I get it. I think you may be preaching to the choir here on the fediverse, but I think this is actually an unpopular opinion IRL.

There’s a connotation of childishness or simple-mindedness to the word “cartoon”, at least in my neck of the language, born of the era of newspaper funny pages and saturday morning cartoons for kids. Some people (but not all) use “cartoon” to mean any visual art (still or animated) that isn’t either hyper-realistic or actual IRL footage, and I think those two things give rise to the notion that all animated or cartoonish media is only suitable for children. The natural next step in this chain of thought is that any adult who enjoys any animated or cartoonish media must be childish.

It’s a stigma I learned as a child and had to get over as an adult, and I’m glad I did; there’s a lot of great animated content out there that I would have missed out on if I hadn’t. Some of it, like Bob’s Burgers, is kid-friendly but still has some really great storytelling. Some, like Bojack Horseman or Archer, are more squarely aimed at adult audiences, and also have some really great storytelling.

I haven’t mentioned anything that falls under the “Anime” umbrella; that’s not because I don’t like anime, but I am simply late to the game and there is an insane amount of content, and it feels paralyzing figuring out where to start. I keep having One Piece recommended to me, and I would like to start climbing that mountain one day, but 1000+ episodes and counting is a daunting mountain.

That’s all, I’m just writing stuff because I should be sleeping but can’t, and this is preferable to lying awake in bed with my thoughts. Hope your boredom is a pleasant one :)