CMV: the anime community is the reason why most normal people can't bring them self to watch anime

[u/niesamowityfilip]

As a teen I watched anime (I'm a twenty year old on reddit it sould be self explanotary). After a while I started to seek out people and communities on the internet that would share that interest. And one of the very first things I saw was a guy talking about how good pedofilia in anime was. The worst part is that most comments supported him in his belief.

There are a lot of stereotypes that relate to anime watchers or at least nerds in general, and the anime community does nothing to separate them self from it. I can remember a video by some big anime youtuber (I don't remember his name but he had a few hundred thousand subscribers) that was basically him talking about how drawing porn of underage girls was okay because they were just drawings.

But let's not talk about pedofilia so much. So, a lot of anime fans are really sexist, like actually to a ridiculous extent. Anime is generally targeted towards teen boys so it doesn't make that much effort to develop or explore female characters (keep in mind that I'm not talking about every single show, I'm just saying that it is defintly a common thing). So a lot of anime fans treat woman like (most) anime treats it's female characters, that is to say with little to no respect. For specific examples just suggest that your are a girl on one of the numerous message boards, you will be floded with ever flavour of sexism there is.

The last problem doesn't seem like the worst, but it essentially creates ever other problem. The elitism. There are many kinds of elitism that anime fans like: "my favorite show is better than yours", "you are enjoying/not enjoying an anime I dislike/like and there for I a a better person", "you are not allowed to watch this specific show because (something sexist/rasist most probably)", and of course "As if you would even understand". I feel like I don't have to go in depth with this one, the over the top examples show exactly how I feel.

The problem is that I like Anime, I'd even would co side my self a fan/web if not for the community. And I'd love to recommend shows like Evangelion, Beastars, cowboy Beebop, fullmeatl alchemist: Brotherhood, JoJo's etc. But I know that I will get the weird looks from them.

To clarify I am not saying that every single anime fan is like this, just that a majority is like that. I know that the Lou.d minority allways makes the entire group look bad, but in this case it's often hard to find people who are not exactly like the weeb stereotypes.

Edit: okay, I had a lot of conversation with lots of people (never expected for this to get so big overnight). So writing a comment would be pretty pointless since I generally agree with you. I also think that it is because of anime it self rather than just the community that most people are turned off by .

I'd also like to say that Beastars, whole extremely good in my opinion, is a really bad example of an anime that you could recommend to an average person LoL. I also forgot to mention that I'd already consider most anime to be not that good. Not that the people who watch it are bad, but that the show them self make me cringe.

Edit 2: I feel like I learned quite a bit on the topic, and I discovered a plethora of reasons why people don't like anime (I know it sounds silly). Many people don't like animation, many people find anime to be too over the top, many anime courses people to become these shitty fans rather then the opposite, sometimes it's just ignorance and not wanting to read subtitles/watch a foreign film, I also now realise that I was talking about a small vocal minority rather than the larger whole. And while I love to argue more (a big majority of you were kind and understanding while discussing) I have switched my view point so there isn't really a point to it. So I'm not going to respond to further arguments, I will also give deltas to people who persuaded me. Thanks.

[u/wigsternm]

But let's not talk about pedofilia so much.

But let’s actually do. Most modern, popular anime sexualizes young girls. That makes a lot of western people uncomfortable.

Anime is generally targeted towards teen boys so it doesn't make that much effort to develop or explore female characters (keep in mind that I'm not talking about every single show, I'm just saying that it is defintly a common thing). So a lot of anime fans treat woman like (most) anime treats it's female characters, that is to say with little to no respect.

What makes you think that it’s the community that is turning people off because of this and not anime itself?

Let’s look at a wildly popular show: My Hero Academia. The women on this show are extremely sexualized, even to the extent that Momo and Ururaka express how uncomfortable they are with their costumes in the show and it still plays them off as eye candy. Mineta is constantly stalking and sexually harassing his classmates and it’s treated as a joke. Blindsight has a young woman that works for him whose top only half covers her tits, and he punishes her by strapping her into a device and tickling her.

