To be able to talk about anime with people you know is fun. One thing that’s awesome about being an anime fan here in the Philippines, especially in the ages of 16, 17-ish to, I guess, a bit above 20, is that, there’s a relatively high probability that you can strike up a conversation with anime with a person you just met.
An awesome junior of mine is graduating this week, and being reminded of that, I think back to our first encounter. I saw her reading manga a couple or so times at my old high school so I just assumed she could just as well be an anime fan. I got the opportunity to actually talk to her thanks to some off-campus journalism competition. We’ve talked a few times before, but never about anime, so I decided to give it a shot. Unsure of her preferred genre for a series to talk about, I went with my “Ice Breaker” anime, or, a series that I always use whenever I want to talk about anime. For my case, it was Toradora!, and, as I hoped it would, it got a conversation going. The rest is history.
Now, of all the shows, why Toradora! you may ask? Well, I guess you could say it fits the idea of an “Ice Breaker”. The Internet would have it as “phrases that start conversations”, and yeah, that’s pretty much your goal. The means however, would be to choose a show that would hold both your interests. Like how I probably won’t start chatting someone up with shows like Bleach or Naruto ’cause, although I and a majority of anime fans in my age group know about them, I wouldn’t be talking as much. It should also be a show that is well-known, I mean, I doubt I can find someone else around me who has watched, say, Katanagatari or Ookami-san to Shichinin no Nakamatachi (though, there are those who I got into anime by watching those two shows, but that’s a subject for another time)
Toradora! fits this relatively well because it’s a wonderful romance anime and is very popular in its own right. Add to the fact that it holds one of the few 10’s in my list, and you’ve got a show I can just talk on and on about. Given it’s fame here as well, makes Toradora! as mainstream as any.
After re-reading the above, it does actually kinda sounds creepy. Rest assured, I’m not a guy that talks anime to every guy or girl I meet. It’s just that, I really love the feeling when I do get to talk about anime with someone, more so if that’s how I start getting to know someone.
And of course, all this isn’t a sure-fire way to actually start talking to someone. There will always be moments that you’ll be the only anime fan in the room. In the end, it’s better to just introduce yourself ^^
So with that, what would you show/s would you use as an “Ice Breaker” to start a conversation?
Taiga….. Awesome as everrr…. Feast for the eye!
She always is, but I like Minorin a bit more :3
Pretty much everyone I know doesn’t watch much anime. So to break the ice, I show them the first episode of Detroit Metal City. Always gets them talking. I’ve done it on about ten people so far.
I actually haven’t tried Detroit Metal City yet, but it does sound like something that’s not very anime-grounded and could easily be related to. Plus it sounds really fun ^^
I’ve gotten some friends to watch some anime with me, depending on what sort of stories they like. One friend I got to watch all of Death Note, a roommate I got to watch a few eps of Fruits Basket, and I’ve hosted a few marathons of shows for a college sci-fi/fantasy club over the years (for things that can lead to discussion a bit more, like Kino’s Journey, Aria, and Angel Beats).
Most these people don’t go on to become big anime fans, but they at least have their eyes opened a bit to what sort of stories anime can entail. (AKA, not just stuff like Naruto or Pokemon [or hentai, for that matter])
That sci-fi/fantasy club sounds awesome, more so since you guys have marathons and group discussions like that. Death Note is also a pretty effective ice breaker most of the time since I think almost everyone who’s watched it can appreciate the mind games in it.
That’s cool too, I mean, I’d always want to introduce other shows that, in my opinion are extremely better than mainstream titles, and in that regard, that anime is way more than hentai.
“Anime? You mean that stuff with tentacles?!”
This is the answer I will most likely get so I’ll try hard not to break ice talking about anime…:D
“Anime? You mean that stuff with tentacles?!”
This made me laugh so hard ^^
Sadly, it’s true in some cases. Darn tentacles! >.<
Well, in my country it’s a lot easier to start with Naruto or Bleach. Every other guy seems to be watching it and every other girl seems to have heard of it. It’s funny how these conversations always started if either of us caught each other reading the manga.
Same applies here, it’s just that everything that I know now about Naruto, Bleach, and even One Piece, are all secondhard info whenever I’m around my friends talking about them. I join in when I hear something familiar like shichibukai, bijyuu, or bankai, but that’s the most of it for me, lol ^^
Meh, I just leave it be. Some people have a general idea of what “Anime” is but the wrong idea. I better off making small talk (which I hate to do).
There’s that too. And like Feal said above, it’s always gonna be about tentacles to some people ^^
Meeting some other anime fans is an extremely rare occasion for me. Plus, I am not good at striking a conversation at all. But the very few times that the conversation did happen, Evangelion was the ice-breaker in my case.
There’s always converting your friends into anime fans, lol, but yeah, reading the comments above I can more or less see where you’re coming from.
Ah, what I’d give to be able to talk about Evangelion with someone ^^
I use Cowboy Bebop as an anime ice-breaker (or rather, I theoretically *would* use it. I’ve just never met anyone whom I’m close enough to to bring it up with, that would also have even a little bit of interest in anime). It’s approachable and high quality, so I figure it’s a good bet.
Yeah, that’s the main dilemma I see from the above comments. At any rate, Cowboy Bebop is a nice title to use, since, like you said, it’s approachable and I’d think it’s very well known. In my case out local TV dubbed it so it more or less has a fanbase around here…somewhere, lol
I did pretty well with Death Note and now I’ve started giving more of my anime. They already knew about anime so it wasn’t too hard to start a conversation.
I’ll get to watch Cowboy Bebop and Outlaw Star because we became friends.
Yeah, I’ve had my fair share of Death Note conversations as well (which was basically us debating whether the 2nd arc was okay or not, lol) and it was fun ^^