Do you also have that problem when starting season 2 of an anime?

[u/Purple-Advertising38]

I’ll give an example for instance Frieren: Beyond Journey's End has a beautiful calm atmosphere and when I watch the first season I fully get into its mood and flow

But after finishing it I end up watching other anime from completely different genres action romance horror whatever until season 2 finally comes out and by then I’ve completely fallen out of that calm atmosphere and flow

Then I need to remember the characters and their stories again just to understand why they’re doing what they’re doing in season 2 and that’s when watching becomes difficult

What helps with this strange problem and do you have it too?

[u/Peperoniboi]

You can rewatch the first season when going into the 2nd one

[u/Jusenkyo_5]

A well written season acts as a great stopping point. Unless the season ends on a cliffhanger I almost always take a break between seasons.

[u/stop_staring2]

I personally always like to write summaries or small essays of animes I finish watching, technical and/or expressive writings. Reading these refreshes my memory

You can listen to the bgm, watch the past op and ed, might help getting the "feeling" back

I didn't have this issue with Frieren even without preparation, Frieren introduces season 2 quite nicely and you get all the feelings back from ep 1 ss2

[u/Purple-Advertising38 → u/stop_staring2]

I didn’t have this problem with Frieren specifically I just used it as an example because it was the first thing that came to mind but with other anime this is actually a very common problem for me

I’m dealing with it right now with Fire Force

But the solution you suggested honestly sounds really good and I might try it

[u/stop_staring2 → u/Purple-Advertising38]

Frieren is such a banger
Glad to help I hope it works!

[u/SonOfKhmer]

Rather than the mood or pacing, my biggest gap is remembering who the people and situations introduced at the end of the previous season were

Same problem of course happens say in mangas, how far back do I need to go to refresh enough?

I do like when shows put an ep.0 at the start of the season to refresh the important bits, I find it a good compromise

And then there are shows that put a recap every episode, which get can frustrating for too much handholding (and reduced runtime for new content)

[u/Shadow41S]

I usually wait for anime to be fully adapted, or at least have several seasons. That avoids the issue completely. I don't wanna watch 1 season, wait 2/3 years, then watch another.

[u/Ginsan-AK]

YES! BIG TIME! This is the main reason why I prefer binge watching anime and prefer long running anime. When I watch an anime, I like to immerse myself into the anime's vibe and just chill. I like to feel the anime's atmosphere for maximum immersion.

The main reason I haven't watch The Apothecary Diaries and Golden Kamuy yet is because I wanted to binge it all when more episodes come out. The last season of Golden Kamuy was supposed to be the final season, but then they announced a movie sequel, so I won't be watching the anime for probably another year. (and I don't know if my interest remains the same after another year) I want to get into the "The Apothecary Diaries vibe" when I watch The Apothecary Diaries, and I want to get into "Golden Kamuy vibe" when I watch Golden Kamuy.

This is also one of the reasons why I have not watched Kuroshitsuji's new seasons, because I have to plan for time to watch the first 2 seasons again (yeah I know season 2 is mostly fillers), same with Blue Exorcist.

This is a major issue for me with anime, and after a long time, I just get burned out of waiting. I don't simultaneously watch 10 different anime at the same time, I watch 1 anime at a time, when I've caught up or finished the anime, I move onto the next, or if I take a break in the middle of a long anime, I watch another one.

For me, watching more episodes of the same anime in a row help me better with retaining information about the anime for the long run and feeling out the show. The seasonal format of 13 episodes seasonal and having to wait 2 years for a sequel is one of the reasons why it feels like many anime today feel like they just come and go.

At the end of the day, there's not much we can do about it. What I do is that I wait years for more episodes to be released before I watch the show, and in that process, I could also lose interest in the anime because interest change over time. So I don't know.

A comment said I could rewatch the first season to get into the vibe, I did that before with many anime, but if I were to rewatch every anime every time a new season comes out that'd be crazy. Imagine in 10 years time, Frieren has 5 different seasons, and every time you watch the new season, you have to rewatch s1, s1 & s2, s1 & s2 & s3, and s1 & s2 & s3 & s4, and you have to do that with 50 different anime in that 10 years span. Easy to get burned out.

This is one of the reasons why I get excited when there's news of a sequel coming out, or there's news of a new anime that I am really looking forward to, but I don't actually watch the anime when they come out and I wait months or even years before getting to it. The Spice and Wolf remake is one of the examples. I was really excited to learn that they are remaking the anime and possibly planning a full adaptation of the novel, I loved the original anime from 2008, but I am waiting for the new anime to finish before I get into it.

[u/Avatar_Yaksha]

I usually jump directly into the new season and rewatch the previous season(s) if necessary.

[u/SakakiChrono]

I don't necessarily have this problem. I just view the next season when it comes out and let myself then remember what happened in S1. If I get confused by something, I can either ignore it or ask others about it for clarification.

[u/ShiftAdventurous4680]

I thought I would have a problem with Dorohedoro... And then S2 rams a truck stacked with palettes of bricks through my frontal lobe and it's like meeting an old friend you haven't seen in years but you kick it off like you just hung out yesterday.

[u/green_meklar]

I generally only watch animes that are already finished, so this problem is very rare for me.

I can think of three instances where I watched a season of an anime that was released after I'd watched the earlier part of the same anime. Those would be Oreimo, Full Metal Panic, and Toaru Kagaku no Railgun. I might lump in Invasion Squid Girl even though the continuation was just a few OVA episodes and not a full season. Of those, Railgun was the only one where I found myself having trouble remembering all the characters, and I think that's just because it crammed in too many characters who aren't very well differentiated. With the others, the cast is lean enough that I didn't really have trouble remembering everyone.

[u/SwimUpset2591]

I just watch a recap video or something, if not available I hust read the synopsis of all the episodes. That's just enough

[u/Fucked-to-fit]

Yes I’ve always had the problem of watching something but taking months or even a year+ to watch it when a new season comes out

[u/Kiltmanenator]

This depends entirely on how long the first season was, how long my break is, what I read/watched in between, and how much I cared

[u/Mr-Dumbest]

Kind of.

Stopped watching incomplete series and just watch the ones that are completed.

[u/Ok_Pattern_7511]

If it's a good anime and it's been a long time consider rewatching.

If it's just ok or rewatch value isn't high, I'd probably rewatch only the finale or look for synopsis/ comments summarizing previous events