Let's go back to animenewsnetwork.com. More specifically, its messageboard.
This is a forum I have a love/hate relationship with. The love part? Some of the forumers are bona fide lovers of animated film, who respect it as much as live-action film, who don't have stereotyped views of Japanese people and culture, and who support the industry as much as they can, be they sub viewers, dub viewers, or both. Many also have an appreciation for manga. Some, like me, prefer manga over anime, and are not looked down upon for this.
The hate part? Many of its members proudly proclaim themselves to be otakus, without irony and without denial. Many of them ONLY watch anime, nothing else, and despise Western pop culture entirely. At least one person prefers anime women over real women. Oh, and remember how I hated the NPF because its members would hate you for liking a "popular" anime franchise? Guess what? ANN members do that too. Okay, okay, some of them do offer legitimate reasons for disliking Dragonball Z, like, "It dragged on too long." "I don't like the characters." "It's too silly and illogical and contradictory." but more often than not, they say they hate it simply because it's popular with "normal people." Isn't that great, readers?
And now for something somewhat related:
Look at this.
This is one of my reasons for hating the NPF nowadays, as well as some of the ANN members. The only thing the author forgot to mention in this article is how nerdlings will hate you if you like a popular anime that isn't from a "respected" creator. (like Tezuka, Miyazaki, Otomo, etc.) Of course, this probably falls under the part of hating people who like N'Sync (But, I liked All Star!) but it irks me that anime is generally something that nerds latch on to, and yet, admitting you like Naruto and/or Bleach is tantamount to Daffy Duck telling Elmer Fudd, "I'm a fiddler crab! It's fiddler crab season! Shoot me!"
And so concludes my retrospective on horrible online forums. Or, in the case of the NPF, When Good Messageboards Go Bad.
And to think, I like Joss Whedon, Tim Burton, and Johnny Depp. But at least I know they're not infallible.
