I normally binge heavily, absorbing +/-24 episodes daily if I’ve got something to watch. So many of these stories I simply watch them all, in a gulp. Taking breaks gives my head too many opportunities to wander on ahead of the story, so I tend not to keep up with weekly episodes (when ‘Illuminatus!’ was released, I didn’t start reading until I had all *three* volumes in my possession). Taking a break typically means I’m having a problem with the story, with the telling, or with the place I’m in right then...and I often won’t go back to a story a second time, unless it hit me in ways that I HAD to stop and think about.
One thing I’ve thought of just recently is that anime fulfills the exact same goal and function as science fiction: to create entirely new situations and circumstances, and challenge ordinary people to adapt and overcome...or not. The difference is in the reliance on realistic science as the container universe for the extraordinary circumstances, rather than pure fantasy.: from the point of view of the characters, their investment, their motivations, their individual stories, it makes no difference whether the situation of the moment is the result of interplanetary politics, or elemental magic, or generational vengeance. All stories are HUMAN stories, they’re about BECOMING, about things CHANGING, about what happens *next*.
Which I suppose is just a way of saying this is all opera. It tears at the heart with the same fingers.
Some anime tales seem to require breaks - like Mushi-Shi, which rurumo* recommended. Some are more naturally episodic, like Durarara!, in which the stories, while interconnected, are gems of their own. Some simply take more time to integrate each episode, like Made in Abyss. Some are simply so stunning visually that the visual palette needs to recover, like Kaguya-Sama: Love is War.
At this point I feel like I’ve moved past the adventurer and game tropes, past the ‘only boy in school’ and harem tropes, past the boob jokes and mech-suits and transforming titans. I’m starting to learn new words, like ecci and isekai and shonen and seinen and shoujo. I’m starting to learn there’s a lot more to this than I have available to me. The folks in this conversation are to thank for much of this, so - thank you.
* - I got your name right!