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I don’t appreciate people on the internet taking passive-aggressive swipes at anime fans. I know I shouldn’t get so worked up over the internets, but I do anyway. Now I see Makigumo as a site that appreciates the art in anime, among other things (mostly dick jokes). So I don’t like getting lumped into the stereotypes that have developed regarding anime fans. Maybe I am overweight, somewhat slobbish, and sometimes creepy, but come on, give me a little credit. I’m employed full time, make a lot of money, am sometimes intelligent, and I don’t watch anime for the titties. Ok I do watch some anime for the titties, but hey, it would be folly to say men never do anything solely for the titties. If you’ve ever made fun of anime for being perverted, and you are male, tell yourself with a straight face that you’ve never done anything just for the titties. That’s what I thought, asshole.

There are of course people who are way too into anime, but in a fetishistic way. I try to find art in anime, and sometimes even succeed, but these guys objectify it. Anime to them is a source of things to obsess over. These people are rightly called otaku, although it should be said that otaku are not exclusively into anime. There are otaku for all sorts of stuff: sports, trains (now that’s weird), pop idols, gardening, Star Wars, you name it. In the US, this term has been appropriated by the anime community to mean “anime fan” and that’s fine, but that doesn’t mean we’re all the same. I draw the line at body pillows.

So we have otaku, who fit part of the anime-fan stereotype: they obsess over the merchandise and the surface elements of the production. Their love is skin deep but... really concentrated. Hell, even that is just one type of otaku but that’s a discussion for another day. Next is the social outcast stereotype, which by and large is not true (at least in the US). The Japanese term is hikkikomori, which denotes a person who withdraws from social interactions. But this is not related to anime, as it has more to do with the difficulties of working life, the competitiveness of schools, and gender relations. The US anime scene is incredibly community oriented; anime fans love getting together and enjoying anime (unless you’re me and think you’re better than everyone LOLJK).

Finally there’s the related stereotype of anime fans being jobless and uneducated. There’s conveniently a term for that, the NEET (not in employment, education, or training), which has been adopted by the Japanese. The acronym says it all, but again, this is not due to anime. It just happens, usually due to the same factors that cause hikkikomori to seclude themselves. Making a living in Japan is hard and some people aren’t cut out for it. Do some of them turn to anime? Yes. But the slew of stereotypes revolving around anime fans actually comes from three distinct sociological phenomena, which is to say they are wrong and stupid.

There is one anime fan stereotype that’s true, which is that most of us are dirty pirates. I joke about this, but it really is hurting the industry. So that’s it for today. I’ll resume my normal posts about anime and dick jokes tomorrow.

Tags: miscellaneous