When you see comments online about the anime community being a certain way, can you blame them?
Sometimes it’s exaggerated or outright lies, yes, but sometimes it’s not far from the truth given how toxic the Shonen community can be, and by extension, the big 3 anime and their fanbases which dominate it.
It’s the reason so many fans don’t bother being part of these fandoms in an active sense and if they do, they dissociate themselves from the drama and the nonsense.
Let’s talk about the big three and their varying toxicity.
Some of these comments are adapted from Quora.
1. Bleach
We’ll start with Bleach because it’s my favourite anime of the big 3 (better than Naruto) and I’m the most familiar with it.
This anime always gets hated on by the other One Piece and Naruto fans, proving just how toxic those fandoms are in the big 3 because Bleach wasn’t as “successful” as the other two.
As if any of that matters given its enormous success.
That aside, Bleach’s Toxicity when it comes to its own fanbase looks like this.
Starting with:
- Bleach fans overhyped the new upcoming adaptation of the Thousand Year Blood War arc.
- Hypocrisy from Bleach fans. They claim to hate the Thousand Year Blood War arc and the ending of the manga, yet they overhype the anime adaptation of it.
- Speaking of Naruto, they threw tantrums when Ichigo lost to Naruto in Death Battle and tried to “correct” the creators of Death Battle.
- They complain about Ichigo and Orihime being canon. In fact, some fans got pissed off to the point that they burned all their manga volumes and destroyed their CD’s.
If I were to add to this list, it would be Bleach fans always trying to make out that Ichigo and Bleach characters are comparable or better than DBZ characters in terms of strength.
Some of the arguments around this are outright venomous, and the amount of hatred, bashing, bad-mouthing, and venom that comes from it is beyond ridiculous.
There’s also Bleach fans burning their manga to cinders because Tite Kubo criticized Jujutsu Kaisen’s characters.
I’ve also noticed toxicity when it comes to Orihime and Ichigo vs Ichigo and Rukia. I’m on the side of Rukia because the writing made too much sense and so did the context until that changed, but the venom in the community on this topic can get crazy.
Infighting is real, it’s not just “our anime your anime” types of nonsense.
Now, of course, some of these other points are debatable regardless of which side of the fence you stand on.
But still, as far as the fandom being toxic, it does have elements of it no question.
It’s just nowhere near as toxic as Naruto and One Piece, as we’re about to reveal.
2. One Piece
One Piece as I’ve said before is an anime that deserves its recognition for ONE reason: consistency.
It’s the most consistent Shonen anime of all time (when using the Big 3 or similar anime). It has never stopped being produced, and for that reason, its popularity is earned.
As an anime, I might not see it as good as Bleach, but the community itself gets so extreme with this and with other matters that it can’t be ignored from a toxicity standpoint.
Some highlights worth mentioning:
- You’re not allowed to say you prefer the anime over the manga. If you do, all the salty fanboys will attack you as if you were a fake fan and disrespect your opinion.
- They treat Eiichiro Oda as a god. I mean, he is a great mangaka, but they are taking it way too far.
- They call Fairy Tail a rip-off of One Piece.
- They constantly blame Toei Animation for ruining One Piece. Some of them will even attack you if you defend the anime and the studio. They even do this with the foreign dubs.
You’re also not allowed to criticize one piece and claim that it’s NOT better than Naruto or Bleach. And if you dare to say that One Piece, in your own opinion, is trash or not up to par, prepare for a wave of crybabies.
The venom is similar to FMA fans and how they attack anyone who dares to criticize the anime.
3. Naruto
The Naruto community is a funny one. I didn’t watch Naruto until around 2019/2020. I finally decided to watch it and I watched it all the way through without the fillers.
One thing I noticed when I started commenting on the characters, especially Hinata vs Sakura, the levels of toxicity were absolutely nuts.
I’ve had people claim that I and many men only like Hinata because “we like women to be weak, submissive, and do as they’re told” (paraphrasing).
Sakura fans have also claimed that those who like Hinata are misogynistic for being attracted to her softer personality in essence.
Of course, I’ve also seen the other side. Where Hinata fans bash Sakura and call her useless at every chance they get, comment on her “chest” size which is childish as F, and the Naruto community in general always bashing Sakura.
Other Naruto toxicity highlights:
- The fans of Gaara and Sasuke went berserk when their favourite characters got killed in Death Battle. They even made rants about it.
- They call My Hero Academia and Black Clover rip-offs of Naruto due to their similarities.
- They can’t stop hating on Boruto: Naruto’s Next Generations. They even have the balls to call it a fanfiction, when it isn’t. Just because it isn’t made by Kishimoto, doesn’t mean it’s a fanfiction.
I’ll add another: remember when it was shown that Sakura was NOT gonna be with Naruto as a partner many years back?
Neither do I, but the internet remembers.
More accurately, fans sent death threats to Kishimoto to try and force him to make Naruto and Sakura “canon”.
During this time, Naruto fans or I should say Naruto x Sakura fans went absolutely ballistic across social media.
Some even made fan pages to show their venom.
Of all the fanbases, Naruto has gone to the most extremes to show the world just how toxic they can be. And that’s non-debatable since it’s proven with hard facts.
Conclusion: The big 3 fanbases are toxic, but Naruto is a special case
It has to be said. The extremes of Naruto’s fanbase and its history including the present when compared to Bleach or One Piece is beyond crazy.
One Piece, in my view, is right behind Naruto with Bleach the least toxic of the big 3. But when comparing the big 3 to the overall industry, these anime are in their own league for the wrong reasons.
This is why people can’t always be mad when people outside the industry view anime a certain way when they witness these clowns who actively tarnish anime’s image but then cry when it gets criticized.
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Big thanks to this answer on Quora for inspiring this post.
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