I’ve gone from defending things that need absolutely no defense as everybody loves them already, to defending things I probably shouldn’t be defending at all. Not sure which is better to be perfectly honest.
Lately, I’ve been hearing a lot about (and from) “Haters”. You may be thinking to yourself right about now – welcome to the internet Irina, glad you could join the rest of us in the present. But see, I’m still a little confused by the entire phenomena. Not the internet – well ok the internet too. In this case though, I want to talk about haters and also hatin’ on haters.
First I see the label being bandied around left and right pretty gosh darn liberally. Just because someone doesn’t like your favorite show and says so on their blog, doesn’t make them a hater. They have zero taste and we should feel sorry for them but that’s not necessarily a hater. Same goes for someone that disagrees with you in your comments.
I can say pretty confidently that most of my favorite people disagree with roughly 90% of my tastes in anime. That’s fine. Their wrong and…I mean you know the drill, but they’re still lovely people. Being mad at a real live person because they don’t like and imaginary one seems silly.
However, I think the word applies more to those individuals who hate EVERYTHING. Or who hate things by default before even giving them a chance. The *I assume it’s bad* because it’s of a certain genre, studio, year…crowd. People that never like your posts and only comment to say something negative or contradictory about what you wrote. The ones who always seem to be rolling their eyes when they’re typing.
Yeah those guys and gals. We just hate them don’t we? But why?
Anyone that bothers to put together and maintain a blog about anime is bound to have some thoughts on the subject. It’s not that any of us deserve medals but let’s face it, there is some work involved in the exercise. Admittedly more for some than others. And finding positive or fairly neutral reviews of any given show is usually easy. The aniblogging community is chock full of sweet uber positive little souls that feel bad about hurting even imaginary people. I love you guys so much!
When we consider this, it seems that an alternative generally negative blog would have its place as it provides a counterpoint. It’s not like we can’t take bad reviews. All of us have come across a show we weren’t crazy about and have written about it. If you consider all the blogs out there, there are dozens of negative reviews posted each day and no one is particularly bothered by it.
Naturally, we may get prickly when certain beloved shows become the target of one of these bad write ups but most of us can leave a generally constructive comment and get on with our day. We aren’t going to be holding a grudge against that particular blogger for weeks on end. Yet, as soon as someone is identified as a hater, there’s a certain stigma to goes with it.
So if it’s not the actual hating itself that’s rubbing us the wrong way, what is it? Why do I hear about it so much more in the context of blogging and Instagram than anything else? How can I avoid accidentally becoming a “hater”? Should I always soften my critiques or avoid writing anything less than a glowing approval?
For no reason whatsoever, ok, actually because I don’t want to bother moderating my own opinions, I have decided that the answer is NO. See I think part of the issue is a certain sense of disingeniousness (possibly not a word, in which case: copyright). I think most of us believe that it’s simply not possible for a normal person to not like anything at all. It’s just as unlikely as the opposite expect much more so.
You see, we are usually wired to seek out things we enjoy. This is doubly true for something like anime, which is a leisure activity and therefore entirely in our control. After a few tries, a normal person will figure out what elements they like and dislike in a show and chose what to watch accordingly. In order to just watch shows you dislike, you have to put a pretty big effort into doing so. Which also means that you start off with a considerable bias.
All of these things may make a reviewer sound less than genuine, simply bashing shows for the sake of their “brand” and so the review can longer be trusted as such. Some readers may feel cheated or lied to.
But I like to think of it as little pieces of creative writing. Little thought exercises, where a writer who has no strong feelings about a show tries to come up with reasons to hate it for the exercise of it. At this point, you have to divorce the actual source material from the post itself. It’s more like that friend you have that can make any story sound kind of dirty. Well haters can make any show, essay, comment, sound kinda mean.
Why do this? As I mentioned, it can be in fact useful to offer a counterpoint. Any of you who have done debate know what I mean. You often have to argue passionately for points you do not believe in at all. Some people also have a little spark of rebellion in them, they get a sense of individuality from disliking shows everyone else liked (I seem to go the exact opposite route).
As for the comments. I’m going to bet sometimes it’s just people being awkward. I know I have a though time wording my thoughts occasionally. If any of you have ever had the dubious pleasure of one of my comments, you know what I mean. So some of them may just be coming off much more negative than they mean to be. This in fact happens in posts as well.
I still probably wouldn’t be up for having a show I liked torn apart but I don’t mind reading a rant once in a while and I’m ok with having blogs dedicated to it. What do you guys think? Is life too short to be complaining about every little things or is nitpicking and over analyzing the reason we spend our free time writing about our hobbies instead of enjoying them?
