“Is it okay to write my college essay about anime?”

As an admissions consultant who is tired of this question, I’m going to go against the grain here. Yes, but it depends on how it is written. You simply need to write it without coming off as awkward.

There are limits to writing your college essay about anime, but we will say you should write about it if you feel that it is meaningful enough to you. There are rules to doing this properly, though; simply follow these steps to ensure your essay won’t get you rejected. You can skip over here to our table of contents to see them.

As such, please let me clarify this point so that we are all on the same page.

There’s this overarching narrative that people who write about childish topics are guaranteed to get put in the ‘rejected pile’ of the Berkeley admissions office. Trust me when I say that I hear this narrative all the time: “If you write about ‘x’, you’ll just get immediately rejected!”

Well, we happen to have this put to the test.

Our average clientele demographic is the following: Asian American who loves video games, loves anime, and is applying for Engineering, Computer Science, or Medicine. We highly encourage our students to write about the topics that inspire them not only because it is true to their hearts, but also because it makes it EASIER for them to write for the admissions office.

From what we’ve seen, most of our applicants have used video games and anime as a subject in their applications. We helped them with editing to ensure it didn’t look awkward, of course, but simply having the topic doesn’t banish them into a sort of ‘college admissions limbo’.

So, what gives? Well, turns out this exaggerated narrative isn’t unique to college admissions.

I’ve worked with students in UCI’s game development program, students in Berkeley’s HAAS business school, and students working with industry professionals in media development at Art Center. No matter where it is, every student has said the same thing about their industry: “MY field is the remorseless battleground where you have to step over eggshells, or else you will NEVER make it in the industry.”

This common misconception is parroted by people all throughout different industries, not just college admissions –and it’s far too exaggerated.  

In short, whenever you hear, “you can’t just write about anime” don’t worry. You can.

However, we would be lying if we said this was a special subject. When we help edit any college essay about anime our students write, we typically follow a few guidelines to ensure that it is appropriate for college admissions.

As such, this article will cover how to write your college essay about anime without sounding weird.

Writing Your College Essay About Anime Without Sounding Awkward

Table of Contents

1. Choosing an appropriate anime
2. Standing out amongst everyone else who writes about anime in the college essay
3. Writing your college essay without sounding awkward
4. Focus on how your topic reveals something about you
5. How does your topic make you a great candidate for the college?

Choosing an Appropriate Anime

Okay, to be frank, there is a surplus of very strange anime shows out there; the overarching culture surrounding it is even weirder.

The admissions officers of every college are human too, just like you! So, they know what anime is and they know to a certain degree what cultural references are involved with some of them. The important thing here is that you can’t just write about any anime at all. Here’s a general rule of thumb.

If you had to describe it to a person at the age of 30-45 working in academia, would they think of it as something weird? If the answer is yes, then you shouldn’t write about it.

For some perspective, writing about Batman and Iron Man works totally fine in admissions essays. These are characters who fight crime dressed in tights, and no one bats an eye –pun intended.

Okay, what is inappropriate?

1. Anything with excessive nudity
2. Anything with excessive violence
3. Anything with excessive language

Now, a lot of anime has this to a certain degree. However, they are mostly teen friendly enough that it works totally fine.

For instance, shows like Inuyasha have a certain level of violence, but its underlying themes and motifs are meaningful and engaging for young adults to think about, and it makes for a great subject.

What we would highly suggest are anime movies that are highly regarded as classics in film. Shows like “Akira” or any works by Hayao Miyazaki such as “Spirited Away” would make for a fantastic admissions essay topic. These topics are meaningful and deep in meaning and would suggest that you have a strong taste in the arts.

If you’re not sure if your subject is worthy of discussion, you may want to consider talking with us to see if it is appropriate for the essay.

Standing out amongst everyone else who writes about anime in the college essay

This is a very important point here.

As stated previously, the majority demographic of our students includes Asian Americans who love both anime and video games. By writing about anime, you will fall into a large category of other Asian American students who already have a disadvantage against their skin and culture due to affirmative action.

Think of writing your college essay about anime as the same scenario as writing your college essay about playing the violin or piano. There is nothing wrong with playing the violin or piano, but because you fall under many other Asian American students you will need to show how you are a unique individual.

