I was twenty-three before I watched my favorite kids’ cartoons.
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To be fair, I got a late start. Due to life circumstances that were out of my control, I was a heavily sheltered kid (which my heavily sheltered friends will know comes with unique pros and cons).

But then I got older, and those circumstances changed, and I made my own decisions about my media and entertainment. And along the way, I stumbled across some cartoons that became a comfort.

It was easy. I didn’t have to invest too much time, just twenty minutes here or there. No matter what happened, I knew it would work out (mostly) by the end. It was safe. It was familiar. It was comforting.

But it also brought shame with it. After all, I was twenty-three. A grown person. Other people my age watched mature dramas, and I curled up in the corner with Disney Channel reruns.

I figured it was just because I had a late start. I was living the glory days I didn’t have, and sooner or later I’d find those more mature stories.

And don’t get me wrong, I love mature stories, too. (Six of Crows and Arcane, anyone?)

But the opposite happened. I traveled even further down the cartoon wormhole and found even more shows that I love and will pop on after a long day at work.

More than that, I found other adults who feel the same. I can talk about my favorite cartoons around them and not feel silly or childish.

Cartoons aren’t just for kids anymore, and maybe they never were. More and more, shows intended for kids attract older teens and adults with them. (Consider Gravity Falls—while the show is aimed at kids and aired on Disney, the creator recently released a spin-off book exclusively for older teens and adults.)

So, as I put on my favorite cartoons and wind down, I can’t help but wonder why cartoons—and other kids’ media—captivate adults so much.

Does it say something about how we view adulthood?

THE NOSTALGIA FACTOR

The world kinda lacks nostalgia. 

 We get up early, we go to work to make money, but we can’t even spend that money on fun stuff, no, we pay bills and repair our car and get gas. (Don’t get me started on insurance calls.) We come back home exhausted after a full work day, catch up on a few chores around the house, and by then it’s time to fall into bed and scroll news videos that make us feel horrible, but we somehow feel worse if we scroll past.

Kids’ media brings back those simpler times. Sometimes it’s because we grew up with a show and it takes it back. Sometimes (like in my case) we may have never grown up with the show ourselves, but the vibe brings back our childhood anyway.

Not to use a Gravity Falls example again (but I absolutely will), I was about twelve or thirteen when the first season aired. I never watched the show then, but when I did watch it about ten years later, it transported me back to the twelve-year-old me who could wander the woods for hours in my own make-believe world searching for conspiracies.

(In hindsight, it’s good younger me didn’t watch Gravity Falls. Or Phineas and Ferb. She would have been insufferable.)

I wonder if that’s why we come back to the colorful screens of kids’ cartoons and media. Being grown up isn’t all we hoped and dreamed and imagined, and all we want now is to go back to that simpler time. It’s not that we didn’t have problems then—we did, sometimes really big ones. I can’t quite put it in words, but everything felt smaller and bigger all at the same time.

The nostalgia factor can go beyond screens. Like I mentioned, I felt embarrassed for being an adult and loving kids’ media and cartoons. We all think we know what adulthood should look like, and we all study the other adults around us and think they’re absolutely killing it out there.

But deep down inside, even on our best days, we all feel like three kids stacked in a trench coat.

It seems silly to say it all changed with a meme, but it did. I don’t have the screenshot anymore, but it said something like, “your twenties are for enjoying all the same things you loved as a kid, except you’re not embarrassed about it anymore.”

Once I adopted that mindset, nostalgia and wonder didn’t stay in my screen, they colored my life, too. It was okay to do things just because I enjoyed them, even if those things seemed a little silly. It was okay to read a cheesy book because it sounded fun, or to take a walk even if no one else came along. I’m not perfect at it by any stretch, but I’m learning to be myself and to enjoy things—embarrassment free.

This is why I find kids’ media so powerful. It reintroduces wonder and nostalgia into our everyday life.

SIMPLE STORIES, DEEP TRUTH

Remember how I said our childhoods weren’t without their problems? Well, cartoons aren’t either.

Not all those problems were as big a deal as we thought, now that we look back. A squabble with a sibling, or a lost possession, or a silly fear that wouldn’t quite leave us alone.

But we underestimate how big the problems are that kids sometimes deal with. Kid me dealt with big things, even if I didn’t have words for them at the time. And sometimes those hurts, big and small, follow us into adulthood.

Kids’ cartoons and media have a unique stage that allows them to tackle these problems. The stories themselves are simpler—a bad guy must be vanquished or an adventure must be had, and by golly, these colorful two-dimensional characters will find it!

As stunning as complex themes and questions can be, sometimes we need a simple story.

I’ve used Gravity Falls examples so far, so why stop now? One episode in particular struck me, where the monster of the week waited until the main character was tired and frustrated and hurt by a sibling before he attempts a deal.

I could think of so many times and spaces where I felt tired and frustrated and hurt. And it made me consider what “monsters” might poke at those spaces and attempt a deal.

A simple point. Basic, some might even say. But still powerful.

On the other end of the spectrum, another cartoon I enjoyed, The Owl House, dealt with topics like abuse and manipulation—heavy topics, and topics very close to home for me. But within the borders of this fantastical story, they didn’t feel quite so big, and I could approach them more clearly.

Kids’ cartoons and media create a safe space. They can tackle deep topics so well because they’re simple.

We seek out cartoons to relax, to unwind. Through their structure and predictability, their color and humor, they build a safe space each morning or evening or whenever we press play. They give us a safe space to talk about the things that bother us, maybe things that have bothered us for a long time. Sometimes they put plain words to thoughts that swirl around our heads.

