Welcome to Gaia! :: Posts By User Unknown User | Forum

I try to invite people to the anime and manga industry all the time. I find nothing wrong with people that are new to anime and manga liking highly mainstream series. But so many people refuse to give manga or anime or any kind of comic a chance because of the reputation it seems to carry as being, "only for people who are too lazy to read real books" and the even more popular, "It's kid's stuff".

Where does this reputation come from? A lot of people insist on blaming it on Pokemon, Yu Gi Oh and other popular animes on Cartoon Network. Most of you probably know though. It's from those, "fly by anime fans" as I've heard them called. They like manga or anime for about a year, two years at most and during that whole time they do nothing but embarrass the anime and comic communities by claiming their love for it when they only know of about two or three series. You can usually recognize these people by their posts like, "anime roxs!!!!! itz bettar then anything else" So even if that is their opinion there are better ways of putting it, the simplest spelling things correctly and perhaps even defending their argument. These people profess their love for anime and manga to their fellow students when they actually have no idea what it really is. They have not read any articles on it, all they know is that it's "Japanese animation" many time they do not know the difference between anime and manga. They assume it's better then any other comic art when they have never looked at anything else. And I have nothing against character fan girls as I am a slight one myself, but when they make remarks of how "smexy" some of the characters are to the whole world and that's the only reason why they like manga or anime. It does not give a good name to those who actually like comics because they have good plots and character personality designs. They give the impression that there are none with good plots, they give the impression that they are stupid and for stupid people like those that profess their "love" at the top of their lungs while the real fans either shrink back in a corner or start getting very, very angry.

These people are also quick to claim that something isn't anime if all the girls don't have big eyes. They are quick to jump into the art work critique people who are developing their own style of manga by claiming it isn't "anime-ish enough" when in fact many anime creators do not draw with huge eyes, and yes some are from Japan that do this!

We all have to start somewhere, I like some mangas with not the most complex plots because they're cute and they make me laugh. I like a lot of mainstream stuff myself, which makes it even harder to like when you've got all sorts of idiots running around with it. I have nothing against the people that do not know a whole lot about anime or manga or comics, they are as welcome to liking it as anyone but they have to realize just because they like one or two maybe even five series it doesn't make them an expert and thus they shouldn't act like one. If they admit they're interested and would like some more info before they run at the mouth it would mean so much to them if they do actually stick with it and don't have to try to change the impression they've left in their time of "incense" to what it really is. No one was born an expert on these things, even those in these industries for years still pick up on different series and ideas.

I made this lengthy post because I know there are so many fans going through this same situation, and also to encourage the beginners to find out more before they embarrass themselves and add onto this already bad reputation. So, discuss your experience with these people or whatever, since this is something that I feel is never going to chage (sorry for the lenght of this post):