11 Actual Things You Can Learn From Watching Anime

Yes, yes – there are tons of silly things you can learn from anime, like the only way to fall onto a woman is face first into her pillow-y breasts or complicated military machinery is best operated by young children for maximum effect. However, anime isn’t all just fun and games, it really can teach you some things that you can apply to your real life.

It is more than just teaching language either, you can learn a series of serious life lessons as well as a few handy things that you might not expect.

Things You Can Learn From Watching Anime

Learn to Read Faster

Have you ever watched subbed FLCL or Bakemonogatari? Then you will know you either need to read fast or find another series. Often times, anime series move at a sprinter’s pace, making it difficult for the people who have to read the subtitles, but it is actually helping you become a faster and better reader. No, really. It is a real thing that even teachers use now. By learning to comprehensively keep up with subtitles, you can transfer that skill to other media.

Learn Broadened Cultural Awareness

Japan is probably a little different from the town you grew up in, and not just in terms of its language. They have a different culture that you might not be introduced to otherwise. Certainly it is not expected of most western business men to work 14 hours a day then go out drinking to unwind. Most schools don’t wear uniforms. And the fact that we don’t use a kotatsu in the winter just means we don’t know how to live.

Knowing a little bit more about the world around you is never a bad thing. Of course watching anime does not mean you will know all about Japan from watching anime. It is typically a more buttoned-up and xenophobic country than most series ever show. However, you can gleam a little bit of their culture from anime. Just be sure to fact check before you go throwing that out there.

Learn About Different Types of People

This is not something specific to just anime, but still applicable. Any sort of media broadens your horizons when it comes to people. You learn what PTSD looks like. You see what different types of personalities look like, though often many are exaggerated or not completely realistic. You can see walking, talking, animated examples of psychopathy without feeling the distinct sense of dread creep down your spine that having such an encounter in real life elicits.

Learn How to Talk (and How Not to Talk) To People

Maybe it was just me, but anime helped me with my socials skills. I was the type of person that needed to know exactly what was going to happen in a situation before doing it. It’s an anxiety thing. In the right slice of life series you learn how to make small talk, how to talk to shop owners, polite manners for greeting people – you know, all that stuff you’d learn if you went and talked to people on a consistent basis. If nothing else, it’s a confidence builder, shy friends.

Learn New Animation and Story-Telling Techniques

Compare anime throughout the years, and you will see animation is constantly changing. This introduces you to more visual effects, which may only be useful to creative types. However, for the rest of us, it is at least pleasant to look at.

Alternatively, anime often utilizes different story-telling techniques. For example, Fairy Tail takes a lazier route by often giving more mundane world-important information through quick “Oh, you didn’t know?” ‘s or through the narrator. On the flip-side, most anime will tell about the world around them slowly throughout the story as the characters themselves experience it, which is generally considered the better way of story-telling, ala “showing,” not “telling”.

Ultimately, you learn how a story should flow from beginning to end, unless it is an anime that doesn’t have an end like Detective Conan or One Piece. They are simply an study in endurance.

Increases Your Creativity

For some people, their creativity is more prevalent than others. However, I am willing to wager a guess that any anime fan has watched a series and been caught up in the fantasy at least once. Maybe they imagined a character in that world or a story happening in it. As the daydream went on, that morphed into something completely different from the series, but still enthralling.

That’s an exercise in creativity, and while it may not be the next best-selling novel, it is at least a fun and harmless way to pass the time. Embrace it.

Learn Actual Information

Anime teaches not just some useful skills and life lessons, but it can also impart actual information. Like with cultural information, a lot of shows should be taken with a grain of salt and fact checked, but some shows do actually teach things. One good example is Silver Spoon. It’s an anime about farming. As a person that comes from a farm, I was pretty shocked by the accuracy of information, personalities of the people, and, most of all, that they made mention of the eternal struggle – not qualifying for pizza delivery because you were too rural.

If you are into learning things through anime, check out our educational anime recommendations.

Another good example is Food Wars! Some dishes you may need to look up to get the full recipe, but you can totally recreate all of those recipes. Of course, because it is anime food, you will totally want to, but they will never quite stack up to the animated version visually. They also probably won’t make people lewdly explode out of their clothes either.

Learn Japanese

Contrary to the young weeb belief that you can just turn on an anime, any anime at all, and start learning Japanese. The truth is that it is not quite so simple.

You may be able to pick up certain words and short sentences on context alone, but Japanese sentence structure is different from what the English speaker is accustomed to. So if you start picking up words and stringing them in the sentence structure you know, you are effectively making something that may sound cool, but is actually gibberish.

However, if you are learning Japanese from other sources, anime can be a good way to augment that. Anime is actually great for listening comprehension. Slice of life and romance shows are particularly helpful whereas shows that have a lot of invented places and objects are less so.

Are you a Japanese learner? Check out these anime series to help Japanese learners at any comprehension level.

Learn Life Lessons

Anime is filled with good life lessons.

Never Give Up – When life beats you down, you will never get anywhere if you just give up and go have an ice cream. Save the ice cream as a reward for trying, failing, and trying again until you succeed.
Be Respectful and Kind – Don’t be a villain by being a dick. People are different from you, and that’s okay. Usually they are pretty nice people. Be like every female and male protagonist in a shojo anime and be nice to people. You’ll go far.
Don’t be Afraid of Adventure – Where would Luffy be if he didn’t go treasure hunting or eat some mysterious fruit? What would Lucy be doing if she didn’t go to Magnolia City with Natsu? Where would Gutts be if he never met Griffith? (Honestly, probably better off on that one.) The point is, when new opportunities come knocking, don’t always be afraid of them. They could lead to an adventure of a lifetime. Or hardcore substance abuse, but mostly adventure. You get what I’m saying, right? Be adventurous, but use good judgement too.

And other various tidbits of sage wisdom. There are actually tons of articles that highlight the wise proverbs that one can learn from anime. If that’s your thing, then have some recommended reading:

We anime bloggers are prone to waxing poetic on occasion.