Top 3 Most Terrible Anime Fandom Trends of 2013

I figured I’d use the end of the year coming up as an excuse to write some stuff. This is my personal top 3 worst things to come out of anime fandom this year – which also means this only includes stuff that BEGAN or had a noticeably drastic change this year, so things that are ongoing but awful aren’t included.

3. Tomoko is just like me

No, she’s not, and you aren’t like her. As a quick note: I love Watamote, both the manga and the show, so this is not a problem with the series itself at all. Anyway, this has been going on since the manga first started being fan translated but had a huge boom once the anime came out and the series became more known. Now every pre-teen and edgy college freshmen who watches the anime will go around spouting how similar they are and ‘know those feels’ (these types are always spewing memes). Oddly enough, these are the same people who entirely do not get the message Watamote is trying to get across, nor understand basic elements of Tomoko’s character. They are the same people who have never understood how the opening is relevant and think it’s just a so whacky unfitting OP instead of one of the most telling aspects of the series.

I mean sure, one or two people might relate very closely, but most people tend to misinterpret “I like spending time alone” as “I’m just like Tomoko!” or what have you. This is essentially the same fucking problem that Welcome to the NHK created. People who have no mental issues, are not reclusive whatsoever, do not suffer from any social anxiety – essentially are not hikikomoris at all, would claim they are “Just like Satou because he likes spending time alone too” while making a facebook post on their way to class or coming home from a friends house. Tomoko and Watamote are just as badly misunderstood by the fanbase, and it’s created an obnoxious beast of faggotry. I’m not saying Tomoko and Satou are alike at all either – they aren’t – I’m just saying the fan situation is essentially no different.

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2. Aku no Hana TV fans

This is something I’ve gone over before and should be no surprise it’s here. Aku no Hana’s anime series (if you can call it that) is a very poorly and cheaply done rotoscoped series focused on bouncy blob things and teen angst. The problem here, again, is the fans. The show had a massive backlash after episode 1 due to just how fucking terrible it looks and how poorly done it all was, but – and this shouldn’t be a surprise – a lot of people latched on and tried to become it’s defense force. They’d claim it’s artistic and that people hate it ‘for being different’, claiming that those who hate it are holding back the medium by flipping their shit over anything that tries something new, and basically being hipsters claiming that it looks great and people just hate it “for looking realistic and not being moe shit”.

First off, Aku no Hana did NOTHING NEW. Rotoscoping is not something even remotely modern – it was being done in the 90s and there’s even been full feature films done entirely as such, and plenty of anime have used it as well. Not to mention it’s been done WAY BETTER, this wasn’t bad for being rotoscoped – it was bad because they did a shitty job of it. So there goes the argument for being different or trying something new.

As for looking realistic…to quote myself, “This is not realism, it’s the nightmares of a person who was born blind and has to imagine how the world looks”. Just see for yourself;

It’s animated, but you have to click it.

There is no way to defend this aside “I like it”. Opinion is opinion – but claiming this is new, looks good on any level but your own personal view, or that everyone thinks it looks bad ‘because it’s unique’ is fucking wrong.

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1. Kill la Kill apologists

Just because you say the show is bad on purpose doesn’t make it less fucking bad. The worst part is that the same people who defend this by praising it for ‘knowing what it is’ and ‘not taking itself serious’ and all that somehow making it great attack all the other shows THAT DO THE SAME THING IN THE SAME WAY. The only reason Kill la Kill gets a free pass is because the “i only watch mature anime for mature adults like myself” crowd can watch it and tell themselves it’s acceptable due to being from Trigger (who have yet to make a single good piece of animation) and having more ‘serious’ art and action mixed in. The show is not only godawful in every subjective way – it’s also pretty shitty objectively, as it runs at around 10fps half the time and was incredibly lazily created in every single aspect. You can’t claim factual low framerates are ‘just your opinion’ either.

It’s always one of the following defensive replies:

1. The fanservice is on purpose! They know what kind of show it is, it doesn’t take itself seriously, so it’s okay!
2. It never tries being something it’s not!
3. It’s fun so who cares!?

This is essentially the Nintendo fanboy group of the anime world. They will tell you the piss poor animation – which is factually terrible – doesn’t matter because the show is fun. They don’t watch anime for the visua- oh wait. It’s the same type of thinking that leads people to believe that a game needs bad graphics to have good gameplay. “Graphics don’t matter” – yes, they do. They do because if the option of good quality graphics is available (and that option IS available) you can do that ALONG WITH GOOD GAMEPLAY, the idea that you can’t have both is just fucking retarded. Anime does not need to stutter through itself to be a ‘fun show’. I mean does anyone truly believe that if KLK was animated smoothly it’d be worse for it? I sure hope not – but guess what, the fans will say yes. The fans will say this is also ‘on purpose’ and somehow adds to the quality and makes it the best show of the year and one of the best in the past decade. Yes, I’ve had people tell me straight up that “the frame rate is that way on purpose to add to the style”. It’s just fucking pathetic.

Kill la Kill is an awful show, but people like awful things – that doesn’t bother me, a lot of things are awful or not based on opinion and this is no exception. What bothers me is the people who defend it with this bullshit. No anime has all this fanservice, terrible writing (even for this ‘its not taking itself seriously’ type of show), low frame rate, etc ‘accidentally’. They are all very aware of what they are, and almost no fanservice dedicated show – such as this one – EVER takes itself seriously. This is a shitty, extremely cheaply animated, ecchi jerkoff show for people who take THEMSELVES too seriously – which is kind of ironic. They take themselves so seriously that they somehow don’t realize they shit on every show EXACTLY LIKE THIS but actually usually a bit better for the SAME REASONS THEY ARE USING TO DEFEND IT. Even if you don’t do that, the fact remains that you cannot ignore how much is legitimately and objectively BAD about this show – yet even the quieter or non defensive fans do.

The argument that “it’s that way on purpose” or “stop taking it so seriously” is a really fucking stupid fallacy, not a valid counterpoint. If you like this show – fine – but do not sit there pretending every single fault with it is somehow a positive aspect or magically forgivable ‘because its whacky XD’.

You can like the show, hell, as I’ve been told by some, they like it BECAUSE it’s bad. That’s fine, so is simply enjoying it for being a fun show. My problem is with the people who defend it in the exact way I stated or blow off complaints about it with something along those lines – not ‘fans of the show’ in general. I hate this show, and for a lot of reasons that are irrelevant to this post – but nothing this show could offer is worse than its defense force.

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So Kill la Kill apologists and overly defensive fanboys take the number one spot as the very worst 2013 trend in the anime world.

I know I’m missing a lot, but three seemed like a good number – for the whole two of you who actually read my blog, feel free to post your own or disagree with mine. I try to respond to most comments. I haven’t lately really, so sorry about that.

Working on my game of the year, a review for Tales of Xillia, and other posts along with more top lists for 2013, so hopefully those will be up somewhat soon…though a top op/ed style list is gonna be difficult with how strict youtube is nowadays.