So yeah, I still watch cartoons, even though I’m a grown-up. But now I’m not quite so embarrassed about it. Because at day’s end, there’s something special about seeking out nostalgia and wonder—the wonderful things that God placed here for us to find. I’m pretty sure He didn’t mean for us to drudge through our lives. Life can be hard but there’s still things to enjoy.

And at day’s end, there’s something special about saying deep things in a simple way. We all need those spaces. We all need that wonder.

Maybe, we all need cartoons.

What are your favorite cartoons? Drop them in the comments below—I’m always looking for recs. While I’m at it, I’ll share my faves, too.


Hi, I’m Rachel! I write young adult/new adult fantasy novels that walk the line between the darker elements of fantasy and the weirder elements of cartoons. But more importantly, I write the novels I needed growing up—the novels I still need. Novels for the weird little girls and the women they’re becoming.

Maybe you need those stories, too? You can get one for free by signing up for my email newsletter via the “HOME” page of my website. It might involve a girl and the magical violin she didn’t want, plus maybe a metaphor about grief? Plus, you’ll also get email-exclusive updates about what I’m reading, watching, and writing. Sound good? I hope I’ll see you there! 

Alright, guys, buckle up. It’s hyperfixation time.

One of my favorite media pieces that I watched last year was the TV show Arcane: League of Legends. A friend recommended it, so I started it blind with no expectations. It blew me away. Season 1 is one of the best-written stories I’ve ever watched, and Season 2, while more plot-based, still concludes the series excellently.

And why do I have a blog if I don’t give my favorite stories some love sometimes?

(Note: Arcane deals with a fair share of mature/sensitive topics and content. Use discretion if you search it up for yourself.) 
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Beauty and Brutality

First off, the art is absolutely gorgeous. I have never seen anything like this animation and art style. This show could have zero plot and I’d watch it just for the animation. Everything is high quality—the music, the sound design, the writing. And all those pieces come together flawlessly.

The beautiful imagery contrasts with the absolute brutality of the topics they approach. This show doesn’t shy away from hard topics. Amidst the gorgeous images, the show captures impoverished cities and the aftermath of war with an unflinching eye. It made sure this contrast haunted me long after I clicked past the final episode.

One instance that stuck with me ever since the first episode is a scene where the protagonists fight a rival gang. During the frenetic combat, it slows down and shows us the fight through the eyes of a small girl cowered in the corner.

Similarly, when poisonous gases flood a rival city, for a brief moment, it cuts to the kids who watch and point at it like a fireworks show.

Moments like those did more than a thousand other images. It reminded me that sometimes less is more, especially when it comes to hard topics. I don’t remember which author said it, about how when you write about war, you don’t need every gritty detail, you show a child’s sandal abandoned in the road. Arcane did this expertly.

This show chases the places where those two concepts—beauty and brutality—intersect. It finds the beautiful in brutal things and the brutal in beautiful things. 

Choices and Characters

One of my favorite things to ask people who have seen the show is who their favorite character was. I love seeing how different people gravitated to different characters.

I connected so deeply with some of these characters, deeper than I have in a long time. And even the ones that I felt less in common with still drew me in through their emotions and experiences. I understood why everyone did what they did, even when I hated what they did. Season 1 connected me so well with these characters that when Season 2 (which is much larger-scale and more plot-focused) rolled around, I kept coming back.

And every character has amazing things about them and horrible things about them. They can do both amazing good and incredible evil. They could have the best intentions and execute them in the worst way, or vice versa.

No one is ever truly the hero or ever truly the villain in Arcane. And that’s the most important thing about this show to me. I watch these characters make choices—sometimes small, some big, some good, some bad—with far-reaching consequences. 

And all those choices are rooted so deeply in their desires, the very desires that made me relate to them. 

It forces me to make the leap from the choices I watch on screen, to the points where I relate to the characters, to the choices I make in real life. Because realizing why I connected with my favorite characters shows me myself and my thinking. And the choices I see my favorite characters make force me to look hard at myself.

Sure, this is a far out and fantastical world. Sure, I’ll likely never face some of these choices.

But what about me? Would I make the same choices? What choices do I make—good and bad—and where might they lead? It forced me to examine the wants and needs that drive me—and how far I would go to get those.

It also shows how an innocent choice that you make can affect all those around you. While that idea can induce a bit of anxiety, it also emphasizes that you choose how you react. Sometimes things happen to you that you cannot control, things that you don’t want and you never asked for. But everybody chooses how to respond to it, how to take it back and make it their own. Sometimes good, sometimes not.

That’s why Arcane works. Beauty and brutality, choices and desires, it dives deep into the things that make us all human.

And that’s why it’s so beautiful, why it’s so brutal. Because a storyteller can create the most stunning images, they can nail all the story mechanics, but if they don’t hide a piece of themselves in it, it’s hollow.

That’s the whole reason we make art. To probe those deep dark places that we won’t open to anyone else. To feel a little less alone. To explore the world and everything that makes us us.

Sometimes it’s good to have a story that I can absolutely lost in for a few hours. But it’s even better when I can come out of that story not only having grown and learned as a writer, but as a person, too. That’s what Arcane did for me.

Have you watched Arcane? What did you think of it?

Even if you haven’t watched Arcane, what have you been watching and reading this month? Let me know in the comments! I’m always looking for a good recommendation.