Is Mainstream Hatred Of Anime Growing?

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FluxWaveZ said:
That might be part of his point, though. At least regarding Dan, he absolutely hates anime, and it's fully out of ignorance as he himself said he never watched a anime before. He's rather peculiar, though, so I don't know if taking anything he says seriously is worth it.

But Jeff and Vinny enjoyed their time with Persona 4, to your point.
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They also thought Luffy (from the latest One Piece game) was really cool. I take that from the fact that they have almost zero knowledge of the medium and would in fact like a lot of stuff if they gave it a chance.

I keep waiting for someone in GB to pull a DOTA/Monster Hunter and start talking about the cool new anime they discovered, thus infecting the rest of the crew.

I almost nearly convinced Patrick of this on Twitter, but I haven't heard any updates on whether he gave any of the recommended shows a shot.
 
BocoDragon said:
I don't think they hate it either. I think they downright ironically love it. I'm thinking back to their appreciation for the over-the-top senator in Metal Gear Rising.
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FluxWaveZ said:
That might be part of his point, though. At least regarding Dan, he absolutely hates anime, and it's fully out of ignorance as he himself said he never watched a anime before. He's rather peculiar, though, so I don't know if taking anything he says seriously is worth it.

But Jeff and Vinny enjoyed their time with Persona 4, to your point.
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Jeff knows what moe is. (And Chie is his waifu) lol

With Dan, I think his only mode of interaction with people is to just troll people. Once you realize that he doesn't believe anything he says, you just learn to basically not take any of his statements seriously.
 
Maybe resentment is growing. The moe/fan-service side of anime has become the domineering face of the medium, whether it's accurate or not. And a lot of people find that stuff really offputting, myself included. It's a far cry from the Miyazaki, hard sci-fi, and martial arts that used to be the U.S. face of anime in the '80s and early '90s.

That said, it's worth noting that the Giant Bomb crew is a pretty jaded bunch these days. Especially Jeff.

Btw, can you point out at what point in the podcast they start talking about this?
 
nerd subcultures are assholes to each other all the time. Just because you like star trek or video games doesn't mean you can't be a hypocritical dick.
 
Personally I think western awareness of anime has simply become normalized enough for typical behavior to set in. Now a formalized "hatedom" for anime can fully catalyze and spread its cultural artifacts. As with every other topic.

By the same turn, while anime is not the highly marketable fringe fad it was a decade ago, I feel casual anime appreciation may be up a bit. It's far easier to introduce people to a wide variety of anime thanks to streaming services. More people watching Jojo can never be a bad thing.
 
FWIW, Anime Expo in Los Angeles blew out attendance records this year w/ a 30% year over year increase - they had to cut off ticket sales on Saturday for the first time ever at 82,000.
 
The mainstream isn't even aware that anime exists.

The growth of the niche of anime watchers has been pretty steady though, maybe anime coming back to Cartoon Network is helping with this.
 
Giolon said:
FWIW, Anime Expo in Los Angeles blew out attendance records this year w/ a 30% year over year increase - they had to cut off ticket sales on Saturday for the first time ever at 82,000.
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Aw it's still at the LACC? Wish it would come back to Anaheim; I liked having the hotels right there.
 
I haven't noticed this. Half my friends watch at least some anime, and the other half seem mostly indifferent.

I've always assumed the people saying "I ignore posts by users with anime avatars" were just trolling.

Giolon said:
FWIW, Anime Expo in Los Angeles blew out attendance records this year w/ a 30% year over year increase - they had to cut off ticket sales on Saturday for the first time ever at 82,000.
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Yeah, the local anime convention (MechaCon) has seen consistent growth since its inception, though I can't find attendance figures for the last two years.
 
Liu Kang Baking A Pie said:
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Mendoza said:
I used to get down with anime back when the main characters were older. Shows like Trigun, Cowboy Bebop, Samurai Champloo, Hellsing, Berserk had casts who consisted of characters that were at least over 20.

