After reading this thread, I can relate to you. Like you, I was big anime fan, but my interest has weaned over the past few months. Part of this reason has been after becoming much more serious about my walk with Christ. One of the biggest problems with anime is the amount of sexuality present in most of those series. Part of this is due to Japan being a highly secular nation, and with the entertainment industry, sex sells. Another reason that caused me to significantly wean from anime was about two years ago, I saw an extremely good anime series that made many other series after that look pale.
However, there are problems with entertainment. To quote Leonard Ravenhill, "the devil's substitute for joy is entertainment". Many seek their joy in this sinful world and not in the Lord. Jesus must be number one in our lives. He is everything or he is nothing. Anything else what we make above the Lord is idolatry and no idolater shall enter into heaven. Also, a few months ago, I received a dream, where a man named Jan "Justice" Boshoff, also known as FinalCall07, was telling his internet audience that anime is demonic (I think). There is likely some truth to this statement for Satan and the demons are using the entertainment industry to lure many people to hell. The Lord has shown this truth through his prophets like Angelica Zambrano, Rodolfo Acevedez Hernandez, Rachael Mushala, and Zipporah Mushala. They were shown how demons disguise themselves as cartoon characters in shows like Pokemon, Dragon Ball Z, Ben 10, Doral, Scooby Doo, Disney's Cinderella, Disney's Little Mermaid, Disney's Beauty and the Beast, and in Nintendo Games.
If we look into the Bible, those who are friends of this world are enemies against God (James 4:4). We are told not to love the world, neither the things in this world, for he who loves the world, has not the love of the Father (1 John 2:15). We most be HOLY, RIGHTEOUS, and BLAMELESS in these final minutes before the great tribulation.
You said that you and your wife were planning on having kids. I would advise not having them, for the hour of our Lord's return is very, very near. It would be hard on you, your wife, and your children if you all happen to miss the rapture. If you do indeed have a television, I would advise you throw it into the trash, along with some of your merchandise.
I would advise do it slowly and make sure you do so out of love for God. A few months ago, I had some hobbies that I really like (and part of me still likes) that I gave up because I thought that they were idols. Unfortunately, I fell into the problems that aiki mentioned because my motives were not out of love, but out fear of ending up in hell.
May Jesus bless you.
My wife and I are both saved, bought by the blood of Christ, and our hope is sure and steadfast. There is no possibility of us "missing the rapture," no matter our condition. There is no entertainment or sin of any kind that could land us in Hell because we have already been made to "sit together in heavenly places in Christ." Be careful not mock the work of Christ or cheapen the price He paid by assuming it to be so frail as to be made of no effect by a TV show.
Every generation of saints has believed that theirs was likely the last and that the Lord's return was imminent. I also believe that His return is very soon, all the signs point to it. But if all of those believers throughout the 2000 years of church history stopped having kids as a result of their sense of urgency, we would likely not have any Christians today. (See what happened to the Shakers:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shakers)
I think it's wise to live like the Lord's coming back tomorrow, and plan like he's coming back in 1,000 years. Neither you nor anyone else knows when the Lord is coming back, not even the angels in heaven know. So you must live with the boldness and vigilance of believing this day could be your last. But you also still need to be sensible, for instance saving money against the future. If the Lord comes back today, then great! You never needed that money. But if He tarries, you'll be glad that you did save. The same logic applies to having children, as they are your most precious investment in the future.
I also would advise taking any "revelation" from any dream that you have with a gigantic grain of salt. The primary source of revelation is God's word. The second best source is the *consensus* of other believers (which is why I would also advise taking the testimony of the "prophets" you mentioned with another massive salt-grain, because their individual, separate experiences are not anywhere near as trustworthy as the simple, corporate prayer and counsel of your local church body.) The third best is your own conscience and the voice of the Spirit within you. Dreams are a very, very distant fourth or fifth or thirty-eighth.
(This is not to say that these people's experiences and your own dreams are always invalid. Some of them may actually be true, for "in the last days... your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams." My point is that those types of sources are not reliable and should not be with anywhere near as much reverence as the scriptures themselves. Anyone can say they've had a vision and make up all kinds of things, which is the source of many of the heresies and cults in the pseudo-Christian world. The closure of the canon of scripture is a *very* important doctrine for this reason.)
As for demons masquerading as cartoon characters... well, it is true that Satan is the prince of this world, and he bends the media and the economy and culture and politics to his will. That is not the same thing as saying that children's cartoons are almost universally demonized and extremely dangerous. Remember that there are many Christians who are involved in the creation of such media, and even the content creators who aren't Christians are still made in the image of God and capable of making something worthwhile from time to time. Beauty and the Beast is a fabulous story, and much of the media you referenced is honestly completely harmless. Fiction is just fiction, meaning it's not real. It should only be handled with such absolute caution if the viewer is extremely impressionable and unable to discern truth from falsehood.
All that said, the thrust of your post is not wrong. We do need to reject the world to draw closer to Christ, and we are called to walk blameless before Him. Friendship with the world *is* enmity with God. While I don't see any of our hobbies as idols, (really just diversions), the fact that they bother me so much is something that crowds my thinking, and I often start weighing this issue over and over when I'm trying to pray or focus on the things of the Lord. I don't want any affection I have for anything in the world, or any doubt about anything I do, to add any noise to my communication and communion with the Lord: I want to be able to focus on Him alone during those times of fellowship. I don't want my prayers to constantly be "Lord help me sort this issue," but simply dwelling on His person and work.
Perhaps I'm getting things backwards... perhaps, because I'm focusing so much on whether this is OK or not, my prayers are cluttered and ineffective. Maybe I should approach this from the other direction: simply to focus on Him and let the pruning happen on its own. Perhaps I should follow the advice of the old chorus: "Turn your eyes upon Jesus, look full in his wonderful face, and the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace."
I really haven't been that close to God recently with my prayer life, so that's probably why my sense of direction on this issue is so weak. And that lack of closeness really has nothing to do with the media I've typically consumed: some of my closest times with God have been during points in my life where I didn't really think twice about seeing animated thighs. It's really all about how much time you spend with Him, and recently that amount has been dismally low, simply because I got out of the habit of meeting with Him yet again. I think the thing you all can pray for the most is simply for me and my wife to be faithful to pray and eat the word together every day, as we intend to do but fail to do. That's certainly more important than cartoon selection, and will surely bring light to this issue through the voice of the Spirit growing stronger again in our hearts.
