Forum - View topicAnswerman - Is It Now "Cool" To Be An Anime Fan?
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curtisd88
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I've always looked at it like this: Why does anyone care about when it's cool to be an anime fan? Do you like anime. Fine. Do you hate anime? Also fine. I love anime. It's a form of entertainment. Whether you're judged by other people or not you shouldn't let people dictate what you can and can't like. I've told people before I like anime and how they judge me I couldn't careless. It's not gonna stop me from liking it or liking it any less.
Long story short: Just enjoy whatever you want people. |
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Sailor Sedna
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When I grew up, the only real anime things I knew about were Pokemon, Digimon, Yugioh, and Studio Ghibli, didn't know other great classics out there existed, unless I played some video games (for DBZ it was DBZ BT 3 or whatever it was, and for Saint Seiya, a crappy Famicom game). It wasn't until I found other shows like Sailor Moon and such that I found out other great anime existed, and now that I've seen some reviews of the web series Anime Abandon and done some looking around I've been looking around to see if I'll find some hidden gems or mediocre flashes that deserve to be obscure.
But, I think I've mentioned this before, at times I feel out of place in the anime fandom because of some things I think: - While I think Cowboy Bebop looks cool, and all I hear for it mostly is praise for it, from what I've glimpsed at it, it plays off more like a standard action anime to me, I kinda don't get the hype. - Akira is another examplel it looks pretty good to me, but only "good"; I still don't get the whole appeal of it, not saying it's bad, but I feel there are better anime films out there from the 80's (Venus Wars being one of them, but not saying it's flawless, it isn't). Part of me feels the only thing that appealed to people was its violence/disturbing parts... - I just don't get the appeal for Madoka Magica. At all, all it is to me is just some generic grimdark thing with girls dying because of some overly cruel contract, and all it did for the magical girl franchise was just make it so most others now have to be "more dark/gritty". Just because something has those qualities doesn't mean it's good. - With the exception of some modern Ghibli films, Mary and the Witch's Flower, Mazinger Z: Infinity, hopefully Little Witch Academia, the upcoming Gundam Origin (and most modern Gundam anime from what I glimpsed) and maybe Sailor Moon Crystal Season III and Saint Seiya: Soul of Gold, I think most modern anime suck. Mostly just pervy fanservice, characters all start to feel the same and don't feel unique, the art styles look cheaper, frame rates drop...and certain franchises I feel went on too long (Precure, that one just needs to die in my opinion). I am aware that there were a lot of shitty anime back then in the 80's and 90's though (usually 2-3 episode OVAs). - I'm having a hard time trying to find a good Gundam series to start with (plus I tend to usually stay away from the Gundam fanbase to avoid arguments over which is best). - I've got a love/hate relationship with Toei Animation nowdays. Sometimes they've produced great stuff (a lot of 80's/90's and some modern stuff) but then they've produced lazily done shit (recent Precure, especially the last All Stars one, Sailor Moon Crystal 1-2) when they know they can do better and it sometimes makes me think: "The 'sharing dreams around the world' phrase...did that mean anything?" The combination of those (I also only think Death Note looks "fine"), and how I usually prefer older old-school anime (just my preference) make me feel out of place because I don't "love" what are usually praised, but only like them, or dislike a lot of modern stuff that's out there. |
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WindNinjaDW
Posts: 13 |
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Obviously. I meant that statement figuratively, not literally. |
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Joshua Zarate
Posts: 2062 |
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@ Sailor Sedna - While it’s fine to not be into certain things (Well, as long as you’ve actually watched them and not just catch glimpses of it), the fact that you said that most modern anime suck due to being mostly pervy fan service shows that you are overgeneralizing way too much and not paying enough attention to see what is out there, besides the popular stuff. Sure, there are some fan service stuff out nowadays, but the amount is no different from that of earlier decades. The internet just makes all those things apparent. All anime that has ever existed have some aspects of it that don’t feel “unique” and just because it’s not or it didn’t do a lot for its genre does not mean it sucks/can’t be good. Originality/uniqueness is overrated and it never guarantees quality. I can easily say that most old anime suck and it would be just a ridiculous thing to say as saying most modern anime do. I know that you said you are aware of some anime from the past being shitty, but just because some bad stuff still come out today (just like in any other medium) doesn’t mean it “sucks” any more than it ever did since its’ beginning. I’m sorry to hear what you feel about anime, but just because it’s not currently producing shows that you find likely to watch doesn’t mean it’s gone to shit.
