Why are the Anime Community being Sensitive about anime became a Mainstream.

[dejiko]

one thing we feel in japan is foreign countries having more influence on anime will change it at home, nyo...it is a very talked about topic for japanese otaku, nyo

 

[Mubashureta]

Well i haven't really seen any of those people but my guess is tourists?
Idk i just like my japanese cartoons

Post automatically merged: Oct 24, 2025

one thing we feel in japan is foreign countries having more influence on anime will change it at home, nyo...it is a very talked about topic for japanese otaku, nyo

That's a good point

 

[Deleted member 660650]

one thing we feel in japan is foreign countries having more influence on anime will change it at home, nyo...it is a very talked about topic for japanese otaku, nyo

I already hear how Japan is so "Americanized" lately more than ever than how it was already. I'm glad my country's resistance to Americanization is so strong lol.

 

[Mubashureta]

I already hear how Japan is so "Americanized" lately more than ever than how it was already. I'm glad my country's resistance to Americanization is so strong lol.

Same with my country cause Whole paleistaine gaza conflict but anyway

 

[Ikagura]

One of the most braindead takes I read was the seasons system bad because its evil colonialism and I was are you fricking serious no wonder they ruin Anime and videogames.

Excuse me what? I don't see the kind of connection between seasons and colonialism.

Unless they consider that Animal Crossing is a form of it since you're literally conquering a desert island.

>Thing gets popular
>A whole bunch of outsiders or "tourists" come in liking said thing
>Tourists eventually outnumber "true" fans who were there since the beginning or close to it a million to one
>Creators change their work to cater to tourists leaving true fans in the dust
>Thing goes bad and it's time to leave
It's not just anime! It's every goddamned thing under the sun! So much so that it could be a natural law!

I used to think that "the more the merrier" because I was naively thinking that newcomers could bring some fresh blood into ageing fanbases and that something too niche could die out with fans no longer caring about the thing.

Until I noticed that trend of people joining something not to appreciate it but rather to bring criticism and trying to influence on the creators while implicitly saying that older fans are the ones holding said franchise back and preventing it to evolve.

Evolution doesn't always mean improving and sometimes a franchise could take the wrong path.

I already hear how Japan is so "Americanized" lately more than ever than how it was already. I'm glad my country's resistance to Americanization is so strong lol.

The USA had a great cultural influence post-war so I can see it but I agree that keeping some originality is better than trying to mimic another culture for the sake to attract people from it.

If I go to a different country I would never want to buy a Coke or going to the McDonald's of said country because that's not the local meal.

 

[Retro Doomer]

Excuse me what? I don't see the kind of connection between seasons and colonialism.

Unless they consider that Animal Crossing is a form of it since you're literally conquering a desert island.

To be honest I don't get where they see a Connection either.Maybe the System we use was invented in Europe and maybe perhaps this is why they call it Evil and Bad and Colonial which of course is horseshit as trough all of humanity we adapted Systems and stuff that worked best regardless of Culture and people I mean we use the Arabic versions of numbers and not the roman once and I nor anyone ever complains about that because they work adapting stuff is as human as breathing. Anyhow I think those people just want to virtue signal and seek problems where they are none to feel good about themselves so they want to be seen as good people without doing anything that actually would help people in short.

 

[Ikagura]

To be honest I don't get where they see a Connection either. Maybe the System we use was invented in Europe and maybe perhaps this is why they call it Evil and Bad and Colonial which of course is horseshit as trough all of humanity we adapted Systems and stuff that worked best regardless of Culture and people I mean we use the Arabic versions of numbers and not the roman once and I nor anyone ever complains about that because they work adapting stuff is as human as breathing. Anyhow I think those people just want to virtue signal and seek problems where they are none to feel good about themselves so they want to be seen as good people without doing anything that actually would help people in short.

I could understand that farming type of games are about optimising your crops so you'd have a better production rate but then productivism isn't correlated with colonialism.

It's even more baffling when SV itself is quite a progressist game in its ideas and character relationship. That's nitpicking for the sake of nitpicking.

 

[Daixess]

Honestly I think it's just being mainstream = too many people getting into it and not having an informed opinion, and thus, ironically making it harder to connect with people who like anime because people are getting into it in a way that most "Pioneers" didn't.

On one hand, I get it, because it's probably harder to get genuine conversations. It's not surprising that when anime becomes popular, most people probably won't know fansubs, demographics (especially since most people think shounen is a genre,) and overtime, a lot of anime becomes forgotten.

From my experience, I remember watching anime, even subbed if there wasn't dub as early as 7 or 8. I probably shouldn't have been watching bleach, but I definitely did! And by the time I imagine demon slayer or jujutsu kaisen were popular with my generation, I was getting into Pretty Cure, Vocaloid, and Touhou. Demon Slayer or Jujutsu Kaisen just weren't interesting to me, and I probably have a lot more common with older anime fans in some aspects more than I am with my peers.

