Is Anime frowned upon because criminals in Japan pin blame on it for their actions?

RichtheLionheart said:
Anime is frowned upon because of the people viewing them. One major thing people cannot get over is that fact that an Anime doesn't equate to an American children's cartoon. Also, many Anime viewers are seen as weird and/or anti-social.

MC-sama said:
People are just ignorant and believe whatever they hear.

panaino said:
I frequent Japanese chat sites, and have chatted with quite a few Japanese people regarding this topic as a whole, so I guess I could share some things I know of the current anime situation in Japan.

"Is Anime frowned upon because criminals in Japan pin blame on it for their actions?"

No, it isn't. The number of those acts, and people pinning blame on anime for what those crazy people do is actually very, very low. The reason why you might think it's high is because those news are sensational. It gets blown up and is actually not what they may seem to be. It's mainly frowned upon because of "otaku"s in Japan. As you may already know, the term otaku is not something nice in Japan. It is a derotagory term. And it isn't limited to anime. Anybody "overly obsessed" over something, anything, is called an otaku and belittled by evil people. Train otakus, stamp otakus, stuff toy otakus, anime otakus, gadget otakus, etc etc.

Now, the reason why a lot of Japanese view anime as something only kids would watch, or "should" watch, is because even though there are a whole lot of anime made for adults, R18(for violence) anime, there are EVEN MORE anime made for children. Made to appeal to the younger audiences, made to appeal to the female audiences, etc etc.

Companies all over Japan have their own animations for their own products, and a lot of them are cute and childish, aimed at people who have soft spots for things like that. Animations are all over Japan, but because the "animes" we love so much is only a small part of that, it gets clumped together with the rest.

Also, anime themes. Friendship, love, people hardened by the gruesome Japan society where stress destroys them don't really take to those themes. If you want to understand how, or why anime is viewed how it is in Japan, you need to take a look and try to understand Japanese culture. What their society is like, and what activity the general population of Japan often engage in.

Now, anime is not dying. One other situation KIND OF similar to our topic at hand is My Little Pony in the western community. It was made in mind for younger audiences and females, made with them as the product's target. But some older audiences took interest in it, weren't afraid to speak up and say they like it too, and weren't afraid of people judging them, those people are the reason why more and more audiences in which the product isn't targeting are coming out and saying they like it too, thus raising the entire popularity of the product itself, and the awareness that not only kids, or girls can like it. ANYBODY can like it. ANYBODY can enjoy it. Nobody has any right to judge anyone else based on their preferences.

Anime in Japan is slowly, but surely gaining more popularity with our current generation. With the newer, younger generation. And also with the older generation. People are becoming less and less particular about older audiences watching anime. Slowly but surely.

Anything with rising popularity will surely also gain negativity. As the awareness that anime isn't only for kids spread out more and more, on the other hand, negative people are also on the rise. Just like how many brave people who aren't afraid of speaking their minds about what they like, many negative people aren't afraid to say what they want to say as well. And negative comments, negative opinions are often more colorful, and more explosive, more sensational. They gain more attention. Thus giving birth to the misunderstanding that anime is dying and such.

I hope what I know gave you more insight on the situation. Thanks for taking the time to read.