7 Dumb Mistakes Cringey Anime Fans Make That WON'T Surprise You

When someone outside of the anime community or industry thinks about anime fans, it’s usually the cringey ones.

They then take that association and that becomes their prejudice against anime fans in general.

It’s no surprise when you hear things like:

Anime is for losers.
Anime fans are weeaboos.
Anime is for weirdos.
Anime is for creeps.

And things of that nature when it comes to insults or accusations.

When you have cringey anime fans who make the mistakes they do on a regular basis, that becomes the image of how every anime fan is by association (even if ignorant and out of context).

These mistakes hurt the anime community as a whole, more so outside of Japan.

Let’s talk about it.

1. Wanking over Japanese culture

As any common sense thinking person realizes, if you overly obsess with other cultures to the point of making a damn fool out of yourself, then it’s only right that culture will see you as a f*cking weirdo.

I don’t mean a weirdo in a general sense either (meaning not as a general insult). I mean the embodiment of a weirdo, to the point of being cringey and having little to no self-respect. Or respect for those you’re walking over (metaphorically).

This doesn’t just reflect badly on those who then travel to Japan, but in the community, since this is what outsiders will be exposed to because its clickbait worthy.

2. Fetishing Japanese culture to an extreme (unhealthy)

I remember when I wrote an article about the fetishization of Japanese culture, but few wanted to hear it. In that post, I mentioned how a Japanese woman on Instagram documented her experiences.

She had all kinds of westerners (white Americans) fetishizing her, using typical weeaboo terms, and much more which leans more towards disrespect than a fetish or admiration.

Having a fetish isn’t bad in itself. I’d go as far as saying most people have some kind of subtle, innocent fetishes. But when taken to an extreme to the point of objectification, it becomes cringey.

That end result is what you see with a surprising amount of anime fans, even if it’s only a portion of them so to speak.

3. Making death threats over an anime series

This has been happening for a long time. Naruto at its peak went through some crazy sh*t, to the point where anime fans were sending death threats to the author Kishimoto himself.

It was all over Twitter, and there was even a Facebook page dedicated to it before it got deleted and wiped out.

Darling In The Franxx showed us again in 2018 how cringey anime fans are willing to make death threats to creators just because a scenario doesn’t go the way they wanted it.

Chainsaw Man in 2022 had fans crying about the anime over the stupidest reasons as well, but that was a loud minority.

Attack On Titan is another, on top of MHA, and many others with necessary amounts of controversy over the most entitled, crybaby bullshit imaginable.

4. Religiously defending Loli’s like your life depends on it

Tired of the “lolicon isn’t pedophila” and people defending it.
I’m going to break this down for the weirdos in this thread, go as in detail as possible.
Like/RT to scare weirdos. ✅ pic.twitter.com/YaBJ8aaSgx
— ✨Eight | 8✨ (@EightUltra) September 17, 2022

This is something I never understood when it comes to arguments and debates on this topic. Why is it so many anime fans religiously defend “being attracted to” Loli’s, while at the same time saying they wouldn’t be if it’s real life?

The argument is “it’s not real” and yet a selection of fans are attracted to those types of characters because of their childish physiques.

I won’t say this is most fans because it’s not, and I won’t say this is a common issue where millions and millions of fans have this mindset because it’s not true.

I will say though it’s weird as F to play double standards like your life depends on it while making justifications that make you seem even more strange than you would have been (depending on the age of the person).

5. Sensationalizing anime controversy from 1 or 2 Twitter users

This is a perfect example of this bullshit taking place. ChibiReviews made a whole video about “Spy x Family” as if it was being criticized by 100s or 1000s of people on Twitter.

Under the guise of people “creating entire personalities out of hating on it”. Chibireviews later deleted or delisted the video.

The screenshots above are an example of where that sensationalism leads, and how birds of a cringe flock together so blindly.

Hero Gei is no better.

He made a video titled something like “Animelog will be the death of Crunchyroll” after it was announced AnimeLog would stream 1000s of anime for free.

That was obviously a projection and nothing more, in a sensationalized format. I knew about it because someone DM’d me his video of him crying about an article I made as if it is about him in the first place (see point #7).

6. Toxic shonen debates

This never ends and will likely continue for a long time, but it still needs to be said. The amount of shonen debates that read to toxicity, outright racism, disrespect, accusations, and character assassination is amazing.

It usually comes from the same people who call out or point out this behaviour as being wrong, but use it for their own convenience when they don’t like what you say or are offended that you disagree with their opinions.

There’s no genre or community in anime more toxic than cringey shonen fanboys.

7. Desperate attention-seeking elitists

And then there are the elitists who act and behave as if they’re confident in what they’re saying, believe what they’re saying, and act confident about what they’re telling you.

The reality is different and the telltale sign is in the fact they have to insult you, try to offend you, get a rise out of you, and stir the pot to make themselves feel better about their insecurities.

You can see this playing out in YouTube comment sections, websites, or even right here on certain articles where the opinion is “controversial”.

The dub vs sub argument is a classic example and a tired one.

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In the end, some of us have been in the “cringe” department depending on how we behaved at a certain point in our lives, but some of these points aren’t excusable.

But either way, it probably won’t stop. I’m just here to point it out.