Bad Fandom: Annoyed By Anime Fetishists

Although there were a few decent responses, many of them seemed to have come from disgruntled anime fans who preferred to dwell on particular sentences that they considered offensive, rather than consider the article as a whole. Stereotypes don't apply to everyone; we all know that. Watching anime doesn't make you weird. It just so happens that many people who watch anime are weird and obsessive about it. The point of this article was to observe that phenomenon, as well as question (and condemn) its existence. Most people who posted defensive responses were not defending anime fetishists (the intended target of the article), rather, they were angry because they misinterpreted the the article as an attack on all people who like anime. (With all due fairness, perhaps their judgment was clouded by the author's over-generalizations, invective, and implications that Japan is a perverted country.)
Personally, I have studied Japanese for a few years and could not avoid watching some some anime. Overall, I have seen two very well done series which were "Death Note" and "Noir". The reason why they were so good is that they had excellent characters and themes. Mind you, I'm not judging them as "anime", I'm judging them by a universal standard of what is crap and isn't. Anime happens to be a genre in which I'd say about 85% of it occupies the "crap" end of the scale (I felt that 90 was too harsh a percentage). Many themes of anime are either puerile or superficial and just tend to get recycled. I would appreciate it if every anime producer looked at Death Note and asked themselves "OK, so what did these guys do right?" rather than say, "ah screw it, just throw in a bunch of mecca and schoolgirls and somebody'll buy it."
I have some otaku friends who have recommend me their favorite anime series. I watched a few episodes and thought, "Okay they're cartoons, I probably would have enjoyed them when I was 10." Perhaps weird and obsessive anime fans are just able to appreciate anime on a deeper level than the rest of us, or perhaps they are just weird and obsessive. Nevertheless, it is still wise to keep an open mind about all things and try to look at them from multiple perspectives. Also if you like to dress up like anime characters, people will think you're weird. Get over to it.

Well, I'd rather not enter the fray of the comments posted above me, especially since most of them are...two months old? I'm not in the mood to attack or defend most of the points presented in this article, because clearly it's been taken care of, and I'm not one for beating dead horses.

Instead, I'd simply like to throw in my two cents regarding anime itself.

Let me assure you, I'm no otaku--not by any stretch of the imagination. I'm a high school honors student. I watch MTV. I like fashion magazines. I have friends who've never even heard of anime. And yet, I've been lucky (yes, lucky) enough to stumble across three great animes: Fullmetal Alchemist, Death Note, and--get ready for this one--Naruto. No, I'm not kidding.

Having seen them in their entirety, all three of these shows blew me away, each for different reasons. Death Note offers an extremely intricate and complex storyline and chill-inducing art direction, with an underlying testament to consequences of a hunger for power.
Fullmetal Alchemist is an intelligent, allegorical story about an alternate-universe Nazi Germany, as well as illustrating the bond between two brothers.
And say what you want about Naruto, but as someone who's seen the whole thing up to date, I've come to realize that it's actually a deeply emotional story that tackles almost every imaginable aspect of humanity--suffering, fear, anger, defeat, victory, revenge, courage, love, and of course, friendship--to name a few. On top of that, it's just good entertainment, in my opinion. And I know I'll get laughed at for this, but I'm saying it anyway--it's made me cry. Probably ten times, in fact. Maybe I'm just too sentimental, but I'd be willing to bet that most people couldn't get through a few select scenes of that show without their eyes clouding up a little. I understand, however, that it's a matter of taste, and someone who thinks Naruto is stupid won't decide to go watch it because of anything that some dumb seventeen year old girl says.

You're probably wondering what my point is. Well, here it is. If shows that represent things such as honesty, courage, comraderie, persistance, and dedication to fighting the good fight are considered weird and uncool, then what kind of society are we living in? Why is it that shows like Moment of Truth, Desperate Housewives, and the Man Show are praised and popular, while anyone who admits to liking anime is labeled as a freak and bombarded with stereotypes? I'm not saying that this article is setting out to do that. In fact, I agree with a lot of what it says, minus the back-handed racism and over-generalizations.

What it does, however, is enforce some pretty offensive stereotypes, which makes it that much harder for us "normal" anime fans to exist. I, like many other anime fans, find myself so often caught up in the middle, having to both defend the artform known as anime that I've come to love and enjoy while simultaneously having to deal with a multitude of otakus and rabid Narutards constantly providing fodder for people such as the writer of this article.

What a strange world we live in.

