"Don't like don't watch it." and "It's for kids."

Kittens-kun said:
"Don''t like, don't watch" Makes sense though. If you've watched enough of the show to rate it a 1 or 2, just drop it. You've obviously enjoyed very little to nothing about the show, so what's the point? You're just prolonging your suffering and for what? To have a pointless discussion with a fan that'll disregard everything you say and insult? It's not worth it.

TheBrainintheJar said:


What if the anime is teaching about how bad anime can be? Good students learn from the worst teachers. If you're like me and you value the study of fiction, watching bad stuff and completing it is often necessary.

I wouldn't put too much time into such shitty anime though.

MasterHavik said:
"It's for kids." Is such a defensive argument it is insane. Basically people who use this make the claim a show can be bad as much as it wants to be if the audience is kids. Does anyone see how fucking dumb that is and shows that person has a low opinion of kids?

katsucats said:
A lot of criticism is short hand for something else, and most people know how to read in between the lines. Sometimes the short hand is so embedded into our culture that we don't realize we're doing it. This is one of them. Of course we realize that very good works have come out of children's shows. But when we don't feel like elaborating, and because it's so reasonably common, how do we describe a show that has such a simplistic and immature narrative structure, that might lack any nuance or advocate a totally unrealistic message that banks on empty positivity? It's a show for kids.

On_the_Lam said:
How am I supposed to know if I'm going to like a show or not if I don't continue watching it?

Ambaradan said:
"Don't like, don't watch it" is very short for "I am not capable of showing why the show we're talking about is good because I don't know what good means".
People who often center the discussion around something they like very much tend to overestimate a show's quality upon very plain things they like naturally, the same way they are exactly shown. Love at first sight and extreme attachment. They think everything is subjective yet don't bother to defend anything and/or get mad when someone thinks the opposite because they have no knowledge about quality.

katsucats said:
A lot of criticism is short hand for something else, and most people know how to read in between the lines. Sometimes the short hand is so embedded into our culture that we don't realize we're doing it. This is one of them. Of course we realize that very good works have come out of children's shows. But when we don't feel like elaborating, and because it's so reasonably common, how do we describe a show that has such a simplistic and immature narrative structure, that might lack any nuance or advocate a totally unrealistic message that banks on empty positivity? It's a show for kids.

Wensbane said:
It's the standard defense by people who can't properly defend their favorite shows.

If you drop the show, they'll say "You can't have an opinion since you didn't even finish it! It gets better later on!"

If you don't drop it, they'll say "How can it be so bad, when it was good enough for you to finish?"

You can't win with these people. Just submit your rating and move on.

TheBrainintheJar said:
But how do you know if you'll like something unless you watch it?

flannan said:

Very few shows actually get better later on. And unless it's an ongoing, you're gonna know about it. Higurashi turns out to not be a slice-of-life. Gakkou Gurashi is a slice-of-life, but not the kind of life it seems in the first episode. There are some more examples, but none come to mind.

Anyway, people really shouldn't criticize shows that are outside of their comfort zone. If you had any trouble finishing a show, you are probably not the target audience, and your opinion is invalid. Just like a colorblind person isn't qualified to criticize paintings.
This is the essense of "don't like it - don't watch it" argument.


People with anything resembling human taste have no problem with that. Just look at the genre tags. Or content tags on AniDB.
Only people who don't know what they like go "it all depends on execution".

TheBrainintheJar said:


Really? I was sure I'd love Parasyte - a body horror anime about talking hands with EDM? Yet it turned out to be crap.

Surprises happen.

flannan said:

Surprises happen. I was sure I would like Mahou Sensou - a magical school battle anime. Yet it somehow didn't work.
We aren't talking about that. We are talking about people going headfirst into genres they don't like.