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katscradle
Posts: 469 |
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I have to agree I don’t understand the anxiety of is this thing I like cool now. Great if because something is fashionable, approved of by more people or someone you might respect in some manner then you’re not self-conscious, or bullied and harassed, or get unfairly lectured from a teacher in the arts, or your religious establishment rails on it, or people misunderstand what you do for a living.
I’m not really sure what the environment is where I live now in regards to anime. Most I’ve seen of any reference to it was a little girl showing up in a Sailor Moon Halloween costume last year. I thought that was cool. I found out last month my former boss who turned 50 recently likes Yuri on Ice too. In contrast online anime fans near me seem to focus on really salacious stuff instead, either in favour of it or talking about saving the medium from it. Which usually, no matter where I live I run into people who have a “it’s all perverts” mentality, some who have even lived in Japan for a period of time. I’ve heard that from the beginning when I got into anime and that happened again just last week. The whole “cool Japan” thing may never really be cool precisely because there is some weird stuff from the country. Which I think is perfectly cool. Lastly a pet peeve: I wish people would stop using words with a particular inference of guilt in relation to interests in things like anime such as “come clean”. I've seen other variations where fans talk about “keeping it on the down low” or felt “sinful” too. There is something bad about culture when people can’t fully enjoy something that makes them happy. So try to stop the mental guilt trip. |
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EricJ2
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Because of Kim Kardashian? No.
Because you watch One Piece on cable? No. Because you saw Howl's Moving Castle in a theater when you were a kid? No. Because you cosplayed your hair pink, seeing as it crossed over with your love of My Little Pony:Friendship is Magic? No. Because you watched Eva because some older fan told you to, and now spend the entire remainder of your fandom debating to anyone within earshot why Shinji is an idiot and a pest? No. Because you streamed Sword Art Online because some less older fan told you to, and now spend the entire remainder of your fandom debating to anyone within earshot why Kirito is an obnoxious harem-monger? No. Because you seek out new stories in hard-to-reach places, display enough curious independence to turn away from the modern decline of US cartoons that just do happen to be too easily within reach, and appreciate a different culture's different story-evolutionary take on standard cool-genres like sci-fi, action, romance and high school humor? Possibly. 
It was semi-cool for us twenty-five years ago when we had to do EXACTLY that, with no help from anyone else, including subtitles.
Well, like I said, it helps to have been there twenty-five years ago. When you couldn't get ANY of this. And by "get", I mean you just couldn't danged well get your hands on any of it, even if you wanted to--You had to haunt clubs for Care-package TV tapes, comic-cons for bootlegs, and comic stores for whatever few bathouse-crazy OVA/features you could get subtitled. We liked to say we were doing this all by ourselves, but the truth was, it would've helped if we had a slightly bigger mainstream company to help do it for us, if not with us. And until Viz started putting Ranma on shelves, Disney dubbed Kiki, every kid started playing with Pokemon, and the great sub-vs-afternoon-dub Sailor Moon debate started, we just didn't really have that. A distinct disadvantage was not only that nobody besides ourselves in the US knew what the sam-scratch we were talking about, but the remainder of 80's anti-Japan sentiment (we're looking at you, Jeff Greenfield from ABC News...  ) was determined to play up the yellow-peril "shock value" Pacific invasion of violent porn cartoons that you dare not show your children. And good luck getting any conversation started past that.
So, yes, it's sort of an ancient DNA trace-memory rooted in our ancestors' primeval behavior from the long-ago 20th century, but we still get excited when some other seemingly dopey uninformed mainstream US celebrity actually admits they've WATCHED it. Back then, we got excited that Steven Spielberg said he liked the car chase from "Castle of Cagliostro", and we spent years hoping he would ride to our rescue...Insert "Cool, he put a Gundam into 'Ready Player One'!" comment here. |
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DerekL1963
 Subscriber Posts: 1119 Location: Puget Sound |
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Yep. After having an opinion on Cowboy Bebop, which you admit to not having seen, you drop this gem of complete and utter nonsense. The problem folks are having isn't that your opinions are unpopular. The problem is having opinions on shows you admit you haven't watched and opinions completely at odds with reality. |
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Joe Mello
 Posts: 2285 Location: Online Terminal |
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The age range of people who can't remember a world without Pokemon is mid-30's and younger, and in 2016 people under 34 made up 45% of the US population. I think it's safe to say that anime has at least become normalized in the popular culture to the point to say that you're not punk for liking it.
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k_dawg_3484
 Posts: 58 |
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I've never felt less cool as an anime fan than I do now, knowing that Kim Kardashian is an anime fan.
