anyone else kind of perplexed by the concept of a “starter anime”
like ok
1- anime is not a genre. it’s like, submedium if anything, but ultimately it’s just cartoons. unless the genre is really specific to anime (and i struggle to think of a genre that is truly exclusive to anime) it will follow the same genre conventions as anything else in that genre. and if the genre is specific to anime it will very likely share enough commonalities with other genres that most people are familiar with as to not be totally unfollowable.
2- the cultural differences between Japan and anywhere else in the world are not so vast that someone from, for instance, the USA would be totally helplessly confused watching any given anime if a cultural difference comes up. like if someone who is just completely unfamiliar with the concept of Japan is confused by something that’s a pretty easy google search and lots of anime and manga have translation notes.
3- do we do this with any other medium. like is there a group of broadly accepted Starter Franco-Belgian comics that are universal starting points for people who have only ever read Batman comics. correct me if i’m wrong
the whole thing is a ploy to get more people to watch FMAB i feel
Yeah i agree, “starter anime” is a pretty fake concept, if someone has never watched anime before and they are interested in watching an anime then they should genuinely just dive into whatever genre they are normally interested in whether thats action, sci-fi, horror, romcom, etc.
i really like fullmetal alchemist: brotherhood, but it IS genuinely a very specific thing and by no means would i point someone towards that if they seem like they might really want to watch something with giant robots or psychological horror or etc etc