Entry 15 || Cartoons

Everyone has their own tastes in television genres and themes; one may enjoy the thrill of watching Korean dramas filled to the brim with heart-wrenching scenes and emotional baggage, or maybe one may enjoy engaging anime fight scenes that gets you on the edge of your seat.

I, personally,

don't get it.

I've had a handful of attempts trying to get myself into animes and dramas, and while some specific ones get me hooked every once in a while, they were never really enough to get me diving deeper into those genres; if you understand what I mean.

I can get really picky with the stuff I watch, and the fact that I don't really get myself into those genres make me feel like an oddball at times during conversations. I'd be conversing with a bunch of classmates and they'd mention or recommend a new movie, drama or anime about fallen fantasy kingdoms, royal hierarchies, family tensions or complex romance-- all of which I shamefully lie through my teeth and say "oh, I'll give it a watch sometime." (I do give effort into understanding what these shows are all about, why they're good and why people love it, but it just doesn't really hit me like how it hits everyone-- and it's difficult to tell that to some people without getting that little response of disappointment.)

But while everyone's in little friend groups watching their cool adult dramas and anime, I'm sitting here in my bedroom (alone and miserable) having a midnight binge-watch of an old 90s cartoon show called Moomin.

If there's any genre that actually hits me, it's cartoon shows (preferably the 2d ones, video game adaptations or online indie animations). Anyone can play How to Train Your Dragon on a TV screen and I'd instantly be hooked and there'd be nothing you can do to break me out of my engagement.

There's just something about the simplicity of cartoon characters doing unrealistic things in a new and more complex world that feels so endless with possibilities. I can name a bunch that I'm into like Steven Universe, Amazing World of Gumball, Regular Show, Spongebob, Avatar the Last Airbender, Adventure Time, Gravity Falls, The Dragon Prince-- and a few of the more adult ones like The Midnight Gospel (one of my top favorites to which none of my classmates have ever even heard of).

Admittingly they're really basic and average cartoons, but I've been diving deeper into some of the older shows that are completely vague to this generation nowadays like Raggedy Ann, Moomin or Sesame Street (specifically the much older episodes with Big Bird as the main icon). Still searching for a bunch of vague shows up until now.

It actually took me a really long time to grow out of watching kids animations and only kids animations because I recall having a conversation with my dad during 6th grade; he was trying to convince me to stop watching animated movies, so I resorted to watching live action animated movies instead. So in a way, his convincing worked. Just not in the way he intended.

I know a lot of other people who've watched a couple cartoon shows but it's not like they cling onto it in the way I do, and they only ever watch cartoons to simply reminisce on childhood nostalgia. But I don't judge them for it-- they have their reasons and preferences that are completely valid and are probably deeply connected to their individuality.

In my case, I'm an individual who has never grown out of their childhood phase, and that makes me feel stuck in a way.

Asides 2d animated classics, indie animation is another big taste of mine: Ramshackle, Lackadaisy, Helluva Boss, Murder Drones, The Amazing Digital Circus (I swear it's good), Don't Hug Me I'm Scared (I worship that show), Spooky Month, the upcoming Gaslight District, Satina, Godspeed, Long Gun Gulch, Heathens, Far-Fetched-- all that stuff that tends to come off as "nerdy" or "brainrot content on youtube" to my classmates.

I just sorta wished that someone didn't see those shows as childish or immature, but rather saw the story and intention behind the characters and writing.