I don't think it's age so much as life experiences...
But they kinda run together.
I mean, someone who has experienced certain emotions *may* be able to relate more to some characters and situations. If not relate to it, at least respond to it and have it impact differently.
If someone has lost a person who was dear to them, scenes from some anime and other movies depicting that can hit home more personally.
I've never lost anyone close to me to death, but there are other emotions and situations that are going to affect me and make me think "how horrible!" just because I've had it happen in my life.
The same is true of good experiences.
Years ago, I had a very, very shallow understanding of love. I'm not claiming to understand every nuance of it, definitely, but I can understand so much more now because I've experienced some of it from different perspectives.
Life experiences involving friendship, trust, betrayal, pain, love, death, struggle... Those will affect every individual in slightly different ways. And seeing them reflected in art and entertainment or in the lives of other people will affect us all differently.
The more you live, the more you experience. The more you live, the older you are... They go hand in hand.
Age is still a factor (the brain does work differently in children than adults and the level of reasoning is different too) but the experience is playing a very large role as well.
Example: maybe a 25 yr old will be looking for a deeper meaning or plot while a 13 year old will be looking for cute characters who have puppy love.... just an example.
I don't think one looks for meaning as much as the meanings and emotions just kinda come to mind... generally. ^^; Yeah, thinking about a movie more and trying to analyze it can facilitate that but again.... I think it's more based on experiences.
Like...
"Oh, that's great that she finally found someone who cares about her!" --totally relating to the character/situation because those emotions and stuff are shared.
or
"I can't believe she's so hung up over that guy. She's so desperate. Do we have to focus so much on this?" --lack of experience in that area... or lack of interest because of individual personality... which is *also* affected by living life.