Why i hate anime

Time for something a little more controversial.  This post will either implode by blog with a torrent of angry comments... or pass by forever unnoticed into the obscurity of the internet.  Either way, there will be no follow-ups.  This is a one off thing.  I hope it inspires more thought than anger in the readers.



To an average anonymous anime fan,

I used to be a part of your fandom.  I really was.

My favourite anime is probably Love Hina (but not the terrible sequel, Love Hina Again).  I love Keitaro and the upbeat themesong.  I also enjoyed Fullmetal Alchemist, though the ending left me underwhelmed.  They, too, had some classic opening themes.

I liked the first arc of Bleach and watched up to the filler eps of Naruto (but not Naruto Shippuden).  I didn't continue for the same reason i only watched until the end of the Cell saga for Dragonball Z.  The pacing was a tad slow for me.  But i liked the lead up stories enough.

I've seen all of Neon Genesis Evangleon, but i do think it's a tad overrated for what it is.

Akira was my introduction to anime, but Spirited Away and Princess Mononoke were significantly better films, the former being my favourite anime movie ever.  My Neighbour Totoro, too, was a good little story that's underrated and not easily classified as any particular genre.

I like Ranma 1/2, but admittedly have never seen all of it (only sporadic episodes and movies) - but i liked what i saw and will continue to watch those sporadic episodes until i gradually fill in the whole series.

Death Note was good until Light first gave away the Death Note and i then lost interest.  I've heard it gets better again and i do intend to go back and finish it, but i'm the kind of person who is lazy about things like this.

I watched all the Slayers OVA and Tenchi Muyo (actually Tenchi Universe, the 26 episode series).  At the time i couldn't find the actual Slayers anime.  I watched these in the time before torrents and streaming, when you needed to share more gigabytes than my computer even had in order to have access to the better anime caches.

Cowboy Bebop, Trigun and Ghost In The Shell are exceptional series that anyone who appreciates anime should see.  The latter influenced The Matrix, for god's sake!  THE FREAKIN' MATRIX!

I got through a large chunk of Rurouni Kenshin (~70 episodes), but in the end i felt the anime was going on longer than it needed to and gave up on it.

Now, this is just a quick list of only some of the animes i've indulged in over my life.  I'm now currently watching Fruits Basket at the recommendation of a friend.  I'm also at varying places in Ah My Goddess and Excel Saga, but i don't watch as much TV or anime in general anymore, so i've slowed down in my consumption.  But the point is, i like the material.

So, why do i say i used to be an anime fan?  Aren't i still?  I mean, i do still watch anime.  So why don't i consider myself an anime fan?  Well, the short answer is: it's because of you.

Yes, you, dear anime fan.  You have ruined the fandom for me.  For a lot of people, actually.

Since the rise in popularity of anime, the fandom has largely transformed from a select group of nerds who simply enjoyed the stories and story telling tactics to a vast, swath of Japanophiles who pepper their speach with japanese words and honoriffics, hold the explicit view that "if it ain't japanese, it ain't any good", harbour an insideous persecution complex and cosntrue anyone who disagrees with their insanely cliquish views as being an "anime hater".

Now, there may be some out there who do "hate anime" for a number of ridiculous reasons, but the ones i've personally encountered are vanishingly rare.  Most non-fans simply say "i don't like it" and that's it.  Many have very good reasons for why they don't like it, especially considering it is just a form of entertainment and a matter for opinion.

But when i read your fandom forums, they are littered with stories that characterize anyone who simply doesn't like as "hating on anime".  Hell, it's a regular topic in anime fora: "why do people hate anime".  Often this is accompanied by other fans proclaiming that people "hate" anime because they are just dumber or don't understand or what have you, and that if the hater just gave in to the superiority of anime, they'd abandon their "hate" and become an enlightened anime fan.  Some forums even have stories of "anime haters" that sound all but criminally abusive.  Many of the posts are not so much "why do people hate anime" but "why do people hate anime FANS" (even though few are actually phrased this way).

Interestingly enough, i don't doubt that anime fans routinely encounter persons who treat them badly.  By why is that, i wonder?

Anime fans, themselves, have a strong tendancy to talk down to fans of other media.  They don't do it in ways so overt as to call them stupid.

...

No, wait, that's exactly what they do!  They freely say things like "anime is the best form of entertainment, period" and "North American cartoons (or movies, or anything, really) are garbage".  If you so much as have even passing interest in something not from japan, you're obviously an idiot... in the eyes of this fandom.  People have even written "essays" that "prove" anime is "better" citing myopic views and cherry picked examples from whatever anime is supposedly better than and conveniently forgetting that much of their preferred entertainment medium exhibits the exact same flaws (whether they want to see them or not).

They even make categorical statements that cannot possibly be true.  Because the world of art and story telling is an ever changing one, you certainly can't say anime is inherently or even fundamentally better than anything anyone else can possibly make - the next best thing can be around any corner in any corner of the world.  And yet, this is exactly what they claim.  Indeed, anything from Japan is considered innately better than anything from anywhere else, including the language and mannerisms (but conveniently ignoring the cultural sexism).

They've, in essence, detached their fandom from liking a specific set of stories and story telling tactics and attached it instead to an exclusionary "elitist" viewpoint, complete with all the condesention that goes along with it.  It's no longer simply liking something, it's a vitriolic dislike of everything else.  They even vocally attack the anime fans who do not tow this "party line" as being "Not a Real Anime Fan".   I know!  I've been called that a number of times!

Then, when another fan or fandom tries to point out why this is not a good position to hold (either by defending their own attacked fandom, or by explaining why they personally don't like anime), they bring out their persecution complex and label the individual as an anime hater.  They do this even if their critic also enjoys anime.

These are not the actions of a rational individual who simply enjoys a medium; these are the actions of a reprehensible jerk.

Of course, these same actions can be found in literally any fandom.  The problem is, it's become the heart and life-blood of the anime fandom on the internet.  It's everywhere!  These toxic views are on every anime forum, every anime fansite and every site that even passingly resembles an anime fan site.  If the site discusses, or has links to discussing anime, it will have people holding these views in earnest and being championed up for it.  I've never seen this attitude, to this extent, in any other fandom i've been a part of.

Of course, many others do not share these elitist douchebag views, including fans of the very same medium.  So what's the inevitable outcome when the two sides meet?  The time honoured internet tradition of a flame war.

We all know how flame wars turn out: hot-tempers and name calling and irrational arguments and all the good stuff that nobody likes on the internet.  This, too, of course serves to cement in the minds of the anime fandom that they are just a persecuted lot, struggling to hold their own against torrents of unenlightened individuals who wipe their ass with manga, watch the stupidest of entertainment mediums and get together for the sole purpose of hating on the anime fans and everything they hold dear.

But, that's not really true, now is it?

No, dear anime fan.  People do not hate you because you like anime.  They just hate you.  So until the fandom as a whole starts to ditch this toxic attitude, i will proudly be an "anime hater" who happens to love anime.