After reading a blog post about anime elitism… how about now? Does Anime Elitism still exists in the year 2009?
Unfortunately yes… it still exist at the same level… Why? It gotten worse…
What is Elitism?
Dictionary Def: a person who believes that a system or society should be ruled or dominated by an elite. (from the Oxford American Dictionary)
The term anime elitist is similar to any kind of elitist… They are just as bad… labeling anime they don’t seem to be in the line of taste and call it “overrated”, especially anime that needs a lot more understanding like most serious and deeper stories like ef series, any of Key’s anime adaptation, etc. I am starting to feel that people are simply calling anime overrated because they seem to have a strong dislike or it’s not within their taste which in my opinion isn’t justified unless there is a very good reason.
Overrated anime is supposed to be in the line of being overhyped and overcredited, which mainly applies to shows like Naruto and Bleach, which have very high popularity, but the content is not.
Also, anime elitist seems to bash dubs and saying that the original voices are superior and complain about any changes. While most people won’t mind, they seem to overblown the poor quality of dubs due to the bad perception of 4KIDs dubs which they don’t dub anime anymore. Although the perception of dubs are poorly perceived, some series that have dubs have decent ones.
Content, Storyline, Character Development, and etc matters… no matter of which Genre.
No genre is inferior to the other. It’s common belief that many people say that harem genre is inferior to something like mecha… but you got to understand that every genre have a amount of well acclaimed series because of the content, animation, etc opposed to a poorly done one in the same genre. It usually depends on production values, where the content originally came from, and also the production. Without one of them, the series most likely won’t be well perceived.
Fandom and Elitism… do they mix?
Are you always annoyed by Haruhiists, Naruto and Bleach fans saying that their anime is superior than your favorite anime… If so, you are not alone. There always a lot of people who complain about these rabid fanboys/fangirls due to the fact they want you to accept it. Unfortunately, in the end, it ends up having a negative effect on the fandom… Even well done anime can be labeled as overrated due to the fact of the rabid fanboys/fangirls of a very popular series and their annoyance.
Why do I mention Haruhiism… If you haven’t read several posts about them complaining and bashing about Kyoto Animation doing anything other than Haruhi Season 2 (for example: Kanon and Clannad), you most likely know why..
Don’t get me wrong, I do like Haruhi, but sometimes the rapid fanboys/fangirls of the series can be annoying.
Conclusion
In the end, elitism is never a good thing because it hurts your creditability and also your reputation. Anime is something that all fans of anime should enjoy and fans should spend more time enjoying and have friendly discussion rather than bashing each other’s anime without any good justification.
So, what is your opinion on anime elitism? Do you think it’s annoying or not?[poll id=”3″]Poll closes on May 8, 2009 at 11:59 PM EDT
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