Blogpost #6 Anime as A Form Escapism

At some point in our lives, we all grew tired of all the problems and hardships of reality. Some of us escape by playing video games, listening to music, and by watching our favorite T.V shows. As for me, my form is escapism in this world is by watching my favorite anime shows. Anime like Dragon Ball Z, and Naruto are my means of escape into this world, because every time I watch these shows, I feel like I am a part of their world, not this one.

As I researched, I found this article entitled Anime and Escapism, by an anonymous author from gargarstegosaurus.com. There he talked about how anime is his best form of escapism in this world. American cartoons  like Spongebob, Futurama, and Hey Arnold! may be ones escape from this world, but they are not as good as the anime. He said that in anime, the stories are deeper and the characters are more developed compared to the ones in Western cartoons. We could also express are deep and hidden emotions when watching anime, these are just few of the things we could do when watching anime, not in the real world.



As he quoted "Anime also gave me a variety of escapism that I feel not many have it for. The society in which I grew up in is a society which does not value open emotion, unless its a show of anger. I’m not bitter about it or anything, I don’t blame my parents because it was a wider cultural phenomena, but as a result I’m not too good about expressing emotion, at least honestly." I for one can relate to what he is saying, because anime is also my escape. Every time I watch some emotional scenes in anime, I also end up emotional and fragile myself. It's not that I can't express feelings in the real world, I can just express my feelings better when I'm watching anime.


While researching on why we seek escapism in this world, I found this articles entitled The Reason Why We Seek Escapism, written by Michael Kwan from beyondtherhetoric.com. There he talked about how each and everyone of us seek escapism differently, but the reasons are all the same. And as we grow older, we may find ourselves experiencing boredom from our daily routines in life, it is in the human nature to seek to something different every now and then. That's why some us escape, we are simply tired of the patterns of our daily lives. We do not submit to escapism because we are miserable in reality, we just want to experience different things.

As he quoted "And that, at its crux, is why so many of us seek escapism. There’s nothing wrong with that whatsoever. It doesn’t mean that we don’t appreciate the lives that we currently enjoy. It doesn’t mean that we don’t appreciate our steady jobs, the roofs over our heads, and the delicious foods on our tables. It just means that sometimes, we want something different." After watching a variety of anime, I agree with this statement. Because every time I watch different shows, I become a part of different worlds by just using my imagination. And when the show is over, it's time to move on to reality.

We can't solve our problems and be happy by just watching our favorite shows, sure watching them could help us in a way, but it does not solve our problem entirely. We can be immersed into different worlds, and we can experience a variety of emotions when watching anime, but escaping from this harsh reality can not solve our problems, we need to face them in order to surpass them.