Get in the Robot’s Dorrie Sacks Reveals Her Favorite Empowering and Experimental Anime

We've recently become a little bit obsessed with Frederator's Get in the Robot YouTube channel.

The channel is made for anime-lovers, by anime-lovers, and got us thinking that we don't talk about the amazing medium nearly enough on Sweety High. To get the ball rolling, we decided to reach out to one of the show's fabulous hosts, Dorrie Sacks, who gave us the inside scoop on the channel and generously shared her passion for anime with us.

Sweety High: How did you fall in love with anime?

Dorrie Sacks: I've loved anime ever since I was a little kid, when I watched a lot of Pokémon and Hamtaro with my brother. He lost interest when he got more into sports, but I stayed interested. I continued to play a lot of Pokémon, but it wasn't until middle school that I started to explore more anime. I had friends who drew manga and introduced me to silly shows like Detective Conan, and throughout high school, I continued discovering more shows I loved. Anime always spoke to me. I always thought it was fun and interesting, and the stories were all incredibly creative.

(Detective Conan via NNS)

SH: How did you get involved with Get in the Robot? 

DS:  I got involved with Get in the Robot in late Oct. after graduating from college about a year ago. Before that, I was doing freelance copywriting, but I didn't really enjoy it. When I found the Get in the Robot job listing, I was interested but a little afraid to apply at first because I was nervous about being on camera. I'd done voice acting and radio DJing in the past and loved that, but not really anything visual, besides theatre. Still, I realized I had all the prerequisites and it seemed like a really interesting opportunity that could get me out of my comfort zone, so I applied. A couple days later, I had the interview, and then a couple weeks later I got the job. It's been the most incredible thing working for Frederator and Get in the Robot. They're all so nice, and I look up to the other hosts so much. They're all very inspiring to me.

 

SH: What do you love most about the channel?

DS:  The team's ideas are so creative. On one end, we'll do these fun videos like assign Pokémon to My Hero Academia characters or speculate about what would happen if a couple of characters had a baby, and on the other end, we'll do really interesting deep dives, which I really enjoy. I wrote a visual novel piece where I got to do a lot of research and learn a lot of new things, so I like that there are two ends of the channel for all sorts of viewers.

 

SH: What are your favorite streaming services for watching anime?

DS: VRV is really great. They have a ton of anime on there, and it's not that expensive. Crunchyroll is good, and even Netflix is getting a ton of anime right now. They're a great option because there's a good chance you already have it, and the anime is just an added bonus. Soon they'll be dropping Neon Genesis Evangelion, which is huge, because it's been so impossible to find a legal way to stream it for years.

(Neon Genesis Evangelion via TV Tokyo)

 

SH: Which anime series have you been most obsessed with lately?

DS: I just finished Mob Psycho 100 and it blew me away. It's probably one of the best anime I've ever seen. As much as I love anime, I find that in a lot of shows there just isn't that much visually interesting stuff going on. For a lot of reasons, including industry stuff, a lot of anime is just a lot of mouths moving. But Mob Psycho is so visually experimental. They play a lot with the characters and the animation. I'm really obsessed with it.

If you read the manga, you'll notice that the art style is really primitive because the mangaka [manga author] can't draw. That's the joke. But Studio Bones did an incredible job with the show, making the characters so expressive—the character Reigen especially. Everything he does is so amusing to me and I think he's my new anime crush. Usually, I fall in love with female characters, but every now and then you find that one male character who's kind of cool and not a complete jerk.

(Mob Psycho 100 via Tokyo MX)

It's also really introspective. The main character has incredible psychic powers, but he doesn't want to use those abilities to become popular or powerful. He just wants to be seen as another normal person and impress people by working on his other skills. I find that very inspiring. Even though he has these talents, he chooses to treat other people how he would want them to treat him.

(Mob Psycho 100 via Tokyo MX)

 

SH: What are your favorite anime series that you feel are empowering for women?

DS: Any magical girls series. Sailor Moon is always great, and Madoka is probably my favorite anime. When I watched that as a teenager, I found the characters so relatable. They're young and impressionable, and even the problems they face are different than ours, the feelings are the same, and it feels realistic in that way.

(Puella Magi Madoka Magica via MBS)

Still, it can be kind of tough in the world of anime. I don't always feel like the medium has the best female representation, and when they do have strong female characters, they're often dressed in very little clothing—but that's a whole other conversation.

A couple of wardrobe choices aside, My Hero Academia can be pretty empowering to young girls because all of the girls in class 1-A are so cool. Uraraka and Froppy are both great. Shounen is changing and it's becoming a lot more welcoming for female viewers. It's not just a boy's club anymore.

(My Hero Academia via JNN)

 

SH: What are some great series you think people are really sleeping on right now?

DS: More people should definitely watch The Promised Neverland, and I obviously think everyone should be watching Mob Psycho! Also, Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid is getting a second season, and I don't really hear enough about that show, but I love it. It has a lot of really compelling female characters and some nice queer representation there, though it could be better. I think people also slept on Bloom Into You, which features a very wholesome young lesbian relationship that just feels very real. Not a lot of people are talking about that show, so I wish it got more love.

(Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid via Tokyo MX)

 

SH: If someone is just getting into anime, where do you think is the best place to start?

DS: Popular shounen series like My Hero Academia, or even The Promised Neverland are great places to start. They're very easy to understand and the conventions aren't super Japanese. I think what scares a lot of western viewers away is that they don't always understand Japanese customs and jokes. It can be good to ease into it starting with a series that feels more familiar.

Cowboy Bebop is another great one to start with. It's one of my favorite series ever and it's western-inspired, with all of these references to old films and musical genres. It just blows my mind. There's going to be a live-action adaptation on Netflix and it actually sounds like it'll be good. The cast is really diverse, which is definitely welcome.

(Cowboy Bebop via TV Tokyo)

 

SH: Anything else you'd like to add?

DS:  It always makes me so happy to see that girls are watching Get in the Robot. I think it's so important that they can see women like me and Cristal [Marie] talk about anime. When I was young, I was certainly teased for liking Pokémon a lot. It's important for girls to see faces like ours and see that we have the same interests. They're not alone, and they should feel open to like what they like and not feel like they have to conform.

 

If you adore anime, click HERE to find out why you might also like Viz Media' first video game, The World Next Door.