My own definition of “hater” is someone who attacks you as a person because of your preferences. If you lile
Yes I have gotten that on the blog. Once I even got threats cause I thought a show was boring. That’s why I no longer review certain genres unless specific conditions are met
Perhaps I have thicker skin? Or perhaps little to lose someone who behaves that way has demonstrated their deep inferiority so conclusively there is no reason to respond. WP allows one to delete the response and block the person. In the case of a viable threat I’d forward it to the platform host and the police. But it has never happened.
Well rape threats are super common when you have a contact form. You can’t bother the police every time.
Nobody has ever used my contact form except for one person who corrected me on a misattribution of a quote. Maybe being female in persona makes assholes react differently to you. A lot of guys have girl issues and they may take them out on you.
Maybe. To be fair it’s only hapoened to me a dew times but the other bloggers I talked to told me it was pretty much a rite of passage and very common
Things like this make me ashamed of being a human being.
Like this anime you are a racist, pedophile, rapist, pervert, violent person, Nazi, feminazi, etc. A person who just says an anime sucks without a discussion of why is not a hater in my book.ore likely in articulate or maybe mischievous and wanting to watch someone else go unhinged. Don’t oblige them and there’s no issue.
Yup. I’ve had your définition of hater on the blog. For sure
Sometimes they just want to see a reaction. Makes them feel powerful. Other times they are triggered by the subject and extend that
True
You don’t like this anime because you’re a stupid bitch whore and it’s because of idiots like you that anime is going to shit was one. Not sure if you call that a hater or not
Yup. Either a hater or a flamer. There’s a difference.
Haters gotta hate. Part of the human condition. Hate is the one emotion I have worked ruthlessly to weed out. It is like taking a poison pill, hoping to kill the object of the hate with your newfound venom.
I might say that I really really really don’t like this and here is why. At that point I pull back, expecting the supporters of what I disliked to hate me for it. It is why I like the longer form of the essay. It doesn’t draw nearly as much hate as the shorter forms of Twitter and other social media.
Does it not draw as much negative reaction or does it simply not draw as many readers?
It’s far more likely to get intelligent response. Twitter and the like is full of knee-jerk negativity.
I agree but I wonder whether it’s really du to word number or simply the fact that the platform is much larger. Negative reactionary people tend to be the loudest in any crowd and there’s going to be more of them in a bigger crowd so it may skew the impression. Then again maybe not.
I may be wrong, but my perception is that the proportion is different. Also I have a feeling that haters can’t be bothered with reading a longer post. Never had a hater respond on WordPress.
Oh I have. Aggressively… Not on Twitter though but my tweets are harmless (brainless) fluff
Wow. I would have thought some of my more explicit nudie posts would have drawn them out of the woodwork. Armies of offended people screaming “Hentai!” It didn’t happen.
BTW, of you ever want a stunning number of views but few comments, nude is the way to go.
No that’s not what people get upset by in my experience.
I personally love it when people disagree with me! It’s a great way to start a discussion! I DO NOT like it when people disagree without giving a reason. If I gave a book 5 out of 5 and you come on my blog and say “really?? This book Sucked so bad! I hated it!” at least have the courtesy to tell me why so we can discuss it!
I think it’s clear…they hated it because it sucked. What more do you want? 😉
They may have hated it because they didn’t like it! Did you ever think of THAT, Irina?? 😉😂😂
I honestly 100% agree with you , I feel like when you get hate you realizr that your content was worth something
Too true! 😂👍
On a Discord server I’m a member off everyone in there knows two things about me when it comes anime; I hate Boku no Hero Academia, and love Cardcaptor Sakura. Whenever someone brings up Boku no Hero there’s usually a jab at me to get me “triggered” by the mere mention of it. It’s pretty much an ongoing joke about it. Same with Cardcaptor Sakura where every time I mention it’s one of my favorites anime they always seemed baffled by it because I have stuff like Death Note, Kaiji, and Neon Genesis Evangelion on my favorite on MAL.
Another thing in that server people aren’t afraid of is recommending me stuff. I don’t end up liking everything I get recommended to watch, but on the other end they know I’m willing to give anything a shot. So no matter what side I fall on when it comes to certain anime they know I gave it shot, and didn’t blindly go into something just to hate it. One main thing I avoid doing at all cost is insulting someone just because they like an anime I don’t. For me, it’s pointless to do that since it’ll lead nowhere, and any points I bring on will be ignored by doing that.
There use to be this elitist I knew who would constantly hate on everything. He would typically say “That anime is shit” without elaborating on anything. Spending time in that server he changed his ways. Partly due to disagreeing with me on a few things, and explaining to him every time why I disliked something. Eventually getting the point that everyone see’s anime for different reasons, and not everyone will come to the same conclusion. And it only took him over a year to get that XD
I do believe there’s a place for negative blogs, and haters so long they don’t try to shove their opinion down my throat. The issue I see with a lot of these negative bloggers, or commenters is they don’t elaborate on points beyond “it’s shit”, and result to insulting the fan base of a certain work if there’s a disagreement. That’s why I think discussing varying thoughts on anything would be productive. There’s something to learn from it from both side, assuming they would bother discussing it in the first place.
