You can’t just tell everyone to watch Demon Slayer.
Summary:
“Beginner anime” recommendations have a huge issue.
Usually, people giving these recommendations assume new fans would like battle shounens or other mainstream genres.
You should ask what the person likes before giving recommendations.
Many people who are trying to get into anime would ask for good recommendations for beginners. And sure, people would recommend some anime that are apparently “beginner-friendly.” These recommendations are always more or less the same, but they don’t always work — the concept of “beginner anime” is flawed to begin with.
Recommending Battle Shounen Anime Isn’t Always a Good Idea
Most of the time, beginner anime just means “the most popular recent things & maybe some classics” for those who recommend it. That in itself might be a huge issue: for example, many new fans can be intimidated by long-running anime such as Naruto or One Piece.
While many otaku watched them in their younger days, they would be less likely to watch them now, as there are far more anime to choose from, and long-running shounens are a huge time commitment.
In general, “beginner anime” tend to include many popular shounen series. Right now, Jujutsu Kaisen and Demon Slayer (Kimetsu no Yaiba) are included, but there’s a huge problem with this sentiment.
Recommending these to a newer fan means assuming they are the target audience for shounen series — which is very much not always the case. Besides, some people don’t enjoy action at all, preferring different genres, such as romance or thriller.
It’s Not Like Other Genres Have It Better
The issues for other genres are much more glaring, though. Romance in anime tends to focus way more on high schoolers than Western literature or live action. And in general, it is very rooted in tropes, some of which you wouldn’t understand on your first watch.
Even series with mainstream appeal like Kaguya-sama: Love is War (Kaguya-sama wa Kokurasetai: Tensai-tachi no Renai Zunousen) have quite a few things newer fans simply won’t understand.
“Beginner-friendly” thriller recommendations usually include Death Note and Steins;Gate, too. While both have complex (but not overly complicated) plots, they also tend to assume people can deal with obviously over-the-top antics of some characters. In the case of Steins;Gate, reliance on tropes plays a huge part, too.
Impossible to Give Recommendations Without Knowing What People Like
So, are all these series bad recommendations for new watchers? No: everything relies on tropes, and you have to start somewhere. Still, people giving recommendations to beginners often fall into the trap of recommending popular things or things they like a lot: the latter is usually pointless, and the former can really be easily looked up on Google.
How to fix recommendations for newbies? There’s no way to, really. The best way would be to ask them about which genres they like and start from there, without assuming they are the target audience for mainstream anime they have probably already heard of.
You can’t just tell everyone to watch Demon Slayer.
Summary:
“Beginner anime” recommendations have a huge issue.
Usually, people giving these recommendations assume new fans would like battle shounens or other mainstream genres.
You should ask what the person likes before giving recommendations.
Many people who are trying to get into anime would ask for good recommendations for beginners. And sure, people would recommend some anime that are apparently “beginner-friendly.” These recommendations are always more or less the same, but they don’t always work — the concept of “beginner anime” is flawed to begin with.
Recommending Battle Shounen Anime Isn’t Always a Good Idea
Most of the time, beginner anime just means “the most popular recent things & maybe some classics” for those who recommend it. That in itself might be a huge issue: for example, many new fans can be intimidated by long-running anime such as Naruto or One Piece.
While many otaku watched them in their younger days, they would be less likely to watch them now, as there are far more anime to choose from, and long-running shounens are a huge time commitment.
In general, “beginner anime” tend to include many popular shounen series. Right now, Jujutsu Kaisen and Demon Slayer (Kimetsu no Yaiba) are included, but there’s a huge problem with this sentiment.
Recommending these to a newer fan means assuming they are the target audience for shounen series — which is very much not always the case. Besides, some people don’t enjoy action at all, preferring different genres, such as romance or thriller.
It’s Not Like Other Genres Have It Better
The issues for other genres are much more glaring, though. Romance in anime tends to focus way more on high schoolers than Western literature or live action. And in general, it is very rooted in tropes, some of which you wouldn’t understand on your first watch.
Even series with mainstream appeal like Kaguya-sama: Love is War (Kaguya-sama wa Kokurasetai: Tensai-tachi no Renai Zunousen) have quite a few things newer fans simply won’t understand.
“Beginner-friendly” thriller recommendations usually include Death Note and Steins;Gate, too. While both have complex (but not overly complicated) plots, they also tend to assume people can deal with obviously over-the-top antics of some characters. In the case of Steins;Gate, reliance on tropes plays a huge part, too.
Impossible to Give Recommendations Without Knowing What People Like
So, are all these series bad recommendations for new watchers? No: everything relies on tropes, and you have to start somewhere. Still, people giving recommendations to beginners often fall into the trap of recommending popular things or things they like a lot: the latter is usually pointless, and the former can really be easily looked up on Google.
How to fix recommendations for newbies? There’s no way to, really. The best way would be to ask them about which genres they like and start from there, without assuming they are the target audience for mainstream anime they have probably already heard of.
