So today we're talking about toxic anime fans and the different types of these fans that you can find on the internet. Anime is a media that attracts a lot of different kinds of people because there's always a series for you to enjoy no matter who you are. The community can be very wholesome. Sadly, however, this also means that anime attracts some less wholesome people. An anime fandom can often turn into a place filled with competition or arguments and where you don't really feel included or accepted.
It can be a bad experience for many people, and that's sad. Because I love anime. I love the uniqueness of anime, and I love the escapism it brings.
I've tried extensively to make my viewers interested in anime too, with varying degrees of success, but today we are not talking about the wholesome side of anime. Rather, we'll be discussing different types of toxic anime fans. Because I think it's important to know about these types of people, so that perhaps you can avoid them in the future, and not have your whole experience tainted by negative people. I think now would be a good time to- to talk about what the word toxic actually means, because I've seen a lot of people recently in my comments saying that toxic shouldn't be an adjective used to describe people, but I absolutely disagree. Toxic is such a great word, because nowadays so many things are toxic.
The internet is like the breeding ground for toxic shit. Basically, the way I use the word toxic is something that makes something else worse with bad intentions. Now that last part is a key aspect of my academically brilliant definition. Because not everything that makes other things worse is toxic.
For example, if a season of television isn't as good as the other seasons, and the show overall loses some quality, but the people involved tried to make it as good as possible, then that isn't toxic. That's just unfortunate. See, it's all about the intentions and the context. Toxic is a very loose word.
Toxic friends aren't really your friends. They make your life worse in some aspects and either they just don't have your best interests at heart, or they don't know how to be a good friend towards you. Both have a negative impact on your life and both are toxic friends, even if one is worse than the other. But now this raises another complex issue. There can be different levels of toxicity.
There's a big difference between when I call someone who always has to criticize others for liking a certain Star Wars movie, or someone who makes fun of others for liking a certain anime character, and then someone who actively manipulates his audience, spreads misinformation, creates hate trains towards certain celebrities, and is overall just a bad influence. They're really not the same thing, even if I call both of them toxic. So yeah, just know that when I call a certain type of person in this video toxic, most of the time I don't think that they're that bad.
But still, they make the community worse and I wish people didn't do these things. Which brings us to what we're here to talk about today. Anime. Now I've been a big fan of anime my whole life, but only in the past couple of years have I actively become part of the community.
I follow a lot of anime pages now on Instagram or Reddit, I watch a lot of YouTube videos on anime, and I love reading and taking part in online discussions about various topics regarding anime. But I've also had a lot of uncomfortable experiences, either things that have happened to me personally or things that I've seen happen to others. And so I really wanted to explore this topic because I feel like not enough people talk about toxic anime fans. So yeah, let's just get into it.
Now when I say toxic anime fandoms, I think a lot of people instantly thought of My Hero Academia, which is understandable. However, I don't think it's that bad. Obviously, there are the weird perverted people who ship Deku with fucking All Might. Like yes, there are definitely toxic My Hero Academia fans, who are borderline into illegal shit. However, the vast majority of the fandom is relatively harmless.
The ones that people refer to most often are the ones who obsessively ship characters together, or who turn characters into furries. And while it can definitely be cringey, it's not toxic. Like it doesn't affect you if you just mind your own business.
It's the same shit with the Harry Potter fandom. There are people who ship Hermione with Snape, who psychologically abused her for 7 years, but most of the shipping community is harmless and they just write fanfiction. If you don't want to be a part of it, then you don't gotta be a part of it. It's that simple. I really don't like that the My Hero Academia fandom has become the face of toxic anime fans, when there are so many worse people out there.
Now before we get to our main topic, I'd like to get a quick overview of some- different types of anime fans who range either from slightly annoying and toxic to full-on vicious psychopaths. Firstly, we have the people who get very heated on the topic of sub versus dub. There is a number of anime watchers who will berate or ridicule someone else for watching dub, which is fucking insane and incredibly elitist.
And we'll talk about that later, but basically if someone likes watching an anime in English, then just leave them alone. You both like anime, so talk about anime, or don't talk at all. It's really not that hard.
getting a little lightheaded. I think I'm running out of air. You don't let me out.
You're a cat killer. But I, they told me not to do that. Pussy. Then we have the people who spoil anime.
These are often manga readers or just people who searched up a spoiler for an anime and then they go on to a comment section on YouTube or Instagram or Reddit and say what happens in the anime without giving a spoiler warning. It's not funny, and you're just purposefully going out of your way to piss off or upset random people. I hope you're happy with yourself. Then we have Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood fans who'll send in the artillery of negative reviews for any anime that surpasses it on my anime list. These people are just obnoxious.
We also have the people who will say an anime is shit or garbage when they've never even seen it before. Because these are the people who will hop on a trend, often a hate train, and criticize an anime that they haven't watched, just because it's cool to do so. And then we have the Sakura haters.