All excellent points. There’s really little you can do with a comment that just states something’s bad for no reason. Or only idiots would like that show…so on.
I occasionally get those comments and it’s really just a waste.
I’m of the belief you shouldn’t always be a grouch on a blog, but content on stuff you dislike helps people to realise what you like and allows for variation. Really, having a reasonable quantity of (more?) negative opinions is a tricky process since if you only talk about positive stuff, you can come off as extremely accepting but then people start thinking you like things you actually don’t like…or is that just my experience with reading other people’s blogs?
Truth be told, the reason I don’t cover a lot of “hip and happening” shows in my posts is because I couldn’t get into them in the first place (or put them on hold due to self-imposed limits). To hardcore fans of those shows, that might translate to being a “hater” but I don’t talk about those series because it’s unproductive for all involved parties (whereas the above reason only benefits the blogger). Even still, there is a rational part of me that understands why said series are popular despite my own feelings on them, so maybe if more people could go into discussions with more balanced thinking like that, then we wouldn’t have haters…
As Jeff Jarrett once said about pro-wrestling “For those who believe, no explanation is necessary. For those who don’t, no explanation will suffice.”
Parable: Screw ’em! 😛
As always, wrestling holds all the answers
Really great post Irina! I feel like I learned a lot today. I think this is why I typically turn away from writing anime/manga reviews on my blog. While I do thoroughly enjoy giving my thoughts on a specific show or genre, I feel as though I’m a “lesser critic” so-to-speak. I tend to be less critical of anime/manga than some of my fellow anime blogger counterparts. I try to view/read everything with an open mind. There are very few anime titles I dislike or I have dropped just because I wanted to join everyone else on the “hate” bandwagon. I think everyone is entitled to genuinely dislike something if they want to, but if you want to come after people for liking what you don’t like you better have a damn good thesis to back up your opinion. As Karandi stated above, there is a big difference between “dislike” and “hate.” It all depends on how you perceive these two terms.
Absolutely and it’s a shame
I bet your reviews are super fun. I rarely dislike anything as well…
I still do them occasionally! I just went and saw Maquia: When the Promised Flower Blooms and wrote a whole post on that. It wasn’t really a review though…more so an exploration of different themes throughout the film. I also had a lot of fun doing the episode by episode review/summary of Violet Evergarden.
I liked the Promised Flowers post a lot.
Dawww! Thank you so much.
Usually when I say “hater” I’m using it in a more joking manner. Like if someone were to say they hated Haikyuu *shudder* I might say, “That’s my favorite show you hater XD” Because even though I absolutely love that show I have a clear understanding that it isn’t for everyone. If I’m actually mad at someone it’s usually because they are toxic. Like it’s one thing if someone is like, “I don’t like Haikyuu it’s totally predictable.” VS “I can’t believe you like Haikyuu. I’m so sick of fangirls like you making trash like this popular.” Because at this point we’re not having a cool discourse… that dude is just being a dick lol!
I totally agree though. You can’t just call someone a hater in a negative manner just because they don’t like what you like!
I love Haikyuu. You made excellent points but now I’m just back to trying to use the force to manifest another season…I’m sorry I have the attention span of a fruit fly.
Girl I am the same 😭 Who do I have to sleep with too get s4? Fingers crossed it’s Noya or Oikawa but one can’t be too picky.
Hmm we can work together..I’ll cover coach Ukai
🙌🏾 Coach Ukai… now that’s all I’ll think about the rest of the day.
sounds like a nice day
Cheers to that!
Well, if you dislika a show, then there’s nothing wrong with saying so. A little hyperbole is fine, and nobody should expect a rant to be reasonable in the first place.
Some shows, like SAO, are just easy targets. A lot of people like to rag on it, and the show provides ample, easy-to-hit targets. But it’s not really different, in that respect, from other shows. Why do people single out this show? Because it’s popular. There’s fairly little to gain from ragging on a show nobody watches anyway, unless it’s personal, in which case people actually have something to say.
I’ve never really encountered people who’d wish to tell me I’m not a real fan if I dislike X, or I’m a moron for liking X. I have no doubt these kind of posts exist, but luckily I’ve never run into anyone like that. Once might be amusing, twice would come with diminishing returns, and often would be tedious. Really, people like what they like, and nobody should have to say that. Isn’t it obvious?
I write obvious posts – it’s sort of my wheelhouse… I agree with you completely.
We’re living in a world where obvious things are surprisingly non-obvious to others. I often wonder what is that I’m not getting.
Hey – makes the world exciting right! Keeping you on your toes!
Yup.
Aside: the header has my fave Idolm@ster girl, so of course she got the worst episode in the series. That’s how it goes.