Wow reading your article just proved to me how litmited your mind is on the world of anime. I dont mean to insult anyone, but like everyone else said here, you need to get an idea of what you are talking about before you being critizing about something you dont really even know.

anime is a form of art. Much of the world has been inspired by what anime brings to the entertainment world. Sure you may believe that all anime is school girls and tentacle stuff. However, anime encompasses storytelling and an artistic world to the extent of the creator's imagination.

Every heard of Evangelion? or Escaflowne?

Althought not all anime is like that, it emcompasses a majority of what anime is. All that school girl and tentacle crap only is a mininal percentage of what anime really is. Comaparing Miyasaki to Pixar is just dumb, as although pixar's toy story has a good plot, it is near nowhere as good in terms of themes and story as Princess Mononoke.

I really suggest you really do your research before you make comments like these. Sure there are american cartoons almost just as good, howerver, in the past few years, i have given up on American cartoons. Why? cause they dont give that satisfaction of a good plot, good characters and of course good action, and something that actually ends.

anime is an art style. Respect it.

Wow.

That was a very ignorant article. The author's understanding of anime is tragically limited and thus that entire essay was little more than a spiel that reflects his prejudices. I don't want to judge him as a person the way he judges anime fans and Japanese people in general, but I do suggest that he gets an idea what he's talking about before he attacks it.

I am an anime fan. I don't obsess over the stuff the way some people do nor do I fit the rather despective description the author has provided, and all I'd like to say in the subject is that anime versus anything else he likes (I also enjoy animation of many other varieties) is merely a question of taste, and the most childish thing in the world is to go out of one's way to explain why anyone who differs sucks. Anime is in no way restricted to the "genres" he listed, Miyazaki and many other anime auteurs are indeed artistic and respectable, and though Dragon Ball Z may have indeed sucked, anyone wishing to insult it should at least research enough about it to know that it has nothing to do with trading cards.

As for the "anime fetishist" angle, the way I see it it's certainly no worse than any of the other bizarre fetishes floating out there, and not everyone who feels affection / attraction for an anime person is a weird suicidal psycho perv. Not that I particularly care for calamari, ahem.

Anime can be just as good as American cartoons in some cases, much better in others, and much worse in others yet. It's an art style and a style of animation that certainly doesn't deserve that kind of mindless and grossly encompassing attack. It's all a matter of acquired taste.

I'm an A Level student. My History of Art coursework is on anime and it's part of the world cinema module in the film school at the university I'm going to. I love anime too and anime-influenced cartoons, especially Avatar. But in Northern Ireland not many people even know what anime really is. Outside the internet it is difficult to get access to any good anime apart from Miyasaki, whom none of my friends have heard of. Anime is really more popular in England and America in the western world. I think everyone is entitled to their own opinion but please don't condemn anime. I don't actually like Dragonball but please compare complex anime like Miyasaki to Toy Story, etc. While Toy Story is a good movie, Princess Mononoke for example is much more complex than most western cartoons like The Simpsons.

Thanks to Christopher for an objective viewpoint.

Mr. Wood,

Sturgeon's Law states that 90 percent of everything is crap (including this statement). He was writing about science fiction but it can apply to anime (and everything else) as well.

I like anime. I have gone to anime cons. But I don't like all anime, nor do I think all cons are great. But when anime is good, it is some of the best entertainment on this planet. And when a con is good, it is wonderful, imaginative fun.

I am one of the older anime fans out there, a very mature adult. I have a family, hold down a job, vote, attend church, participate in my community. I am no Goth degenerate, and I am not into tentacle porn.

On porn, you seem to condemn all anime because some titles are porn. Do you condemn all magazines because some titles are porn, or all DVDs because some titles are porn? Of course not. So show the same discernment for anime.

I admit some anime is garbage, and certain fans go way, way overboard in obnoxious enthusiasm. But anime fandom is no different than football or NASCAR fandom. They have their obnoxious extremes, too.

In a post above, you said: "Normal people can stand something they like and others don't getting knocked." I'd make that "Normal people don't make a big issue of others liking something they don't ."

Oh, by the way, the "ugly pig flying a red baron bi-plane" (Porco Rosso) actually flew a monoplane. His major opponent, the American, flew the biplane. (For the record, the Red Baron himself flew a triplane.) (^_*)

Mr. Wood,

Sturgeon's Law states that 90 percent of everything is crap (including this statement). He was writing about science fiction but it can apply to anime (and everything else) as well.

I like anime. I have gone to anime cons. But I don't like all anime, nor do I think all cons are great. But when anime is good, it is some of the best entertainment on this planet. And when a con is good, it is wonderful, imaginative fun.

