Don’t try this at home.

Before I begin in earnest, all of you should stop and click on the picture to the left. See that glorious, full-sized image there? That was drawn by our very own Stereoman as a special treat for this post. Why? Well, because I’m a massive nerd who thought a Dr. Strangelove reference would be hilarious, provided the boisterous Texan was replaced by a cute anime girl. The unfortunate implications of her riding on a missile-shaped bomb only became obvious later on. So, an added bonus!

Now, I’m sure you all have a few genres you really love, right? I know I do. My absolute favorite is definitely fantasy, as I’ll watch or read almost anything that involves swords, magic, quests, and maybe a good old war or two. Sci-fi is also really high up there, especially when it’s detailed and thought-provoking, as are romantic comedies for the funny things they do to my insides (because of the laughter, you perverts). And speaking of funny things, yes, I do enjoy a good ecchi show…but I’m not the ecchi writer, I swear! *tsun tsun*

So, does this mean that I only watch shows that fit into those genres? NO! And that’s what this post is about. How many of you have a few favored genres which 95% of the shows you watch fall under? Being the smart and attractive RandomC readers that you are, I’m sure you don’t do that…but let’s pretend you do. When we were working on the last season preview, I compiled a list of all the genres that Divine has used over the last few years. Would you like to guess how many there were? 31. Thirty-one different genres. Of course, many shows straddle multiple genres (hur hur hur), but that’s still a lot. Out of those 31 different genres, what gems might you be missing?

Gems like this one. Look at that and tell me it’s not awesome. You can’t, right? Exactly!

I can almost hear the skeptics. “Stilts my friend,” they’re saying, “why should I watch shows from genres I don’t like? I don’t like them. It’s right there in the name. Also, you smell.” Ouch guys, seriously. That hurts. Okay, here’s why: yes, you don’t like them. You don’t like them yet. But what about tomorrow? And how can you know truly if you don’t occasionally try?

That’s what my “Branching Out” series will be about. Every time I do one of these, I’ll take one genre – or sometimes a single trope or common plot point – and try to convince you that it’s really not all that bad after all, and you should give those kinds of shows a shot. But for today, I’m going to take a more expansive view and talk about something that I think impacts many people’s enjoyment of every show they watch, even among the genres they already enjoy – inappropriately high expectations.

Now, we all know that too much hype can turn a great story into a good one, a good story into a mediocre one, and a mediocre story into a complete and utter trainwreck. I mean, we all saw what happened to Guilty Crown, right? HAH! But joking aside, this is a legitimate problem. Not everything is going to be a masterpiece, but that’s okay. Different stories are good for different reasons, so all you need to do is focus on those attributes in order to enjoy watching them. If a show looks like it’s a silly harem comedy, that’s alright. It doesn’t have to revolutionize anime as an art form for it to be fun. Sometimes, just being a good story with an enjoyable plot and a few memorable scenes is enough. The key is to go in with the right expectations, so you don’t sit down to watch Ichiban Ushiro no Daimou and expect it to be the next Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica. Fortunately, we here at Randomc provide you with an excellent tool for figuring this kind of thing out, in the form of the season previews. I know I’ve used Divine’s insights to great effect in the past, and hopefully the rest of us will be able to keep providing those going forward.

*reads the season preview for Guilty Crown* Eh, nobody’s perfect.

Okay, so now your expectations are set. Now, go ahead and adjust them downwards a bit. I call this tactic “skeptical optimism.” I go into every show thinking that it can entertain me – I specifically allow for that possibility, and for specific reason – but I stay somewhat doubtful that it actually will. I do this because I would rather be pleasantly surprised than disappointed. That’s what skeptical optimism does. That’s why I wasn’t disappointed when Guilty Crown flopped, because I never really expected it to be good in the first place, and why I was so pleased with Ano Natsu de Matteru and Rinne no Lagrange, because they blew my tepid expectations out of the water.

This is a balancing act, of course, and a delicate one at that. You have to make sure not to go too far in either direction, or you’ll end up either opening yourself back up to irrational hype, or becoming so cynical that you’ll never want to try anything new again. I also don’t mean to excuse shows that are genuinely atrocious. All I’m saying is that if you can strike the right balance, you’ll be ready to enjoy all sorts of shows that you wouldn’t even have watched otherwise.

So what do you guys think about Stilts’ Grand Unified Theory of Skeptical Optimism? Is it a good way to approach things, or complete bullshit? Also, feel free to share any stories about your own expectations, such as times you went against the hype and were right, or maybe went along with it and ended up horribly, and perhaps hilariously, wrong. Either way, take it to the comments below! Oh, and remember that if you have any ideas for future topics, you can email them to me at StiltsOutLoud@gmail.com, or message them to me on twitter at @StiltsOutLoud.