Developing taste

A quick guide on developing (your) taste.

The goal here is to gain exposure to a wide variety of anime and to develop the ability to have your own thoughts on media that you consume. We are not trying to become a cheerleader. You will actively try to find the best and the worst aspects of what you consume. If there is one thing you need to take away from this is that you just need more reps of active consuming. Your mindset needs to change, you need to be able to watch anything. You can stop reading now.

These shows are not necessarily good and they are not in any particular order; they will instead serve as starting points as you hone your taste. Obviously, this list will be missing (your) favorites and that's the point! I tried my best to not include cult classics as they get recommended all the time.¹ Also tried to avoid shows that would cause the "waifu" profile picture anons to want to lynch me.

List of shows to help (you) develop (your) taste.

• 86
• baccano
• shirobako
• dorohedoro
• kill la kill
• perfect blue
• kageki shojo!!
• girls' last tour
• violet evergarden
• liz and the blue bird
• ping pong the animation
• psycho-pass (season 1 extended edition)
• mobile suit gundam: the witch from mercury
• puella magi madoka magica (series + rebellion)

Do not consume any discourse regarding anything remotely related to what you are watching until you have finished the material. This isn't to prevent yourself from being spoiled but to encourage you to think harder about what you are watching. This also applies while you are watching a show.²

Ideally you are watching the show with your full attention, otherwise you might miss something subtle. On a related note, I would argue watching weekly releases is an antipattern since it enables some suboptimal behaviors:

• participating in the weekly discourse of <insert anime you're watching>. this isn't inherently bad but we are trying to develop (your) taste, not the ability to parrot takes from people that are more interested in the discourse than the media itself.
• watching too many shows in parallel. our context windows are not large, give your attention to one show at a time.³

I encourage you to challenge yourself and go deep. You SHOULD watch shows that don't seem interesting or that are off-putting. No, this is not some David Goggins type shit; we are trying to broaden our horizons so we do not end up like a frog at the bottom of a well. If you're interested in a work, go down the rabbit hole. There is so much alpha out there, you just need to consume! Isekai and the flavor of the month shounens are not all that anime has to offer and arguably are for turbonormies that are trying to steal our culture.

Anime and film, no difference. Just pretend they are using a camera - hopefully this cue is enough for you.

If you have done all of the above and still only like turbonormie slop you can(NOT) be saved.