Predicament of Anime

Perhaps the hardest thing about being surrounded by anime fans is finding someone that hasn’t been entirely corrupted. Luckily, not every fan happens to be addicted.

Take Erik Rubel for example. Erik is a freshman attending the University of Texas at Arlington and he considers himself to be an average viewer of anime. However, Erik isn’t exactly proud of his liking for the genre.

“All of those weird kids- the weeaboos- those kids are just weird. Like I like watching the occasional episode of Dragon Ball Z, but I’d never willingly go to some convention full of those hardcore fans with the costumes and all.”

Because of these “weeaboos”, people like Erik are scared of attending conventions such as Comic Con. Over 167,000 people attended the 2015 Comic Con, and a reasonable chunk of these people likely donned homemade outfits of their favorite anime characters and bullied non-devout fans.

This trend of harassing new fans isn’t new either. According to recent studies, narcissism has become as common trait among hardcore fans of anime. Their devotion to the show ends up causing a superiority complex and having big fans to aggressively compete and mock other viewers of the entertainment genre to see who the biggest weeaboo of them all is.

So what does Erik do about this persecution from the anime community? Nothing, really.

“I just don’t really associate myself with anime people. Most of them just say weird Japanese words and talk about nothing but anime. It gets super annoying really fast, especially when they start trying to insult me for only watching ‘casual anime shows.’”

The worst part of this whole predicament about anime is that even the higher ups are ashamed of what anime has become. According Hayao Miyazaki, a famous Japanese film director and animator, the fans of the anime industry have corrupted a passion he once loved dearly. Miyazaki links this decline in the quality of the industry due to how shows are now being made to cater to “otaku”, or fans that obsess far too much about anime.

“Those who identify as ‘otaku’, they sicken me deeply. Anime was a mistake,” the famous film director has said.

The worst part is that not only have these fans of anime become insanely obsessed, they’ve also become perverse in their obsession. According to recent studies, the over-sexualization of anime “has been negative for long term fans and new viewers, as well as producers and animators, who must compromise their work in order to fulfill this ideological expectation."

And so, this leaves casual anime fan Erik Rubel at a crossroads. Is he supposed to give up a childhood past time because of how perverse and vile the anime industry has become? Perhaps that’s the best solution for Erik.

“I guess I’ve been more or less growing out of watching anime, you know? Shows from my childhood will always have a place in my heart, but I think it’s best if I just grow up.”
 

-By Andy