Popular genres or franchises that went past you/you never came around to

[Guest]

Heya!

(TL:grin:R below)

I noticed that I was one of the only people in my social group who were just not that much into anime. There was no particular reason for it, it just didn't catch on with me; plus the social stigma weighed down on me when I was younger, so I never bothered to try either.

I have since watched two seasons of Overlord, the entirety of Made in Abyss, most of Assassination Classroom, two seasons of Tokyo Ghoul, and started some that I only really got caught on for a few episodes before stopping: Haikyu!!, JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, and some others.

From those examples (with the exception of Haikyu!!), I inferred that anime was mostly based on gore & horror, absurdist/random loud cartoon humor, tense and heartbreaking scenes, fan service, and impressive action shots; things that I cannot really stand in media much. So, I never got further into anime.

But yesterday I started watching Cowboy Bebop (blind, for the first time), and holy hell, that completely caught me off guard! Atmosphere, art direction, music choice, all absolutely on point, on levels I haven't expected from any anime really. I just figured that I missed a lot by categorically being on the low about anime.

And that gave me the idea for this topic - along with the fact that I never watched Star Wars, Jurassic Park, or any of the big title movies really.

TL:grin:R:

So... what are genres or franchises you did not "get into" despite everyone else seemingly being familiar with them; and how come? I specifically don't mean genres or franchises you dislike, but those which you just knew existed without really engaging with them. And if you see that someone else never got into your fandom, well, try convincing them of why it is actually worth seeing! ;P

[Kutan]

This isn't a particularly original take, but I haven't been able to get into MCU stuff at all. I think the issue isn't so much that the stuff I saw was bad, just that it was really forgetttable for me. That said, I think there's some Marvel franchises I'd enjoy in isolation-- X-Men is a really cool setting (and I guess the films aren't part of the MCU?), and some day I'd like to read the best arcs of the comic to see if it's something I like. But yeah, MCU and multiverse stuff just hasn't clicked with me.

That said, I think it's possible to eventually "come around" to franchises you don't like. I didn't watch Star Trek in earnest until my late 20s and I really enjoy it now! Initially I thought it was a dumb series for being "science in genre only"-- all the technobabble and sci-fi silliness turned me off. But now I understand that's not the point; the point is more that it's a platform for social commentary, and it wants to challenge our ideas about the doom and gloom we typically predict for the future. You know, showing us that humans are still flawed, but there's ways we can do better. Having a different perspective going back into the series made it way more enjoyable!

[tarocchilla]

Oh boy there are a lot! unfortunatley i don't "get into" much stuff, i either love something (or hate it... haha, but if i really hate something i end up hate-watching, so i could say i get into it in some way) or completley forget it exists.

MCU and other superheros stuff of course... it was just... not my jam, a lot of my friends like it so i saw some movies, and they are just.... very forgettable, i didn't even hate them, i just forgot about them when i got up from the couch.

Star Trek, My dad really likes it (he says he's a klingon due to his baldness) and i tried watching it with him, as much as i love the retro sci fi stuff, it just didn't stick with me and i never picked it up again!

LOTR... my brother was really into it, like really really obsessed, so i was exposed to a fair share of LOTR stuff. I had fun playing "elf vs dwarves" battle with him, but i don't really know much about it besides what my brother tells me.


For now only these "big three" come to mind, but i am sure there is more!

[Version]

This is kind of a hard question for me because I can usually get into anything, but there is one thing that comes to mind: horror.

It seems to me to be incredibly popular. Half of the itch front page is horror games, and it seems to be very prominent on sites like youtube and twitch.
But I just never really got into it that much. I guess part of it is because I was, well, scared of getting scared but part because I never really saw anything too interesting in the genre. All of these games and movies just seemed to be kinda samey to me. The few I played/watched that seemed cool were also not really all that scary.

Recently tough I played resident evil 1, and I enjoyed it a lot. The game is not spooky but it is tense. It's funny how all the frustrating aspects of the game are what make it so good due to that tension.

I have some horror visual novels in my wishlist, so I might get into that soon.

[Guest]

My dad really likes it (he says he's a klingon due to his baldness)

Klingons'... baldness?

[tarocchilla]

Klingons'... baldness?

Yes! like...the same big big forhead!

[manpaint]

Due to my hear problems, I have pretty much avoided watching any movie in the last decade or so.

This means I have never watched:

• Harry Potter
• Superhero stuff
• Star Wars
• The Matrix
• Any horror movie
• Star Trek
• Anything on Netflix or streaming services
• Pretty much everything else

So yeah, I am quite out of the loop when it comes to mainstream stuff, especially movies.

I think the only movie I have watched this last decade was Lord of the Rings, and it is only because I was curious how well the book was adapted into film after reading it.

[Guest]

Game of Thrones and Harry Potter are the first two franchises that came to mind. I never read the books and only watched a little of the series/movies. They're not bad and I can see what other people might be getting out of them, but they never grabbed my interest.

I don't dislike fantasy, but in general I prefer scifi. Lord of the Rings is probably the only high fantasy series that really grabbed me. I think I might like low fantasy more because The Dresden Files was really great.

This is kind of a hard question for me because I can usually get into anything, but there is one thing that comes to mind: horror.

