OnyxShine9

4y

Gatekeeping as it relates to anime and manga is when you preserve the substance of a media by calling out people who use it to be "quirky and different" or "fashionable", for being fake enthusiasts. They have no understanding or desire to understand the depth or substance of the franchises but will use it to promote themselves.

When the wrong demographic exceeds the core demographic they become the primary demographic, which causes quality of the brand suffers overall because they and have no real standard (or understanding) of what is good or bad about it.

The more of a household name it becomes, the more the story and quality of art suffers for instance, because the writers/authors start milking it as their cash-cow to please as many people as possible, which typically results in mediocrity on all ends. Something to be said about hunger and quality, etc.

This generally occurs over the course of years although there are a few exceptions to sensationalized media maintaining quality or improving such as One Piece, AoT, and OPM. But it has happened enough for people to become cautious of something they enjoy becoming commercialized, despite wanting it to succeed as a niche media more than anything. It has nothing to do with "dweebs really stopping Japanese creators from making money".

OnyxShine9

4y

Gatekeeping as it relates to anime and manga is when you preserve the substance of a media by calling out people who use it to be "quirky and different" or "fashionable", for being fake enthusiasts. They have no understanding or desire to understand the depth or substance of the franchises but will use it to promote themselves.

When the wrong demographic exceeds the core demographic they become the primary demographic, which causes quality of the brand suffers overall because they and have no real standard (or understanding) of what is good or bad about it.

The more of a household name it becomes, the more the story and quality of art suffers for instance, because the writers/authors start milking it as their cash-cow to please as many people as possible, which typically results in mediocrity on all ends. Something to be said about hunger and quality, etc.

This generally occurs over the course of years although there are a few exceptions to sensationalized media maintaining quality or improving such as One Piece, AoT, and OPM. But it has happened enough for people to become cautious of something they enjoy becoming commercialized, despite wanting it to succeed as a niche media more than anything. It has nothing to do with "dweebs really stopping Japanese creators from making money".

kainie

4y

why does he care what anime people watch lol

KuntaKinte

4y

The problem is how do you gatekeep an entire medium

Youre not even gatekeeping fandoms youre gatekeeping an entire series of illustrated works and animated content.

Its bizarre and arbitrary
And with DB, Naruto, etc

These are some of the most popular series in the medium that many other series reference constantly.

So its like what does he want.

And in this case popular means good for most of these series

Most of Shonen Jump are literal classic series like Slam Dunk, YYH, Demon Slayer, Naruto, One Piece, Fist of the North Star, Death Note.

Unless youre reading Endless and GUNM tier series back to back most series are unironically not better than the s*** that aired on Toonami.
So what exactly is he gatekeeping?

I'd argue that if you have followed either Shuiesha or Kodansha magazines or their anime adaptations you are clearly a fan of this medium

soapmanwun

4y

What no p**** does to a mf

OnyxShine9

4y

I get what you're saying. And it can be a good thing when media is sensationalized and becomes iconic like DBZ and Naruto have to fans of the medium who have grown with these franchises and will understand the nods. I guess there's some bitterness between people when they see these randoms on Twitter who have never seen or read a page or minute of manga or anime posing as enthusiasts in one post then shaming the fandom and franchise the next, because thats what the OP strikes me as more than anything.

Besides there are levels to being a fan of things. Most all people like movies for examples but we're not all like the enthusiasts on rotten tomatoes checking the background of every director and when every movie comes out. So you can be a fan of anime without being an avid consumer, I think that was what he meant to say.

soapmanwun

4y

bro he said what he said in plain f***ing English there's no deeper meaning to his tweet

OnyxShine9

4y

I get what you're saying. And it can be a good thing when media is sensationalized and becomes iconic like DBZ and Naruto have to fans of the medium who have grown with these franchises and will understand the nods. I guess there's some bitterness between people when they see these randoms on Twitter who have never seen or read a page or minute of manga or anime posing as enthusiasts in one post then shaming the fandom and franchise the next, because thats what the OP strikes me as more than anything.

Besides there are levels to being a fan of things. Most all people like movies for examples but we're not all like the enthusiasts on rotten tomatoes checking the background of every director and when every movie comes out. So you can be a fan of anime without being an avid consumer, I think that was what he meant to say.

OnyxShine9

4y

Gatekeeping as it relates to anime and manga is when you preserve the substance of a media by calling out people who use it to be "quirky and different" or "fashionable", for being fake enthusiasts. They have no understanding or desire to understand the depth or substance of the franchises but will use it to promote themselves.

When the wrong demographic exceeds the core demographic they become the primary demographic, which causes quality of the brand suffers overall because they and have no real standard (or understanding) of what is good or bad about it.

The more of a household name it becomes, the more the story and quality of art suffers for instance, because the writers/authors start milking it as their cash-cow to please as many people as possible, which typically results in mediocrity on all ends. Something to be said about hunger and quality, etc.

This generally occurs over the course of years although there are a few exceptions to sensationalized media maintaining quality or improving such as One Piece, AoT, and OPM. But it has happened enough for people to become cautious of something they enjoy becoming commercialized, despite wanting it to succeed as a niche media more than anything. It has nothing to do with "dweebs really stopping Japanese creators from making money".

orangejuice

4y

the flaw in this is that westerners will never be anime's core demographic.

the new anime fans will also never become anime's core demographic. the shows are made for japanese people, in japanese, in japan.

even some of these ""translated"" shows can't really be translated well because of the amount of japanese wordplay/idioms present in the scripts, because they were really not made with any translation to different languages in mind rofl.

xviii

4y

???

I mean westerners will become a massive majority of anime's core demographic, or new ways/mediums will be created to satiate that need. Look at Webtoons for example, there is a demand and so as long as there is that desire people will fill that void. Anime at the end of a day to a lot of people is an "aesthetic" that can be pimped out.

orangejuice

4y

the flaw in this is that westerners will never be anime's core demographic.

the new anime fans will also never become anime's core demographic. the shows are made for japanese people, in japanese, in japan.

even some of these ""translated"" shows can't really be translated well because of the amount of japanese wordplay/idioms present in the scripts, because they were really not made with any translation to different languages in mind rofl.

Sonyomom

4y

Damn he really decided to tweet that dumb s***

OnyxShine9

4y

Not the point, and I wasn't exclusively referring to the West or Japan. And it isn't like all of Japan reads manga, so there is a primary demographic within their country as well. I meant that the more of a global household name something becomes, the more quality may suffer in the future. Not that the more popular it becomes in someplace, the more it will cater to someplace.

xviii

4y

???

I mean westerners will become a massive majority of anime's core demographic, or new ways/mediums will be created to satiate that need. Look at Webtoons for example, there is a demand and so as long as there is that desire people will fill that void. Anime at the end of a day to a lot of people is an "aesthetic" that can be pimped out.

orangejuice

4y

word, but this guy (the tweeter) talks alot about how he's afraid about western ""snowflakes"" making their anime more censored and not respecting ""japanese culture"", I'm speaking more to how what you said interacts with his views rather than yours :p

SHAQUILLE

4y

“or new ways/mediums will be created to satiate that need. “

You mean like boondocks type stuff? Shows with Japanese aesthetics/influence but made with an American audience in mind?

OnyxShine9

4y

Isn't that MHA? I don't read it, but just based on what I've seen.