WHEN DID ANIME FANDOM CHANGE?
I’m an anime fan. I’ve been one for quite some time. One of the things that I’ve loved about being a fan of anime is the camaraderie. When I was a kid, if I knew you and you were my peer I’d see everyday, that means we probably watched anime together or talked about it every time we saw each other.
If you were a stranger and you had an anime shirt I’d come talk to you about your shirt and why I admire that shirt. It’s amazing how I have social anxiety any other time but if I see anything anime related on a stranger all that social anxiety shit goes out the window. The love of anime culture is just that strong.
It was simple. We watched something. We discussed it. We shared excitement for the next episodes. We did this for every anime we watched. Not just anime. We did this with cartoons and tv shows. We did this with music to a certain extent. It was all about joy. It was about fun. It was about sharing what we related to the most.
Mind you, when I was a kid anime was NOT super popular in America yet. Yes Toonami existed but anime wasn’t the big business it is today. Anime streaming sites weren’t a thing. If you aint have a dvd or it wasn’t on YouTube you weren’t seeing it on your own time. There were no anime cons. Anime t-shirts were not in Walmart or Target. You literally had to get anime shirts imported from Japan.
At that time, a lot of people thought you were weird for being into anime. So if you really fucked with anime it was because you really enjoyed it and loved to see others enjoy it. It felt like a cult minus the weird brainwashing shit.
Fast forward to today. It changed. The joy was traded in for discourse. The love was traded in for hot takes. The actual discussion points were traded in for comparison and we all know what they say about comparison.
“Comparison is the thief of joy.”
All the fandom today is arguing about what’s better than the next.
All the fandom today is saying outrageously bad things about a series just to get engagement.
When the fandom placed hot takes above actual conversation on how an anime made them feel and made hot takes have more priority than actual perspective I knew that that era of anime fandom I grew up in was dead.
I could sit up here and say Big 3 fandoms or shonen fandoms ruined everything and I low key wouldn’t be wrong about it but I just think it’s stan culture in general.
I kid you not. I saw a person say “Jujutsu Kaisen fans have been quiet this season so Jujutsu Kaisen is not making any noise.” You see how dumb this shit sounds? What if the fans are just enjoying the series like a normal fucking fan?
Since when does an anime trending on social media mean anything? Since when do we give a fuck about an anime “breaking the internet?” If your only concern about an anime is if it “broke the internet” then you’re a sad ass dork.
Weird ass niggas only give a fuck about anime breaking the internet to further their discourse with other weird ass niggas they argue with. They’re not genuinely happy for the animators and creators who bust their ass to make the anime. They’re only excited to go back on the internet to pollute the fandom with their bullshit. These dweebs are only excited about their agendas and nothing more.
Why in the fuck would I care about characters Luffy can or cannot beat and they’re not apart of the One Piece verse? When I was a kid we did shit like this with power rangers. Debate about which power ranger is the strongest. Nothing wrong with it but it was within their verse.
When I was excited about Gear 5 the past 2 weeks I never brought up another anime. I said it was the best transformation I ever saw and left it at that. I don’t care if you agree or disagree because it’s my life. How the fuck can anybody tell me what’s the best for me? I share my excitement for those who are excited just like me. I’m not sharing my excitement to shit on other people who like other things.
The inability for these weirdos to watch and like more than one thing is beating they ass. I liked the Gear 5 episodes. I liked the Zom 100 episodes. I like the Bleach episodes. I talk about all the episodes and I enjoy them all. I don’t make how I feel about an anime someone else’s problem on the internet. I share my enjoyment of things so other people can enjoy it with me.
Look at it this way. Let’s say I love pizza. Does it make much sense for me to go into the comments of a community of people who love burgers and talk about how much I feel pizza is better than burgers? Does it make sense for me to bring up how pizza is breaking the internet? No it doesn’t. It’s giving mental issues and lack of actual human interaction.
You dweebs enjoy your agendas more than you enjoy anime and I feel very sad for you because you’ve placed yourself in a box in a culture that is so freeing and full of so many different types of stories. So many things to choose from and y’all decide to be argumentative losers over one series.
This is why I’m always telling y’all to create your own small communities. It’s to protect you from unhealthy stan bitches in the fandom. You don’t need that energy.
Love, Benny
