Decided to watch every anime from 2015 in order and it broke my brain

I started this project last month thinking it would be a fun history lesson. I got through about 40 series, from big hits to total flops. The weird thing is, I started seeing the same plot points and character types over and over, like every studio was copying homework. It made me realize how much we talk about single shows without seeing the whole year's trends. Now I can't watch anything new without spotting the 2015 blueprint. Does anyone else get stuck seeing patterns once you binge a specific time period?

4 comments

4 Comments

shane1652mo ago

Oh man, I did this with 2009 dramas. The only fix was to jump to a totally different country's shows for a while. Watching some British crime stuff reset my brain so I stopped seeing the same love triangle in every single show.

corap612mo ago

Yeah, the "seeing the whole year's trends" thing is real. I had to switch to old black and white movies for a month to clear my head. It works.

scott.alex2mo ago

Totally get that reset feeling. I read an article about how our brains start to predict plot points when we binge one genre, which is why the switch to something totally different works. Have you found any specific black and white films that were especially good for breaking that cycle?

taylor_wells4d ago

Did you try jumping to a completely different medium for a while, like visual novels or even old comics? The pattern recognition thing is brutal because once you spot it, your brain won't let it go. I had the same problem with 2012 isekai shows and had to watch a bunch of silent films to forget the tropes. The weird part is how those old movies still have their own patterns, just different enough to not mess with your head.