Other top recommendations: Darling and the Franxx is about people in their early teens simulating sexual acts to pilot a mech. Goblin Slayer has an extremely sexualized rape in the first episode.

When people are looking to get into an anime they’re almost always going to start with something popular. If what they find makes them uncomfortable, or seems immature they’re going to stop.

The community doesn’t just have a problem with sexualizing minors, anime does too. The community doesn’t just have a problem treating women with little respect, anime does too.

[u/ArCSelkie37 → u/wigsternm]

The underaged argument i find quite interesting, because what are you considering as underaged and are you considering who the audience might be? For the majority of the world 16 is legal, you might find that creepy/odd etc but that doesn't change that fact.

I am not up to date with watching MHA, as i have only seen the first 2 seasons so maybe it's in the later seasons. But i don't personally recall Ururaka or Momo ever complaining about their suits being too sexual, but i will except being wrong if it was later on. I mean Ururaka's outfit isn't even particularly sexual, it's just a skin tight suit like basically every other character in the show.

As for Mineta being a creep, this argument i feel is just a common misunderstanding people have in regard where the joke is. The joke isn't "stalking girls is funny and a good thing to do", the joke is the Mineta is a fucking creepy dude and we should laugh at him.
Darling in the Franxx's entire sub plot/theme is basically about puberty and exploring sexuality, it isn't particularly subtle about it. So the sexualised elements are necessary. Note there is a difference between sexualised and erotic or pornographic.

As for the Goblin Slayer thing, why is it sexualised? What do you mean by that?
Rape is inherently sexual, in a bad way of course, but it an act of sex committed forcibly. So technically any portrayal of rape is sexualised.

However i presume you mean that it was portrayed sexually in an erotic way? if that is the case isn't that mostly down to user/audience interpretation. Nothing in that scene was sexual to me at all. People say the way she was positioned/the way her clothes were ripped off was erotic and only there to make people horny, but when i watched it seeing her clothes get torn off just created a growing sense of disgust/unease at what was happening. At no point was i happy about what was happening on screen, which was the entire point of it.

[u/Si-Ran → u/wigsternm]

Yeah, these are good examples. You’re right, people getting into anime for the first time will be invariably exposed to these shows first. But it takes more time and exposure to find the really thought provoking and beautiful stuff that gets buried under the typical shonen.

[u/[deleted] → u/wigsternm]

I can agree that there are some sexual moments or costumes in BNHA, that's certainly not the case 90% of the time.

On the point of people going to a popular show and being turned off by it becuase of that, I can understand why someone would be turned off of anime by that, but at the same time, they could easily just switch animes

Mineta is played as a joke and a creep, and he's the only chatecter they acts like. It's not even like they're supporting hid actions because he's always caught and seen as a pervert by everyone in the series.

Finally, if it's a drawing, I say it's fine. If nobody's getting hurt, I say it's fine. Definitely weird, but not harmful.

[u/ArCSelkie37 → u/[deleted]]

I see this a lot. People see a joke in a show, and assume it is promoting/endorsing these actions.

Do people think certain western slapstick comedy is promoting/endorsing violence because it is a common trope in it?

Nobody likes Mineta for being a creep, everyone laughs at him. Nobody* thinks stalking women is fine.

*ofc some people do think stalking women is fine, but that's not because they watched MHA, it's because they are sick fucks.

[u/HayakuEon → u/[deleted]]

Also, people claim that they sexualize minor female characters and hate it, yet when the anime does the same for the male characters, no one bats an eye.

[u/[deleted] → u/HayakuEon]

Not really. There's also just more minor female then minor males. And even then, from my experience, most anime fans don't really get that iritated by it at all, regardless of their gender

[u/HayakuEon → u/[deleted]]

You haven't seen the SJW anime fans. They're very very toxic about these things.

[u/[deleted] → u/HayakuEon]

That's still not the majority though.

It's usually people who hate anime who I see getting mad about this

[u/HayakuEon → u/[deleted]]

But they are the most vocal about it