There are three things I loathe about anime fans above anything else:
1. People who say ‘animes’.
THERE IS NO SUCH THING.
With the exception of nouns referring to people, most Japanese nouns do not have a plural form. I watched one anime, I watched two anime. Same thing. I will probably kill the next person who tells me that they collect ‘animes’ (or ‘mangas’) and dump their body in the river.
2. People who pronounce it ‘na-ROOT-oh’.
For the record, I don’t watch the show because I think it’s pretty damn awful. Nonetheless, it disturbs me that even the so-called fans can’t get their pronunciation right.
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| “Name’s Na-ROOT-oh” |
It’s not difficult, people – just remember that in Japanese, if the word has 3 syllables then it’s the first that’s probably going to need the emphasis, not the middle one. E.g. ‘SA-ku-ra’, not ‘sa-KU-ra’.
3. People who can’t tell the difference between an anime that’s good and an anime that’s enjoyable.
This is mostly what this particular article is going to be about, so you’ll have to excuse me in advance for the ranting.
If it wasn’t already obvious to anyone who’s been reading along with Otaku Lounge thus far, I quite like anime.
There’s a reason I ended up writing my doctoral thesis on the subject, even if it did mean having to re-watch a bunch of titles over and over again that I didn’t particularly care for. But in general, I don’t consider myself an anime elitist (I don’t think you can be when you’re happy to watch some shows in dub).
In general, I’m more than happy to know that people are watching what they like, even if I happen to think very little of whatever they’re watching. It’s fairly common knowledge among my acquaintances that I don’t like overlong shounen shows like Bleach and Naruto, and that seems to be fine with everyone – unless you’re a friend, I won’t mock you for being a fan.
That said, there’s a pretty huge distinction between something that’s good and something that’s enjoyable, and while this can be applied to just about any artistic medium, it seems like anime fans in particular have trouble seeing the difference.
Except for when I’m talking about my own personal experience, it’s impossible for me to say that any given anime is not enjoyable. If a title exists, someone out there will enjoy it (and anime is a commercial product, so it’s likely that a lot of someone’s will enjoy it).
Regardless of my distaste for One Piece, I will never tell you that you shouldn’t find it fun.
However, it is possible to make a clinical judgement call on the quality of an anime.
I can, for example, make an objective statement about the animation by discussing the fluidity or how well the CG is blended in to the hand-drawn cels. To a certain extent, I can also comment on the artwork by talking about colouration or considering how it does/does not complement the tone of the anime. I can make observations about the clarity and realism of the voice acting, the originality of the story, the effect of the pacing, and probably a few other elements that make up any anime.
If I say that Naruto is a bad anime, I’m not mocking people who like the show, implying that I think nobody should watch it, or proclaiming that there are absolutely no redeeming features.
What I’m saying is that, based on the drawn-out storylines and significant amounts of filler (among other things), the quality of the series is low. Likewise, if I say that Gankutsuou: The Count of Monte Cristo is artistically excellent, it doesn’t mean that I think everyone who doesn’t like the anime is stupid – I’m just stating a fact regarding the significance of the series in terms of its innovation and general production values.
Okay, now here’s the important part.
Paying attention?
It is possible to like something knowing that it’s not actually very good?
It’s also perfectly okay to dislike something even though it’s of a sound quality, but for some reason that doesn’t seem to be as much of an issue with anime fans.
One of my favourite things to do is discuss specific anime with other fans of the medium.
Sometimes I question people’s taste, but that’s the beauty of anime – there’s an awful lot of it, and the scope of variety is seriously huge.
However, while I’d like to believe that people who are honestly incapable of making the distinction between ‘good’ and ‘enjoyable’ are below the age of 10, the internet is proving me wrong.
