I am about n0's age. Just watched Kiznaiver, a trigger anime about the friendships and romantic relationships between highschoolers. I used to be able to relate to these themes but honestly it's been such a long time since high school, that I can't really feel anything about any of it. It is sort of ironic given that the anime is all about being able to share other people's feelings and connect with others. I mean a lot of anime aimed at highschoolers is like that.

Had a similar experience when trying to rewatch Oregairu. I used to find the protagonist so relatable and cool but now it just feels like melodrama about nothing. Same when trying to rewatch Zero no Tsukaima.

Maybe it's cause none of my friendship from high school lasted till now, as everyone moved all over the place (I am in a different country now). Uni is not the same. Even the fan service anime that I used to be into, kinda feel unrelatable. Like, I tried to watch Trinity Seven, and I didn't feel aroused at all, at most I could muster a sense of recognition at the beach episode, the bath scene where the girls compare each others breast sizes, but given that the authors who wrote this stuff aimed at high schoolers were around my age when they wrote it, it kind of made me wonder if they felt any genuine eroticism when writing these scenes, or just included them as a commercial product to appeal to teenagers. I would be a bit sad if it's just the latter. But the bigger issue, I think, is that I no longer see any of this high school anime stuff as a crutch to form connections with others, mostly because my desire to make deep personal connections with others has mostly disappeared, and in any case it was never a crutch that worked... In that context if I were to enjoy any of this stuff not aimed at me, I would need some new way to view them through but I can't think of any.

Are there any of you here in your mid to late 20s who can still relate to and enjoy this type of anime, especially if you were into it when younger as well and could maintain your interest, I 'd really love to learn how.

I don't know if it's because of the age-gap or because I have watched too much anime, but I don't feel any connection to anime characters like I used to be able to. In the past, everytime I finished anime I was left for longing more of those characters and that story. But nowadays, I want to complete an anime as soon as possible since I know it will end anyway.

These days I seem to mostly watching narou light novel adaptations but also world-building heavy light novel adaptations like Heavy Object.

I feel more attracted to the setting and if there are any themes, I find themes that I can relate to, they're usually non-inter-personal ones, if that makes any sense. From a higher and more distant point of view, like those old sci-fi short stories that are more about the concept than the characters.

This is fine but I feel like in the process something has been lost, an emotional level of understanding is gone. I have tried to claw some of it back by writing my own story but even then I can't write a pure highschool type story. You know, the type of pre-narou light novel aimed at actual highschoolers but with a much better aesthetic than narou-kei.

How can I have that back?

this is something a lotta ppl go thru even if it's not about anime. you can't really "have it back". your taste has evolved and these shows aren't making the cut anymore. nothing more, nothing less. it seems like it's time for you to move on to new types of shows.

In middle school i had no friends and i liked looking at high school anime. In high school i had no friends and i liked looking at high school anime. In adulthood i have no friends and i like looking at high school anime.

AND I LOVE HIGH SCHOOL GIRLS

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>>3
In adulthood I made some friends who are into anime but honestly friendship isn't nearly as omnipotent as it looks in 2000s to 2010s anime. Maybe that's why I can't get that invested in the characters relationships knowing that it'll all be over in a few years desu. These days I am more motivated by personal goals which are not dependent on working with other people rather than a desire to connect with people, which I think is stronger in elementary to high school years.

>>1
just have never related to it in the first place an enjoy it as a work of up and down drama/comedy/whatever. ez.

I'm more curious how does anyone enjoy stories about anything other than highschool girls.

To me, as someone on the awkward cusp of young adulthood and normal adulthood, i tend to relate to highschool age characters by casting my memory back on myself of that age. Like, for example, i watched eva for the first time recently, and i kept seeing all the young characters as aspects of mayself or people i knew when i was younger. It's a deliberate mode change i shift into, putting the kid lenses on to see them as i one saw myself and others

>>7
With hindsight, it makes sense why adults don't care about anime. Those stories were not about them.

the highschool is just a setting, but if you look at isekai anime you'll realise that what really matters is a talentless guy who surrounded by girls that adore him and who cant stop winning, big mean antagonists that get defeated and a charming friendgroup. it just happens that a highschool has all these things and is an infinite source of inspiration for creators, also beside an uneventful cubicle job its something all japanese poeple can relate to

>>9
Isekai became a thing because light novel readers got too old to relate to high school drama/romance type stuff like Oregairu, Haruhi, Oreimo or Shana with highschool aged protagonists.

>>10 the average lightnovel reader is atleast 40 at all times always forever

>>12
how do you know that this was always the case

>>13 light novel review youtubers

>>1
for me the fact i can't really relate to most anime characters is what makes me able to be interested in them. i had some friends in high school and we drifted apart as it usually happens, when i watch k-on which portrays a high school friendship as something transcendentally beautiful, it is so different from my lived experience that my boring memories of actual high school friendships don't really even cross my mind, thus i can sort of meet the show at its own level and genuinely feel for the characters

>>14
But that's just westerners.

>>16 we ARE westerners my fellow Caucasus man, it only makes sense that WE refer to other WESTERNS ✋️

Fpbp.
I once went back to watch Zero no Tsukaima and it was only to watch Saito get whipped and treated like a dog. I thought it was so hot when I was 14, but it's not as hot anymore, I'm too desensitised now. I miss when Yu-Gi-Oh! volume 1 was enough to make me orgasm twice. Now I need to read volume 2 for that (chapter 12 is good).
But my erotica writing and hentai drawings have gotten better, so I've evolved in a way too.
I wouldn't sell them though, my parents would be so disappointed.
More than they already are, that is. I guess some things don't change after all.

because they're hot

I have no interest in them, probably because when I was in high school in a class where we were forced to write essays on a topic of our choice, I let my imagination run wild. Once I wrote a story about a girl who was kidnapped and locked in a small cell where she was fed semolina porridge with fly agaric mushrooms and given ersatz coffee for many years and one day she began to paint pictures with her menstrual blood which became popular and were exhibited in galleries, but the girl died of exhaustion.
There was also a story where people were forced to eat their own limbs, which were used to make soup and other dishes.

Of course it was edgy since I was about 15, and it caused shock and many people scolded me for it, but in English class, I wrote romantic stories in the spirit of German classics, because I was deeply in love with my English teacher. She clearly understood this and after a while, we started having classes at her house, where we gradually began to engage in petting and oral sex and I just brought her to orgasm fingering.

It's been more than 10 years, but I often fantasize about her sexually. I think she is my only object of fantasy because of how beautiful and stunning she was.

Honestly, it’s not even surprising that what first drew me to girls was their bodies, short hair or hair brushing the shoulders, expensive perfume, dark strands dyed ruby red, a slim waist, wide hips and a full soft chest
All of it somehow tied to her.
Hell.