I am one of the older anime fans out there, a very mature adult. I have a family, hold down a job, vote, attend church, participate in my community. I am no Goth degenerate, and I am not into tentacle porn.

On porn, you seem to condemn all anime because some titles are porn. Do you condemn all magazines because some titles are porn, or all DVDs because some titles are porn? Of course not. So show the same discernment for anime.

I admit some anime is garbage, and certain fans go way, way overboard in obnoxious enthusiasm. But anime fandom is no different than football or NASCAR fandom. They have their obnoxious extremes, too.

In a post above, you said: "Normal people can stand something they like and others don't getting knocked." I'd make that "Normal people don't make a big issue of others liking something they don't ."

Oh, by the way, the "ugly pig flying a red baron bi-plane" (Porco Rosso) actually flew a monoplane. His major opponent, the American, flew the biplane. (For the record, the Red Baron himself flew a triplane.) (^_*)

Christopher Creed:

You are my new hero.

The reason Japanese animation is so questionable is because it's a dying industry. In America, in Japanese, everywhere - it's slowly fading away. To counter this, Japanese companies latch onto the fan-called "moe" genre, which involves underage pre-pubescent girls in cute and sexually suggutive scenes and plotlines because that's what the otaku (the social-outcasts the article mentions) buy. Japanese animation companies more or less have to appeal to these nerds because they're the ones that spend the most money (second to the Pokemon/Yu-Gi-Oh playing kid, of course)

So what we get is a bunch of shows about little girls in short skirts doing random stuff. But hey, that's pretty much what you have to expect from Japanese animation these days. That, or another shounen show trying to cash in on Pokemon/Dragonball fame. Not to mention most shows won't even be made unless it's based on an already established comic, or book, or game. The Japanese animation industry is horrible, it used to not be, but a few decades ago they started catering to the otaku, and now they've dug themselves into a hole and can't get out of it, just keeping digging and appealing to the lowest common denominator - pedophiles and kids (what an interesting combination)

Well, Dragonball Z isn't about card games. That would be Yu-Gi-Oh! or perhaps Duel Monsters or even Bakugan. Dragonball Z has actually fighting in it. But it has it's problems for certain. It's amusing but only to an extent.

I have enjoyed watching Japanese cartoons for years now. I go to conventions and I even joined a voice acting group which practicies dubbing anime for English speaking audiences. I read Japanese comics as well but not very often. Likewise I read American comics and watch American cartoons. While there is a difference, there is no reason to segregate Japanese and American animation or animation from any region. Great cartoons come from all around the world just as great ideas do. To me it does not matter where a cartoon originated from, all that matters is if its entertaining.

No show is good or bad just because of where it comes from.

The short-sighted views of the article writer are laughable. Not even most of the people that watch Japanese cartoons are pervs. I wont deny that there are plenty of pervs that do but lumping all Japanese animation fans together is wrong. As with all forms of media there are casual fans, middle ground fans and hardcore fans... and some that border on obsession but its no worse than a hardcore Trekkie.

Well, if you'll excuse me I'm going to watch an episode of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles followed by some One Piece. Because that's how I roll.

I watch Japanese animation from time to time, and you are correct. Don't listen to the rest of these rabid idiots spamming your post. They need to face the facts that most Japanese animation is, without a doubt, garbage.

If I were to say one thing in debate, it would be what you wrote about Miyazki. He is very comparable to Walt Disney. This, however, is a matter of taste.

As for the rest of Japanese animation, I'd say about 5% of it is actually worth anyone's time. Even then, is it worth worshiping? No. Because someone enjoys a few cartoons from a specific country, should that person go and proclaim themselves some kind of lover of that country? No. Japan is not the greatest thing in the world. Not only do their cartoons suck, but so does the majority of their television.

And I'm NOT being racist, that is a fact.

Hm. I guess overall I'm not really getting to the point of my comment. Which would be, it's all a matter of taste. People will like Japanese animation, people will like American animation, people will French animation. Some people just like and respect animation from all over the world.

Anime is a hobby like any other. I don't think this article you've wrote is gonna make much of an impact, much less make people stop watching anime.

If you enjoy something, do it! Anime is a good method of escapism, and theres nothing wrong with that. I could list why I think your wrong and why anime is a great artform, but I don't need to.

I enjoy watching anime. Thats enough for me.

Well, that was an incredibly bitter, frothing and vindictive little tirade.

