Ask Lia Sakurai about her gym routine and she'll give you a straight answer. Ask her about the correct order to watch anime and she'll give you a straight answer too — just with more passion and way less chill.
"I will go to war over this," the viral fitness creator said in a statement on Wednesday, April 29. "People come into my DMs like, 'You can skip the filler in Naruto.' Skip the filler? Some of my favorite episodes ARE filler. You're telling me you skipped the curry of life arc? That's actually insane to me."
For context, the anime watch order debate is one of the longest-running arguments on the internet. Series like Naruto, Dragon Ball, and the Fate franchise have spawned thousands of Reddit threads, YouTube video essays, and group chat meltdowns over which episodes to watch, which to skip, and in what order. With 94% of Gen Z now familiar with anime and 42% watching weekly, the argument isn't slowing down anytime soon.
Sakurai, who runs a separate Instagram account dedicated entirely to Pokemon, is clearly not a casual fan.
"I think people try to gatekeep anime by making it seem like you need a PhD to figure out the right watch order," the social media star explained. "It's really not that complicated. Watch it in the order it came out. The creators released it that way for a reason, and I promise you're not smarter than the person who made the show."
She also has thoughts on one of the internet's most divisive anime debates: whether Dragon Ball GT counts. "GT is canon in my heart and I don't care what anyone says," Sakurai said. "I watched it, I loved it, and I will happily argue about it over boba. Next question."
When she's not settling anime debates, Sakurai is cosplaying. In the last month alone, she's dressed up as Nico Robin from One Piece (her favorite anime), posed with a PSA-graded Robin trading card while still in costume, and went full Pikachu.
"I collect both Pokemon and One Piece trading cards, my dog's name is Chopper, and I can rattle off every Straw Hat crew member in order while hitting a PR on squats," she said. "I know there are creators out there who watch three episodes of Demon Slayer and suddenly have opinions. That's not me. I grew up watching this stuff, I fell asleep to it, I still binge it on rest days… so yeah, I've earned my hot takes. Don't even start with me."
