Within the anime community you'll often find people hating on mainstream anime simply because they're mainstream. These people will often look down on the viewers of these shows and claim their favourite anime is one that's unknown to most.
Being someone that watches all kinds of anime, mainstream included, I get confused as to why they have such strong opinions on something that in reality doesn't affect them at all. If someone enjoys watching something then good for them, as long as it's not harming someone else in the process then what's the problem? Perhaps it's a desire to feel like they're better than others, who knows?
Nearly all mainstream anime are actually good, a good storyline or interesting fight scenes are enough to attract a crowd but it couldn't become mainstream with such a high viewer base if it wasn't good. I'll admit they have flaws, same as any other anime. The insane levels of power driven by emotions alone is often a recurring theme, as well as having a TON of 'filler' episodes that often seem like a waste of time. On the other hand they also have many strong points, perhaps a unique storyline or interesting characters is enough to get people interested but something much more is required for so many people to keep coming back, always asking "what happens next?!" at the end of each episode.
Like I said before, if someone enjoys watching something then good for them, if you enjoy watching something else then that's great too. Just don't start a war over something so small. :)
Thanks for reading.
Nearly all the anime I watch is on crunchyroll.com, link below:
http://www.crunchyroll.com/
While I'm sure a small faction are merely hipsters, many dislike mainstream because popularity and money tend to distort what was great about something by watering it down to prolong that fame. They may also just grow tired of it, which slowly turned into hate with continued exposure. For example, I can't stand watching and listening to people talk about how great swords and dragons are anymore. They are to me what zombies have become to most others. In fact, when I saw that "favorite sword" thread on the CR forum, I cringed and had a strong desire to strangle the OP. Ahem, then, there are those who just don't understand why a particular something is popular to begin with. My friend loves Bleach and Naruto, but abhors One Piece, because all the secondary characters talk about their dreams and goals for several episodes. He believes none of that is beneficial for the main story. That it drags on and on like one of my lackluster comments. If anyone talks about it around him, he just starts asking, "When is Oda going to die?" This is his way of telling me that the series will never end until Oda does. I bet there are a few other reasons, too, but those are the few I can think of at the moment.
ReplyDeleteYeah I see where you're coming from and you're right, there are reasons for people to dislike the mainstream anime. I guess I'm talking about a select few, they tend to be more noticeable than the average anime viewer and so perhaps there's not as many as I thought. Also I agree with the things that are overdone, the swords, dragons, zombies etc can be really tedious nowadays, however most of those mainstream anime tend to have some kind of twist as far as I know. With Naruto for example there's a lot of in depth back story as well as interesting character relationships (itachi & sasuke as an example).
ReplyDeleteI guess the lil rant was just aimed at those select few, I do agree with all the points you made though. Thanks for reading yet again :)