Maybe we should take this to PM ^^;
I'm not sure where you get the impression that I'm trying to strong arm anyone into changing their mind. I didn't exactly think I was going to be altering anyone's opinion.
Forgive me not knowing the exact nature of your relationship with thedoctor2016, but if I went up to another poster and said 'You picked __? Are you for real?' I'd sort of expect them to be a little taken aback by the direct, confrontational approach. It's literally questioning their judgement right after they make a statement of pure opinion. If you two normally talk like that, that's one thing, but all I see is what happens on the forums since I'm not active on Twitter or Discord. Normally, people start their debates in a less aggressive way unless they're spoiling for a fight. Especially when they plan on following up with more posts singling out the series that was chosen repeatedly to bash its quality.
You're totally getting the wrong impression here. For one, I never said it's bad, it's not, it's fairly nice, but nothing amazing. Second, my dislike of YOI is far from irrational. Irrational would be hating it for no rhyme or reason, when I have outlined my opinions in great detail multiple times.
Believe me, it's very confusing from where I'm standing. It's decent but it's terrible, it's well animated but the studio didn't do a good job. The weight of numbers (including the Japanese audience too) would seem to indicate most people disagree. The hatred is irrational in the sense that it's not even based on the show, which didn't connect with you but that's about it (and there were far, far worse titles this year). It's ultimately based on the fact that you hate that lots of other people like the show, and that's what's turned your ordinary lack of enthusiasm into a yearning to go out of your way to criticise the show and its fans every time anyone dares to invoke its name. The fanbase has nothing to do with anything!
I also refute the claim that I'm trying to make people afraid to talk about Yuri on Ice. That's just absurd.
I don't think it's conscious, but questioning people for having an opinion in a fairly aggressive way (fuelled by your annoyance with the wider fanbase)
does shut down debate. It doesn't shut down those who have high self esteem, but imagine if you were a shy poster and saw that people who voted for YOI would be publicly challenged and shut down in a way that people who made equally contentious choices (I picked a man for Best Girl) are not. You wouldn't want to post. And I know this is the thing we all regretted bringing up before, but the fact is that in anime fandom a certain demographic is perceived as dominant and more worthy than others - our own UK distributors are comfortable going on record to say so - and YOI appeals to fans who happen to be outside of that demographic. On many forums, those praising YOI would be actively afraid to continue a debate once forceful debating techniques began to be employed. And the reason I'm so forceful in response is because I've been there, I've seen it happen, and there's no way I'm letting it happen here. All the more so if you don't realise it's happening in the first place.
Hell, if I used the Ignore function on this site on everyone who likes YOI on this forum, I'd have been talking to myself for the past 12 weeks.
It's still your responsibility to curate your own social experience. If you find it uncomfortable to see people enjoying a show you think is average, tell those people. If they continue to do the thing you hate without engaging, unfollow them. You're doing yourself and them a favour by avoiding the urge to rain on their parade every time (and it really feels as though it is every time, where the forums are concerned) that they dare mention liking something.
Not sure about the reasoning in that last bit. Sure, I dislike YOI and love Flip Flappers, but there are also people who love both, in fact, there's probably a lot more that love both than love FF but not YOI, so to use me disliking YOI as your reasoning for not wanting to watch it is a tad weird.
Imagine if I started following you around and every time you said you like CGDCT shows I just posted 'They all suck, you need to watch Super Lovers'. Eventually you would start thinking that Super Lovers was a show designed to appeal to annoying people who hate cute girls, with no cute girls in its cast, and that I was watching anime for completely different reasons to you, and liking Super Lovers would be admitting that the trolls were right. You'd start to resent it. If you want to convince me that Flip Flappers is worth it start posting stuff that gives me a hook onto why it's good; don't bash the show that managed to impress me on its own merits right from the start.
What about Orange?! Naho and Kakeru were pretty good IMO.
Nooo wrong couple in that series ;_; (good call though).
R