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Compelled to Reply
 Posts: 358 |
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California has historically been an ideal test market for foreign goods because of its large population, wealth, international business connections, multiple ports, and cultural capital (Hollywood) which expand the reach of said goods even further (with a mindset like "if it's good enough for Cali, it's good enough for the world"). It has nothing to do with Japanese/Asian populations, otherwise places like Hawaii or Latin America (especially Japanese colonies in Brazil) would be the markets. Also, most these populations settled over 100 years ago, before animation was a thing.
She would have to be an anime fan to visit Akihabara. As somebody else mentioned, it's likely she saw an image of Zero Two on social media, which demonstrates how anime has become more mainstream via the internet.
Well, there's weird stuff in every country, and they don't want people abroad to make generalizations. Of course, Cool Japan's attempt shine the spotlight on the desired and beloved aspects of its modern culture has been lackluster as it hasn't been aggressive enough, despite all the capital and resources allocated. |
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phoenixalia
Posts: 1408 |
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 Man, I'm seeing KimK being an anime fan EVERYWHERE. I'm kinda getting sick of it. I've always found her entire family silly and still think it's stupid that she's so famous because from what I've seen she and her family are famous for silly trends and the like that this granny who's actually far from being a granny feels out of date. 
Anyway, if she likes anime, good for her. My question is, why is it that it might be suddenly cool to like anime just because some celebrity likes it? My reaction is pretty much "Oh, he/she likes anime, nice." That's it. Why should something now be "cool" because some internet celebrity/reality tv star/whatever Kim is doing now said that he or she likes it? I don't know about you, but I've always found anime cool. Since the first day I seriously became an anime fan, to now. I think you're a cool person if you like anime too, even if you've only watched Dragon Ball Z or watch a lot of shows every season. But I do know that some people have been bullied in school for liking 2D things, and I'm sorry to hear that. That is very sad and it has happened to many anime fans, from what I can see. In that case, when you want something to be cool so that you're not seen as a weirdo or creep or whatever is perfectly understandable. The time I became an anime fan is when social media was there too so I didn't feel that lonely even if practically no one in school watched anime because I had online friends and sites similar to this one. I realize that I might be a rare case. I'll be honest - I don't want anime to become mainstream. Call me what you like, but those little things that make some people who aren't fans of anime to cringe is what MAKES it an anime for me. Those cringey moments, those cliches, that humor is what makes anime anime for me. Anime is becoming mainstream now but even if I don't like it, there's nothing I can do about it except to hope that it doesn't lose too much of its tropes and cliches.
I'm happy that Netflix is making shows like Devilman Crybaby or B:The Beginning possible as I love those kinds of shows too. It's just that I don't want anime to ONLY be that. I want moe, sports, food anime, idols (yes, idols), school girls, school boys, sword boys etc. to stay too. Anime was cool in the 80s or 90s and it's cool now. Just because someone famous says it's cool doesn't automatically make it cool. So what if anime isn't cool to others? If something's cool to you, then it's all good! |
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Spawn29
Posts: 551 |
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Celebrities liking anime is nothing new. In the 90’s, Rob Zombie likes Go Nagai (As seen in some of his tour videos), Steven Spielberg liked Lupin the Third and Quentin Tarantino liked Kite.
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Hiroki not Takuya
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I certainly hope the fact that I haven't seen a flame war over dub/sub superiority in a while means anime fandom has changed for the "cooler"...
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#861208
Posts: 423 |
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For me, it's not about that. It's about what all the artists in other art forms could do with anime if they were to get into it. Fashion, music, food, etc. It's also about the coverage that movies like Star Wars, MCU/DC, Pixar, etc. get - I want to see the things I like get that sort of coverage. There's a bit of that in Japan now, with several fashion brands doing anime collabs, and several anime/seiyuu units having albums and singles on the charts. But I want that to happen internationally. There are so many possibilities that could be opened up for anime, for the artists involved, by having more international recognition. |
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garlogan78
Posts: 171 |
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Certain mainstream anime have always been cool - everyone watched pokemon, digimon, dragonball z, cowboy bebop, whatever.
I don't think anime about dragon maids or being in love with your little sister will ever become "cool." Also, the extent to which one likes anime factors in too. People who refer to themselves as otaku or neets will never be cool, for example. People who collect lots of figures, or actually go all out and import blurays, official goods, hugging pillows...they probably aren't cool. There is a difference between anime as a hobby or part of your media intake (like Kim watching some show) vs anime being your life (watching like 20 shows a season and thinking its superior to other forms of media...). |
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