I'd argue that there's many points in time when anime became mainstream, but I hope we can all agree that we have been in a different era of anime since the pandemic.

 

[Sleepstate]

This is news to me Anime and the internet have always been synonymous as much as people tried to fight against this fact. it has become the norm but as with any fandom i suppose there is always gatekeepers for some dumb reason

 

[shadowcat]

At least in the West, it has been mainstream since the early 2000's. Every Saturday morning cartoon block was filled with localized anime. Anybody acting like it is a super underground art form is delusional.

 

[BrawlMan]

At least in the West, it has been mainstream since the early 2000's. Every Saturday morning cartoon block was filled with localized anime. Anybody acting like it is a super underground art form is delusional.

Agreed.

It's nothing more than shallow ego, pride, and the "I was here first!" mentality. Anime has been mainstream for a long time, but the 2010s pretty much cement to this fact. Not only that, but heavy influences in Japanese culture are reaching the states and the west too.

Take it away Gaijin Goombah.

 

[diet_orange]

I kind of grew up in the weird middle area of the mid to late 90's/early 00's where Manga and Anime were just starting to attain relevance, (but even then it was kind of looked at in the same way as comic books where only people who didn't bathe and lived with their parents were into it) so it really doesn't bother me

If there's one thing that I do miss about those days, it's Monthly Shonen Jump

 

[BrawlMan]

I kind of grew up in the weird middle area of the mid to late 90's/early 00's where Manga and Anime were just starting to attain relevance, (but even then it was kind of looked at in the same way as comic books where only people who didn't bathe and lived with their parents were into it) so it really doesn't bother me

If there's one thing that I do miss about those days, it's Monthly Shonen Jump

You, my older brother, and I are from that same era. Though technically, are first anime was Little Nemo in Slumberland, but neither of were aware at the time back in 1993. Our first anime TV series was OG Dragonball on the WGN. Saturday mornings at 10AM and 10:30 AM. All the way back in 1996.

 

[diet_orange]

You, my older brother, and I are from that same era. Though technically, are first anime was Little Nemo in Slumberland, but neither of were aware at the time back in 1993. Our first anime TV series was OG Dragonball on the WGN. Saturday mornings at 10AM and 10:30 AM. All the way back in 1996.

My firsts were My Neighbor Totoro on VHS (even came with a plush of the Blue Totoro), Sailor Moon, Dragon Ball, and Ronin Warriors

 

[Ikagura]

Mainstream is something but I feel like that because of mainstream some anime made before wouldn't pass as easily.

I've noticed how many old shonen casually talked about (if not showed) death among other hard to endure things.

Even the more Seinen things would have gone through review and censorship to not be shocking (even if in the US and Europe there has been many cut moments because of the violence/suggestive stuff ie nudity)

OVAs were often meant for a smaller niche than movies and TV anime for that same reason (such as Kawajiri's)

On the other hand having more enthusiasts is always nice to see if they're really interested in the classics and not just limiting themselves to Dragon Ball/One Piece/Naruto and most modern one.

 

[χKai]

People used to have anime avatars because they liked anime
Nowadays it's because they're pedophiles

 

[Mopeybloke]

I dunno if people miss watching anime in 360p quality with each episode divided into 10 parts on youtube

I did that until I found VEOH back in the day. They had full episodes, 480p, and all the good shit. They had Ergo Proxy, Kino's Journey, and Mushi-shi. They had Gakuen Alice too, but we don't talk about that.

About the gatekeepy stuff, people don't want anime to become mainstream in the "West" [read USA] because then Japanese companies would switch to catering to Western sensibilities, changing anime fundamentally. Or so it goes.

I believe it's unavoidable for Japanese media to start catering to foreign audiences more as Japan has a shrinking and ageing population. The future they fear is guaranteed to happen, but I don't think the effects will be [that] negative.

 

[vulonkaaz's iconvulonkaaz]

I think it would be a good thing if most of the anime world stays underground because some of the shit i watch is so wicked it could lowkey become illegal, when something is unknown people are free, when it starts to be seen it starts attracting the attention of the regulator (and other bad actors, a good example of that is the state of the internet in 2025 compared to 2012 when it was more lowkey)

 

[Ezri_Muldoon]

It's a multifaceted issue but I can break down the biggest arguments.

If you're of a certain age you may feel resentment against all of the people who abused you suddenly thinking that what you were abused for enjoying is suddenly "cool."

