In the end I'll never end up avoiding all the woke BS, but in all honesty that's not what's run me off of a lot of entertainment. I'd more call it a side effect of the woke-ness in that I just don't like the content of a lot of Western shows/movies/games anymore. I just don't want to watch them. I also got tired of the one-hour "serious drama" format that's everything now. I had been clamoring for years for half-hour lighthearted content that still had some intelligence behind it, so I really should have tried anime years ago.

Thanks for the link! I totally agree with his Duolingo thing at the top too. I used it to learn hirogana and katakana essentially as flash cards but the rest I've gotten in to has been totally useless. I've tried and failed in even easier languages with all these miracle online learning tools. This time around I'm trying to see if I can channel how I learned to read as a kid (not that I really remember) and try to make my own way. He's got loads of links in that post of resources I've been trying to gather. We will see how it goes but I have hope right now! And free time...