What we recommend is using the “Show Don’t Tell” method. You need to demonstrate to readers HOW the world of anime has affected you or made you into a suitable candidate. Although anime is not an uncommon topic in the admissions process, everyone’s experiences with it are unique. Use this fact to your advantage by elaborating more about your experiences and showing it instead of telling it to the admissions officers. This will differentiate your essay and place it in a unique perspective compared to the rest of the application pool.

Writing your college essay without sounding awkward

There is nothing weird about writing your college essay about anime. However, we know that there are ways the topic can easily make it become awkward.

This is mostly just a case of getting less invested in the things that are unimportant and writing more about the things that matter in the essay.

Think of your average Star Wars fan. There are socially awkward Star Wars fans and there are fans who are not. The difference is that the former typically does not know when to not stop talking about it and the latter does.

So, regarding the essay, you should think about when the time and place is right to bring up the details of anime. How much detail should you get into about the shows you like? When do you start talking about how it has affected you?

Below we’ve provided some college essay structures about anime that work and don’t work.

Awkward: ONLY talks about your favorite anime and why it is your favorite anime.

As you can see, the first one does not address the main point of the college essay –to get to know you. This would be the equivalent of going on a nerdy ramble, which would certainly be awkward for college admissions.

Not Awkward: How the archetypal symbols and meanings behind Hayao Miyazaki’s Spirited Away made you closer to your family.

The second option uses anime as a topic but does not let that distract the reader from the main point. This funnels into how the applicant was able to get closer to their family because of the film, and this helps address the problem upfront.

Note: We know that writing your college essay about anime can still be a bit awkward. Some applicants may still feel uneasy bringing it to light in the face of academia. We would still highly endorse writing about what you are most passionate about, even if it is anime. We’ve just seen that our clients had the best results when they wrote about topics that they were most passionate about. If you’re still concerned with your essay sounding awkward, you may want to consider speaking with us about it through a free consultation.

Focus on how your topic reveals something about you

As we’ve stated a few paragraphs earlier, if you are going to write your college essay about anime, it should show some sort of quality about you.

Most of the time, admissions officers do not care so much about the topic that you write about. It matters, of course. However, the focus is what that topic says about you. You need to demonstrate to readers a certain character quality about yourself in relation to the show.

So, let’s say you are a fan of the show Code Geass. Maybe watching the show and seeing Lelouch speak for the first time filled you with a sense of awe and wonder. Both his charisma and his rebellious spirit translated into your own life, as it was something that you always felt but could never act out before.

In short, the world of anime may have helped you develop a stronger personality that also has a positive rippling effect on your academics and your everyday social life.

Makes sense? Great. Here’s another example.

Let’s say you love the show Vampire Knight. It’s not enough to talk about how witnessing a regular girl tame a beast-like man was so exciting for you and how beautiful they were. In this case, it would work better to show how witnessing this ‘Beauty and the Beast’ symbolism was an eye-awakening moment that made you appreciate the beauty that comes from drama. It may have helped you tap into a creative side that you were never aware of as a more logical thinker. (which is very similar to the UC essay prompt 2) This subject would work very well for people who are STEM majors.

How does your topic make you a great candidate for the college?

It is often useful to bring your essay back to the main point that the admissions officers want to know: how does what you write show you are a great candidate?

When writing your college essay about anime, make sure that you address –directly or implied– how your topic makes you into a great candidate for the college.

Perhaps the morals and philosophies you’ve learned from classic anime shows built the foundations of your philosophy now, and it helps you develop your social skills. This would make you a great candidate because a well-developed set of social skills would make you network with other students very well.

Maybe the cheesy fight songs in anime shows helped you get through tough adversities because it hyperbolized your journeys to success. This could make you a great candidate because your appreciation of the blood-pumping music in anime helps you face challenges in a way that many others do not.

Whichever topic it is that you choose, we still highly suggest that you choose to write about anime if you feel passionate about it. Based on the experiences our previous clients had, we’ve seen that students tend to write more successful essays if they write what holds a deep place in their hearts. We’ve had some students write about trading cards and others who wrote about shows they’ve watched as a kid.

Got other burning questions about the college admissions process? Still not confident about writing your college essay about anime? We know that many of our students felt the same; however, we also know that many of those same students were accepted into their target schools. A good handful even made it into their reach schools whilst feeling insecure about their topic. Contact us for a free consultation; we’ll guide you through writing your essay and getting you accepted.