So essentially, we need a good balance of negativity and positivity from both the reviews, and audiences’s perspectives? If this makes any sense, that is. Also, I like your website’s design!
Thank you!! I just changed it and it took me forever.
And yes – I did spend a whole post sort of stating the obvious didn’t I… I had fun though!
I think there’s quite a difference between disliking something and writing a negative review and being a hater. Haters tend to bash something in its entirety without even trying to see a positive in it, and then they feel that anyone who disagrees with their ‘informed’ opinion needs to also be personally insulted. Everyone has different tastes and can say what they liked and didn’t like, but the hater label is specifically reserved for the kind of person who will call you a moron for liking something they disliked and then wonder why you found that to be slightly insulting.
I do think we sometimes are quick to throw it around. The label that is. But i agree that’s what it should mean
There are some terms that I always see on the internet mostly in the anime, movie, or anything. A term that said, “If you hated it, why are you watching?” or “Just enjoy. You’re too many talking craps.” or “You’re not a filmmaker so your opinions don’t count.” or “You have to be an artist so you can criticize it. Not you who don’t have anything and just talking crap.” These points sometimes became a joke but they just way too far that they didn’t realize their words on the internet. They love to talk happy things such as he praise this and he hated this. Mostly, some of it I can tolerable but it just way too far that feels like I don’t want to be an SJW, kinda like that, or fanboys cancer. This kinds of manner affect in my country where there are no famous critics that participating in the job. There are some that exist but they didn’t bear it anymore and going abroad to another country and became an artist in there. They never become to change because of they did that for becoming a troll on the internet and some of it I tolerable because although they are some of the elitist, I kinda agree what’s they are just to saying. I love to get out of the uncomfortable zone because there is so many you find instead you just stand at your attitude. Well, maybe I also can be said a lot of hypocritical when reading your post but there is a minor difference which one you should take as a joke and which one you should take seriously. This is just a long comment. Thank you for your opinions. 😁
I love long comments and you’re right. A lot of it is up to interpretation as well
Great post. I’ve learned never to compromise my opinions or pander to certain fans whenever I review something. Because it’s the internet, I do expect there to be people who don’t agree with me. My opinions can and have been different than the norm whether it’s movies, anime, music, or world events. Sure, I’ve gotten some disagreements from people, but at least most of them were civil which I don’t mind. However, there have been times where I thought I would get death threats or hardcore trolling when I posted reviews for Kimba the White Lion, Battle Royale, or Birth of a Nation (2016) on my review blog. I’ve done my best to be honest with my opinions even if they are unpopular or uncomfortable.
I try not yo compromise but there are certain shows I avoid reviewing because I would rather not deal with the fandom.
I see. That’s interesting. I wondered about that since I know I’ve said unpopular feelings. Maybe talking about not dealing with some fandoms could be a post in itself.
For a braver and more patient blogger than me – it would be a great post!
That’s not a bad idea. Thanks, Irina! Come to think of it, blogging on all my pages has allowed me to be more brave with my opinions here and in real life.
Wow, Irina. You keep putting out some great posts and opinions recently haven’t you?
I keep thinking about how to answer this post and I don’t think that a lot of people should be called haters. That should be reserved for people who attack the people behind the things that they don’t like. That’s gotten out of hand recently.
That being said, there are a few shows that I don’t ever want to write about. Partially because I don’t want to be apart of that “only doing it for views” crowd and partially because I wouldn’t have a single thing to say about those series.
I feel you on both points. I think we are getting a bit quick about invalidating critisism and I also avoid certain shows because I don’t think it’s worth the innevitable backlash. To be fair for me it’s usually people politely telling me I’m a moron. Not death treaths or anything.
Hmm, that’s fair enough. I think your opinions are very well reasoned usually.
Life is too short to waste time on negativity for it’s own sake. One can but wonder why someone would waste an hour of their limited supply of life watching something they hate and writing about how much they hated it. Perhaps there is a perverse pleasure to be had from sharing the hate and hurting it’s object?
Maybe it makes you enjoy the things you like more by contrast?
I tend to be fairly laid back, so haters don’t bother me so much. At the end of the day, of you’re coming down on someone simply because they dislike something you like, for example, it’s pretty silly in my eyes. There are some daft overreactions out there though. Like … I mostly avoid discussing Gurren Lagann because I couldn’t get into it and dropped it part way through an episode, but you see a lot of people spurting phrases like “If you don’t like this, you don’t like fun.” It’s all very silly, but it’s not worth the hassle for me.
From my own standpoint I try to focus on the positives when I review something. I will go into things that I perceive as negatives, but I’m usually quick to point out that if your tastes differ to mine, you won’t have an issue. I don’t mind when people disagree with me because everything has a market. I’m either it or I’m not, and the same will apply to everyone.
Why don’t you lime fun Matt? I couldn’t resist.
LOL. In fairness, I set myself up there.
