CJD wrote:Oh, phew. For a second I almost thought...
*sigh* Hilariously, I did get mistaken for her mom a couple of times, especially at the natatorium.
Which is especially weird considering that I was recently asked if I'm old enough to have a sundae with a little bit of eggnog on it....
About a year ago, I had to whip out my ID card to buy some musky perfume thing...
I think what Doug Walker/Nostalgia Critic said on showing kids scary movies sums it up pretty well "something one 3 year old can watch with joy might make a 7 year old cover his eyes."
Yeah.
In part, they just understand more implications, but there are also instinctive reactions that only mature after a certain time.
You see these discrepancies a lot when you have a few shows who are watched by a larger margin of age groups, like, say, "Doctor Who" (It would never have occurred to me from just watching it, tho. Didn't seem any different than any other large scale Sci-Fi show. It was only when I heard what the typical demografic in its homeland looks like that I retroactively realized, "Oh, yes, there wasn't much actual blood and gore". But there might as well have been/didn't need to be, I mean, they had a chick burned to an ash outline, or turned into a robot slave with her brain reduced to jelly... Not to speak of the episode with the flesh-eating shadow creatures. Evisceration is boring. )
In any case, you'll have people arguing that XY is toop complicated or too scary, and then the writer will go, "Actually, my five year old figured it out immediately, I'm kind of embarassed." and people liking the show because they felt it took them seriously.
That's probably why anime got so popular in Europe at all, when all you have are american comics/cartoons who, despite the ocassional plot, are usually firmly rooted in the realm of the "funny and un-serious", and then get comfronted with something that actually gets you invested.
And I'm not talking anything really dramatic or adult-y here, just your average magical girl show or good old Digimon, that can actually make you cry.
There was that show where the magical girls in question were looking after a little baby, and in the end, had to give up their magical powers to save her and never saw her again... And the show ends with them entertaining a customer at their shop who has a similar baby with them.
I bawled, but this has held a special place in my heart ever since...
Knowledge of Genre-Conventions (which EVa has a lot of fun subverting after all) or lack thereof could also play a role, such as that whole Tsundere phenomenon.
With the afore mentioned middle sister, the fact that there was a love triangle (As opposed to just Rei and Kaworu in linear oder) went completely over her head, episode 11 poking ridiculous amounts of fun at it nonwithstanding.
It was the same with my first exposure; In my initial perception, Ranma and Akane just kept hating each other until the end of the series XD Or at most eventually arrived at a relationship vaguely like a "rough" male friendship. It just seemed to fit with Akane acting so boyish all the time.
Search for kids (mainly males) that are 12-16 years old and ask them what they want to see ? You're not going to hear "nothing with blood or boobs". It isn't a coincidence that the main target for games like GTA or Call of Duty are 12-16 years old kids. Hell, most of the kids in this age watch porn.
