| What makes an Anime "mainstream"? What makes it not? What are some examples of Anime you would consider mainstream? What are some examples of Anime you would consider non-mainstream? Which do you prefer? (See Poll) I've been curious about this lately. People's opinions would be appreciated. |
"The coexistence of diverse political values is the essence of democracy." |
| "Objectively defined "mainstream" anime are anime that are well known in the US and other Western countries that don't have very big anime/manga cultures. " Heres your answer from google senpai Mainstream shows Naruto DBZ Sailor moon Pokemon Yugioh MHA Non mainstream shows Monster Psycho pass Cowboy bebop Death Parade Black Lagoon Perfect Blue I prefer both |
| 한 번만 살지만 제대로 하면 한 번이면 충분해요 |
| i only watch mainstream anime like sazae san not all this otaku shlock |
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| I like to judge an anime as mainstream based off its merchandise. To elaborate, if it’s likely you’ll see a anime’s merch at a typical anime convention (or possibly at any sort of store, or website, etc...) it’s probably mainstream. Though if you haven’t been exposed to too much anime marketing or live in a country where anime merch is quite rare, I would understand how this method would prove pointless. |
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| How can I prefer non-mainstream if I don't even know how I'll find them? |
| Imagine how boring this world would be without Japan - a comment at youtube |
DrSexy said: "Objectively defined "mainstream" anime are anime that are well known in the US and other Western countries that don't have very big anime/manga cultures. " Heres your answer from google senpai Mainstream shows Naruto DBZ Sailor moon Pokemon Yugioh MHA Non mainstream shows Monster Psycho pass Cowboy bebop Death Parade Black Lagoon Perfect Blue I prefer both The anime you listed for non-mainstream are mainstream. |
| Whatever works, I like good anime :D |
  Grant me one hour on love's most sacred shores To clasp the bosom that my soul adores, Lie heart to heart and merge my soul with yours |
Flamie_x said: DrSexy said: "Objectively defined "mainstream" anime are anime that are well known in the US and other Western countries that don't have very big anime/manga cultures. " Heres your answer from google senpai Mainstream shows Naruto DBZ Sailor moon Pokemon Yugioh MHA Non mainstream shows Monster Psycho pass Cowboy bebop Death Parade Black Lagoon Perfect Blue I prefer both The anime you listed for non-mainstream are mainstream. None of the one I listed are well known in the west. You can barely find anyone irl that has seen those shows |
| 한 번만 살지만 제대로 하면 한 번이면 충분해요 |
DrSexy said: None of the one I listed are well known in the west. You can barely find anyone irl that has seen those shows I just wouldn't call them non-mainstream because they're highly listed on here. Unless you ask every person in the west, you can't accurately come to that conclusion. |
| - i prefer good animes over bad ones . |
| Personally I would characterised an anime as maistream since it's really popular and fans of it could not be into anime some examples are One piece,Naruto,boku no hero academia etc.Now even though I prefer non mainstream I think that there are good mainstream and non mainstream so I enjoy both of them. |
DrSexy said: None of the one I listed are well known in the west. You can barely find anyone irl that has seen those shows I highly, highly doubt that anyone would have that many issues finding other anime fans that've seen Cowboy Bebop and Black Lagoon offline. Kids talked about Black Lagoon when I was in high school, for christ's sake, and I've met non-anime fans who can recognize both Bebop as well as name the lead character in spite of never having seen it. And the rest aren't as mainstream as DBZ or Pokemon, sure, but they're all really well known relative to the entire playing field, giving me a bit of whiplash to see them in the conversation. Defining it strictly as mainstream and non-mainstream, I *guess*, but if we were to put it on a tier list, with S being the most mainstream and F being the least, these would all be A-tier, i.e. directly below Naruto and DBZ and still towards the very tip of the iceberg. So I totally get why that other guy is calling it into question. |
ManabanJun 29, 2020 3:18 PM
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Manaban said: DrSexy said: None of the one I listed are well known in the west. You can barely find anyone irl that has seen those shows I highly, highly doubt that anyone have issues finding other anime fans that've seen Cowboy Bebop and Black Lagoon offline. They talked about Black Lagoon when I was in high school, for christ's sake. And the rest aren't as mainstream as DBZ or Pokemon, sure, but they're all really well known relative to the entire playing field, giving me a bit of whiplash to see them in the conversation. Well the few anime fans I have found offline either watched only mainstream shonen or studio ghibli movies, so I'm just speaking from personal experience |
| 한 번만 살지만 제대로 하면 한 번이면 충분해요 |
DrSexy said: "Objectively defined "mainstream" anime are anime that are well known in the US and other Western countries that don't have very big anime/manga cultures. " Heres your answer from google senpai Mainstream shows Naruto DBZ Sailor moon Pokemon Yugioh MHA Non mainstream shows Monster Psycho pass Cowboy bebop Death Parade Black Lagoon Perfect Blue I prefer both This would quite literally be my answer. |
  tysm iva-🐢💜 |
| I just watch whatever interests me tbh, regardless if it’s popular or not with all the cool kids ^_^ |
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| Non-mainstream anime: Fair-trade artisinal Mongolian anime that comes in the form of yak hide flipbooks. It's pretty obscure, and most people wouldn't get the stuff it references, but it's deeper and better than the pleb anime made in Japan. |
| I'd break it down into four categories: mainstream/popular (Naruto, MHA), "real"/weeb/surface-level anime (SAO, Evangelion, Madoka Magica), cult/veteran following (Aria, Higurashi), and obscure (Pupa, clay animations). |
