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The story
In response to the stock phrase used to justify single life — “I’ve got games, anime, and my oshi (fandom devotion) to keep me happy” — users on 5ch’s “Nanでも実況G” (NanJ) board got into a generational debate. It started as a jab at single men in their 40s, but quickly escalated into a clash over whether watching anime as a middle-aged adult is a sign of staying young or just immaturity. Some dismissed anime as “junk food” entertainment, while others pushed back, arguing it’s fundamentally no different from dramas or movies — with both married and single posters chiming in to needle each other along the way.
What people said
You really believe that in your heart?
Be honest — you don't even have the energy to enjoy this stuff anymore, do you
More like they go hang out with people in their 50s and 60s just to confirm to themselves that they're still young
Don't married guys have better things to do?
Like taking care of the kids or doing housework?
Married guy: "Alright, work's done for the day — before I head home to see my family, I've gotta start a thread trolling single guys (sense of duty)"
That's monstrous
1: Nameless-Who-Still-Moves []: 2026/09/08 (Tue) 15:07:59.45 ID:pMTmlhHB0
If the Ocarina of Time remake
comes out just as faithful as the Mario RPG remake was,
that feels like it could be insane
I haven't graduated, so what? Do you have to graduate once you get married?
LMAOOOOO wwwwwwwwwww (the "w"s are Japanese textspeak for laughter, like "lol")
Mario RPG, Zelda… are you in your 50s?
Is that why you're trolling people in their 40s? 🤣
There's no sense of duty involved
It's just like tapping away at some mobile game
You replied from the wrong device, lol
This is NanJ (5ch's rowdy "Whatever's On Live" board), you know
I just got home, so it switched to WiFi, that's all
What's wrong with guys who are still into it at 40
With competitive PvP games it's less that you keep playing and more that you can't quit
Though eventually people tend to shift to mahjong or poker
Getting married just fires you up for it more
This is the reality of a washed-up middle-aged guy
What about competitive games though?
What, is it a crime to go home on my lunch break? 🖕😁
Going home just to browse NanJ makes zero sense
That's basically a sickness at this point
Guess nobody around them ever calls it out
I don't think it's any different as entertainment though
If anime's not okay, dramas and movies would get boring too by that logic
That's some seriously Showa-era thinking (i.e. old-fashioned, pre-1989 values)
Things started changing around "Your Name," and "Demon Slayer" rewrote the Japanese box office record, so…
There really are people who mean it seriously
Sales have nothing to do with it
It's the same as how AKB48 can sell however much and still not get social acceptance
So what do you, the self-proclaimed grown-up, find entertaining then?
If we're talking media consumption, I've been watching dramas lately
I watch those too
Does that mean you can't enjoy anime anymore?
Stuff like that starts to feel pointless because there's no real theme to it
I think anime has themes too though
Dramas aren't really that different from anime
Anime culture taking root among adults
is showing up as real numbers
So it comes down to whether you keep living in the old assumption that anime is "for kids," or whether you can update your values to match reality — that's just a difference in cognitive ability
There's no reason something you enjoyed since childhood would suddenly become boring
Makes me think you grew up with hardcore Showa-era parents telling you to "grow out of it"
That just means there are more man-children out there
"Oshi katsu" (fandom devotion/spending) is a term invented to squeeze money out of singles who have nothing else to spend it on
Dramas are mostly about social issues
I'm not watching rom-coms or anything like that
If there just aren't many titles that suit your taste, you could just say that
Writing it off as "kids' stuff" is way too shallow
To put it simply, anime is junk food
That's fine when you're young, but eventually you want to take in something with more substance and nutritional value
Dramas aren't exactly as highbrow as you're making them out to be either
So specifically, what titles are you actually watching?
Background and Key Points of This Debate
Debate over the claim that “single men aren’t lonely because they have games, anime, and oshi katsu (fandom devotion)” is a recurring theme in the “single-shaming” threads that regularly pop up on 5ch, and this time it played out among men in their 30s and 40s. There were two main points of contention. One was the generational question of whether middle-aged people enjoying anime is immature or simply a diversification of hobbies. The other was whether “oshi katsu” genuinely enriches one’s life, or whether it’s just a buzzword used to encourage spending. Some posters claimed the anime market is expanding, but it’s worth noting this was a personal opinion without any cited source. As is typical in these threads, the debate — regardless of whether posters were married or single — tended to circle back to differing values around hobbies, with metaphor-driven exchanges like post #87’s “anime is junk food” comment continuing throughout.
※This article is compiled and summarized from the 5ch (NanJ) thread “Guy confirmed single forever at 30: “I’ve got games, anime, and oshi katsu!!” ← Yeah, that’s still understandable“.
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