Why do veteran weebs hate "casuals"?

Have you seen the shounen wars on twitter?

Where a million people who have seen 12 anime argue over which ones are "peak" and which ones are "mid"?

I hate the shit out of that!!

Everyone else is ok, but that specific brand of casuals are extremely annoying.

@APolygons2 I can say for sure I haven't since I avoid twitter as much as possible. They need to redo the "this is your brain on drugs" PSA and change "drugs" to "twitter"

First of all, do you mean weeb or anime fan? Cause that is a whole different answer, I will assume anime fan.

Well, probably there are many reasons. The accusation I hear most often is that it's due to a feeling of superiority, and I am sure those people exist, as they do in relation to film, books and whatever else.

However, I think the majority have a different reason, Out a perceived threat to the existing culture. Casuals will often complain about some of the weird things in anime, "this is too weird", "this is too sexualized", "this makes no sense", "it's bad". The anime vets have already come to terms with these oddities, maybe they have mixxed feelings about them themselves but in their mind, this is anime, obviously they are not going to take kindly to someone who comes at them telling them they shouldn't like it and here's how it should be instead.

Sometimes critisism is not so direct, someone will say something like "If anime was more X I would like it more", "I find Y boring". Of course anime fans are not a monolith, we don't agree on everything, but there are certain things that your average anime fan wouldn't say. If you're a shounen fan you're not going to say "you know what, way too much fighting in this shounen". You understand what shounen is about and you have made your judgement of whether you are a fan or not. Maybe you have complaints but they are not complaints that go against the idea of shounen. Point is, casuals often say things that alienate them from anime fans. It's not like they are trying to piss people off or that their concerns are not real, but oftentimes I see a lack of respect for what already exists. This can make people feel defensive, particularly when they like the thing under question.

So yeah, ultimately I think it's just protective instincts kicking in. I feel the need to point out, if casuals came in, watched in peace and left positive comments I don't think anyone would have any complaints (well, some psycho would still find a way but they're the exception). The tensions only rise when the casuals start complaining and voicing opinions that criticise things they're "not supposed to" as far as the vets are concerned.

@FanofAction Twitter is actually the worst thing that has happened to the internet lol

I only use it cause It's good to have for my youtube channel. Otherwise I would not touch that thing, not even with a 5 meter long stick.

For me, it's two things.

1. Complaining about the style: Whether that be how the animation looks, how the mouth moves, how they "don't like reading their shows", or even things like "adult subject matter", "cartoons should swear or have blood", or "animation shouldn't have heavy content". Pretty much, if it's not Micky Mouse, it's not animation. Constantly complaining about the style is something that is a big problem for me. and a lot of casual viewers don't give a lot of it a chance because it's in a world they're not willing to explore. Reminds me of a grandmother listening to rock music and going "oh, no, this isn't music."

2. Not understanding "just because you don't like it doesn't mean it's bad." I see so many anime viewers - mainly people in their late teens and early twenties - granted, I am twenty-four, but I was a literature student for five years, so I feel I may get a pass here - in this constant argument about how since they didn't like an anime, that automatically makes it a horrible anime and it shouldn't exist. The fact that they can't distinguish the difference between opinion to reality honestly makes me mad. A lot of the time, they can't accept that they can't like something - and therefore you shouldn't either - and yet it's still good. From an art or literature point of view, reviewing, you have to sometimes set aside your enjoyment and look at things from a style point of view. As an example, I'll use the 1998 Akira as an example. Someone could say they hated it because they didn't like it for one reason, and they didn't even finish it. First, finish it to validate your opinion. And even if you didn't like it, that doesn't make it factually bad - Akira is regarded factually as one of the best-animated works ever made, over fifty different colors were invented in animation for it, and its stunning musical score and animation were all hand-drawn, and it was the anime that got anime into the west in the first place - therefore, it's good. You're entirely validated to have your opinion on that it wasn't your cup of tea, but you can't factually say it's bad.

This, then leads to a whole bunch of arguments and bullying in the community of anime of "wow, you like this? You suck. Anyone who likes this sucks." I always loved MAL for meeting a few people and actually being able to talk about what makes the anime good or bad, but a lot of these newcomers just can't accept the difference between opinion and fact, and then just start bullying and hating each other for no reason. They think it's fun.

All in all, summarized, it boils down to the fact that they complain constantly and bully, coming into a group they know nothing about and acting like it's theirs. Anime is an art, and people just need to talk and discuss instead of complaining and hating on everyone.

Sorry for the rant, thanks for coming to my Ted Talk.