exactly what it wants to do and succeeds completely in fullfilling it's premise. The end of that show never fails to get me teary-eyed.


And even when leaving the realm of animated shows;
Scrubs and Brooklyn 99 are shows i can always watch. The closest comparison to those would be Gintama in the realm of anime, which funnily enough, is one of my all time favorite anime.


Again, there's indeed a DNA to anime that makes it different to other mediums, but once you know what exactly you're looking for in your entertainment, the scope of new stuff grows so massively, it's actually insane.

It could be multiple things, but it all boils down to the fact that it is very different in many aspects. It behaves unexpectedly. You could have a comedy that turns into a tragedy on a beat, or goes extremely emotional just like that and you just don't see that in the West much. To me this aspect of the media "the freshness and no fear to experiment and surprise you" is what I love about anime the most.


Be careful though once you whiff the anime glue too much you will get used to it and anime will never feel the same it did (it will still be good, but never the same :()

I think most Team-based adventure-themed anime always manages to touch people's hearts, just like Demon Slayer.

The fact that it is drawn/animated makes it possible to do thinks that would be impossible or incredibly difficult with actors and CGI. It offers an incredibly high amount of different artstyles. Every movie, be it black or white or extremely bright and colorful, kinda looks the same if you look past the surface level. Different animes look incredibly different. Dorohedoro looks much different compared to Death Note which doesn't look anything like Acchi Kocchi, which look much more different than Jojo, which is way different than Madoka Magica, and then there's stuff like Land of the Lustrous, plus non-japanese animation. Avatar both looks just like an anime and also looks incredibly US American. It is difficult for me to explain it.


Some contemporary US animation kinda scratches the same itch as anime, at least for me. Invincible is incredibly American, but at least in it's mature themes, it reminds me of anime. If you watch The Great Pretender dubbed (which iirc is set in the US), it feels very Western.

And everything I said about the animation is true for the themes and tolics covered. There certainly are exceptions, but to me, Western animation all covers similar topics. It's either monster/villain of the week or comedy. I can't think of a Western animated series like Jojo's which covers 6 completely different, but interconnected stories, but to be honest, there is no other anime like it either.


If you take something like Madoka Magica, something like that would be impossible or incredibly difficult to do with CGI or only acting, and there is no western shown dealing with the themes of it in the same way.

In short, idk really.

I just find anime a lot more appealing to look at. 

Japanese animation is different than most other animation because it *does not assume the watcher is a little kid and that the story must be kid friendly.* They simply approach the animation as they would any other medium to create a show or movie, so in all reality it can appeal to anyone rather only people who can appreciate what's likely primarily for kids.

It's cute, and unapologetic about it. There used to be a stigma that being called cute is like being treated like a child, it's like you are still very childish for liking these things, but I like that anime are cute and they are not afraid to show it, that's also part of why I enjoy series like Pokemon or love the tsundere trope. I hope anime never lose that essence.

I don’t find it hard to get into different media. I love Western shows, kdramas, reality shows.. but I do enjoy some of the genres that are easier to pump out through animation like fantasy or action anime. Those just don’t translate well to live-action, at least not with the attempts made so far. I love romance anime too but I love romance across all media.

I feel like you could easily write a thesis or three on all the cultural, technical, thematical, philosophical, and practical differences that make anime uniquely anime. And I think all of that goes into why it can make people feel differently than other media does.

But because those theses would require probably an equivalent amount of research and effort to a real thesis, I'll just share an interesting observation I made in my own experience.


Back when I was first getting into anime, a lot of the anime I was watching felt sorta 'incomplete' in a weird way. Like somehow the western shows I was used to were more balanced and felt more like 'shows'. Over time I found myself actually preferring this sorta 'unbalanced' nature that anime had. While it felt like western shows tried to have a good mix of all the elements you would want in a show, and tried to keep the quality and tone relatively uniform episode to episode, anime was much more of a grab bag. You'd have shows that really just go for very specific energies, concepts, or emotions. You had shows with really bad lows and spectacular highs. And you'd have shows that seemed to use its entire runtime to build to a singular, intensely impactful scene.


Of course, this was all my own experience. There are definitely anime that tend to be balanced and consistent, and there are western shows that mix it up. In fact, with the increase in streaming shows that focus on singular, shorter stories, I think you actually get a lot more of what I was describing than you did back when I started watching anime.

But even with the outliers, that same feeling persists when I watch anime vs when I watch western shows. They both have their merits and I enjoy both, but they still feel different.

Anime is more free in what it can and how it shows. E.g. if you want to show someone being very sad, you have many ways of showing this pretty intensely, like making them pour down a river of tears, giving a powerful reflection effect on them or "dead" eyes (tons of examples in One piece).

I also immediately think of Kakegurui with their super intense close ups and maniac music in the background.

You can't really recreate some things in real series and movies, making them kind of limited in terms of freedom (even tho these have their own advantages as well, like being more easily relatable)

Japanese storytelling is superior to western.


If you want the absolute peak impact, watch Frieren.


It purposely does not follow the Heroes Journey. It's amazing.

Maybe I've gone jaded from so many western movies, but they all kinda feel about being satisfying to watch but totally disconnected emotionally and doesn't feel story driven at all and has no message.
Anime is a whole different culture which is still fresh to me after 10 years with it, and it feels wayyyy more story heavy than most western movies and TV series. Even for trash anime I still think it is trying "something" with a purpose, how little it might be and regardless of all the other things it can be relying on like ecchi/romantic fanservice, comedy, cool action, stropes etc to stay entertaining.

That’s a great question. I think, in the ones I watch, they explore morality better and a lot more realistically than say western TV/film.

Like in Disney movies it felt like usually the antagonist was very evillll and obviously terrible in every way. Where in Eastern series the antagonists reasoning is usually justified. Maybe they endured a ton of trauma as a kid, or had their village burned down, or their family killed.

I love One Piece and the way Oda explores Morality is really interesting too. There are good & bad Marines and good & bad Pirates. Neither side is completely in the clear so that’s definitely one of my favorite things about anime