It seems like within the last few years, more and more contemporary anime characters are in high school or younger and are trying to save the world. I'm sick of the angst, the moe, and the convoluted plots. I no longer watch anime because of these things.

Don't get me wrong though because I still love anime movies like Ghibli stuff, and I still like the anime aesthetic.
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Since most anime has ALWAYS been targeted towards younger demographics, you often have younger protagonists. This has not become more prominent in recent years, its always been this way. You're just cheery picking some classic shows of note; they never represented the majority of anime then nor do they do so now.
 
I think that people are more likely to not watch anime just based on the idea that animation is for children which is something that I still see but not as much as I used to compared to recent years.

I'd like to think that more people in North America are becoming receptive to the idea that animation can be enjoyed by adults and is not solely for children/younger audiences.
 
I think anime hating peaked around two or three years ago. The anime hardcore subset is diminishing as well, which is probably related.
 
Some anime can be a little bizarre. There's a mainstream series where one of the main characters force-feeds an infant his own excrement. I think two of the main characters urinated in a man's mouth in this week's episode. One of them licked a dirty toilet in a past episode too.
 
Anime doesnt bother me, so I dont bother it.

I remember really enjoying Dragnball and yu yu hakusho as a kid, and if people still get that enjoyment as an adult, then good for them
 
The only real hatred of anime that I have seen has been in specific places on the internet. Maybe their voices have gotten louder, but beyond that it seems like if anything anime is becoming more popular in the mainstream.

As far as Jeff goes, he actually has mentioned before some anime that he enjoyed watching. He's not a huge anime fan by any means, but he doesn't hate it either.
 
The way I figure it... Anime was always foreign to the West. That's why it took decades for it to be noticed here. Wacky scenarios, a celebration of emotional sentimentality. Its values are out of step with mainstream America

There was that brief post-Pokemon generation where American big business localized everything they could, and pushed it to mainstream audiences. But that was a blip in the timeline of the medium, doomed to end eventually.

Anime has merely returned to being this odd, un-mainstream thing, that most Western people just don't get. And that's why it's appealing... Specifically because it doesn't adhere to the rules of mainstream Western storytelling.

If you like anime, you shouldn't hope for it to be mainstream popular. Then it would cease to be interesting. If it's "universally appealing", then anime fans probably won't like it.
 
A lot of it can become offputting and simply bizarre to people not invested in it. Anime lost a lot of it's universal appeal long ago
 
Anime hasn't matured from the 90's hey day. It has actually devolved in to catering to a niche otaku audience in japan who only want waifus and moè filler.
 
Doesnt Dan watch Legend of Korra? Or maybe that's someone else from Giant Bomb I'm thinking of.

While not anime, it is pretty influenced by stuff like FLCL, Bebop and Ghibli films.
 
SOLDIER said:
I was listening to this week's Giant Bombcast where the group got into an anti-anime tirade while discussing Metal Gear Solid. This isn't the first time the people at GB have expressed (whether humorously or earnestly) their hatred of Anime, but it's also reminded me about some recent comments in Twitter on how hating Anime is becoming an increasing thing among mainstream commentators.

Supposedly this is due to how the recent attacks against women in the gaming industry have been by people using Anime avatars, but I hardly believe that's where it started. It seems to be a common thing to associate "people who watch Anime" in the same negative connotation given to Bronies and (most recently) Gamers. I'm just wondering what started this trend and if it is indeed getting worse.

Now don't get me wrong, I don't have my head so far down in the sand that I can't comprehend why people would be against Anime. There are countless negative examples anyone could bring up that depict the ugly and frequently sexist portrayal in any number of series past, present and future.

But you know what else is guilty of that? Every other medium on the planet. Is it right for someone to say all comics are terrible because the only thing they read was Holy Terror? Or to hate all movies because of something Eli Roth wrote? What about videogames, which are by and large being called out for their recent trend of violence and/or misogyny of female characters?

