Anime & Manga Anyone else remember when it was really weird to like anime/manga?

[Malice]

It feels crazy to me how in the last few years how normalized liking anime has become. It would be something people would watch as a kid (Pokemon, Yu-Gi-Oh, Studio Ghibli) and then be too embarassed to admit they still like when an adult. It was like being gay pre the 2010s, you would just not be open about it as if you did you would be seen as a weirdo, a creep, and a social outcast, making it a hobby you'd keep to yourself and at most share with fellow nerds on obscure imageboards. Sure, some were more socially acceptable to like than others such as Dragonball Z and Pokemon, but other than that you were on your own. Flash forward to the mid 2010s with Attack of Titan being a massive hit and anime streaming services becoming a thing and boom, there was a huge cultural shift in the landscape and now every normie alt girl and even normal ass dudes watch anime and are open about it, a complete 180 from what the stigma used to be like revolving the genre; no one really judges you anymore for liking anime content unless you're playing some weirdo gatcha game like Pedo Impact or you watch nonce animes involving little girls, much different times we now live in. Anime media now floods normal everyday stores and can be seen on public advertisements, as a young teen I'd not even imagined it and now it's everywhere. You notice this same phenomena with any other hobbies you're into, fellas? I'm not saying this is a bad thing, sure anime and manga is filled with plenty of clutter which gives the medium a bad name but there's a lot of good in it too and it's great to see it's now being appreciated more in that regard than just being seen as a weirdo pervert genre of entertainment.

It only became cool when Kanye West and other rappers started being more open about liking anime. There is specific copy-pasta that comes to mind when i read about things like this but I'm not going to post it lol

 

[bandolerofuzz]

All Shonen's fault

 

[playFACE]

>tfw normies look at me weird not liking anime all that much when just a few years back they would look at me weird for liking anime

shounenshit is overrated anyways so its fine

 

[Punished_Senko]

>tfw normies look at me weird not liking anime all that much when just a few years back they would look at me weird for liking anime

shounenshit is overrated anyways so its fine

As usual normies ruin everything they touch, like a reverse Midas.

 

[Tabula Rasa]

I think the internet played a part in expanding its reach too

 

[Void]

It feels crazy to me how in the last few years how normalized liking anime has become. It would be something people would watch as a kid (Pokemon, Yu-Gi-Oh, Studio Ghibli) and then be too embarassed to admit they still like when an adult. It was like being gay pre the 2010s, you would just not be open about it as if you did you would be seen as a weirdo, a creep, and a social outcast, making it a hobby you'd keep to yourself and at most share with fellow nerds on obscure imageboards. Sure, some were more socially acceptable to like than others such as Dragonball Z and Pokemon, but other than that you were on your own. Flash forward to the mid 2010s with Attack of Titan being a massive hit and anime streaming services becoming a thing and boom, there was a huge cultural shift in the landscape and now every normie alt girl and even normal ass dudes watch anime and are open about it, a complete 180 from what the stigma used to be like revolving the genre; no one really judges you anymore for liking anime content unless you're playing some weirdo gatcha game like Pedo Impact or you watch nonce animes involving little girls, much different times we now live in. Anime media now floods normal everyday stores and can be seen on public advertisements, as a young teen I'd not even imagined it and now it's everywhere. You notice this same phenomena with any other hobbies you're into, fellas? I'm not saying this is a bad thing, sure anime and manga is filled with plenty of clutter which gives the medium a bad name but there's a lot of good in it too and it's great to see it's now being appreciated more in that regard than just being seen as a weirdo pervert genre of entertainment.

I experienced shame very early on so I never associated with the anime kids and kept it to myself. Pokémon was pretty universally loved until about middle school though. I started off as early as I can remember because my grandparents left Cartoon Network on at night and I wouldn't fall asleep. I didn't know what anime was until later on as I wasn't even aware Pokémon was anime lol. In high-school I could talk about it more which was like ten years ago but by the time I was out certain celebrities were seen repping some mainstream stuff more openly. Kanye apparently drew inspiration but I don't think he ever openly admitted to it early on. I still really don't like associating with people who like anime because now its full of normies and its diluting the quality of the modern scene. Reminds me I saw one single cosplayer who was really pretty cosplaying Albedo at a local con which surprised me because I don't think most people would get into Overlord so it was a pleasant surprise.

