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[Hide] (114.2KB, 750x750) Anime reminds me too much of my teen years. Severely unwell, staying up late watching Adult Swim, emotionally living through cartoons on the screen. If I start to get invested in an anime I can feel my head getting teleported back to that time and it'll mess me up for days. I usually avoid watching any of it now. I'm a grown man with a wife, kids, a career. I have my shit together, but there's something hidden in me I don't really think or talk about that reacts strongly to it. I spent many years getting comfortable in my depression and can feel it calling me to revert back into a type of sadsack that's entirely below me now. Seeing the big, interwoven friendships in anime are the worst part. I always wanted a devoted group of friends when I was growing up and was too isolated to have it. I tried to pull people together, but I was always the "optional" member in those groups throughout gradeschool. By the time I became somebody people flock to, my life was moving too fast to fit in much of anybody outside of my family. I have a beautiful life now with very little to complain about. I'll have my oldest friend over to grill on occasion. I get meaning from mentoring young men who have no idea I'm even capable of feeling this way. I just can't watch Evangelion without feeling like I'm 14 again and nothing has changed.