Mr Wood, I'm no great lover of anime, and as such I'd be the first to agree with you that the "anime fetishist" subgroup of society can indeed be a major irritant, with their elitist attitudes and overbearing opinions; however, what could have been an amusing dissection of fanboy foibles very quickly degenerated into an all-out attack not only said geeks, but on regular, respectable anime enthusiasts, on the diverse medium itself in its entirety, and indeed on the nation of Japan, its culture and people as a whole. Irreverence and iconoclasm are one thing; judgmentalism, closed-mindedness and xenophobia are quite another, and the abundance of such traits in an article that ostensibly aimed to attack only the "whiny self obsessed anime fanboys who put japanese cartoons on a ridiculous pedastal" reflects extremely badly on yourself not only as a writer, but as a person.

Furthermore, I fail to understand the logic behind your belief that the defensive attitude taken by anime fans towards your allegations are tantamount to an admission of guilt; people often do deny accusations that they secretly know are true, but equally they'll also deny ones that are offensively false. If I were to publish an article in your newspaper naming your mother as a child-murderer, you'd be fairly defensive as well, wouldn't you?

"...as an adult I’ve gleefully rushed out to buy Toy Story, Ratatouille and The Animatrix...But then there’s anime."
Wait, what?

"...stuff like Dragonball Z is nothing more than a glorified cartoon about trading cards."
Oh, my god, this article is AWESOME!

"Give these poor kids some more He-Man and a little less Fruit Basket, please. "
I would have had trouble naming of a cartoon fruitier than Fruit Basket. You're doing this on purpose, aren't you?
http://www.cracked.com/article_15261_p3.html

"get out of the house and meet some real, normal people with hair and eyes in proper proportion to their heads."
I can't. The rat in my hat says it's a bad move and there are walking, talking toys out there. If I could, you can be sure I would gleefully run out to buy kiddie DVDs, unlike those creepy anime fansboys. Those ignorant bastards they're so much better than everybody else just because they're in another fandom...

I don't watch anime very often at all, and I too am creeped out by a lot of the fans and saddened by their narrow taste and worldview, but I think this rant is a complete joke. For starters, it DOES have an underlying racist overtone. Secondly, anime does exist with artistic integrity. If you need an example, look at the show Haibane Renmei. Thirdly, your not liking Miyazaki doesn't automatically mean it's crap. I saw much more than an 'oriental take on western fairytales'. I saw a deeply moving work of art. Funny that you should then mention Pixar, considering how many of their top artists and directors share the same opinion as me.

"Funny. I coulda sworn my tirade was against whiny self obsessed anime fanboys who put japanese cartoons on a ridiculous pedastal.

And not a rant against anime itself."

Seriously? Are you sure? Go back and read your article. If you had focused solely on the truly rabid and obsessed section of hardcore otaku, that would be one thing; cosplayers, doujinshi freaks, the people who at any given moment have more Japanese coming from their TVs/monitors/iPods than English--these folks would admittedly be an easy target. But out of six paragraphs you spend three going after anime (and Japan) directly, and that's where you lose the plot.

Now I understand if you're not a fan of anime. That's your gig and you're welcome to play it. When, however, you say that “most of the anime I see on shelves in the west, certainly where I live, seems to fall into several bizarre, pathetic categories,� you’re either not paying attention or being willfully ignorant. Titles like Planetes, Azumanga Daioh, Grave of the Fireflies, My Neighbor Totoro, Tokyo Godfathers, Patlabor, Maison Ikkoku, Urusei Yatsura, Wings of Honneamise, The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya and dozens of others are also sitting on shelves right now, none of which could be shoehorned into what your narrow definition of anime appears to be. Nice work though, calling it out as being comprised of cartoons designed to sell cards and toys only to name-drop He-Man in the same breath. Mattel thanks you.

What about influence? You already talked about running out to buy The Animatrix. Would it even exist if the W's weren't anime fans? (What's their next movie, by the way? Speed Racer.) Batman: Gotham Knight comes to DVD in July, which is for all intents and purposes "Batmanimatrix." Spielberg and Pixar's John Lasseter have made their admiration of Miyazaki public. Hell, Lasseter is on nearly every one of the Ghibli DVD's Disney has released in the last few years, not to mention the fact he's one of the main reasons you were able to see Spirited Away or have heard of that pig in the biplane in the first place. Stanley Kubrick wanted Osamu Tezuka to be the production designer on 2001 after seeing Astro Boy. Bruce Willis has manga lying on the floor of his apartment in The Fifth Element. Madonna used Perfect Blue in the stage show for her Drowned World tour. Cartman turned into Tetsuo on South Park. There are plenty of other examples that could be found in minutes, yet you can somehow say with a straight face that there's “no such thing as an anime pop-culture reference?"