I could very easily name hundreds of Anime series and movies that feature none of the things people will often complain about with the medium. Yet mainstream voices like the guys at Giant Bomb continue to take on this infuriatingly ignorant approach where they can't even recognize a series beloved my thousands like One Piece, and will more often than not cite Cowboy Bebop as the only positive example that hey are aware of.

Considering how people are constantly being called out over the internet for not properly researching something, I'm truly surprised these people aren't being criticized for doing the exact same thing in regards to an entire medium. Saying all Anime is terrible because of tentacle rape or harems is just like saying All Videogames are terrible because of gory first person shooters and sex minigames.
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I would not call it prejudice as much as dismissal. You venture into more complex issues, but Anime as a form concerning television or film is not all that penetrable for a lot of us.

Taking attack on Titan as an example. I love that series, but the process of like 10 minutes of intro plus a recap or maybe two, leaves you with 13 minutes of actual show, and even then it is the characters engaging in a ton of reflection, and by the end you maybe get 5 to 6 minutes of new material. It is such a terrible format.

I would go into film, but there is one great studio out there, and I will not hold the entire industry accountable.
 
Kai Dracon said:
Personally I think western awareness of anime has simply become normalized enough for typical behavior to set in. Now a formalized "hatedom" for anime can fully catalyze and spread its cultural artifacts. As with every other topic.

By the same turn, while anime is not the highly marketable fringe fad it was a decade ago, I feel casual anime appreciation may be up a bit. It's far easier to introduce people to a wide variety of anime thanks to streaming services. More people watching Jojo can never be a bad thing.
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I slightly touched upon this a lil but in a thread I made about the popularity of fire emblem awakening, and how I feel there is a possible silent majority or what I put it, a silent renaissance of people getting into anime, theres alot to like now.
 
Mendoza said:
I used to get down with anime back when the main characters were older. Shows like Trigun, Cowboy Bebop, Samurai Champloo, Hellsing, Berserk had casts who consisted of characters that were at least over 20.

It seems like within the last few years, more and more contemporary anime characters are in high school or younger and are trying to save the world. I'm sick of the angst, the moe, and the convoluted plots. I no longer watch anime because of these things.

Don't get me wrong though because I still love anime movies like Ghibli stuff, and I still like the anime aesthetic.
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lol anime has always been this way. You can find more modern seinen anime if youd bother to look. "Back in the day" you had stuff like Dragonball, Gundam, Sailor Moon, Yu Yu Hakusho. And plenty of stuff in the genres you dont like that didnt get aired cause it didnt have a proven market here yet. There was always shounen battle shit, slice of life shit, harem shit, hot blooded mecha shit, whatever shit, it was always there.
 
Echoenigma said:
nerd subcultures are assholes to each other all the time. Just because you like star trek or video games doesn't mean you can't be a hypocritical dick.
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I think this is a part of it too.

Honestly, I think I don't like western fantasy at all.. But then maybe I'm playing Skyrim or watching Game if Thrones, and if you prodded me about liking fantasy, I'd insist that I actually hate it. It doesn't mean that I'm tapping into some current of anti-fantasy sentiment, so much as I personally know what my individual tastes are.

If people don't like anime... I get it. As I said in the post above, it's not western normative at all. Of course many hate it.
 
Pre-modern internet, the "japanese animation" that people bothered to localize for the US tended to be of a high quality or at least conformed to American sensibilities reasonably well.

Post internet, it became easy to be exposed to all the loli/moe/hentai garbage that previously wouldn't leave Japan, and that stuff makes a lot of people (rightfully) uncomfortable. This greater access and exposure to the full spectrum of anime unfairly poisoned the well for the genre. "Anime" doesn't evoke things like Dragonball or Speed Racer to the mainstream; if it evokes anything it probably is linked to meaning foreign cartoons for perverts. In the same way that "Catholic priest=pedophile" has been beaten into people's heads by pop culture, "anime=creepy" to people that don't watch it, reinforced by sitcoms and internet memes.
 
