BIG HELP NEEDED, OPINION QUESTIONS! :)

Hey, I'm half Dutch ^_^

Ok onto the questions, and this year in uni I actually wrote an essay on anime so I know a bit about the start of it and why it took the direction it did :)

1.
For me anime was a way for me to escape the real world. I enjoyed these made up worlds in anime and the characters were so colourful and interesting. Anime had a quirkiness that I hadn't seen before in Western media so it had my attention straight away :)

2.
I had always been interested in Asian countries and culture in general, but when I discovered anime, I did start taking more interest in specifically Japanese culture since it's customs were often in the anime itself.

3.
I wouldn't say every anime/manga is like that, but many anime explore the idea of the 'posthuman' which is a very interesting expression of Japan's view on society and the benefits of human augmentation (I'll get to this more in the last question...). So this theme in anime can alter your perspective and can make one become more accepting of human augmentation.

4.
It will still essentially be Japan without anime (anime hasn't been around forever, Japan was still Japan without it) howeverrrr anime and manga have hugely impacted Japan as we know it today. For example, manga makes up approximately 40% of all written media sales in Japan. That's huge! Out of all books, magazines, newspapers etc, manga is 40% of total sales. That's a massive impact on Japanese media and entertainment.

5.
Japan's creation of anime started during World War 2, in the form of propaganda videos. The result of the war impacted Japan's way of story telling through anime and manga. After WW2 while Japan could not develop their military, Japan becomes the leaders of consumer technologies where the Japanese found possibilities and protection in the form of technology where the western view often fears technological advancement.
(stay with me here...)
Japan's efforts with developing technology implanted a societal belief that technology can protect and enhance the human; which leads to the posthuman topic. The posthuman is EXTREMELY prevalent in anime, and is shown in a POSITIVE light in anime; not in western media. This idea influenced the themes and content of many anime (especially in the starting years) i.e. Astroboy, Ghost in the Shell, even Fullmetal Alchemist you have this connection of man and machine, this positive portrayal of the cyborg. In western media, the cyborg, the posthuman, was seen as a threat, while in Japenese media, in anime, the posthuman is seen as a possibility to enhance and grow.

tl;dr because of the state of Japan post WW2, and the focus on consumer technologies, these ideas made their way into their media and story-telling (in the form of anime).
Granted not all anime these days explore this man-machine connection theme, however, this is the root theme of anime and is still very common in anime now.

My name is Letty, and I am Italian/Irish and live in America.

1. Well, when a new girl came to my elementary school, I was pretty much drawn to her because she had the same name as a character in one of my favorite books. She ended up introducing me to Vocaloid and showing me that it was okay to still like the things I did when I was little, like Pokemon. A few months later, after seeing Lucky Star in the related videos section of youtube for a while, I figured "why not?" and tried it out. I continued watching anime because it made me really happy. At that point in time all I really did was read, and because I enjoyed stories, I enjoyed the plots of all the different shows. I liked how the topics of the shows could vary, and slowly found the shows I would enjoy. I got attached to the characters, and it brought me even closer to my friend.

2. Originally, when I was a giant weeb, I thought Japan was all about anime/manga, and that was the only reason I wanted to go. Now? Well, I'm quite interested in the culture, as well as some of the mythology. Some of the things done there seem so interesting and fun, I can't help but want to go there and try!

3. It honestly depends on the person. For me, it's not the plot that affects me, it's the characters. If I relate to a character, everything they go through affects me. If they cry, it's pretty likely that I'll cry. Even if it's a slice of life, I can get attached and be impacted by what they do and say. That's why I hate to see shows end, it feels like I'm losing friends when the characters leave.

4. Of course! It was Japan before anime/manga, so why would the lack of anime change anything? """Otaku"""" are made fun of in Japan anyway.

5. Anime is just Japanese cartoons. Of course they started in Japan, or it wouldn't be anime. But, people draw cartoons because they have inspiration and they want to share that idea with the world. They may not do well at first, but over time they can improve and show people "hey, look what I can do" and that's pretty cool. So, anime exists because someone had an idea and went with it.

Hope I could help ! (By the way, I love the picture! It's so detailed and the coloring is awesome!)