Only anime your dad will watch

[SovietJedi]

As an anime fan, how do your parents feel about your otakuhood? Do they think you're a total nerd, or do they welcome their child's interest in a very foreign and very unique style of entertainment with open arms? I want to know how you're parents feel about having a basement-dwelling nerdchild who likes making edited-together music videos from clips of their favorite anime, and secretly touches himself to two-dimensional Japanese pornography. What is the only anime your dad will watch?

For me, that would be Death Note. For a while my dad refused to endorse my brother and I's anime watching. He was certainly okay with it, but whenever he was watching Football and I turned the anime on, he'd leave the room. When he saw me and my brother watching Death Note, though, he completely changed. He fell in love with the show, I was actually kind of scared. Now, my dad is not afraid to drive us to Otakon each year, because he knows that his children fit right in with the 20,000+ anime nerds who go each year. It just warms my heart.

YOU'RE TURN.

[Terryn]

My dad thinks anime was eh, okay. Whenever he went to Japantown for business trips he'd bring me back a Sailor Moon poster, hehe. He had no idea who was in the poster though.
And then my dad went to Anime Expo.
He's a big photographer, and brought along his camera for the heck of it. He was absolutely amazed with the people that cosplayed. From the cute schoolgirls to the obese Zandef in a speedo, he loved it all. He took photos left and right. And then he saw the people doing the Haruhi Suzumiya dance. He asked me to teach him it, along with the Caramell Dansen. My dad doesn't specifically watch it with me, but he does like it haha. It's brought us closer together.

[Otohiko]

My dad... nah, I don't even try. He has no interest or patience for it.

On the other hand, my mom is a total opposite. You kind of have to pick series to suit her interests, and they obviously have to be a bit mature - but she'll happily oblige if the plot is interesting to her. We've watched Monster, Gankutsuou, Death Note, Haibane Renmei, Lain, and a few other things together, as well as a whole bunch of movies. I have some watching plans for when I go to visit my parents over the holidays - but while some include my mom, others don't. For example, I'll watch Millenium Actress with her, may possibly watch Kimi ni Todoke with her, but I'm absolutely watching Gurenn Lagann and Kara no Kyokai on my own. These just wouldn't be her thing.

[CodeZTM]

I live in the south, what do you think?

My parents believe them to be the work of satan, but I'm 20 and they can't do much when it comes to the interests of my entertainment. So I pretty much just don't speak about it, don't talk about it and hide the anime collection when family comes over.

[Kariudo]

...but I'm absolutely watching Gurenn Lagann and Kara no Kyokai on my own. These just wouldn't be her thing.

That's because Gurren Lagann is a manly show for manly men who are manly, and last I checked...being a woman was still very unmanly

My dad probably wouldn't have the patience for it (he might like Initial D though...) My mom on the other hand took to anime pretty well. We've watched Trigun, Death Note, GitS SAC, Higurashi, and FMP Fumoffu. I've got to pick and choose which series I think would be interesting though. Stuff like Haruhi isn't gonna cut it.

[The Origonal Head Hunter]

My grandfather loved DBZ, if that counts. I started watching it when Moltar still hosted Toonami, just watching random episodes when I could pretend to be asleep and get away with it. One day my grandpa was sitting in the living room watching it with me. And it all went downhill from there. Old dude watched it more than I did, knew the characters better than I did, and could make synopses of the story arcs that I could never dream of. Watched it all the way up until the middle of the Buu saga, and then it started doing reruns all the way from the beginning. And there he was, after I'd temporarily given up interest in anime, he was still an avid fan, though he never bothered to go on and watch Outlaw Star or the other greats of the old Toonami days. Even bought him a box set for his birthday once.

[BasharOfTheAges]

To be honest, my father has a difficult time reading subs fast enough to watch any anime i'd watch. I'm sure he wouldn't enjoy himself that much. He is interested in my editing and has proudly showed it to his friends... the stuff I actually let him see, that is.

[Knowname]

I watch shows that I think my parents would absolutely fricken LOVE but I know that in the back of their mind they'd just be like 'I'm watching a cartoon, I'm watching a cartoon!!'

Both my parents are over 55 as well... and even when I was a kid they were over 40 and I still couldn't see them doing that lol.

[Ishbalan]

I sampled them with Death Note, Fullmetal Alchemist, GITS: SAC and Baccano!, but nothing really stuck for them. I could tell that they were just humoring me by watching them, and I stopped trying after a while.

[Kionon]

My dad is dead, but he was a huge nerd himself. Fan of Trek, Back to the Future, The original BSG, Space 1999, Buck Rogers, the old Flash Gordon. Had the same music taste as me. In general, fuck you Death. Fuck you. I am sure had he lived he and I would have driven my mother insane together. He surely would have loved a lot of different anime.

My stepfather is a great guy, and when he was younger (he's way past retirement age now), we used to do a lot of outdoors stuff I really miss now, like fishing and camping, and going to waterparks, and hiking, jogging. Totally different than my Dad, but no less important to me. He just is definitely more of a traditional "father" figure, and nothing wrong with that. He couldn't replace my Dad, and he didn't try, and it was really nice to have him just be who he was. He never thought anime was anything but kid stuff, but he knew a money maker when he saw one, and encouraged my video editing (and whatever else would earn me success). He's recently changed his mind because of how mainstream it has become, but only grudgingly. Too bad about the fact that now he's simply too old and too busy (and I'm 7000 miles away) to do any of the stuff he used to do. I am actually getting worried that because there is such a large age gap between myself and my parents, I'm looking at taking care of them sooner rather than later.

My mother is a very casual anime fan. She, unlike my father (stepfather is father, biological father is Dad, for those keeping score at home), thinks it's a legitimate art form worthy of respect, and has even made a few contacts in the industry, because she used to be a buyer for a city library system, but most of it she can't get into. Longer series are very difficult for her, although Maison Ikkoku is an exception. She usually sticks to feature length films. She loves almost anything Ghibli ever made.