As in, what's something you loved as a kid, found cringe as you get older, then gained a new appreciation for as an adult? Here are some of mine:
- Pokemon. I expect this will be a common one. It's got cute creature designs and fun tactical battling, and since I've outgrown my shame at liking cute things, I'll happily keep coming back to it.
- Yu-Gi-Oh. I still don't much care for the CCG (I'm opposed on principle to any game where your ability to win largely depends on how much money you're willing to sink into it), but the anime bursts with dorky charm and the video games are fun. A setting where reincarnated ancient sorcerers and billionaires are stone-dead serious about a children's card game is also a nice break from the modern plague of "well that just happened" Marvel soy banter.
Nu metal. I loved it in the late 90s. Godsmack. Early Limp Bizkit. System of a Down. But somewhere along the line people convinced me it was cringe and I should listen to garage rock or something. They're probably right, it is cringe, but I enjoy it and I just do so unapologetically now. It's a good time to be back into it, there's been a bit of a revival.
If it weren’t for the first two Linkin Park albums I wouldn’t be into heavier music. Always gonna have love for that era even if a lot of crap got released.
Anime for me. I watched a lot of it in middle school, stopped for like 10 years, getting back into it now. There's a lot of good stuff out there when you know better than to listen to recommendations.
Yu-Gi-Oh
I've heard the comic is fun, but I've never read it! I definitely watched the show back in the day.
For me:
Gundam: I was super obsessed as a kid, then Gundam SEED came out and I found it super cringe. Started getting back into it when I had a young child and needed to sleep in shifts, and now I've watched way too much mecha anime (and almost all of Gundam lol)
I'm 32 and got into gundam maybe a year ago. I haven't gotten past Char's Counterattack yet but damn it's good.
All of the Tomino Gundam is a delight, especially Turn A Gundam! CCA is great - hope you enjoy it when you get around to it.
I've probably recommended them before, but if you like "book club" style podcasts for shows, The Great Gundam Project and Mobile Suit Breakdown are both pretty great.
apparently the yugioh manga is really dark and violent compared to the show lol
And the whole "king of games" thing starts with them playing different games every chapter or whatever. Then they realized their fake Magic: the Gathering could be a real CCG and make a shit ton of money lol
Big life decisions. Making a change. Improving myself. Beginning something new. Changing direction in life. Taking a big chance. Doing The Thing That Only Young People Do. Starting a band. Getting into entertainment industry. Writing. Going on adventures. Backpacking. Doing heroine (still not old enough for this, but when I hit 90 wooo baby). Going to therapy. Getting new friends. Reconnecting with old friends. Saying sorry. Patching up relationships. Making a frivolous purchase. Ignoring the pain in my leg and not going to the doctor for it. Getting better.
AC/DC
I loved the band when they were young and I was even younger. I was in middle school. I still liked them in high school. Then as the decades passed - I lost interest. They seemed so old-fashioned. Once Youtube and torrents were a thing - I realized I still really liked their first albums. I have no interest after "Back in Black". The past 40+ years they've been re-re-re-re-re-re-recycling what they did up to 1980 because it works and they've sold 10,000,000 of millions of albums so why try harder?
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Ninja edit
My estimate was way off.
In 50 years of their career, AC/DC have sold over 200 million albums worldwide
Reminds me of a response to a review of their 13th album. A reviewer had said "Yeah it's a fine album, this is the 12th time they're making it. It's the same!" and AC/DC wrote in a letter that stated "The review is a devious lie. We've made the same album 13 times."
pop music. I liked Spice Girls and Britney Spears and N'Sync and shit like that when I was very young and then it became very clear that as a "boy" it would be gay to enjoy any music that didn't have guitars in it or whatever. it wasn't until I was in my early 20s that I realized that there was a lot of really forward-thinking experimental pop music and started getting into artists like SOPHIE
also animated movies & shows in general. I never watched Avatar: The Last Airbender when it aired because I was like 13 when it came out, and I was over Nickelodeon and only wanted to watch serious movies and shows for adults. I still haven't seen Ratatouille for the same reason. I thought I was too mature for cartoons when in fact I wasn't mature enough to realize animation could be enjoyed by all ages.
I actually had the opposite experience with Pokemon where I realized I never actually liked it in the first place, it just happened to be really popular when I was a kid and hadn't formed my own interests yet.
Hell yes to pop music! For me, it was more thinking metal was "real" music, though. And don't get me wrong--I authentically enjoyed metal as a teen, and I will still listen to it on occasion now. It's hard to beat metal if you're feeling aggressive, and metal can be rhythmically complex and compelling in a way that pop music rarely is. But the things I love most about music are melody, harmony, and danceability as well as general good vibes, and most of those are in short supply in metal, especially the thrash/death metal I was most into. Discovering K-Pop is what brought me back into the fold, and I'm not into any cool niche indie artists or anything (the most indie thing I listen to is Kero Kero Bonito lol), but I enjoy listening to good pop music, appreciating the craftsmanship behind it, and just jamming out.
Minecraft. I just love building little cabins in the woods with nature-friendly paths wandering through forests. Leaving the trees alone as much as possible and building winding paths through picturesque terrain. Building little park benches and flower gardens along the way. I don't want to build fortresses, I want to build what I want to see in the real world.
I've lost my login that I bought back when it was still in alpha :sadness:
So is that still like old school keychain tomagachi things, or did they pivot to phone apps, or is there some new cool way to digital pet that happened in the intervening decades?
They still make the key chain ones!
Bandai recently announced a Monster Hunter one!
Neat!
My only real experience with them was finding them completely inscrutable as a kid.
I was a Skrillex hater when he first got popular and it was cool to hate on "brostep" or whatever. but since then I've realized the guy is really talented. Quest for Fire was one of my favorite albums of last year. his early music is still probably not for me, but that doesn't mean it's bad, it's just a matter of personal taste
As a kid: "wow that was so cool he just flipped that guy through a table. They must really hate eachother!"
As a teen/young adult: "heh, y'know that's scripted and fake right? They're actually just coworkers and don't hate each other"
As an adult: " wow that was so cool he just flipped and put that guy through a table! Even though the outcome is scripted and both parties are working together to make the product entertaining, its a feat of both athleticism and teamwork for it to go well and the camp acting as if they hate eachother is the icing on top!""
