Anime Profile Pictures: Why Is There So Much HATE For It?

If you’ve stepped into the anime community for 5 minutes, you’ll notice one thing. And that’s the hate for anime profile pictures.

More so on social media, forums, or even Google itself.

I started noticing it when I saw so many Quora questions about it.

Questions like this:

It’s mental ain’t it? The hate is real.

It’s the same thing in most places you look online.

Whether it’s:

Reddit
Steam
or Twitter.

It’s almost as if it’s a universal hatred for ANIME in particular. Even when anime’s not part of the conversation, someone will manage to throw some hate towards people with anime profile pictures.

It’s like a sick obsession for something they apparently don’t like.

So why the hate for anime profile pictures?

The hate comes down to a lot of things. Some of it is public knowledge.

But it doesn’t always have any rhyme or reason to it.

Let’s take a look.

1. Prejudice

“Recently I have played CS:GO in competitive and every game I join there is at least one person who calls me and my friends who have anime profile pictures weaboos. And posts really rude comments on profiles, I think it is really inappropriate and not fun.
Why are people on the internet so negative towards anime and people who like it?”

Prejudice is when you have a preconceived notion about someone or something.

In the case of anime – it’s as if people have it ingrained in their DNA to hate people who like anime or have profile pictures of them.

Here’s more.

“Is anime for loser and weirdo?”

There are even Facebook and Twitter accounts dedicated to hating on people with anime profile pics.

Along with memes posted targeting people who like anime.

In these cases, as I hinted before – they’re all projecting and there’s no logic or purpose to it. Other than to hate and feel better about themselves I suppose.

2. Bad experiences

“I hate anime profile pictures, almost all of the time they are the biggest d*ckheads ever.”

On the surface, this seems like ranting. But there’s a reason for this one.

The person in question didn’t like the way they were treated by someone with an anime profile pic.

And so they associate this experience with people who have anime profile pics (stereotyping).

The interesting thing is how an “anime profile picture” is thrown into the conversation.

This goes back to the prejudiced comment in point #1. Being associated with anime is treated like Corona.

But in the end – a few bad apples cause people to irrationally judge you. Anime or otherwise.

3. Not knowing who’s behind the profile picture

“I guess for me it’s often a sign that they are far from what the icon represents. I’m not a fan of not knowing who someone is, and I’m even less of a fan of having my impressions shattered.”

This is something I’ve said before. A lot of people are judgemental, especially when they’re insecure.

If you have an anime profile picture you give haters less ways to judge you.

The person on Reddit who mentioned this isn’t a hater, but that’s usually the reasoning when someone is.

4. Hypocrisy

QUOTE:

“Anyone using an anime profile pic is not doing so because of appreciation. They’re sending a message, intentional or not.
That message is “I am hiding my appearance. My appearance is a deal-breaker, and I am well-aware of it. Rather than put forth any effort to improve myself, I choose to represent myself instead with animated characters indistinguishable from each other, and renowned for being associated with fans with unpleasant, awkward, and antisocial behavior.”

Before you facepalm yourself, keep in mind this is coming from an anonymous Reddit account.

Or put another way: an account behind a platform that favours privacy.

The hate for anime is very real. And strangely this doesn’t apply to any other medium other than anime.

And it somehow doesn’t apply to people who are already anonymous when making these claims.

“Did someone hack your account Elon? You seem to have an anime profile picture now. RU OK????? XD.”

Back when Elon Musk changed his profile picture to Edward Elric in 2019, hypocritical comments popped up everywhere.

All of a sudden it’s “confusing” and “doesn’t make sense” because the person they admire destroyed their preconceptions. And they don’t know how to respond.

The benefit of the doubt was given based on what they conjured up in their own minds. But never when the person in question isn’t famous.

5. Because “online dating”

The long and short of it is: that this guy spoke to a girl on Facebook with an anime profile pic.

He thought she was:

Cute
Funny
Smart

And that lovey-dovey talk we all go through when we’re into someone.

Turns out when he met this girl he was disappointed from a beauty point of view.

And so – he’s blaming anime, saying “This is why I hate anime profile pictures on Facebook.”

The reality is people with REAL pictures don’t turn out to be what you thought as well. I’ve met enough girls to know it.

Anime is just an excuse to justify your disappointment. Let’s call bullsh*t when we see it.

Why defend anime profile pictures?

That’s simple. I’m willing to speak for people who don’t have a voice and are on the receiving end of the abuse or hate.

And no one else is speaking on it, so I’ll gladly be the one to do it.

Yes – there are a portion of people who hide behind anime profile pictures. The types who are pricks, c*nts and make an absolute mockery of themselves.

And yes – there are even people (culture vultures) who use anime profile pictures to push false narratives and agendas in the anime community.

But that’s never the majority, and it shouldn’t be treated like that.

Especially not because you’ve dealt with 20 out of millions of people, and are now judging millions based on those 20.

Let’s do better than that.

–