Ask John: Why Does Anime for Guys Get Inordinate Criticism?

Question:
Why does the anime community show such contempt and/or resentment for anime aimed at guys?(I’m not just referring to ero anime, either.) I can’t help but notice that every male oriented anime release in Japan comes under heavy attack.

Answer:
This is a very fascinating question because the question and its answer both involve so many nuances and varied circumstances and perspectives. First let me clarify that it’s primarily within the English speaking fan community that anime for guys typically gets criticized. The Japanese otaku community doesn’t seem to have such a common resentment toward a specific type of anime. It’s ironic that anime for guys is the most popular type of anime among English speaking viewers (and in this argument I specify “English speaking” rather than “Western” because I’m not sure that this tendency actually occurs in European language countries like Spain, France, and Germany), and precisely for that reason, it’s also frequently criticized. Ultimately, the problem doesn’t lie in anime itself; the problem is the fact that American anime fans want the foreign medium of anime to be comfortable and conform to their personal preferences. The anime community may be gradually coming closer to that ideal, but it hasn’t successfully reached that ideal goal yet.

Anime for boys gets the most attention in America because it’s what the majority of American viewers watch. Shoujo anime rarely gets widespread criticism for two reasons: there’s less shoujo anime available in America, and fewer American viewers watch it. Children’s anime gets equally minimal derision because it’s simply outside of the realm of consideration for most typical American otaku. The tremendous popularity and the varying quality of programs like Naruto, Gundam, and Evangelion threaten the sensibilities and comfort level of the majority of America’s otaku. However, those vocal otaku don’t watch and don’t particularly care about Pokemon, Yu-Gi-Oh, Crayon Shin-chan, or Doraemon, so they don’t care about circumstances surrounding those shows. Likewise, the bulk of America’s otaku don’t watch Pretty Cure, Lilpri, Gokujo Mechamotte Iincho, Yumeiro Patissiere, and Jewelpet Tinkle and therefore doen’t care enough about those shows to speak out about them.

Both American male and female viewers watch and enjoy typical anime aimed at male viewers. Despite being shounen titles, series like Naruto, Bleach, One Piece, Yu Yu Hakusho, and Dragon Ball are popular among female viewers, too. Sci-fi adventure programs including Cowboy Bebop, Trigun, Outlaw Star, Gundam, Fullmetal Alchemist, Trinity Blood, Eureka Seven, and Gankutsuou are as popular, if not more so, among American women as American men. There will naturally be a concentration of discussion on anime for boys because that’s what the majority of viewers are watching. But a significant portion of that discussion frequently seems to be negative. English speaking otaku criticize the shows and the people who watch them. In fact, this resentment is rooted more in personality than objective rationality. Americans have a natural, ingrained belief that grown adults shouldn’t watch cartoons. Furthermore, anime is a very personal obsession for many of its fans. So Americans frequently feel threatened by circumstances surrounding anime, and they express that frustration by projecting rather than self-reflecting.

To varying degrees, every anime otaku thinks of anime as a personal treasure. Anime is the mysterious, little known jewel that each fan loves privately. We enjoy seeing other people share our appreciation, but when that recognition gets so big that it becomes diluted and compromised, we feel resentful that the anime itself has gotten too popular – we call it “over exposed” – and we lash out at the fans whom we perceive as being less devoted or less respectful of the anime that we care deeply about – thus we attack fans whom we perceive as narrow mindedly over obsessed with a single title and fans whom we perceive as embarrassingly novice and superficial. It’s easy to call Dragon Ball a novice level entry anime and criticize it for being too repetitive and over long. It’s easy to criticize obsessive Naruto or Evangelion fans for their perceived absence of awareness of other titles. It’s easy to criticize select anime for being moé or mindless fan service or unoriginal. The simple solution is for unsatisfied fans to just watch different anime that does satisfy them. But that’s not what typical American fans do because that’s not actually what typical American fans want.

American otaku want to watch anime without feeling guilty about watching cartoons. Like a tsundere, attacking the shows we love most is a defensive mechanism that protects our pride. If Americans really disliked boys anime, shows like Saraiya Goyou, Ristorante Paradiso, Chibi Maruko-chan, Sazae-san, Kaicho wa Maid-sama, Anytmal Tantei Kiruminzoo, and Kuroshitsuji would be America’s favorite shows in place of High School of the Dead, Fullmetal Alchemist, K-On, and Dragon Ball Kai. The American distribution of Studio Ghibli films and the creation of American co-productions like Afro Samurai and Halo Legends are helping progress toward this goal. The high profile of Ghibli films in America is helping to ease in the perception that it’s okay for adults to like 2D animation. Mainstream co-productions like Afro Samurai are taking the underground, cultish, embarrassing stigma out of being an anime fan by moving anime into the mainstream the way Hollywood movies and Marvel & DC Comic books are mainstream and accepted.

I’m not trying to argue that boys’ anime doesn’t deserve some of the criticism it receives. Moé and fan service have dominated the profile of recent anime. Numerous shounen TV series do rely on dumb “filler” story arcs. There are shortsighted otaku that proclaim that their personal favorite show of the moment is the greatest anime ever. At the same time, anime targeted primarily at male viewers receives a lot of unfair and thoughtless criticism from American fans because it’s what we watch most and discuss most frequently. Discussing and even attacking the anime we watch is also frequently our primary means of publicly engaging with anime because it’s easy to find shows and examples which just fall a little short of our ideal and rare to find shows that satisfy us so completely that we have no criticisms for them. We criticize because we want anime to be exactly the way we like it. Even attacking is still evidence of strong feeling. If we cared nothing about anime, there would be neither criticism nor praise.