Welcome to the NHK

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Awesome! Thanks for posting this. I'm going to watch that series. It sounds really cool.

I had been wanting to make a topic asking if anybody had seen any good fiction with avoidant main characters in it but never got around to it.

By the way, if you're looking to watch another anime with an avoidant main character in it, you can watch Neon Genesis Evangelion. The main character, Ikari Shinji (my avatar right there is a picture of him), is a 14 year old avoidant kid who was chosen to pilot a giant robot to save humanity. It starts out like a normal series but in the later episodes things get deeper and more complicated with two different endings that shock anybody who sees them. All of the main cast of the series are broken as well, there is a narcissist, a schizoid, a dependent and a psychopath. The only thing that I warn you about is that it can be HEAVY on the psychological and philosophical jargon, best enjoyed if you are knowledgeable about the subjects.

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Even so, I would read it for no other reason beside the lack of avoidant characters in fiction. I just don't want to spend the money on something I'm not certain I'll like.

There IS a lack of avoidant types in fiction and with good reason. We're not cool. People like to see heroes in fiction, reflections of who they would like to become. Severely flawed heroes can be hard to connect with because they are a reflection of either what we don't like about ourselves or what we fear we could become one day, which is an unpleasant thing to watch.

It's definitely not a typical anime, so be prepared in that regard. Although, with a severely avoidant lead character, I think typical is the last thing it could ever be... So, yeah... enjoy!

Don't worry about that, I like atypical anime. In fact, I don't really like anime but just a few very good series that I would watch regardless of the medium. Neon Genesis Evangelion is my favorite by far and it is known for being THE batshit insane anime.

Also, thanks for the suggestion. I have heard a lot of good things about Neon Genesis Evangelion. I'm definitely going to give it at try.

Yeah go and do that, just a little piece of advice: If at some point in the series something in the plot doesn't make any sense, it's because it doesn't, so ignore it and move on.

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Yeah and severely flawed characters like Dr. House are popular. People like a misanthropic genius. No one's interested in avoidants because we aren't very flashy. The only character I can think of right now that I've really been able to relate to is Robert Cohn in Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises.

I've tried to get into anime before but I never saw what all the fuss is about...the ones you mentioned sound interesting though, I'll check them out!

I mean, there is a great deal of fiction involving the Everyman type of character; normal people thrown into extraordinary circumstances. And I'm glad that's the case.

Yes, the average joe that ends up saving the world. This is yet another ploy to have the viewer connect with the character, this time instead of being a reflection of who people would like to become it's the expression of fantasies they can't live out. Take Harem Anime for example: For those that don't know Harem Anime is a subtype of anime that consists of some lonely loser somehow winding up living with a bunch of hot perfect women who want to have sex with him. Needless to say this is a VERY popular type of anime and the reason is obvious, watching these shows is somewhat like watching one of your repressed fantasies come true.

With so few people to relate to AvPD, there's practically no incentive to include such characters. I guess I should be thankful for the whole hikikomori thing in Japan, otherwise we wouldn't have Welcome to the NHK. I just wish that sort of phenomenon were more common here in the States. Then there might be more options available...

Hahahaha... That's not something you should be wishing for you know. But I think that you would have much better luck finding avoidant type characters in more mature forms of fiction, anime is aimed at teenagers so you it's hard to see them deal with mature themes and characters. You would have much better luck if you try books and film.

Atypical anime is definitely the way to go. With the vast majority of anime, you can watch one or two series from every mainstream genre and you've pretty much seen them all. It's annoying, but I'm glad at least that it helps me better appreciate what's unique. Yes, and batshit insane things are always great fun!

Sadly this is the case. To be honest I don't consider myself a fan of anime, mainly because it is 90% junk and it IS true that once you watch a few series of every genre you've watched all of anime. The only reason I don't dismiss anime completely is because of the occasional good show like Evangelion or some of the other more mature shows I've watched.

If you like batshit insane things then you will enjoy the second ending of Evangelion: The End of Evangelion. The first one is insane in its own right, mainly because of how unexpected it all is just to give you a little idea of how unexpected it is, the ending is like reading a normal fiction book only to find that the last 20 pages are in poetry, they change the narrative style completely. Also if you want to have a sneak peek at it and see it's insanity at the same time here is a link to a sort of AMV which contains practically the entire series condensed into 4 minutes, notice how it becomes more insane as the video goes on and don't worry there really aren't any spoilers in: http://www.veoh.com/videos/v7151912E3Pb ... 05&rank=15

Yeah and severely flawed characters like Dr. House are popular. People like a misanthropic genius.

Yes, there is broken but cool and there is broken but not cool. We fall in the latter category. You can actually see this perfectly in Evangelion fandom. Shinji (the avoidant) has practically no fanbase but the other characters who are waaaay more flawed than him have huge rabid fanbases and I'm talking about narcissists and psychopaths here.

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Oh, gods! I take it back! I take it back! I didn't mean it, I swear! I just was mostly just referring to everyman heroes like Samwise Gamgee, Bilbo Baggins, Indiana Jones or even the stereotypical fireman who brings kittens down from trees and rescues children from burning buildings. I'm so sorry I ever mentioned that now...

Calm down. I understand what you meant, I just used harem anime as an example becuase it is the most blatant and obvious example of this tendency of using everyman heroes as self-insertion fantasies. All other forms of fiction with regular joes as main characters also do this but not to such a disgusting extent.

Oh, definitely not. I probably should have phrased that differently. I just wish some way that this sort of problem were better understood by the general populace. Then, maybe, people like us would have more suitable options for overcoming avoidance, etc, etc.

Oh yes, I do wish that was the case as well. People tolerate depression well enough these days, I wish they would act the same way towards my avoidance but unfortunately that is not the case and it probably never will be. Even so, there is also the advantage of secrecy, if everybody knew what avoidance was you couldn't really hide it, everyone will know your broken and some would probably use that to hurt you.

Second, there's May. It's about a lonely young woman who was traumatized by a difficult childhood, and her increasingly desperate attempts to connect with the people around her. She's awkward, and I really mean awkward, but for a while, it actually looks like she'll make it through alright. Sadly and inevitably, though, things don't work out. May is too deeply flawed and defective to connect with normal people. That's when things get ugly, i.e. awesome! Anyway, from what I've seen, people tend either to love or hate this film. I'm of the former, definitely loved it.

I watched that film a long time ago... I was 14 or so at the time and I didn't understood it and just thought it was extremely weird and creepy.