These people have no life, they're just sexist, and they don't understand that she's a human too. Obviously, I'm just joking with this one, you have every right to dislike Sakura. I'm just petty, cause I think she's alright.
Like any fandom nowadays, there are also the people who'll abuse the creators online. It happened to Isayama and his editors when the final chapter of Attack on Titan came out, and it's disgusting. I'm not talking about the people who just didn't like the ending and wrote about it online, but rather the people who participated in the hashtag fuck you Isayama trend, and even the few people who sent death threats. People like this are just ungrateful little shits that cry because things didn't go their way. The things people can get away with on the internet nowadays scares the shit out of me.
But anyways, I think the most prominent type of toxic anime fans... are the people who gatekeep. I think we've all heard the phrase, if you haven't watched blank, then you're not a real anime fan.
And people like this fucking suck. Gatekeeping has long been a massive point of discussion within the anime community. Essentially, gatekeeping in our context means elitism towards new fans. It's when someone takes it upon themselves to decide who does or does not have access or rights to a community or identity. And it's a huge problem because it discourages new anime watchers who just want to join a community where they can talk about their favorite anime, and get recommendations from people who've been watching anime a lot longer.
Basically, imagine if you're new to anime, and say you watched Dragon Ball Z and Yu-Gi-Oh as a child and you've recently gotten into Naruto. You end up liking it a lot and you decide to join an anime community, perhaps a Discord server. But once you join, someone asks you what your favorite anime is and when you say Naruto, they call you a normie.
and say that unless you've watched this series that's apparently objectively the best anime in existence, then you're not a real anime fan. People like this are sadly very common, sometimes just in less direct cases, but one thing you hear very often from them is this whole objectively better thing. And listen, I love studying film, and learning the different techniques and skills that goes into crafting the best possible story.
I do believe that there are some objective qualities to film that turn it into an art, but at the end of the day, these objective qualities are still subjective. You can have a movie that's objectively way better structured than another movie, and you can reach this conclusion based on theories within the art of cinema. However, a person can still think the other movie is better structured or that it's more entertaining that way.
That's a subjective opinion and neither is wrong or right. I love discussing movies with other people and trying to analyze them, but that's all it is. Discussions. Civil conversations.
I'm not gonna go out of my way to tell someone that their favorite anime sucks just because I have some inflated sense of what makes an anime good or bad. If they enjoy that anime or they feel a connection to it or think it's objectively great, then who am I to tell them that they're wrong? It just seems counterintuitive.
Like if you want someone to watch an anime that you think is great, why don't you just say hey, if you like, insert popular anime, then you'd love, insert anime that they may not know about. Why does it need to be aggressive and elitist? Why do you have to shame someone just because they don't know about your favorite anime?
They may have watched a bunch of anime, but hey, if they haven't watched Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood or Code Geass, then they're not a real anime fan. Just for the record, if the only anime you've watched is either Demon Slayer, Naruto, Inuyasha, Bleach, One Piece, Fate, Dragon Ball Z, Sailor Moon, Gundam, My Hero Academia, Yu-Gi-Oh, or Ghost in the Shell, then congrats, you're a real anime fan. If you like any anime, then you can be an anime fan.
If you want to. However, at the end of the day, people like these are not too common, and at the very least, they're very easy to ignore. And usually, when a toxic anime fan appears, you'll never be alone in dealing with them. Fandoms nowadays can be difficult places to be because hating and criticizing other people has become way too common and accepted here on the internet.
Most people in real life are decent, and you'll usually be able to have fun and insightful conversations with other anime fans, even if your opinions and preferences don't always line up. However, once you get on the internet, the illusion of not having a real person in front of you can really change the way we interact with other people. No matter what fandom you're a part of, whether it be Star Wars, Harry Potter, My Little Pony, anime, Dungeons and Dragons, whatever, there's always going to be toxic people who want to ruin the experience for others, either intentionally or not. However, don't you worry, there will always be more good-hearted and pleasant people in most fandoms.
The only thing is, they're not as vocal as the vicious minority of haters. It may sometimes feel like you're alone, but I promise you, you're not. Anyways those were just my thoughts on how the anime community can sometimes be a bit toxic. I hope I didn't offend anyone.
Remember not liking sakura or thinking that a popular anime is bad or thinking that dub is worse than sub? does not make you toxic. You're perfectly allowed to have your own opinions and you're allowed to share those opinions with people online.
As long as you keep the discussion civil and as long as you don't abuse others for not sharing your views or make them feel bad about their innocent opinions, then criticism of a media is completely alright. If you have any unique thoughts about this topic or if you believe that there's something I missed, then be sure to leave your comments down below. Also be sure to leave some suggestions for other toxic communities that you want me to cover. Lastly, join our Discord server, the link is down below.
But other than that, I hope you all have a wonderful day. Stay safe and peace out.