I feel like there’s a certain line to be had with regards to how you go on about “hating” things. For me personally while I may vehemently hate on certain shows and games, I never try to let the hate cloud my overall perspective when discussing it with other people. Just because other people might find enjoyment from the same thing you hate. So when I try express my hate for something to someone, I try to explain it from a calm point of view. That way other people can hear what I say and think for themselves whether they agree with my points or not.
Overall, I think as long as you can hate rationally, then there’s absolutely nothing wrong with it. Probably a very standard and cliche answer, but ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.
I don’t hate it
When I saw the title of this blog, I thought it was going to be about something else entirely. My fandom has a lot of people in who seem to take a lot of enjoyment in hunting down people who are fans of a particular ship and try to… talk them out of it by yelling at them, I guess? I don’t know. I don’t spend a lot of time in the gutters of Bleach fandom’s massive, long-running ship wars because I don’t tend to care much about het ships.
I feel like some of those folks can legitimately be called ‘haters,’ though, because they seem to take a lot of pleasure in propagating their specific hate… and it gets VERY personal, from what I can tell.
But, just the other day when I was going down the Bleach hashtag on Tumblr, I was thinking about my fandom (which is… dying…) and I was weirdly grateful that somehow, despite canon ships, these ship wars still rage on as though nothing has changed. There are still tiny pockets of people who are insanely fanatic about my once-favorite manga. I dunno, I mean these people can be awful, but they’re keeping my fandom alive in a way, you know?
That’s not quite what you’re talking about though. I’m like you. I kind of figure my taste is my taste and, as a reviewer, so long as I’m clear and specific about what I don’t like about a particular manga, people can effectively gauge whether or not they’ll feel the same way. I tend to say things like “However, if you can stand [x], you may still enjoy this..” or “Humor–particularly cross-culture–is a tough sell for me.” So, that people reading me can be like, “Oh, well, *I* like humor, so maybe this will be something for me.”
I guess I figure that’s our job. To be articulate about why we like the things we like and why we don’t like others.
On the other hand, I probably have about 50 followers, so maybe I’m not doing it right. 😉
I think you’re doing it right. I mean I regularly operate on 3 hours sleep because I HAD to binge a manga you talked about.
I like the idea of haye born of passion. There’s something romantic about it.
Thank for the compliment. You make a good point. If I can point even just one person to more of what they love, I’ve done a good job.
“I’m going to bet sometimes it’s just people being awkward”
Nope! Not at all. 0 percent chance. It’s not like I’m very introverted and hate bothering people, so I try to only comment on things I feel fervently passionate about so that I stop myself from holding down ‘backspace’ after I finish typing out a long, nuanced, and well-worded reply…
Because I’ve never once been able to claim that anything I write is well worded!
Like anyone’s gonna believe that. I change your name to precociousanimeteen in my mind…
Why can’t I ever have a tough sounding nickname…
This is bringing up my childhood trauma of having my hair constantly pet by these three girls… apparently it was naturally spiky, like a hedgehog or something. 😳
now you’re just showing off because I have head pat envy.
Well, you don’t know the pain of being nicknamed puppy!
so jealous
owo
Ever since I started my blog I have had one post that was an absolute rant, and that was my post on the Last Jedi. It was written out of emotion because I loved Star Wars so much, and this movie pretty much served to completely destroy everything I loved about it. Interestingly enough it was a post that to date has generated the biggest number of comments that I have ever had on a single post. Even though there were people who agreed with me, there were of course also quite a number of people who didn’t.
But…I respected that. And that’s what I think it all comes down to. It is okay to hate on something. We are all different people, with different background and that’s what makes this world so cool. But I would never ever force my opinion on anyone else. If someone disagrees with me, that’s fine: in fact I welcome that, it usually makes for an interesting discussion too. It’s when people start to become disrespectful, and try to force you to change your mind in a hateful way…when things become bad. Luckily I have so far never seen that happen here on WordPress. Everyone really seems to respect one another and that’s what I love about this community.
Look at the things that are sometimes happening on Youtube…that is ugly. So in other words, I think it is good to hate something. But in the end it’s simply an opinion…and as long as that isn’t being forced on someone I really think it’s great to have people not liking the same things.
Seriously though Irina…will there come a time when you begin to write a post that isn’t good? You have been on a roll these past few weeks…it’s completely insane (and of course I mean that as a big compliment! 😊😊)
I doubt any one anywhere ever would dream of considering you a hater. I imagine you’re made from the same stuff as rainbows and lazy sunny afternoons with nothing to do….
Awww….that’s really kind of you to say😊 Don’t know if that is true though, everything is possible 😀
I feel like there’s actually very few people who fall into the category of being a full-time all-encompassing that everything sucks, hater. I don’t doubt that there’s some blogger out there that only focuses on negatives/negative reviews, maybe for satire, maybe they really feel that way. It does bring up the point that a lot of us, myself included, tend to soften up our negative reviews.
