The biggest fears that anime fans have. I’m partially being sarcastic with some of these points in the post, but many of these points are also legitimate, genuine, and realistic.
Most points apply to:
- Different stages of your anime journey.
- Different times of your life as an anime fan.
- Outside threats (so-called).
And other elements that the anime industry goes through, which anime fans experience by extension and association.
Here’s a list.
Fears that anime fans have:
1. Anime being produced by non Japanese who don’t understand the culture
I’ve seen this “fear” enough times that I had to mention it first before anything else. Many anime fans have an irrational fear, but sometimes genuine fear that anime will be “taken over”.
This might have seemed more true some years back but not today.
There are clowns and culture vultures in the anime space who claim things like:
- Anime will be overtaken by Chinese animation.
- Korean manga will replace Japanese manga.
But all this is unfounded nonsense being projected by the loud minority who are unhappy with anime for its:
- Fanservice.
- Bold attitude towards sexual expression.
- The daring topics anime has.
- The fearlessness of anime and its creators as far as topic exploration (Redo Of Healer).
And things of that nature that anime always finds itself in as far as controversy.
The wider anime community loves anime for this unique difference, but Western journalists and the like love preaching about Korean and Chinese equivalents as if their “anime” is good enough in the first place.
2. Having to resort to piracy thanks to crappy streaming services
Anime fans may pirate their favourite shows unapologetically at times, but in reality, this happens because of the subpar services that streaming sites have.
Crunchyroll may have 1000+ anime in the USA, but outside the USA there are 500, 300, 200, 100, or even ZERO anime depending on the country’s restrictions (UK, India, etc).
Anime fans only resort to piracy because they have to (a majority), while still buying anime merchandise and so on to support the anime industry in other ways.
Very few people get a kick out of pirating anime in a genuine sense. But what’s an anime fan to do if streaming services and anime licensors have NO interest in improving services?
3. Your favourite anime ending on a cliffhanger
This is more of a funny fear or worry of certain anime fans. And it makes sense. Too many anime can end on a cliffhanger only to leave you hanging, pun intended, without any sort of conclusion to what was a good story.
If there are no follow-ups to fill in the missing gaps, it makes the experience less enjoyable despite the prior episodes being so good in the first place.
That’s just the way it is.
4. A 2nd season of their favourite anime never seeing the Light of Day
This is more of a follow-up to my last point. If there’s no 2nd season to your favourite anime, it becomes a pain in the ass. And after 5 or 10 years pass, you wonder whether it will happen at all.
A Certain Scientific Railgun had this treatment and then had a 3rd season after 10 years (2021 ish or 2020).
Anime shows like Railgun that have a ton of content ready to be adapted but never seem to get a 2nd season are the worst culprits.
One more example of this would be the anime Owari No Seraph.
Relevant: 9+ Anime Shows Like K-On That Are Fun And Cheerful (Recommended)
5. Watching an anime with no fandom
This is partly sarcastic and humour, but if you’re the type to take part in fandoms on social media or forums, and talk about your favourite types of anime a lot, then an anime with no fandom means no conversations at all.
It also means you’re speaking into a void since either any real fans are hard to find, or you’re the apparent only one who cares.
6. Seeing your waifu die in an anime (or favourite character)
If you’ve watched Akame Ga Kill like me, and it’s one of your favourite series of all time, then you know what I’m talking about.
This anime is ruthless by design, even more so than its manga counterpart, but this type of end result puts a damper on the anime series and can even dilute the quality of what you’re watching.
If only for a couple of moments.
7. Your browsing history
Just some good humour for those anime fans who are the youngest (teenagers) who’ve been watching certain anime or Google’in certain things without context, that when caught out can’t explain their way out of it.
This doesn’t just apply to anime, but all kinds of topics since it’s easy to take things out of context if let’s say, your laptop is left open or your browser history is being monitored by parents, etc.
8. The anime industry being taken over by Disney or Hollywood
This point correlates with point #1, but the context is different. Instead of anime being outsourced and dominated by South Korea or China, here we’re talking about the USA and companies like Disney and Hollywood.
Both industries and media conglomerates are known for their:
- SJW.
- Politically correct.
- WOKE.
And pandering nonsense that they can’t help but do and put on a show for with a very new release it seems.
It’s no longer about art, but politics, ass-kissing, and bowing down to what nobodies with avatars on Twitter have to say when outraging.
Imagine if they owned anime and how they’d butcher that shit? That’s the fear here. But it won’t happen.
9. Seeing your favourite anime get ruined after changing studios
Remember One Punch Man season 2? Even though the anime was OK, it admittedly wasn’t as well polished compared to the first season with Madhouse Studios.
The studio for the 2nd season was J.C. Staff, one of my favourite studios, but they didn’t know what to do with it and that’s partly Madhouse’s fault for refusing to produce 2nd season series.
Changing the staff, the directors, the people working on it, and so on will always have drastic consequences that may not be beneficial and can be a real gamble.
10. An anime series having too many episodes to get through
Not all anime are 12-episode series despite this being a trend in the last decade or so (2010 onwards). Some anime have 300, 500, 1000, or even 2000 episodes to get through.
If you’re a new anime fan or you’re unfamiliar with a series you’re about to watch, if it has too many episodes you’ll be motivated to QUIT rather than watch through it all.
Not so much a fear, but it still counts and I see this a lot.
11. Your family walking in at the worst time
And we’ll end it with this.
I don’t relate, but I know a lot of anime fans do these days since more and more teenagers are getting into it, and there are now more chances than ever for scenes to be taken out of context at random.
–
Recommended Next:
