I am watching am older anime called Shiro Bakko right now (white box) and there isn't any romance in sight. It's just a bunch of young women trying to follow their passion and make Anime. If you like slice of life Anime I highly recommend it. July 30, 2021 at 12:01AM

That's not forced romance, that's the "women as reward" trope. July 29, 2021 at 11:59PM

I am exactly the same way. Incest revulsion is triggered for me by people who grew up as siblings and went through puberty together. It results in some weird opinions.. For example I am comfortable with the idea of Captain Jack Harkness meeting himself or the relationship in the Loki TV series (though I was hoping it was just platonic or romantic). BUT the idea of Iris and Barry in CWs The Flash makes me want to throw up in my mouth. It's worse because Detective West who raised Barry from 10 and is a great father to Barry also ships that.🤢 July 29, 2021 at 11:54PM

By "trying out" the label you mean embracing it as a way of defining myself while I figure everything out? I guess it makes sense. But I just kind of feel my orientation and my "position" on the ace spectrum too vague yet to take on one label or the other. Maybe just "asexual" feels vague enough for me if I think about it in that sense. At least for now. July 29, 2021 at 11:52PM

It really depends. I think that romance for younger people is fine since younger often people do feel romance and in fact during adolescent it's a big deal and learning to navigate romantic and sexual relationships is a large part of growing up for a large number of people. I do think that there is an over focus on romance based on the percentage of stories where it is the sole focus vs the percentage of stories that don't focus or include it at all. I think you only need to be worried about liking youth romance if you are an adult that finds it romantically or sexually titillating rather than sweet, nice, relatable, or neutral. Also maybe if consuming it turns you into the "nosey aunt" of the young people in your actual life (aka obsession with pairing off people, specifically young people). July 29, 2021 at 11:47PM

I would also recommend Hilda. It gave a similar vibe. I would disagree with the the Aang and Katara relationship being detrimental to the plot I thought it was fine not super interesting but it's a decent representation of a young relationship. Both characters make mistakes and there are some tropes which are flimsy premises for plot. My main problem with it is that I hate the "main protagonist finds true love" trope, especially if it's their first love. Most people don't marry their first crush. July 29, 2021 at 11:46PM

City of ember while not an animation is a boy/girl adventure without romance July 29, 2021 at 11:43PM