Take the Ito Junji Collection that came out earlier this year. Everyone was bashing on it that it sucked, because a handful of people decidedly said it first that it was bad. That’s a bandwagoning hater group if I’ve ever seen it. Just because something is bad, doesn’t mean people didn’t enjoy it (I did, despite my disappointment), and doesn’t mean you can just write it off, and say you’re a hater. Well, I mean you can, but that’s not exactly a good thing.
Now, the difference is that most people tried or did explain WHY the collection sucked. I.e. it focused on the wrong characters, the animation crapped out mid-series, the anticipation that came with reading the manga failed to be executed in the anime, etc. That, I feel is where people can’t decide/don’t know the difference between critique of why you disliked, or ‘hated’ a series, and just saying you hate something. The art of knowing the difference between hate and critique is still something we all struggle with.
All that being said, to get back to your question; I think there’s something to be gleaning from nit-picking certain series, for their good or bad points. It helps people better articulate why they like or dislike a series. My personal examples; I dislike MMO or RPG concepts since they tend to focus on male characters over female ones, and I don’t particular care for video games. I like sports anime since I typically have a basic background in the sport, and I like to see how an individual fits into the ‘team’ (or not). Which is a lot better then saying “I hate MMO RPG anime. I love sports anime”, at least to me.
Kinda long-winded and not direct, but hopefully there’s something readable/understandable in there. lol
I love these comments. I will for nitpick sake point out that a lot of sports anime also focus on male charas… But the male gaze is toned down
No for sure, 100% agree that there’s so much female gaze in most sports series, and focus on male sports. There is a small hope this season (with two whole anime about ladies in sports!), but we’ll have to wait and see how it goes. lol
I don’t know about female gaze…let’s not go crazy there. Just a slightly less obvious male gaze. I am watching and have watched a lot of girl dominated spirts anime but I find they rarely actually adhere to the same tropes and structure. I have a whole thing about this subject. I’m sorry you stumbled onto my crazy… Long story short, pricess nine is great
I try to maintain a positive mindset when evaluating a show myself. There is stuff I certainly don’t care for (many harem series) but I at least respect the fact that the series was created and the artists behind it. Even in my more negative reviews I always to try to find something positive. I also don’t bash the people who disagree with me on a series’ quality. And i think that is a line which gets crossed a lot by people, they feel that is someone likes a particular series then they are bad people for some reason. Disagreements can lead to wonderful insights- I have had my opinion changed on a series or tried a new genre because of them. However, some haters tend to just be downright abuse towards other fans and the creators behind the series and that is unacceptable.
Oh that’s a big 100% agreed on my part. Once you start getting abusive that’s jerk territory. Or the other thing that starts with d and ends with bag
yet again, im going to hang on the fence for this. i tend to ignore the people who spend their time blogging or tweeting about shows they dislike because i just question the point. you mention the idea of “providing counterpoints”, but i dont think you need to be negative and say everything sucks to do that. i think you can be critical of a show without hating it and we should work to separate the two ideas. at the end of the day, i might come across as just another one of the haters to many, but my approach is generally the idea that i will be critical of every show while enjoying most of them. i can kind of understand that idea that you shouldnt “soften” your opinion, but i would caution taking that too far to the point where you stubbornly stick to your opinion. ive made a conscious effort to become more charitable and i think it allows me to enjoy more things
Oh I definetly agree with that
Everything is better if you don’t start off convincing yourself to hate it.
As a person who rants on things often and actually write them out sometimes, this post hits very close to home! I’m not a fan of blind hate, such as people bashing on SAO for…literally no reason even though it still entertained them(anime is for entertainment, and you were entertained, so why tf are you complaining?[More legit hate is acceptable]).
But yea, I normally don’t voice my dislikes out loud if it isn’t based on good points. But…if it’s based on good points…you bet I’ll write about them. I still hate Pierrot right now. I don’t think I’ll ever forgive them for ruining Black Clover.
I haven’t seen Black Clover yet but I stubbornly refuse to remove it from my queue… I will watch it despite all of you
Please don’t, really…read the manga…don’t let the anime ruin Black Clover’s first impressions…………….PLEASE
I’m of the attitude that life is too short for negativity and cynicism, so the idea of a “negative” blog is anathema to me! Constructive criticism is absolutely fine, of course, and is how creators learn things. However, and this is a big however, there’s a distinction between what people typically describe as a “hater” and a good critic.
“Haters”, as you say, often go in with a bias or an assumption that they’re not going to enjoy something and thus spend their time with the work looking specifically for things to back up their viewpoint. In very, very rare cases you’ll find someone who comes out of the experience going “well, I didn’t expect to like that, but it turned out I really did” — but more often than not you’ll find someone who goes in with the hypothesis, say, “Valkyrie Drive is Dynasty Warriors for paedophiles” (this was an actual verbatim headline for a review) and not even attempt to engage with the work in good faith. In the process, they create a woefully inaccurate piece of supposed criticism that is often riddled with factual errors as well as making no attempt to hide its attempts to push a specific ideology.
