Why Does Anime (and its fans) Get Such a Bad Rep?

I've asked this question several times, but I thought it be best to do it again.

Of all the parts of "geek culture", anime seems to take the most heat from the mainstream. While gaming, sci-fi, comic books, and the like have been able to reach mainstream acceptance, and are even seen as the "cool" things to like nowadays, anime hasn't quite seen the same sort of success. Most of the time, people just say this sort of stuff:

"Some forms of Anime created have impressed me with their stories, characters and their plot points. However, most of the time, Anime has generally sucked in my opinion. It's tacky, cheaply made and offers no form of substance for someone like me."

It's almost as though they feel that Anime is of a lower tier than everything else, and that liking it is below their tastes, with its fans being of lower intellect? Why do you think that is?

edited 30th Oct '14 1:38:10 PM by LDragon2

sci-fi and comics are considered cool?

but for the record

"Some forms of Western cartoons created have impressed me with their stories, humor and their diversity. However, most of the time, Western cartoons has generally sucked in my opinion. It's ugly, a waste of money, and offers no form of substance for someone like me."

is pretty much my opinion

so

It's popular, therefore it sucks. = Every popular thing on the internet.

I have never heard of comic book fans being considered even remotely cool. I mean, watching superhero movies, sure, but actually reading the comics and following the stories is not mainstream.

That said: [1]◊

I don't get how majoring in folklore and mythology is considered geekier than sci-fi/fantasy fans (I've also generally considered sci-fi fans geekier than fantasy fans until we get into the kinds of people who buy the expensive replica swords)

but then

I guess I've never even met a folklore and mythology major to begin with

never even thought it'd be a subject you can major in

I think I'll reach into the ask.fm vault for this one: ^note  This is someone else's response, not mine

The quote you gave sounds a lot more like a (non-anime) nerd than an actual member of the public.

edited 30th Oct '14 2:24:40 PM by majoraoftime

90% of everything is crap. Or, if you don't think that phrasing, not everything can be a masterpiece.

Anyway, if you're quoting someone you should probably attribute it? That's Bobduh, right? He has that weird way of emphasizing words with backslashes in a medium without italics. Or maybe that's just a geneal ask.fm thing.

edited 30th Oct '14 2:22:03 PM by Clarste

As someone who believes the Japanese haven't made any interesting animes since 1995 or so, thinks Saban Entertainment's anime dubs are underrated and thinks Osamu Tezuka and Tatsuo Yoshida are the two greatest names in anime and manga...

With some of the stuff you hear about anime fans it's no wonder they get a bad rap.

The creepy fans give a bad name to the regular fans. It's a widespread fallacy.

That, more or less. "A few bad apples spoil the whole bunch," as they say.

Um I'm not sure why you think anything past 1995 is not interesting in terms of anime...

If anything it now become more diverse then it was back then.

Honestly with all the awful harem/whatever you call dreck like MM stuff out there, I don't blame him.

edited 30th Oct '14 4:39:09 PM by PhysicalStamina

There is also Pandering to the Base in effect, coupled with the Japanese tendency to become slow adapters of foreign concepts due to the Yamato-damashii mindset, that makes anime somewhat unappealing to the general mainstream public. Uninformed weeaboos who praise anything Japanese to the high heavens (even sweeping things like the Rape of Nanking under the rug) make the bad rep even worse.

edited 30th Oct '14 4:41:30 PM by MoonlightBomber

Except Stuff like that has been around since Urusei Yatsura.

It just wasn't as obvious back then due to lack of titles being distributed worldwide.

edited 30th Oct '14 4:43:09 PM by Demongodofchaos2

In answer to the above question - when I look at the anime titles I like they're mostly from the 60s, 70s and 80s. It peters out by the mid-90s, with the most recent anime that I find interesting (Tonde Buurin) being from 1994. I think there was a change in anime at the time, but I don't quite know what it was.

edited 30th Oct '14 4:44:55 PM by Aldo930

Was it the switch to a non strobe light looking style to prevent Seizures from happening as result of Electric Soldier Porygon?

And to be quite honest, most old anime hasn't aged well at all to me, and it looks incredibly cheap,and limited compared to today.

And to be honest, I've never heard of that before.

edited 30th Oct '14 4:47:53 PM by Demongodofchaos2

Cheap and limited my ass. I've seen tons of vintage anime with great, fluid movement.

It may be the fact that when you do see old anime these days it's from worn prints.

I think it's on-par for the course with Western comic or sci-fi fans. There just happens to be a language and culture barrier that "mainstream" can't get over. The fact that we used-to-have-another-topic-here-that-disappeared attributes to that fact (which, honestly, opens up another can of worms that is really not worth talking about again in this environment).

edited 30th Oct '14 4:55:33 PM by Chrono

Yes, it is.

They merely used special techniques still in use today to get around that so that it doesn't look limited but it still is, especially by today's standards.

It's like comparing Classic Mazinger Z with Shin Mazinger Z, they are both worlds apart.

And probably one of the main reasons for fluidity is because Toei used to produce arthouse style films, but then stopped after finding cheaply made stuff like Classic Mazinger Z much more profitable.

edited 30th Oct '14 4:55:02 PM by Demongodofchaos2

foreign-fetishizing commonly happens in japan at rates about as extreme as weeaboos in both ignorance and shallowness easily with the younger population

and there are several books written by western writers that are translated there and enjoy a fair amount of readers due to the greater fame western literature tends to have worldwide

now I'm not going to argue with you as to how well they adapt to foreign concepts as I don't think anybody really does, the entire point of this pattern is that they idolize the exotic

but it's not for a reason like Japanese spirit

Some modern anime is even worse.

Of course, you only mention one animation studio. What about, say, Tatsunoko Productions or Nippon Animation or even Mushi Productions?

The Japanese, from what I know, do enjoy their Western cartoons, when they can get them.

And there are a couple of Japanese bands that attempt to recreate old Western music I know of.

edited 30th Oct '14 5:13:42 PM by Aldo930

No, not really.

Production values increase over time in Japan, and most of the bad stuff is usually intentionally low budget to save money for bigger projects. Even the best studios in Japan today still do that.

Tatsunoko has even better looking stuff now then they did back then.

Look at KARAS, for instance, meant to celebrate the studios 40th anniversary.

There's also anything made by Studio MAPPA, MADHOUSE, Studio Bones, Ufotable, David Production, just to name a few.

Not only is there more, higher overall quality series in terms of production, there's more studios then ever making them.

edited 30th Oct '14 6:04:18 PM by Demongodofchaos2

Tatsunoko is still making shows?

You kiddin'?

(Checking out Wikipedia, it seems aside from what you mentioned, a lot of what they make is either working on other people's shows or spinoffs or adaptations of their old stuff.)

Note that just because there are more studios doesn't mean the situation is better. Quite the opposite.

edited 30th Oct '14 6:10:35 PM by Aldo930

Um, no.

I would rather not have Toei, Sunrise, and Tatsunoko have a monopoly over Japanese animated television which for most of the 60's to the 80's they pretty much did.

With different studios, mean different varieties of styles to choose from.

There was also Mushi Productions - when that existed, Nippon Animation, Knack Productions (which made awful anime, yes, but it was its own thing)... I could go on.

I don't care much for Tezuka's art but I have to admit he was a pretty visionary individual. He basically invented most of the storytelling techniques mangaka still use today and his body of work is both ENORMOUS and incredibly diverse.