Despite its growing popularity, anime can be rough to get into. It still carries a stigma in some circles as being “Pokémon and hentai,” and it’s also renowned for being weird and over-the-top, thanks to shows like JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure. On some level, these are fair assessments; many shows enjoy the freedom of getting silly and surreal. While that may be true on a show-by-show basis, though, much of the pushback against anime comes from the idea that all things from Japan are “weird” as a baseline, and “normal” or accessible entertainment is an exception. In actuality, a lot of the difficulty in introducing non-anime-watchers to anime comes from the … Continue reading New Anime for People Who Don’t Watch Anime (Yet)