As I’m sure you know many of us watch anime for many different reasons. Some for the art, some for the dialogue, and some for the adventure. But now I wonder if anime has ever inspired you in the real world?
For me I can honestly say that it has. Anime has inspired me to be myself. It also helped me with being confident. Well maybe not anime overall but particular shows or characters inspired me to work on myself.
Also it sometimes inspired my style. There are definitely times that I remember watching a show and then trying to copy some of the characters more simpler styles. You know the ones that didn’t require 0 gravity to actually do. But the girls ponytails or bangs I used to try and copy.
Also many of the outfits that the characters wore would inspire me to look beyond my style and look for things I found to be really cute.
Writing this post made me realize that anime has inspired me a lot. I mean even this blog and my YouTube channel are inspired by anime. Without anime I don’t think that I would’ve started either. Anime gave me a hobby that I enjoy and also many friends.
So has anime inspired you? If so then in what ways? Think hard and if you like you can share your thoughts in the comments.
~Shay Taree
Shay Taree 
This is a very personal one, but I think watching anime inspired me to overcome a debilitating drug addiction.
I’m a recovering addict of benzodiazepines (prescription anti-anxiety meds like Xanax, Klonopin, etc.) and it got to the point where I almost died from overdose. At the beginning of the year I was having brutal withdrawal symptoms – vomiting, the shakes, rebound anxiety – and all I could really do was watch TV. I ended up binging 3 seasons of My Hero Academia in just a couple weeks, and watching Deku work so hard to overcome his shortcomings and be a great hero was so inspiring. I thought that hey, if this kid can do all this, than surely I can be a hero too – at least for myself first! So as soon as I felt better I started going to recovery groups and meetings, and now I am 10 months clean from pills. So I guess you could say watching anime helped inspire me to work on myself this year and try to be a better person.
This is so awesome and congratulations on your 10 months of sobriety! Thank you so much for sharing your story! It’s great that anime has helped so many of us in so many ways and it seems like the connection we all share with this medium is the characters. There seems to always be a character that we can relate to or whom has helped us to overcome something major in our lives.