Addiction is very common among teenagers and adults. Some of us are addicted to material things like drugs, beer, and sex. While some of us are addicted to abstract things like gambling, playing video games, and watching our favorite shows. Of course, there is a thing called anime addiction.
Otakus, simply known as anime addicts, are people who devote most of their day into watching anime, talking about anime, writing about anime, etc. The question that remains is, why is anime addicting? Anime is different from addictions like drugs and gambling, but why do some people still devote themselves to anime. I'm here to find out.
As I was browsing, I found this article entitled Why is Anime Addicting?, by Henry Hsieh, on articlesphere.com. There he talked about three things that makes anime addicting. One being the characters, and the others being the plot and animation. Among those three, the most significant cause of anime addiction is the characters. Anime characters are far different from any other characters from T.V shows, they provide a realistic and human like behavior. That's why so many people can relate to anime characters because the way they act is similar to the way we act in the real world. Even the protagonists of anime shows are from being perfect, this symbolizes that anyone ordinary can be the hero of their own story some day.
As he quoted "The first, and probably the most compelling reason of all, is the sheer beauty by which the makers create their characters. Out of all cartoons in the world, it is only in Japanese anime that I have seen such well rounded and realistic characters that are so distinctly human. Anime does not delude the viewers into thinking that someone can be perfect. The heroes and heroines in anime, beautiful as they may be, have their own flaws and insecurities. They're not like the princesses in the cartoon fairy tales who are epitomes of grace and goodness, and are thereby incredibly flat and drab. Anime heroes and heroines are human, and their humanity makes them all the more interesting." Just like ordinary people, Goku from Dragon Ball Z, and Naruto from Naruto Shippuden has their own flaws just like a human does. Goku and Naruto are very strong when it comes to sheer will and determination, but they also have negative things like lack of intelligence, much like any other person can relate to.
I now conducted my research to the scientific reason why people become addicts in the first place. I read this article entitled What is Addiction? What Causes Addiction?, written by an anonymous author on medicalnewstoday.com. There he talked about that addiction is caused by psychoactive (capable of affecting mental ability) substances like drugs and alcohol. But in our world today, even activities like gambling, browsing the internet, and watching anime can be classified as addictions because they also cause psychoactive effects in our brain, much like what drugs can do. The cause of addiction can be depression, rejection and anxiety, these are the things we feel when we are addicted to activities said earlier.
As he quoted " In the past addiction used to refer just to psychoactive substances that cross the blood-brain barrier, temporarily altering the chemical balance of the brain; this would include alcohol, tobacco and some drugs. A considerable number of psychologists, other health care professionals and lay people now insist that psychological dependency, as may be the case with gambling, sex, internet, work, exercise, etc. should also be counted as addictions, because they can also lead to feelings of guilt, shame, hopelessness, despair, failure, rejection, anxiety and/or humiliation." We could say that anime is quite psychoactive, because they sometimes cause negative feelings. I'm just a causal anime watcher, not an addict. I can control my action towards anime unlike the anime addicts who can't. But anime addiction is not really that serious when compared to alcohol and drug addiction. Drugs can mainly cause imbalance in the physical, mental and social aspects of a person, while in anime addiction, there is really no major effect to a human whatsoever.
I am not really an anime addict, but I think I'm close to being one. Despite of all the scientific jibber jabber, if there is a chance I could be an anime addict, I have no worries because anime addiction is not all that bad, of course it has it's downsides, but what thing in this world doesn't have a downside? In the end it all comes to ones self, if he chooses to be controlled by his addiction, or for him to control his addiction.
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