| I'll choose non-mainstream all the way. There are multitudes of underrated and undiscovered hidden gems around there, and their lack of fandom makes me... sad. |
| I think mainstream anime is easier to get into and it can attract more people as most mainstream anime is shounen action. Mainstream anime is also more well-known like everybody, both anime and non-anime watchers, have at least heard of Dragon Ball and Naruto. But not many people have heard of the anime Grisaia the Fruits or Akame ga Kill. I prefer non-mainstream anime as I'm not a big fan of the shounen action genre but I sometimes enjoy them. Mainstream animes: 1. Naruto 2. One Piece 3. Dragon Ball 4. Attack on Titan 5. Bleach 6. My Hero Non-mainstream animes: 1. Hellsing 2. Code Geass (to an extent) 3. Toaru no Railgun 4. Bungou Stray Dogs 5. Psycho-Pass 6. Grisaia the Fruits |
| Mainstream refers to shonen battle fantasy genre anime because they're the most common, popular, standard, kinda the "definition" of anime, you know mainstream the anime that relies on the same repetitive and cliches, shonen demographic in that sense is mainstream regardless of the genre, save for the out-of-the-box anime. |
| I will watch both. I really only care if the anime is good. |
| Go check out my latest review: https://myanimelist.net/profile/YeeYeeAss/reviews |
| both mainstream & non-mainstream can be good, but I prefer exploring obscure anime |
| I believe a marked distinction needs to be drawn between mainstream for the general population internationally (outside of Japan) and mainstream for the anime community - more specifically the online-based anime community on websites like MAL, Anime Planet, Anilist, Kitsu, and the r/Anime subreddit message board on Reddit. Is something "mainstream" because a majority of active MAL users have either seen it or at least have heard about it many times over the years for quite some time now when active MAL users are a tiny minority percentage of the overall general population? There are shows I would refer to in language which suggests that they are not mainstream to a general audience of non-regular anime watchers, like referring to a show as "obscure" or "An older show nobody's ever heard of", but it would be laughable to suggest something is obscure because it's a few decades old or that no one ever hears/talks about it to someone on MAL. Calling something obscure or non-mainstream on here would require a much more stringent set of criteria or higher burden of proof to substantiate it than to a random person on the street who might know nothing of anime apart from Pokemon, Dragonball, and Sailor Moon, if that. |
| i choose mainstream coz mainstream anime is a living community so whereever media platform used pretty sure always there are discussion about it different with non mainstream u should go to correct platform even a wonder if replied every hour |
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| Personally, it depends on how others define mainstream. I believe everyone will say that Deathnote, Pokemon, DBZ, Naruto, Yu Gi Oh, or Beyblade would be considered mainstream for Japan and Western Countries or mainstream for online communities. When talking about non-mainstream, things get messy. If you consider mainstream being related to majority of people in Japan and Western countries knowing of it, stuff like monster or kemono no Souja Erin, or Majestic Prince would be non-mainstream. But, for online sites like MAL, plenty of people have heard or seen Monster. Personally, I think plenty of seasonals get the treatment of being non-mainstream as they are overshadowed by bigger shows and/or not as great. For those, I can think of stuff like Val x Love, Cooking with Valks, Pet. They were shows that either were overshadowed or could not appeal to many people. As such, they would not be mainstream. I choose both mainstream and non-mainstream. Mainstream because I am able to have a better chance at enjoying shows or enjoy memes that people create from them. As for non-mainstream, these shows are rarely get their due attention and some are really good shows. |
"Perfection is perception. For me, humanity's imperfections is what makes it perfect"  |
| Quality is independent of popularity. Shows like AOT, breaking bad, FMAB, HxH are both popular and well written. Some mainstream is good some is bad. Some non mainstream is good some is bad. |
Anime was it's best 20000 years ago, when cavemen drew art with real depth. Modern anime is all garbage. I miss great old days of anime. |
| I feel like in reality there are only few anime that achieved the "mainstream" title, Black Clover for example is a popular show but I wouldn't call it mainstream because you probably won't find any discussion on it outside of anime circles. And it can also work vice versa I barely see any one mentions Baki in anime forums but I know a lot of non-anime fans that watch it because it's on Netflix, so is Baki considered main stream? It's really hard to pin point what exactly is mainstream or not when It comes to anime ofc you obviously have shows like My Hero, Attack on Titan, Naruto and etc... that are clearly mainstream, but honestly I don't know if I would even call anime like HxH and Kill la Kill (and other anime with 1m members or above here on mal) mainstream..... because if I wouldn't have been part of the anime community I would not know them. |
| Gintama and K-on! are pretty much mainstream in japan but not in west so I guess I prefer both. |
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| I haven't bothered to come up with a definition and I don't really care |
| MEA·MENTVLA·INGENS·EST |
| Subjective. There is what I see as anime community mainstream and truly mainstream. Anime community mainstream would be something like Re Zero most people into anime know of it but outside of the community no one would have heard of it. Lots of popular seasonals fit this. Truly mainstream is stuff like DBZ, Pokemon or Ghilbi films . Shows and films everyone has heard at least once that have made a huge cultural impact. |
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