Most Obnoxious Fandoms

[CensoredAlso]

Of course, the horror stories I hear about Transformers fans... ugh. There's a huge bunch of the fandom that absolutely hates anything past Geewun and feels the need to whine about Animated, Rescue Bots, and even the new series

I enjoy Animated and Rescue Bots, but I admit I can get pretty defensive for G1, lol. Mainly because there are so many fans that seem to want to erase it from collective memory. Particularly the Beast Wars fans, I think they're just resentful that their show and characters never achieved that same iconic status that G1 did.

 

[Drtooth]

I enjoy Animated and Rescue Bots, but I admit I can get pretty defensive for G1, lol. Mainly because there are so many fans that seem to want to erase it from collective memory. Particularly the Beast Wars fans, I think they're just resentful that their show and characters never achieved that same iconic status that G1 did.

The horror stories are so legend their own wiki makes fun of them. I honestly do not see what's wrong with liking a whole bunch of them, and I like G1 as much as I do both Prime and Animated, and can also enjoy...well... I'll give them everything but the 3 animes we had in the early 00's. Even then, credit to them for having Beast Wars' Megatron and Optimus voice actors. And it kept the franchise going, while G.I. Joe's solitary anime outing didn't take. That's the one thing I like about getting into the franchise after childhood (didn't care much for it then, and when I would have, the Turtles popped up), I don't have an attachment and can be that much more objective.

But the fact of the matter is, it's a franchise that's about selling toys first and foremost. Especially since they're still selling stuff towards kids for the most part. But I'd say that both TF and GIJ are lucky to have such rich backstories and media that's of varying quality, but more of it's well done than not. It's those who are older that think they own the franchise and think it should revolve around them (those who have the disposable income for $300+ Masterpiece figures) that tend to ruin every fanbase, not just TF. You can say the same for the Bronies. Then again, those fans are pretty lucky that they have a company that's willing to cater to the older fanbase at all. They could just make kiddy media and kiddy toys with the intent that kids have parents with a lot of disposable income to buy cheaply made and priced toys to play with for about a couple months, lose in a closet, only to find as a teenager to smash them with a hammer.

 

[Harleena]

Okay, I've met some really obnoxious anime fans who will freak out if you mention that you watch your anime in English. Sorry that I prefer to watch anime and not read it! And don't even get me started on using American names…I understand it in the Sailor Moon fandom, but I should be allowed to say the name "Ash Ketchum" without being attacked. Heck, I should be allowed to say "Serena" without getting attacked! I've even heard some people use terms like "Raito" and "Eru" instead of "Light" and "L". Can't I just watch my anime in my own language without getting flamed for it?

 

[Drtooth]

UGH! There's nothing wrong with watching subs, there's nothing wrong with watching dubs. Some shows are better one way, some are better the other, and it all depends on the quality of the dub. If there's an option to, I usually watch both. I don't see why it needs to be that big a deal one way or another.

As long as you don't get closed captions where subtitles are supposed to be or something along the lines of Omni Productions, Joseph Lai, or whoever the heck did that Malaysian English dub of Dragon Ball.

 

[Slackbot]

Ahhhh, Malaysian anime DVDs! I've gotten some big chunks of Tezuka that way. Since I prefer subbed to dubbed in most cases--Death Note being one of the exceptions, as the dub is so excellent--these suit my needs for the most part. Yeah, the translations aren't perfect, but I can usually understand them. Well, except for one disc of Black Jack 21, the subtitles of which look like they were fed through Google Translate and plopped in as is. I had to pause those episodes and read some of those lines carefully to figure them out.

I'm sure that if someone published most of Tezuka's TV adaptations on DVD in the US the subtitles would be much tighter. A pity that hasn't happened, so fans have to resort to skeevy overseas dealers. It's a crime that Black Jack and The Three-Eyed One haven't been released on DVD in the US, while a chopped-and-scrambled mess based on Princess Knight has.

 

[Drtooth]

It all depends on who's doing the dubbing. And yes, unfortunately the ones they make for kid's television have to "culturally ambiguous" up the whole thing. It all depends on what version of the jokes you want to get. The culturally shifted stuff that you're able to get right away or the original Japanese ones that you'll only get if you knew something else.

