When you begin to watch how people react to the most popular works on the internet, you start to realize that most of us are very confrontational and bitter people. You might say that I'm hardly one to speak, considering I'm a non-conformist, stubborn, selfish hipster; but that's not actually what I want to be. I want to be someone who can promote good will, and if possible help strengthen the bonds of the anime community (admittedly it's a pipe dream, I just run some random blog where I ramble about Nanoha and stuff, but the aim for an ideal is a beautiful thing). Here, I'd like to call for a truce, a sort of "neutral ground" where we can maybe get by without all these negative sentiments.
I would fund a whole series of this.
I'm not going to try and be unrealistic here. There are things that we as people can and can't do. Everyone has things that they like, and by that logic everyone has things that they hate. We can't avoid it. When we delve deeper and deeper into the anime fandom, we'll see these likes and dislikes target like a laser pointer onto specific areas. Some people don't like harem or ecchi series, while others might find the genre fine with one or two exceptions (or vice-versa, they don't like ecchi except one or two series). When it comes to the Gundam community? Dear God, you're lucky if you can find two people who agree on anything. The issue comes with how we respond to this. Take me, as an example. I am very much a story-oriented guy. I can overlook glaring flaws in art or sound if I enjoy the story enough. Other people put an equal weight on all aspects of creating anime. Does that make me wrong? No. Does it make me right? No. I have my own way of enjoying storytelling that's unique to myself.
Sometimes animators just have off days.
In general, my personal philosophy reflects my ideal of working in tandem in spite of differences. You have yours, I have mine. Whatever you like, feel free to enjoy. If you can explain why you like it then I can't really argue with that, since it's your opinion. At the same time, be open to people who criticize things you enjoy and be willing to accept that, more often than not, you aren't going to be able to change someone's opinion.
I know from personal experience how it feels to be disagreed with. I have yet to bring it up, but in my past I was a longtime member of a forum where I was one of the only two people who loved mecha while everyone else hated the genre. It's not fun, let me tell you (and because of that, as well as some other reasons, I've cut ties to said place). Perhaps that's why I aim to have a non confrontational approach to discussing what you like and why you like it. Being elitist only breeds disdain, the surefire approach to be respected and well-liked is to know when you should ease up.
Convincing people to agree with you: You're doing it wrong.
Here's an example: If you've seen my mission statement, you'd know that I really dislike Sword Art Online. I would even say that I hate it with a passion. I have yet to see anyone give me an argument that would explain why I should like it. Now, that's not me saying that it's worthless as a series and that nobody should like it. I've seen plenty of intelligent people who I respect come out and say they enjoy series like Sword Art Online or Code Geass R2, despite the fact that I see no potential in them. Does that make me respect them less? Not at all. (At least, not unless they have a dumb reason for liking it.) I will admit that Sword Art Online, to me, is basically the "Avatar" (blue aliens) of anime: stunning visuals and music, but below-average writing. There have been many times I've enjoyed anime for eye candy alone, so who am I to call someone out for liking it?
For example, Super Robot Wars Original Generation: The Inspector. Even though I will openly admit that the writing is below average, I still enjoyed it for the awesome mecha action courtesy of Masami Obari. The same can be said for my opinion on Gunbuster 2 (AKA Diebuster), Gundam 00: A Wakening of the Trailblazer, or the Nanoha film adaptations (though I think that I like the movie of Nanoha season 1 more than the anime for various reasons, the A's movie was more just a series of great visuals - but that's going off on a completely unrelated tangent). Honestly, if that's what otherwise smart people enjoyed in Sword Art Online, then I can get behind it. Just because the type of action in SAO doesn't scratch my particular itch doesn't mean other people can't enjoy it.
When it comes to these fandoms, I don't know if they love each other or hate each other.
The point I'm trying so laboriously to get to is that there's good and there's bad. The exact definition of these is subjective, and if you can logically and empirically explain why you like or dislike something, it should be natural that even if someone disagrees with the opinion, they will be able to understand why you hold that opinion. I don't want to convert people to my way of thinking. If everyone was the same, then we'd be robots. All I want to do is to get people to stop acting like children when someone displays a different opinion than them and be mature enough to say, "I disagree, but I see where you're coming from." Heck, a possible situation would be for both sides to start an intelligent discourse and get to know each other and the series they disagree on even better than before. In general, I'd say we should be open with our opinions, but not caustic towards one another.
Well, at the moment I can't think of anything to add to this corner, so I guess I should wrap things up. Everyone, embrace each other to the ends of the galaxy or whatnot. I think I'd like to leave my audience with words of wisdom courtesy of Gundam Sousei, not only applicable to Gundam fandom but to all anime fans...
We can all be comrades, if we learn to focus on what makes us similar rather than what makes us different.
P.S. I get the strange feeling that every anime blog has done a post like this...
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