Things I Hate About Things I Love: Anime pt. 2

Gotta get this off my mind now, before it gets consumed by my anger for tomorrow's rant. In the first part, I talked about things I hated about specific anime I love, while this one will be about things I hate about anime in general.

One of my biggest pet-peeves are when people call anime cartoons and vice-versa. The first one is a bit more common and it makes more sense for me to be upset about it. I have yelled at people, gone on verbal rants lasting several minutes, about the difference between anime and cartoons. Bonus points if the person calls it a Chinese cartoon, which manages to burrow even further under my skin. It's very simple, honestly, try to follow along if you're still not getting it: Anime are made in Japan. Big, shiny eyes, outlandish hair, and with female characters that are either painfully adorable girls that are tiny with big eyes (kawaii, for you noobs) or eye-candy women who are balloon-breasted and thin. Cartoons are made in not-Japan. Cartoons are characterized by a more flat art style, more reasonably stylized human characters, and there are many, many anthropomorphic animals (us Westerners just love our pets). Cartoons are more made for children, anime have far more for an adult audience. A gross oversimplification, but that's your rule of thumb if you're ever confused.

The other side of the coin shouldn't bother me as much as it does. I hate when things that are not anime get called anime. Currently, I can only think of two: Avatar: The Last Airbender (and, by extension, The Legend of Korra) and RWBY. These two shows, one a cartoon and one a webshow, are both amazing, and very clearly inspired by anime. However... That's not what they are. It's as simple as that, I just hate when people call something out of its name. It really annoys me.

I really hate some of the lines that exist only in anime. Stop me if this sounds familiar: Main protagonist is staring down Main antagonist. Main antagonist has killed protagonist's mom/dad/brother/sister/friends. Antagonist mocks Protagonist, likely saying how boring it was to kill them, or that Protagonist will die like his friends, etc. Protagonist is in tears and, right as he's about to tap into some hidden power to beat Antagonist, he says something to this effect:
"You... You killed them all..." *looks up angrily at the screen* "I won't forgive you!"

It's a very Japanese phrase, and it's just not seen outside of anime. You know why? Because it's terrible and doesn't make a whole wealth of sense. This guy just iced your whole crew, just ended your whole career. He doesn't give a f*ck if you forgive him. That's not very high on his list of priorities. Also on that list, though way more tolerable, is "It's not like I like you or anything... b-baka!" That has the potential to be cute, but I wish every anime didn't have a tsundere character who says some variant of that.

And, smoothly transitioning using the word "tsundere", I hate how much specialized vocabulary there is in the otaku sub-culture. Tsundere, Dere Dere, Yandere, Kuudere, Yuri, Yaoi, Ecchi, Shonen, Ahoge, Neko, Chibi, Henshin, Hikkiomori, and I'm just barely scratching the surface! I laugh at my past self, what a chump he was. Poor, little, dumb, two-years-ago past chillbook1 is sitting there feeling clever because he knows what kawaii-desu means. Little did he know that there's so much more. If you're interested in any of these terms, Here's a Wikipedia Glossary of Anime Terms.

I despise when people have no idea what hentai is assumes that's what's going on. If you've never had that unfortunate experience, I severely envy you. Because most people who aren't into anime hear "hentai" and they get the general gist of it, so they mentally make "anime" and "hentai" synonymous. These people don't know the difference between Ecchi and straight up H, which bugs me a bit. These people talk about how gross it is that I watch hentai even when I'm not and they've never seen any. (By the way, I am not suggesting that any of you go looking up any hentai. Just don't make assumptions if you don't fully get what you're talking about).

Then there are the dumb anime tropes. Nosebleeds show male arousal. Main characters like to eat a lot. Main character must fall with either his face and/or hand landing in a female character's breasts. Female character must then proceed to beat the crap out of poor chump Main Character, despite it not being his fault. It's all done far too much, and it's just annoying at this point.

But what has to be the thing I hate the most about anime, which, in fairness, isn't actually something I hate about anime, but people who don't get anime. There's this one sentence that, whenever I hear, I immediately change the subject. There is no reasoning with these people who are so disconnected from the whole anime thing that they couldn't be less aware or less bothered to be aware. The conversation goes something like this.

Stranger: So, chillbook1, what're you into?
Me: Oh, I like video games a lot. Uh... I read, I dabble in writing... I love music, Eminem and Jay, y'know... Oh, and I really like anime.
Stranger: Anime? You mean like Beyblade?

This infuriates me! And it's not always Beyblade. Sometimes, it's Bakugan, or Digimon, or Pokemon, or Yu-Gi-Oh! Don't get me wrong, I love me some Pokemon, and even more so Yu-Gi-Oh! (Nothing past GX, thank you!), but it pisses me off when I get excited to share my whole list of anime, and add to my list in turn, just to have that excitement be dashed. If I hear that, I instantly know that you will never understand. It's just too late for you.

Well, that's enough for now. I didn't talk about how much I hate English Dubs because this blog does have to end at some point. Next one will be about a person. That'll be fun. Don't worry. He's totally cool with this.

Hope you enjoyed, and please share your thoughts in the comments, if you aren't opposed to parting with them. See you another day, I gotta catch some Z's so I can finally finish that chapter of LILAC that should've been done... Several, several days ago. Peace!