I think this is my favorite bit though: "This Miyazaki character is just being used as a smoke-screen by social outcasts, to cover for their real reason for liking anime: they share the same bizarre twisted perversions that many Japanese do; only it’s not socially acceptable over here, so better to hide behind a few pretensions of so-called respectability." I would love to know how in a world where Goatse, Tubgirl, 'sleep assault' sites, and Penthouse and Hustler layouts with women pissing in wine goblets are a click away, that Japan's perversions are any more strange than anyone else's. You say they’re “a culture which gave the world schoolgirl panty vending machines?� Okay. Brazil gave us 2 Girls 1 Cup. Who’s worse? Bukkake seems pretty quaint by comparison.

And even then, if someone did happen to be into the same stuff as those evil, vile Japanese, why would they need to pretend to like anime? Why wouldn't they just download some Sora Aoi flicks and go to town? Why bother with Japan at all? You telling me I can't find some porn where an American chick gets blasted in the face by five guys, or an English girl dresses up in a schoolgirl/nurse outfit? Remember the first Evil Dead film? Three words: Tree root rape. Have I covered all your bullet points yet?

So to sum up, next time you want to talk about "bad fandom," stick to the dudes who really do jerk it to AMV Hell 0 like it was Tera Patrick’s greatest hits. Stick to the assholes that scream at you when you pronounce it “anna-may� instead of “ahh-nee-may.� Stick to the girls rocking their Menchi skullcaps while drooling over Gackt singles and the 35 year old guys still dressing up like Sailor Scouts at cons. But don't bring anime or the vast majority of its perfectly normal fans down with you. Thanks.


(PS: Urotsukidoji? Really? Who's even seen that in the last fifteen years? That shit *is* quaint.)

Ah, Dragonball Z. This, Pokemon, and YuGiOh are truly the anime hater's’s last bastion of defense.

Of course 90% of anime of crap. 90% of everything is crap. But that 10% consistently knocks my socks off. I'll take Porco Rosso over Cars and Monster's Inc any day.

The appeal to me for animation is the fact that it's a medium that is capable of showing anything, so by it's nature it has the potential to stretch the boundries of visual storytelling more than live action. You're right that most anime is aimed toward kids, and that there is a good amount of hentei out there, but it's the acceptions to the rule that make anime worth watching.

Whether or not you've seen it, there's as much variety of subject matter in anime as in US live action. There are shows that touch on adult themes without glorifying sex and violence, and there are shows that are just so creatively executed that -- regardless of their theme -- they are incredibly entertaining. Examples:

5 Centimeters Per Second
Barefoot Gen
Death Note
Gankutsuou - The Count of Monte Cristo
Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
Kurau Phantom Memory
Monster
Planetes
Tekkon Kinkreet
The Girl Who Leapt Through Time
Yugo the Negotiator
Zipang

So I'm not sure what's got you so riled up about anime fans -- or maybe you just get a kick out of posting angry rants in general -- but regardless of the fans, the medium itself still has plenty that is worthwhile to offer.

Sounds like a closet anime fan.

Is this satire?

I swear my sarcasm meter broke when I read this.

You dont have to lie to look tough Stuart.

Watching He-Man as a child makes you gay? Mentioning it once in a 1000 word editoral makes you "obsessed"?

Bad news for many women in their late 20s out there, I guess, most of them are dating queers apparently.

This entire thing has been worth it just to have ridiculous comments like that brought out.

Seriously, I nearly fell off my chair laughing. Thank you.

"You do realize that in your little banner up there that reads "Bad Fandom" the kid isn't even cosplaying an ANIME character? That is most definitely a video game character."

See point A. Seriously. Can 99.99% of the human race tell the difference? The better question is would they want to?

Dressing up as video game/movie/tv show character is freaking annoying. I don't care if you call it cosplay, it's just as annoying as Star Trek, Star Wars, Tolkein, or Firefly outfits being worn.

Just look at the freaking title - he's "Annoyed By Anime Fetishists". Thats not the average anime watcher, it's the people who live and breathe the stuff and try to inflict it on the rest of us.

When he writes Bad Fandom: Baffled by Browncoats or Bad Fandom: Ticked at Trekkies ya'll had best be here screaming the same things at Stuart or you are just proving you take yourselves FAR too seriously.

He needs the abuse anyway.