It seems to me to be incredibly popular. Half of the itch front page is horror games, and it seems to be very prominent on sites like youtube and twitch.
But I just never really got into it that much. I guess part of it is because I was, well, scared of getting scared but part because I never really saw anything too interesting in the genre. All of these games and movies just seemed to be kinda samey to me. The few I played/watched that seemed cool were also not really all that scary.

I love horror, but not really for being scary. I mostly like the unique creature designs and the frequent use of practical effects over CGI. As a kid I might have been scared, but as an adult I just think it's cool and I like to admire the effort that goes into making the film. But that means I only really like creature-feature horror films. Suspense horrors about a serial killer or something realistic are really boring to me, and I hate what I call "torture porn" films like Hostel and Turistas that only exist to show gory scenes of people being mutilated. Hostel is the only movie that has ever made me walk out of the theatre.

There needs to be something supernatural or a biological horror involved. Films like Alien, The Thing, Dracula, Color Out of Space and Hellraiser are my jam. I'd also include Jacob's Ladder--even though it's more of a psychological horror, it does have a lot of cool imagery and some decent creature effects reminiscent of Silent Hill.

[CyberCat2000]

I admit, despite Star Wars being one of the biggest sci-fi franchises out there, I never really got into it. I'm not sure why, admittedly. Is it because the few things I did see was the sequel trilogy? (I also saw Rogue One and a couple of episodes of The Mandalorian too.) Is it because I'm scared of what's known as the "fandom menace"? Or do I like other sci-fi franchises better? Either way, I was never really big into Star Wars for some reason.

Similarly, I never really got into Game of Thrones, despite it being huge. I didn't have HBO, and I don't really delve into "serious" fantasy much, admittedly.

[Guest]

I admit, despite Star Wars being one of the biggest sci-fi franchises out there, I never really got into it. I'm not sure why, admittedly. Is it because the few things I did see was the sequel trilogy? (I also saw Rogue One and a couple of episodes of The Mandalorian too.) Is it because I'm scared of what's known as the "fandom menace"? Or do I like other sci-fi franchises better? Either way, I was never really big into Star Wars for some reason.

I think it might depend on your age more than anything. Episode I came out when I was 12 and I got really into Star Wars afterwards. Similarly, my nieces were about the same age when the sequel trilogy began. And I would wager a guess that the people who got really into the original trilogy were Gen X kids between 8-15.

It is a really childish series compared to other scifi properties. And when the next trilogy comes along, it's always criticized by the fans who got into the previous trilogy. I never had a problem with Jar Jar, even though older fans hated him; and yet I wrote a big long spiel about how disappointed I am in the Disney era.

So maybe if you miss that age window you'll never see the appeal. Someone correct me if this doesn't apply to you, though. I'm just basing it on personal experience.

[Guest]

My dad wanted to show me Star Wars when I was young (11 or 12 maybe), but I was upset by the charred corpses in the first movie of the original trilogy, and the general violence, and we had to abort watching it.
I don't know how other people got into Star Wars as, like, elementary school kids, or think that it's childish.

I want to say it's a cultural stance towards violence in media but that doesn't feel right, because I know lots of people in my country who have watched Star Wars at a young age too. Maybe I was just easily upset; still am, really.

[Kiko]

Does Game of Thrones count? I mean I felt like Everyone watched GoT and was discussing the events and lore of the series every time there was an episode (or at least my social circle and family). But because at the time I only cared about cartoons and animation, I didn't watch it; and at the end I'm kinda glad that I didn't because of all the uproar about how bad the ending was tho I wouldn't actually know if it is bad.

When it comes to anime, the big ones I haven't seen are Gintama, Demon Slayer, Hunter x Hunter and Tokyo Ghoul (there are probably many more).
Funny story about Tokyo Ghoul is that all of my friends watched and loved it when it came out and would talk about it; I didn't want to watch it so I just pretended that I did, literally would study the wiki and read the plot so I would be prepared when asked. Did I end up ironically enjoying it from reading it? Nope! I just kept the lie until the hype died down.

[MrsMoe]

I'm in the same boat as a lot of you guys with huge pop culture phenomenons (Game of Thrones, Star Wars, MCU, etc.) and for the most part, I don't regret it in the least. These days, all I hear about these franchises these days are about how bad/corporate they've gotten and how burned the fanbase is. I've always preferred media that's short, but consistent in quality.

I guess that's why the only major pop culture franchise I care for is LOTR. Aside from The Hobbit movies and the new Amazon series, the original trilogy was able to stand alone by itself and new instalments are usually spaced out (rather than pumped out every year as content sludge).

[spiralstaircase]

star trek (though my dad LOVES it!), lord of the rings (dont even know what its about), game of thrones, hunger games, squid game (a lot of 'game' tv shows i dont know much about!), harry potter (never read any of the books or watched any of the movies).. maybe some more i might've forgotten about.. since i mainly just watch/play stuff popular on the internet i dont really know whats popular in real life much, lol.. :omg:k:

[Guest]

I've never played a Pokemon game until Black & White in 2011, maybe because growing up I was afraid if I asked for a game I would get mocked by my brother who thought Pokemon was "the most retarded thing ever" (looking back it probably wouldn't matter because he had no respect for me either way). I was sad I missed out on the earlier gens but at least I got to go back and play them later (and was able to still get legitimate copies of almost all the main games that I've missed).

I've also never played World of Warcraft all the way until 2017 when a friend got me into it. Man I felt late to the party there.