Based on my personal expeirence I can't say I agree.
Infact, with shows like Adventure Time and Regular Show, it's actually made it more acceptable for older folk to like cartoons.
 
a Master Ninja said:
Pre-modern internet, the "japanese animation" that people bothered to localize for the US tended to be of a high quality or at least conformed to American sensibilities reasonably well.

Post internet, it became easy to be exposed to all the loli/moe garbage that previously wouldn't leave Japan, and that stuff makes a lot of people (rightfully) uncomfortable. This greater access and exposure to the full spectrum of anime unfairly poisoned the well for the genre. "Anime" to the doesn't evoke things like Dragonball or Speed Racer to the mainstream; it means foreign cartoons for perverts. In the same way that "Catholic priest=pedophile" has been beaten into people's heads by pop culture, "anime=creepy" to people that don't watch it, reinforced by sitcoms and internet memes.
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Pretty much it in a nutshell. Want some old-school kick-ass anime like there used to be? Then help Kickstart Under the Dog.
 
More like mainstream apathy is growing. Most people do not care at all about anime. It always pretty niche outside of a few things (Pokemon and DBZ mainly) and its popularity has only waned in the west as the years roll by.
 
Charles Foster Kane said:
I find it very hard to like it. I just don't like the style. I see almost anything anime and I'm quickly turned off.
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Wolf Childern is probably a Japanese animated film that has a lot of universal themes, but filled with Japanese nuances all expressed by scenery and animation. It's also quite emotionally draining how seemly realistic the story could be and empathy you developed for the characters.
 
Crewnh said:
Doesnt Dan watch Legend of Korra? Or maybe that's someone else from Giant Bomb I'm thinking of.

While not anime, it is pretty influenced by stuff like FLCL, Bebop and Ghibli films.
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I think that was someone else they had on, because it doesn't sound like Dan. lol
 
a Master Ninja said:
Pre-modern internet, the "japanese animation" that people bothered to localize for the US tended to be of a high quality or at least conformed to American sensibilities reasonably well.

Post internet, it became easy to be exposed to all the loli/moe/hentai garbage that previously wouldn't leave Japan, and that stuff makes a lot of people (rightfully) uncomfortable. This greater access and exposure to the full spectrum of anime unfairly poisoned the well for the genre. "Anime" doesn't evoke things like Dragonball or Speed Racer to the mainstream; if it evokes anything it probably is linked to meaning foreign cartoons for perverts. In the same way that "Catholic priest=pedophile" has been beaten into people's heads by pop culture, "anime=creepy" to people that don't watch it, reinforced by sitcoms and internet memes.
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That reminds me, was Lensmen ever released on anything other than VHS? I haven't watched that for at least 20 years.
 
Anime is this weird thing where many of the great Anime legends that helped shaped all the best parts of the industry really hate anime. Modern anime mostly. Also, in note to the sexist criticisms. On one hand, I understand where they're coming from, but on the other hand I do like me some stupid echi every now and then. I don't think people should ever try and take away a guilty pleasure of someone else because they don't like it. That cuts both ways. I know people first thoughts on that other way probably go to FREE!, but really I'm talking about all fanfiction which is kind of the underground objectification most men don't know about.

Crocodile said:
Since most anime has ALWAYS been targeted towards younger demographics, you often have younger protagonists. This has not become more prominent in recent years, its always been this way. You're just cheery picking some classic shows of note; they never represented the majority of anime then nor do they do so now.
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I am kind of perplexed at the criticism of "it's in a school setting, ugh" because young adult novels are a really big thing in the states. Huge even, and they are often just as bad as the school animes. I'm not a fan of either since I am not in highschool, nor have I ever really wanted to go back to those halcyon days of bullying and having no friends.
 
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