Those are the words of someone who is unwilling to watch an anime based on the premise alone. You may have heard them before; they’re sually it’s directed at shows in which the initial concept seems odd or a poor choice for being adapted into a story. Cooking, Catholic school girls not having sex, baseball, raising a pet, all of these and more can scare people away, and no matter how much you explain that the premise is just on the surface and not the real selling point, if they can’t get past the idea of the show, then they won’t be able to see that the core of the story where tensions are thick and emotions are powerful.

Consider the theme song to that pioneer of giant robot animation, Mazinger Z. Its lyrics state that Mazinger Z is a castle of black iron, a super robot, and that its invincible power is to be used for us the people. Seems kind of hokey, but the song is delivered with a degree of seriousness where you might end up saying, “You know what? I feel for Mazinger here! It’s really trying its best!”

“Take a topic and take it seriously” is the approach taken, and the ability to accept this idea is something that I think is inherent in most if not all anime and manga fans to some extent. There is a sliding scale based on personal taste and tolerance so that not everyone’s tastes can match up (and no one expects them to), but even accepting the idea that cartoons hold the ability to move people to tears and change their outlook on life can be a stretch for others unaccustomed to viewing anime in that regard.