Hey again! First of all, I am sure that someone is going to have the question of "What the heck is a Studio Ghibli thing doing on my front page?" There is a bit of an explanation for that later on. What ended up happening was yesterday, I spent a rare day messing around with some friends, both male and female, and I asked everyone what they wanted to watch. I have a rather extensive viewing library, like the Christopher Nolan Batman trilogy, The Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, you name it. Oddly enough, the majority of the group wanted to watch the Studio Ghibli epic film Princess Mononoke. We're watching that, and about midway through, one of my folks comes down and made fun of us for watching animated films as college students. We kind of laughed it off, but then someone wanted to pause the movie and ask the question of what is considered too old. Needless to say, a healthy debate followed, and I am going to ask the same thing here and elaborate on my own thoughts of this issue.
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This is a bit of a delicate issue that needs some expansion. Obviously, there are going to be some lines that need to be drawn in this case. The debate that my group had was very interesting. Personally, I feel like there is no concrete definition of being too old to do things. For instance, I am twenty years old, yet I have that five year old child feeling when I'm looking ahead to the next release of Pokemon X and Y, because I have this boyish excitement in exploring new areas. I am strange like that. There are things that I grew up with and held dear, and movies like My Neighbor Totoro or Disney's The Lion King are held very close and in high regard. One of the major questions I want to bring up with this community is, why is it that some adults feel shame knowing that their own sons or daughters like something that they have grown up with? It was not like we grabbed a bunch of old Fisher-Price toys and starting amusing ourselves with them. The thing I like about Studio Ghibli is that their films can be geared towards children yet there are distinct messages that adults can pick up on and enjoy right off the bat. So why is it that some adults just don't pick up on these cues?
At this point, you're probably bored already, and you are wondering why this kind of article is on the front page with no references to video games. Fear not, there is still more to come with that. For future reference, with (almost) every editorial that I come out with, there will always be a reference to a video gaming subject somewhere within the article. Like I said earlier, we were watching Princess Mononoke. One of the driving characters (or, animal, I should say) was the Deer God, who bears a similar resemblance to the legendary Pokemon mascot of the new X and Y games, Xerneas. I did bring this up with the group and of course, we start a debate on the Pokemon franchise, and we were all debating about whether or not we were too old for that, too. I can tell you're probably looking at me like, dude, you need new friends.
It is a wondrous thing that this deer creature from Princess Mononoke could be the spark of a debate that lasted several hours.
Pokemon is an interesting franchise. It is evident that the series is geared towards children; you collect cute monsters and raise them in a battle, but when you go into the nitty gritty, it can be a bit mortifying. I can bring this up with my environmental ethics professor and he would probably go ballistic and declare that animals are hurting each other and how Peter Singer warned that this is bad for the ecosystem. Think about it for a second. You have pets battling each other out for human reward. This is classic environmental ethics in which we as humans are not accounting for the interests of other animals, or in this case, Pokemon. Yes, I am that kind of person. I will turn a happy topic like Pokemon battling, and I will turn it into a morbid sob story, because I like looking at things from another angle. When you look at other aspects of the Pokemon franchise, you realize that there are a lot of elements that most children would probably disregard, such as the competitive battling meta game that underscores the battling system. I can say that no eight or nine year old would be caring much for their Pokemon's EV/IV stats or the importance such systems have on the game. Most kids that I see playing the game do not even know the system exists! Meanwhile, I can go to my university's gaming lounge, and find a full on group of students playing the Pokemon games and discussing the inner workings of the competitive battling system.
This goes back to my primary question: are we ever too old for something? Seeing a bunch of university students playing Pokemon does not seem like the case. I know lots of people in their late forties who still enjoy gaming on the side, or watching animated films or anime in general. Does that feeling of embarrassment and shame really matter in the long run? I feel that as long as I am happy with what I am doing, it should not have to impact my own standing as a person. I should not have to be judged as immature or childish for doing something I enjoy. My doing something that could be considered "childish" in the eyes of an adult should not have to impact my own personal enjoyment and connection with the subject.
I am going to close my argument and say that personal enjoyment is an entirely subjective experience. There are and should not be any specific "rules" that govern whether not something is too old for somebody. However, I do acknowledge that there are lines that need to be drawn. For instance, if I see a father figure person playing with toddler level toys, I would have to raise a questioning eyebrow. Where the lines start to get blurry, however, is where the beauty of a healthy debate can form.
So, with all that being said, I would like to see what the GBAtemp community has in terms of input! I have laid out my argument and ideology on the table with a bit of justification from my own experiences; now, I would like to see you guys talk about this issue as a collective. As usual, please keep it civil!
