Anime continues to grow in popularity due to multiple factors, such as social media, new seasons, remakes of old anime, and entirely new anime being constantly produced. In more recent years, anime has been recognized much more than it was before, becoming one of the main sources of televised entertainment. Widespread anime like “Dragon Ball Z,” “One Piece,” “Naruto,” and “Jujutsu Kaisen” have become known not only throughout the anime community but in other communities around the world.
Assistant Principal of Discipline, Mr. Andreas Solorzano (Solo), shared his opinion on new anime and the industry as a whole.
“An anime I haven’t seen yet that I didn’t get to see in theaters is the ‘Demon Slayer’ movie. Although it’s been released, I’m looking forward to watching that,” Solo said
While people have loved anime since the 80’s and 90’s, many fans, including Solo, started watching anime during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I started to watch anime during the COVID pandemic with my sister,” Solo said.
He mentioned watching “One Piece” and “Naruto,” very popular anime within the community for their animation, intense fights, comedy, and storylines, with character development playing a big part in audience interest too.
Although many people love anime, it may be hard for some to find a series to start with, because for most, watching the wrong anime as their first can ruin their whole view of the genre.
“I feel like an easy one for people to get into is ‘Demon Slayer’. It’s just a very easy, good, wholehearted story, and it has some very good action.” Solo said.
He also suggested “Naruto” and even the original “Dragon Ball” for their cartoonish feel, later on talking about his favorite anime.
“My favorite anime is ‘One Piece’. I think the whole theme of chasing down your dreams is wonderful. It’s all through the anime, and I think it’s very relevant to people. Lots just follow their dreams in what they want to do.”
Freshman Andrew Medrano also shared his favorite anime era.
“Honestly, like no cap, the best era was the ‘Dragon Ball Z’ era. That was my favorite era, so around the 90s,” said Medrano.
He also shared how social media affects the shows he partakes in.
“Every time I’m on social media, I won’t just see the animes I watch, but I also see new animes that gives like why should I watch this? Honestly, with all due respect, [Jujutsu Kaisen’ is] getting too much hype, but it’s still on top.”
On the other hand, Medrano said he feels that the anime ‘Hunter x Hunter’ deserves more attention.
Sophomore Alex Manuel Walker said that his mother got him into anime early on, and he has loved it ever since, expressing that he’s excited for the new season of “Fire Force.”
“‘Tokyo Ghoul’ off the bat. It has a really good story, really good characters. Everything about the animation is perfect,” Walker said.
He hopes the show gets a better remake, despite how good he already thinks it is. He also encourages people to check out anime and find shows that they will enjoy.
When asked if there was anything else he wanted to add, he shared a key point that lots of people may want to hear.
“Don’t be afraid of watching it. Some anime are good, and some are really bad. You just gotta, you know, watch it and find out for yourself,” said Walker.
