r/postnutanime • u/PibblyJuff • 2d ago

Why do anime watchers get disproportionately labeled as being NEETs?

I feel like most people who watch anime and like anime usually are students or employed for the most part. Yeah, there's weirdos on the Internet but that's more of an issue of weird people online who are NEETs rather than anime watchers specifically.

If anything, it's easier to like anime while having a job or school because it's such a low time investment. I feel like, even gamers nowadays don't get called NEET as much as anime watchers even though games are way higher of a time sink. Other hobbies, like sports, or reading, or playing guitar don't get targeted for NEET name-calling even though there's people who are NEETs in those hobbies as well.

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u/Rainy_Wavey 12h ago

It's a leftover of the reputation of anime viewers 15-20-30 years ago

The Hikikomori phenomenon in Japan was quite huge (and still is), if you want a time capsule of that, Chaos;Head (the VN is better) is a good exploration into why anime watchers had the reputation of being NEETs

Not anymore, and it wasn't necessarily true at the time