Regrettably, this is seen all too often in the games press these days, largely because the current default of hard left-leaning feminist viewpoints provides a ready-made excuse to hate on a whole variety of things while looking like you’re doing God’s work in casting shame on the great filth that supposedly infests popular culture in 2018. (I think I mixed metaphors there, but you get the point.)
There’s nothing wrong with analysing something from a particular ideological viewpoint, mind you; it’s what media criticism has been based on for as long as we’ve been doing it. But when that viewpoint crosses a line from criticising the work into casting aspersions on the people who made the work and the people who enjoy the work, that is, for me, when we have crossed into “hater” territory.
Also I had a guy on Twitter a while back repeatedly try and troll me because I liked a game he didn’t. He was also a hater. And a colossal penis.
Oh I remeber that. It was such a petty thing too.
I think I wrote this post before all the drama happened. I have to admit that whole episode with the guy who got your old job was completely unessesary and not pleasant…
I feel like, at least in my opinion, a person doesn’t really become a hater if they disagree with your opinion, they become a hater when they make it personal. Like, they don’t like what you’re saying, but instead of arguing the points you made, they attack your credibility, or insult your intelligence, or something along those lines.
Like, you ‘don’t get it,’ or you’re ‘not a true fan,’ or if you didn’t like a show, then you were ‘triggered’ by it. I get comments like that, I have to bite my tongue to reply nicely instead of escalating things.
I’ve gotten those… they tend to be rather ineffective arguments
Yeah, until they start coming at you in numbers. Some fanbases are like beehives.
I know – that’s why I am very careful to avoid certain genres on the blog unless I have a buffer
I dislike rants that aren’t well-researched and way too biased. If say, some guy who mostly likes shounen complains Clannad After Story didn’t have anything interesting in it and it was just people talking about stuff, but doesn’t bother to explain why he likes it past “I just don’t like it”, I’m inclined to not give his opinion any weight. I’m not gonna ask the vegetarian for his opinion on my meat lovers pizza.
I believe in free speech in all aspects, which means that if you hate on something I like, I’m well within my right to disagree with you and even argue with you.
The hating I tolerate the most is usually just technical ones. When it comes to subjective things like genres and character designs, well, I’m way more open. I hated Ping Pong the Animation’s artstyle and found it unbearably ugly to the point I couldn’t watch it, but I won’t rag on people who watched it for the amazing story.
By technical ones, I mean stuff like animation quality, sound design and writing (i.e. Hand Shakers and Backstreet Girls)
Pretty Derby was surprisingly well put together. P.A. works can do some impressive stuff. On the other hand shuka cuts some corners but man do I love their stories…
You know, you keep saying how you prefer researched, analytical, deep posts…yet you read my blog….
Something doesn’t quite compute here my good sir
A man who prefers a fancy T-Bone Steak can still enjoy a cheeseburger, Irina 😉
ow…it hurts so much to think people consider T-Bone fancy…
Well, my poor ass does XD
Maybe some french sounding dish is more chic?
Un T-os? That is funny to no one but me. I appologize
All I got from google was a great warrior from a forgotten realm in some fantasy game, but I am now laughing at the idea that you eat great warriors for fancy dinners like some kind of dragon.
Yes! That’s exactly it!
Am I allowed to not write posts about shows I don’t like, rather than write posts about how I don’t like them? Although, I have written about the semicolon and colon shows, mostly as a warning to others. I feel a certain responsibility as a long-time multi-decade anime fan to caution newbies about shows which get better press than they really need, and the semicolon shows give an ugly shock if you didn’t realize that Horror is their thing. Its the kind of thing that will put you off Anime if you thought it was a slice of life or romance anime. I realize that you like those horror anime, and you’ve written posts about it. Robotic;Notes is probably filled with giggles for you, but it really upset me.
Not Irina, but I believe you are perfectly welcome to share your opinion on a medium you dislike and why, but if you start reviewing specific shows of that kind just to crap all over it just because you don’t like the genre, well that’s a problem.
I disagree with spoiling fakeouts, because that can ruin some REALLY good shows and even games (Doki Doki Literature Club) which bank on you not expecting it. I do agree with WARNINGS though, since some anime have dark stuff. I know people who just can’t handle body horror, so I won’t recommend Parasyte to them as much as I love it.
