So you’ve watched a little anime at the behest of your elitist, incessantly badgering nerd friend and you just aren’t into it. That’s okay. It’s not for everyone, but let us make a last ditch effort to get you to give it another shot.

• But I don’t speak Japanese!

Unless you want to watch the most obscure things the second they launch, this is rarely an issue. Practically anything worth watching is subtitled and available to a Western community almost immediately via many different providers. It will take longer if you want English voiceovers, but there are already a ton of fantastic shows with English dubs for you to test the waters.

• I like to multitask. I can’t watch something with subtitles while I do other things.

Avoiding subtitles will drastically limit the amount of content available to you, but many of the greatest shows get English dubs. As animation has become more mainstream, the quality of voiceovers has also drastically improved. It’s now very easy to find crisp, well-acted dubs from incredibly talented people.

• I can’t read while I watch. I feel like I miss too much.

It doesn’t take a blazing fast reading speed to keep up with most animations (but of course, there are exceptions). Most series have casual dialogue, so the speaking pace is much slower than a reading pace. It might take a couple hours of subtitles to really get used to them, but it becomes an unconscious activity very quickly. It’s not generally something you can try for ten minutes and make natural. You’ll have to invest time in this with the understanding that it will pay off. Before long you won’t even register that you’re reading.

• Cartoons are for kids, though.

No one can pretend that a disproportionate amount of anime isn’t about high school kids doing high school kid stuff, but that’s why this site exists — to help you find things that don’t make you feel like your sentience is slipping away. There are a great number of quality series which deal with real-world issues: politics, spirituality, violence, depression, and so on. The best animations are the ones we can relate to on deep levels. There’s something for everyone. Sometimes it’s great to just escape and laugh, too.

• I don’t like the character stereotypes.

So you don’t like any television or movies at all? “Smart introverted guy with glasses” meets “selfless hero who only cares about the welfare of others” is hardly characterization unique to Japanese animation. True enough that being drowned in that sort of generic writing can be a huge turn-off, but BA is here to make sure that doesn’t happen to you.

• My friend won’t shut up about a series. I’m tired of hearing about it and I haven’t even seen it yet. He’s told me so many spoilers that I feel like I know the whole plot already. He won’t just let me watch in silence without telling me, “Oh! This part is good!” Every time we talk all he asks is, “Did you see it yet?”

Get. Better. Friends.