There are some interesting divisions in pop-culture. There are those who live following the Kardashians, others who can describe the Avengers as well as their closest friends, etc.
The oddity is when the different tribes of pop-culture start to turn on each other but the sub-group which seems to get the most judgement from a large variety of people are anime and manga enthusiasts.
There are a couple of reasons that could be why anime is looked down upon by people. As someone who used to think the same way as these people, I can explain why:
- Lack of Exposure: Many of the people who dislike anime are people who haven’t even watched it at all. The only exposure they probably get is through Hentai or relatively terrible English dubs that sometimes come on TV.
- Association with Otakus: People tend to associate those who like anime with the anime fanatics. They look at pictures of cosplays (which, lets be honest, looks weird if you’ve never been exposed to the content), and assume that everyone who likes anime probably acts like that when, in reality, watching anime is nothing more than the same pleasure of, say, watching Game of Thrones or devouring Harry Potter.
- Association with Cartoons: Cartoon has the negative connotation of being childish. So when they see that someone likes ‘Japanese cartoons’, they assume that people who enjoy anime are nothing more than a bunch of cartoon watchers. Little do they know all the dark amines that exist.
- Weaboos: Some fans also tend to perpetuate the negative stereotypes associated with anime and manga lovers and give the more casual fans an uneasy feeling. Setting their Facebook profile pictures to anime characters and posting statuses such as “OMG ICHIMADOKU-CHAN IS MAI WAIFU ^ _ ^ <3”. Can you imagine how weird this looks to someone who hasn’t watched any anime whatsoever?
The art style is also widely criticised, especially in anime. When you look at it objectively it’s true that the general Anime style is a very limited form of animation.
Often it comes down to scenes of mouths moving with the occasional eye blink, sandwiched between brilliantly rendered long shots of epic backgrounds. The fluidity of traditional 2D animation rarely makes an appearance, except in short spurts during fast, motion-blur filled action. Anime is also the master of the “animated cycle” and reusing drawings and actions.
At the end of the day, we are all are entitled to their opinion. However, before criticising we should take into consideration the fact that this is a widely popular area of pop-culture, and with good reason. There are several gems to read or watch such as RWBY, Death Note, My Hero Academia as well as others which we’ve grown up watching such as Naruto, Dragon Ball and One Piece.
More of, respect those who work in this industry. The market is tougher than ever due to digital piracy and, writers and animators work extremely hard for relatively little pay. In Japan it is so common to die from being over-worked that linguistics have caught on and developed a specific word for it. So, for those quick to criticise at least respect those who work in the industry and who estimates show only get 3 hours of free time a week.