I also think we should warn new fans away from shows that start good and go bad quickly. Quite a few shows are like that, possibly due to producers pressuring authors to change the show for a wider demographic audience. Often, this makes it worse, and will cause a new fan to discard anime entirely as a bad medium and to be avoided. Trying to figure out what a fan actually likes in order to make recommendations for further viewing can be a delicate process, and there are many 4:3 shows which are excellent (Cowboy Bebop). Still, a bad show will put a fan off, as experiences tend to be heavily weighted in the early stages. The first few shows will make or break a fan. As a librarian, I don’t want to scare people off, or make a bad recommendation.
Yep, starter anime packs are useful for that sort of thing. Though FMA:B does have some heavy themes, I still think people should watch THAT first before anything else to see what great anime can be like.
Yes, that’s a good choice. For fans who liked Naruto it is a more interesting plot and less about rage.
for a second I thought you meant: You are allowed but Irina is not…
I have never written about Robotics;Notes but I do like Steins;Gate a lot. It’s my favorite harem show.
I have also warend that it is a cruel and bitter story that has little compassion for it’s cast but that’s sort of par for the course with harem shows in general.
Robotics;Notes isn’t a harem show, so maybe you wouldn’t like it. There’s true love for the girl next door. It could have been great. It would have been great if they’d left off the slaughter and made a show about the challenges of programming robots and the fun games you can make using AR technology. Alas, its a horror show.
I played the game. I was a harem game I guess they cut it out in the anime. I haven’t seen the show yet. Didn’t even know there was one until Taku recommended it.
The ; studio makes games and then anime about the games to sell more games. But they’re all horror and they’re the only studio that uses the ; in an anime title, thus the warning.
What is the ; studio?
The ; company that makes those games and anime with a ; in the title. I don’t remember the actual name. It just uses a ; (semicolon). They’ve got a whole series of them. Steins;Gate is by the same company and studio that did Robotics;Notes and Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni, which doesn’t have a semicolon but IS by the same studio/company. The important thing is they use the ; in all their titles, and they’re the ONLY studio that does.
I think you may mean 5pb which is the game studio but they also did games like skip beat and New Game! That I can’t see considered horror. The animation studios are different for the different shows (robotics is i.g. while steins is white fox) and nitroplus the publisher does tons
So I’m not sure which you mean.
So multiple animation studios, but it still comes down to the semicolon being the clue its a horror anime.
I honestly never saw Steins;Gate as horror. But i guess if you consider the Time Machine horror I could see the similarities. Mages or 5pb that does the ; games also has titles like Chaos;child love chu chu that are just romance.
Isn’t Chaos;Head horror? Wasn’t aware Chaos;Child was romance. So they have an exception to their rule? How peculiar.
I figured that as a librarian you would want the complete info?
If you care – Chaos;Head can be played as a psychological thriller in which you experience troubling hallucinations or as a healing one in which you experience positive visions. The choice is up to the player and the end result depends on their own input. So I see how it could be disturbing if you choose nothing but the negative options.
Steins is usually considered a sci fi/romance. Occultic;Nine is generally billed as a Sci Fi Mystery… Chaos;Child has many iterations that are meant to represent the possible different outcomes of head… Robotics does have more death and that obviously affected you. I haven’t seen anyone else consider it horror but I can understand the interpretation. Personally I found it (the game) much less disturbing than Evangelion which has similar Mecha and dramatic themes but much more viscera scenes.
Yes, Evangelion is famous for its self destruction and despair. Two of the staff who made it committed suicide during production. Thank you for the full info of the other ; shows. I didn’t realize they weren’t all horror. I will probably point patrons at Anime Encyclopedia and let them decide on the issue themselves. Not having watched them I can’t recommend with a clear conscience.
Because of my reviewing format and because I review episodes so soon after they are out I sometimes invent perceived criticism before it actually materialises (I’m sure it exists ~somewhere~ out there, but I don’t really bother to seek out opinions ahead of time). Like with my review about How Not To Summon A Demon Lord, I presumed there would be a backlash about the “ear scene” without actually seeing any blacklash first and addressed it accordingly with my question asker being the voice of objection.
Basically what I’m saying is criticism, even of things we like has its place in a reasoned and rational discussion. But hating something just because it exists and not basing it on anything other than pre-conceived notions seems shallow and silly. But I guess I mostly agree with you? I don’t know did this comment make any sense? Probably as much sense your post! Roasted!
Seriously though, quit with these insightful posts Irina, they always cause me to want to comment and I can’t spend so much time commenting–these shitty episodic reviews won’t write themselves!
ow – I got burned!!!
Episodic reviews are just a slavedriver. I really don’t know how you can keep it up Matt…
Changing your opinions to /maybe/ please somebody is dumb. I agree with you, no reason to do that. Like you said though, most people are pretty pleasant in our community though.
By the way, since I came here from Twitter I got to see your new site layout and it is super clean and crisp. Love it! 😀
Thank you so much! I took me ages to redesign and I sort of broke it for a little while….
No problem 🙂 I can imagine but glad you got it in a place you are happy with!