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

It's not just the Western Hemisphere.

The Japanese themselves stereotype anime fans. Have you seen that bicycle anime wherein the main lead is an anime and manga fan ?

Another example I can think of is in Silver Spoon.

Saying "these people don't represent us" doesn't mean anything if you don't actually do anything to disassociate. Thorn is right that some people will always stereotype, but that isn't an excuse for the shit I've seen at anime conventions.

People laugh, wave off, and make excuses for that stuff, and that kind of goes against the idea of "not condoning".

More and more conventions are getting serious about dealing with that, plus if you are caught its a one way ticket to banville.

Dealing with what? I've never been to a con.

Groping, being a creeper, shit like that.

I know they are. But, it's still a very prevalent problem. "Getting serious about a problem" isn't the same as "and the problem is totally fixed now".

I can still come back from a con with at least four or five creepy ass stories. And it still gets laughed at or shrugged off to this day.

The fact that it's been going on for so long means that the stigma is going to need a hell of a lot of effort to get rid of.

Reminds me of Nash and Terra talking about 'Ghetto-Con', a nickname for a particularly uncomfortable and somewhat violent con they found themselves unwittingly involved in, (oh, they intended to go the con, but not to where the con ended up,) due largely to it being in a dingy hotel that they stayed overnight at due to unforseeable circumstances. Said hotel was located in, you guessed it, a ghetto. The whole thing is freaking hilarious, but also freaking disturbing. Who woulda' thunk'?

edited 7th Nov '14 8:01:47 PM by kkhohoho

Hah... thankfully, I do not care enough about anime or manga to care to fix its bad reputation.

I'd rather just enjoy the very rare gems and (just try to) disassociate myself (and my rep) from the 99.99%.

edited 7th Nov '14 8:04:59 PM by probablyinsane

Responding the OP, I think people feel it's easier to generalize anime since by their definition it's just "japanese cartoons and comics" and as we all know, "japanese" means *Insert Broad Generalization.

But of course there's always some maxim that declares "if people vocally hate your stuff you're doing something right". Similar to say, Disney, people are able to make fun of anime precisely because it has this strong identity in their minds. To them, anime "looks the same" or employs the same tropes repeatedly.

But just like how not all Disney movies are princess movies(Or All Animation Is Disney), anime cannot be pigeonholed into some broad category like Giant Robots, Naughty Tentacles, etc.

@ entropy13

What makes you say that? We have Hero TV and Animax Asia.

Hentai, moeblob works, and the fact that the Shojo Periphery Demographic exists.

I'd also say shonen anime, but anime's detractors (at least among the nerd community) tend to like macho power fantasies, just in a different flavor than shonen.

I dunno, I'd say stuff like Naruto and Bleach are contributors as well.

That doesn't mean they are bad, per say.

they do about as much as harm to the popular perception as any other super massively popular but mediocre work in a given medium (i.e call of duty, summer blockbuster action movies, etc). do i really want the popular perception of manga being shaped by naruto and bleach? not in the slightest. but given that battle shounen series tend to be some of the most popular and accessible anime with western viewers it's bound to happen.

edited 1st Dec '14 12:12:59 PM by wehrmacht

What's mediocre or not is an opinion. Not everyone shares that opinion.

And yet One Piece is always considered exempt from the title of "mediocre" for whatever reason.

Regardless of quality, the fact that a lot of really popular anime is basically aimed at kids (or at least, teenagers), and that some of the most vocal anime fans are in fact teens can make the medium seem immature. It's like the Animation Age Ghetto, except less about demographics and more about how mature the anime and fans are.

I feel like can be especially be the case for nerdy people in other mediums who also get exposed anime that is aimed at adults but looks full of wish-fulfillment or is obviously pandering (like harem, moe, or fanservice filled anime).

You can also blame the companies for that. They could just dub anything regardless of what it was but they decide to service the main demographic instead. It's good business, but bad for the genre.

Of course, back in the day, companies like Harmony Gold and Saban Entertainment were dubbing anything and didn't care what it was. And that was when anime was marketed to kids.

Well, for what I see in latin amercian web page, anime is sufering a little bit of hype blacklash, the most comon argument is that everything now is too fanservice, the protagonist to unlikeable and writer are more busy pandering to otaku that anything else.

..... because more anime REALLY IS. They're doing that on purpose because even in Japan, anime is getting harder and harder to sell!

I'm aware of that. I'm just voicing mine.

On the whole i'd say it's better than Bleach or Naruto, but YMMV.

Actually it strikes me how much opinions vary in certain circles; Bleach has a much more positive reputation here than elsewhere i've seen.

edited 1st Dec '14 1:18:10 PM by wehrmacht

How are normal animated kids' shows doing in Japan, and not just the stuff American anime fans like?

This is accurate to a degree, though I'd also argue that any impression of anime being in a much better state previously is skewed due to the fact that we only remember classics. nobody knows about the several dozen terrible fanservice shows that aired in seasons of years past because they never made it overseas and the internet wasn't what it is now, which meant we never learnt about them.

we still get decent to great shows even now, it just depends on your taste.

edited 1st Dec '14 1:25:58 PM by wehrmacht

Fanservice-type shows really didn't exist back in the "good old days" of anime until, say, the mid-90s or so.

Given all the fanservice titles Funimation's been grabbing a hold of and the fact that friggin' AKB 0048 got an English dub, when anyone who would watch that would do so in the original Japanese, I don't think that claims holds a lot of water...

This is also true to an extent.

edited 1st Dec '14 1:30:50 PM by PhysicalStamina

Yeah no.

Fanservice existed in the 80s. Gunbuster had full on toplessness.

Cutie Honey was 70s and it had plenty of fanservice, probably first anime to do so. (Manga even farther back)

~

The Otaku pandering is because Anime is in a feedback loop of "Otaku are the only ones who buy our anime, so we make anime for otaku" and "Only otaku buy anime because its only made for Otaku!"

Japan's flailing economy isn't helping either.

edited 1st Dec '14 1:33:25 PM by Thorn14