For me personally: Anime becoming more and more mainstream has resulted in the selection of Anime legally imported to dwindle down to a small selection of works that major streaming services deem to be financially viable.
The VHS/DVD era where companies would be contacted to import several shows/films alongside a specifically chosen product (This used to be a common practice) are gone.

I primarily enjoy Slice of life & Iyashikei anime, alongside experimental, genre defying Anime.
The current import industry is abysmal for my interests.
It's why I still use Nyaa and follow various fansub communities.

Alongside this, a lot of importers have taken to re-implement localisation. Altering various shows so they can be introduced at a lower age rating, artistic integrity be damned. I despise this practice.
Solely because art isn't made in English it's okay to alter & replace it? Localisation is a racist practice.

Finally a lot of what anime fans have come to call "tourists" are people who only watch Anime that is found on Netflix's recommended algorithm. They refuse to watch anything not in the algorithm, as they feel it's exclusion was intentional. As a consequence of this, instead of widening their exposure they still consider 90% of Anime to be "weird".

 

[cjl8336 cjl8336]

gates must be kept, mostly
to their credit though, mainstreaming usually means the product is changed to appeal to more people, and it usually suffers as a result

 

[Ikagura]

People used to have anime avatars because they liked anime
Nowadays it's because they're pedophiles

You're trolling, right? I mean your avatar is also looking anime.

 

[χKai]

You're trolling, right? I mean your avatar is also looking anime.

This guy

 

[Graves Ruinwalker]

It's a multifaceted issue but I can break down the biggest arguments.

If you're of a certain age you may feel resentment against all of the people who abused you suddenly thinking that what you were abused for enjoying is suddenly "cool."

For me personally: Anime becoming more and more mainstream has resulted in the selection of Anime legally imported to dwindle down to a small selection of works that major streaming services deem to be financially viable.
The VHS/DVD era where companies would be contacted to import several shows/films alongside a specifically chosen product (This used to be a common practice) are gone.

I primarily enjoy Slice of life & Iyashikei anime, alongside experimental, genre defying Anime.
The current import industry is abysmal for my interests.
It's why I still use Nyaa and follow various fansub communities.

Alongside this, a lot of importers have taken to re-implement localisation. Altering various shows so they can be introduced at a lower age rating, artistic integrity be damned. I despise this practice.
Solely because art isn't made in English it's okay to alter & replace it? Localisation is a racist practice.

Finally a lot of what anime fans have come to call "tourists" are people who only watch Anime that is found on Netflix's recommended algorithm. They refuse to watch anything not in the algorithm, as they feel it's exclusion was intentional. As a consequence of this, instead of widening their exposure they still consider 90% of Anime to be "weird".

Exactly this .

While i like some animes and dont consider myself an Anime-fan , i agree with that sentiment.

When i look on other things that were once interesting for me (D&D , WH40K , Marvel Comics , Battletech and so on ) are now either in shambles or change into something that it doesnt ressambles the foundation what it actually should be and is known for .

Im for Gatekeeping with a big BUT(T)!!!
Everything should have an end . D&D should have ended with 3e (which is considered the last best edition) .
WH40K should have ended at the end of the 2000s (and is suddenly an absolute hypocrisy and retcon hell ) . Marvel Comics should have ended in the mid 2000s . Many of the IPs and franchises didnt had somewhere to go with its lore & story and should be for the fans by fans instead being sold into eternity and beyond . Thats why other and new IPs should be introduced and taking the torch to run further . Dead IPs should stay as some sort fandom temples which the fans of old provide and help new ones to get into the hobby/interest for main-thing : the hobby .

We are way too community driven that the main-thing doesnt hold up for what it actually is and must be changed to be "marketable" again . And we see already that it doesnt work forever .

Anime is media-form so it cant be really vanquish but its about the output what they bring to the table . And if the output isnt good or even repulsive than its bound to fail .

Why are many Fan-projects shutdown by these greedy corpos ? Because they know that their quality isnt at the peak or even worse and the fans can provide much better stuff than the corpos because they made their homework with a passion .

I love mutant chronicles and its a dead franchise but i know nobody will tinker at the lore and i can work with the limits what the universe actually provide in the TTRPG and its Wargame . I would even make videogames out this franchise in a heartbeat because the setting is really cool for what it offers .

Thats the point.

 

[Ezri_Muldoon]

People used to have anime avatars because they liked anime
Nowadays it's because they're pedophiles

Lord give me strength to not fall for this bait because if we're seriously talking about pdf's hiding behind profile pictures I or some one else mentions a certain aspect of the LGBT+ Community who have both a track record of abuse & hiding behind anime profile pictures.

And that would be far less of a harmful generalisation than assuming every one regardless of sexuality or gender who watches Japanese animation is an child abuser.

Just stop.
Both trivialising child abuse.
And from breaking the no politics rule because you have one foot on a landmine.

No.