 

[playFACE]

I experienced shame very early on so I never associated with the anime kids and kept it to myself. Pokémon was pretty universally loved until about middle school though. I started off as early as I can remember because my grandparents left Cartoon Network on at night and I wouldn't fall asleep. I didn't know what anime was until later on as I wasn't even aware Pokémon was anime lol. In high-school I could talk about it more which was like ten years ago but by the time I was out certain celebrities were seen repping some mainstream stuff more openly. Kanye apparently drew inspiration but I don't think he ever openly admitted to it early on. I still really don't like associating with people who like anime because now its full of normies and its diluting the quality of the modern scene. Reminds me I saw one single cosplayer who was really pretty cosplaying Albedo at a local con which surprised me because I don't think most people would get into Overlord so it was a pleasant surprise.

same here. i watch some anime and read some manga, but i would never willingly call myself a weeb, otaku, or whatever new nerd lingo term people use nowadays.

"yes hello, my name is john anime, and i am a weaboo who like my hero academia, demon slayer and one punch man. nice to meet you"

 

[Khastle]

same here. i watch some anime and read some manga, but i would never willingly call myself a weeb, otaku, or whatever new nerd lingo term people use nowadays.

"yes hello, my name is john anime, and i am a weaboo who like my hero academia, demon slayer and one punch man. nice to meet you"

People who let their hobbies define them really rub me the wrong way. Imagine being so boring you think being a weeb is an actual character trait.

 

[playFACE]

People who let their hobbies define them really rub me the wrong way. Imagine being so boring you think being a weeb is an actual character trait.

i used to know someone back in high school like that lmao. he literally had no personality, was boring to talk to, and his entire shtick was him being a weaboo. dude was nice, no real problems or anything like that, but good Lord was he just a bland personality to be around

 

[Void]

same here. i watch some anime and read some manga, but i would never willingly call myself a weeb, otaku, or whatever new nerd lingo term people use nowadays.

"yes hello, my name is john anime, and i am a weaboo who like my hero academia, demon slayer and one punch man. nice to meet you"

At least now you get less people judging you for it

 

[playFACE]

At least now you get less people judging you for it

that is true. guess there is some silver lining to the normiefication of anime.

now if only we can stop seeing so many weaboos and other socially failed men stop acting like tards in public, then things will improve.

 

[Khastle]

that is true. guess there is some silver lining to the normiefication of anime.

now if only we can stop seeing so many weaboos and other socially failed men stop acting like tards in public, then things will improve.

Ain't gonna happen as long as the autism spectrum remains a thing kek.

 

[Lickety]

Met a girl last year who said she was really into anime/otaku culture but after talking for a while I realized she legit saw like 1 anime per season, it had to be on either Netflix or Crunchyroll and it always was the most popular show, ex. bocchi the reddit, jujutsu kaizen, AOT, spy family etc. also she was always watching anime "cracks" and funny moments in YouTube but never actually watched the shows. Tried to get her into more anime but got super weirded out by Konosuba and asobi asobase and we kinda stopped talking. I think most current "anime fans" are like that, ~5 of the most popular shows a year, like memes of shows they haven't even watched on Instagram and not much else. I guess it's not inherently bad, they will grow out of it and look back on it like how the emo/goth/darks/scene kids look back on it with a bit of shame. Anime kind of gatekeeps itself, for every popular anime between normies there are like 2 cute girls shows, 3 harems and like 5 isekais that they can't stand, so they don't tend to stick to the hobby. Plus it's not like anime is done with western normies in mind, most are either for kids, edgy teenagers who want to fulfil their power fantasies or obsessive adults who are really into the medium already. I guess the influx of "new anime fans" comes from the fact that nowadays we get like 1 normie anime per season, while in the past we used to get like 1 each year( clannad,haruhi, k-on, death note, sword art online, angel beats, Toradora, Working!!/wagnaria).

They're still normies though, not everyone can appreciate fine arts such as hidamari sketch,nekojiru, zaregoto, rakugo shinju etc. Or find pleasure while watching the more cliché stuff.

I now do remember a teacher I had in school who literally was as if reddit was a person, hugely into AOT and Marvel, boring, the most tamest opinion on everything and that geeky/nerdy self aware and self grandiose way of talking about himself.
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This reminds me of my freshman year math teacher in highschool who was an adamant League of Legends player. And the "Stacey" who was very defensive about being a World of Warcraft player.

 

[playFACE]

This reminds me of my freshman year math teacher in highschool who was an adamant League of Legends player. And the "Stacey" who was very defensive about being a World of Warcraft player.

>the "stacy" played WoW

was she in the alliance or horde? betcha she was horde