thinking about how so much of modern anime fandom seeing japan as a super conservative completely homogenous place is because modern anime fandom has its roots in 4chan, and 4chan's understanding of japanese culture and politics all came from chatting with 2chan
it's not that that perspective doesn't exist elsewhere (like in the james bond movie where he does yellowface) but it's such a common thread in anime and games spaces specifically because 4chan weebs talked to reactionary 2chan otaku and took what they said as gospel. like, i see a lot of leftists acting like this is just true and talking about how shitty a place japan is and how all anime is reactionary and misogynistic and homophobic. and that's not to say those things are entirely untrue, there is a lot of conservatism in japan and anime is often those things, but there are a lot of people working to make things better and acting like it's completely homogenous is just racist regardless of the angle you take it
also it's very funny because i remember when i was super young and just getting into anime and anime was seen as way more progressive than american stuff, because in the 80s and 90s the big stuff we were getting was stuff like sailor moon or dirty pair or ranma 1/2 where gender and sexuality weren't as rigid as the american stuff at the time? even a lot of the early adult swim stuff was seen as super progressive, like the major being queer in stand alone complex. but the 4chan narrative filtered into the mainstream anime spaces over time and just became completely accepted among even a lot of people who think it's bad that japan is homogenous conservatives
4chan definitely doesn't change the industry that much, the western fandom would be fairly different but we aren't really a major audience and it wouldn't be so different as to truly change spending habits. the big sellers over here would still be toonami/adult swim nostalgia and blockbuster shonen and everything else would be pretty niche and not really make any impact on the japanese industry side of things. people would post differently and maybe the way anime gets distributed would be a little different but i'm pretty sure nothing major would change there
2chan is a different story, but not one i'm super qualified to talk about. 2chan makes up (or at least made) a huge percentage of the hardcore otaku audience who are the ones buying figures and discs. now most people there would probably still be anime fans without 2chan, and they'd find other forums to talk anime with people, but if 2chan never existed there would probably be some major changes in how the industry worked. couldn't say exactly what though
thinking about how so much of modern anime fandom seeing japan as a super conservative completely homogenous place is because modern anime fandom has its roots in 4chan, and 4chan's understanding of japanese culture and politics all came from chatting with 2chan
channers is the same
I guess there's a lot of overlap (with G*mers and weebs) but most conservatives/fascists see it as a homogeneous utopia too. It's disgusting.
it's not that that perspective doesn't exist elsewhere (like in the james bond movie where he does yellowface) but it's such a common thread in anime and games spaces specifically because 4chan weebs talked to reactionary 2chan otaku and took what they said as gospel. like, i see a lot of leftists acting like this is just true and talking about how shitty a place japan is and how all anime is reactionary and misogynistic and homophobic. and that's not to say those things are entirely untrue, there is a lot of conservatism in japan and anime is often those things, but there are a lot of people working to make things better and acting like it's completely homogenous is just racist regardless of the angle you take it
also it's very funny because i remember when i was super young and just getting into anime and anime was seen as way more progressive than american stuff, because in the 80s and 90s the big stuff we were getting was stuff like sailor moon or dirty pair or ranma 1/2 where gender and sexuality weren't as rigid as the american stuff at the time? even a lot of the early adult swim stuff was seen as super progressive, like the major being queer in stand alone complex. but the 4chan narrative filtered into the mainstream anime spaces over time and just became completely accepted among even a lot of people who think it's bad that japan is homogenous conservatives
I wonder where the anime industry would be now if that website never existed.
4chan definitely doesn't change the industry that much, the western fandom would be fairly different but we aren't really a major audience and it wouldn't be so different as to truly change spending habits. the big sellers over here would still be toonami/adult swim nostalgia and blockbuster shonen and everything else would be pretty niche and not really make any impact on the japanese industry side of things. people would post differently and maybe the way anime gets distributed would be a little different but i'm pretty sure nothing major would change there
2chan is a different story, but not one i'm super qualified to talk about. 2chan makes up (or at least made) a huge percentage of the hardcore otaku audience who are the ones buying figures and discs. now most people there would probably still be anime fans without 2chan, and they'd find other forums to talk anime with people, but if 2chan never existed there would probably be some major changes in how the industry worked. couldn't say exactly what though