Me? I've watched some stuff straight up raw because there's no market for them in the US. On the whole, I hate how most of the stuff they bring over here are crappy toy based shows that were actual flops in Japan or stuff with cute boys or girls in it. Don't get me wrong. They also bring over some great stuff like Space Dandy, but there's a reason the market went back to niche. And I HATE HATE HATE those who say "Ugh! I hate Anime that isn't Pokemon" since all Pokemon as an anime is just a bunch of recycled anime tropes. So yeah, I bought a lot of taped off Japanese TV VHS when an Asian market went under. Only way to get a Doraemon/ Kochikame fix then. Shame that Kochikame wouldn't translate overseas (except the Latin American, Indian, and other Asian countries market). And the heck with anything older than the digital animation transition of the 90's. Unless you're like Ranma and you've been grandfathered in with the bootlegged fansubs on a VHS crowd.

We're missing out on a lot of perennial favorites because they're either too old looking or not containing enough cute guys/Moe girls. And anime fans will miss out on half the jokes still animated into the show.

What I'm saying is I wish Tensai Bakabon would get over here. It took the new dark, gritty version of Yatterman to get picked up by a major American release company. Which is sad, since Anime Sols did try with both the 70's and 00's series.

 

[Harleena]

Update on Harleena and Ivan and Miyako's fantastic con adventure: I'm probably gonna cosplay as Naru/Molly from Sailor Moon, who is ironically the character who is the least likely to attract pedos.

 

[Drtooth]

Actually... not so much a fandom, but this gets me every time.

Those who do fan art of "anime" versions of characters, and the look like the same standard 15 year old girl trying to ape bishonen art style. First off, there's just an annoying ignorance to giving anime a uniform look. Let's put it this way. If someone did the reverse and American Cartoonized anime characters, that would be like making every single one of them look like a Looney Tunes character, ignoring things like The Simpsons, Beavis and Butthead, and Archer (among others). There's a HUGE difference between Dragon Ball Z, Crayon Shin-Chan, Cowboy Bebop and Osomatsu-Kun. Secondly, anyone who's been paying attention will note that current anime series actually look more and more Western than you'd think. One Piece, Naruto... very much Western looking. The creator of Shaman King was influenced by Marvel and collaborated with Stan Lee on a series. And third... you know they still have anthropamorphic characters in Japan, right? And they don't look Bishonen at all. What annoys me the most specifically is "Anime Gumball."

Why?

The cast of Gumball, the Watersons at least, have a very much Japanese inspired look to them. The creator of the series is very much an anime watcher, and the characters are prone to very Japanese style wild expressions. Somehow, it's...just...not...Japanese...looking...enough.

But somehow, I think the showrunners are wise to that, and pretty much handed that kind of fan art it's own butt with "The Fan."

Freaking epic burn, right there.

 

[Harleena]

Actually... not so much a fandom, but this gets me every time.

Those who do fan art of "anime" versions of characters, and the look like the same standard 15 year old girl trying to ape bishonen art style. First off, there's just an annoying ignorance to giving anime a uniform look. Let's put it this way. If someone did the reverse and American Cartoonized anime characters, that would be like making every single one of them look like a Looney Tunes character, ignoring things like The Simpsons, Beavis and Butthead, and Archer (among others). There's a HUGE difference between Dragon Ball Z, Crayon Shin-Chan, Cowboy Bebop and Osomatsu-Kun. Secondly, anyone who's been paying attention will note that current anime series actually look more and more Western than you'd think. One Piece, Naruto... very much Western looking. The creator of Shaman King was influenced by Marvel and collaborated with Stan Lee on a series. And third... you know they still have anthropamorphic characters in Japan, right? And they don't look Bishonen at all. What annoys me the most specifically is "Anime Gumball."

Why?

The cast of Gumball, the Watersons at least, have a very much Japanese inspired look to them. The creator of the series is very much an anime watcher, and the characters are prone to very Japanese style wild expressions. Somehow, it's...just...not...Japanese...looking...enough.

But somehow, I think the showrunners are wise to that, and pretty much handed that kind of fan art it's own butt with "The Fan."

Freaking epic burn, right there.

I normally don't mind anime style humanizations, but it ticks me off when they make Darwin white, especially considering that his voice actors are black. It shows a lack of diversity. And "The Fan" was freaking amazing.

 

[Slackbot]

Ah, anime-izing. It's a fun style to play in, but, yeah, it gets old if you just ape the bishounen look.

Lately I've seen tons of humanized versions of nonhuman characters, for example Muppets. Sometimes they're done well, but sometimes you'd never know what they were supposed to be because they look like generic anime drawn by someone who has never drawn anything but his or her favorite anime characters. I don't know how many pictures submitted to the DeviantArt groups I run I've had to turn down because I honestly can't see any resemblance.