Why do anime watchers more and more toxic these days?

Zelkiiro said:
Just because something is entertainment doesn't shield it from criticism.

Isekai and harem are trash because, most of the time, instead of aiming to deliver anything of note or quality intheir narratives, they aim instead for mindless power fantasy or unimaginative distraction.

To beat the dead horse, Sword Art Online could have been a thrilling story of experimental technology trapping thousands of people into a high-stakes death game where humanity is put to the test. And it does that for, about, 5 minutes before Reki Kawahara got bored and turned it into a stupid, boring power fantasy. Fuckin' yaaaawwwwwn.

mramirez96 said:
Criticize the flaws of the anime is not a bad thing, however, saying stuff like "your arguments are invalid because you like X anime" is very immature and exposes an inferiority complex. Just try to ignore those users, there's no need to invest your time discussing with them.

kietedward said:
Why do anime watchers more and more toxic these days?

I just can't understand why do people always criticizing other tastes. They call things like isekai harem are trash, talk about writing and plot like they are real anime professors, and call others kids. I mean, after all, anime is still a kind of entertainment, aside from its philosophical aspects. So why don't people just respect others' tastes? Why do they compare a shounen anime with a seinen anime and call the shounen one trash?

ColourWheel said:


I general "Anime Watchers" are not toxic. Toxicity was born within the Anime community that solely exists online due to "anonymity". Since users don't have to face other users in person, There is no filter to what some users might and will say or even talk about online.

Trust me before there were online forums for Anime there wasn't an sort of "anonymity" when being apart of a community. Gathering forums in person, people would not generally attack others over petty taste.

It's just easier to hide behind a computer screen and talk trash about someone when there is little to no consequences one can face, especially if the user they are trash talking to doesn't even know who they are in real life.

ColourWheel said:


I general "Anime Watchers" are not toxic. Toxicity was born within the Anime community that solely exists online due to "anonymity". Since users don't have to face other users in person, There is no filter to what some users might and will say or even talk about online.

Trust me before there were online forums for Anime there wasn't an sort of "anonymity" when being apart of a community. Gathering forums in person people would not generally attack others over petty taste.

It's just easier to hide behind a computer screen and talk trash about someone when there is little to no consequences one can face, especially if the user your are trash talking to doesn't even know who you are in real life.

Phosphophyllita said:
It happens because shounen anime is trash and seinen anime is good

JizzyHitler said:
Cause its just more widely consumed, smaller fandoms will generally be less overtly aggressive and argumentative and youll still see that for more niche subgenres of anime. Like people who like magical girl stuff seem chill as fuck, cause such a small chunk of (western) fans actually watch it. Meanwhile Shounen action series invite the absolute dumbest discussions you will ever see.

Culture war shit also plays a part, feels like every season we got 1 or 2 shows where people try to make it out to be some counter culture fuck you to some nobody on twitter where exponentially more people complain about people complaining than anyone actually complaining about said show.

chair-sama said:
I LIKE ART.
I call about everything that I've rated at least 7 an art.
I can't give just anything a high score, cause I have standards.
If a show is uncreative, story is a copy+paste from a different show, music is boring, characters bland and with no progression, and the animation is very stale, I just have to give it a significantly lower score then the show that actually meets my standards.
If I can say the things above about majority of anime from the certain genre, then there is a reason to call that genre "trash", though I personally don't do that anymore.

Alcoholicide said:


Ayy, I haven't seen you around since I came back to the forums. How are you doing?

kietedward said:
I respect your standard. But, It is "your standard", not others standards. It's okay if you don't like a genre. But when you put your standard on others, It become toxicity.

chair-sama said:

I don't impose anything on anyone. I only say that we should critisize things if they deserve it, and praise them when they deserve it. If our expectation bar is low then we will be happy with worse and worse products. If you want an example of this happening, then just look at the gaming industry.

asaryo420 said:
I thnk it didn't became more toxic, the internet just gave them a platform to loudly shout what they want. I'm one of them

petran79 said:
As if fansubbers and scanlators werent toxic themselves even in the early days. Some were so peculiar they'd ban you on their irc channel like ILA.

kietedward said:
It's acceptable if they shout out their thought and debate with positive attitudes, open their mind and lend an ear to others' opinions. But in most cases, I find they just want to be superior.

asaryo420 said:
that's human nature. Their are positive things but negetive things is what stays in you mind. You will always see that 1 mm black spot in your XXXL White T shirt.

kietedward said:
I just can't understand why do people always criticizing other tastes. They call things like isekai harem are trash, talk about writing and plot like they are real anime professors, and call others kids. I mean, after all, anime is still a kind of entertainment, aside from its philosophical aspects. So why don't people just respect others' tastes? Why do they compare a shounen anime with a seinen anime and call the shounen one trash?

_Maneki-Neko_ said:
There is a difference between being toxic and telling others why you don't like something. I won't stay away from the second one, just because others don't want to hear it.

Also art always needs to be criticized, positive and negative, no matter what type of art it is. Why should I be allowed to criticize a book or movie, but not anime?

Reinys said:
It's just like when people outside the community insulted anime watcher, the stereotyping thing or sth like that. People tend to look down on others for being different from them and haven't even tried to understand that everyone are different since we were born and could enjoy different things.

Since the internet become a thing, these useless critisizing just became more accessible and louder.

Mantron said:
It is because people cannot tolerate if someone says against their favourite anime.

They compare between shounen and seinen because they think liking seinen means you are mature and saying that shounen is for kids. By that logic FMAB is also for kids.
Teenagers think that liking Berserk=good taste and they can look down on others.

alshu said:
"Why do anime watchers more and more toxic these days?"

The environment is more and more polluted nowadays?

WatchTillTandava said:
Truthfully, I really don't like and don't use the word "toxic" and "toxicity" in that way (I think it's become a buzzword sapped of all meaning), but leaving that aside...

I've been using different internet forums for 20+ years now and I don't notice any difference or greater amount of rude behavior either between now and in the past or between anime and any other topic in existence.

Far too many people in general are just needlessly rude unprovoked and completely rabidly aggressive and willing to personally insult and go on the attack against another person's perceived character for no real reason at all at the drop of a hat. To not provoke said people who are reflexively and extremely aggressive and defensive over anything, you'd have to delicately tip toe like walking on eggshells or through a glade of a sleuth of on-edge bears. It's not something either unique to MAL or to anime and the anime community in general.

It's the same way regardless of what the subject is. It's how many many people unfortunately behave on the internet, and to a certain extent, in the physical world as well - only less so there because that can have actual repercussions depending on the person or people they're addressing and the setting (physical repercussions, social repercussions, and legal repercussions) since they could be ostracized by people they know in real life, punched in the face, punished at school or their workplace, etc.

Orange_is_White said:
1) Reactionary anime YouTube channels shoving false narratives down their viewers throats each day falsely staying twitter feminists are constantly triggered, and encouraging their fan bases to be toxic af towards them.

2) Harems and Isekai are trash