Stereotypes of anime...

I

INCOGNITO

Hikikomori
I had a conversation with someone the other day and said, "I watch anime..." The person then said, "So you watch animated porn then..."
This got me thinking that, just like everything else, there are certian stereotypes that anime has(Otaku-ism springs to mind).
Do you guys think that these stereotypes are harmfull to the industry, or have dissapeared since the days of the "Overfiend"?
 
Well, I remember one time telling a friend that I liked anime, and he assumed it was animated pornography too. I live in a town of about 8,000 people deep in the south of Ireland, where anime and manga are rarely sold; so if the stereotypes of anime got down here, you can pretty sure that they are fairly widespread :/

As for getting offended by them ... kind of, but my friend seemed to accept the fact that it was just a misunderstanding that he had, which kind of took the sting out of it.
 
Stereotypes that come with anime, well i guess in a sense yeah. I mean people do assume a lot about anime without seeing it. A couple of the big ones i'd say is its animated porn, or, because people have seen pokemon, they assume its like that, or just japanese cartoons made for kids. It does bug me, but not to the point of being offended. I guess thats due to most of the time, the people that don't get anime, are the ones with an IQ lower than that of a 5 year old, or as we call them, CHAV's.
Although, there was one time where a friend got hentai and anime mixed up somehow, it was a bit funny for us who knew the difference, but that was about it.
 
Animated superviolence/porn is the big one still, though it was particularly bad in the Manga Ent dominance days. As I'm a girl I escape a lot of the sneering from people with that misconception (more fool them as I love pervy anime anyway) but I think it's still got that stigma.

The cartoons are for kids one happens too, but as I do watch some kiddy stuff anyway I can't really get too upset when people make that mistake - I just supply some counterexamples :) I haven't heard it too much though since The Simpsons and South Park etc became popular here, fortunately.

R
 
to remedy such situations I show people my Mezzo forte or Kite uncut versions.

Now, seriously, I love many different genres and styles, so I would probably just try to find something they might enjoy.. if it's a LOTR fan, I would show Loddoss war, if a sci-fi fan I would show voices of a distant star and so on...

and if it's a tarantino / porn fan I would show mezzo and kite
;D
 
My situation was pretty much identical to CG's, but instead of one friend it was 3 in an R.E. class back in year 11. I just had to correct them on the matter, problem solved.

As for showing someone an anime to get them into it, it's probably better to show them something that they can easily associate with.
 
Scene - HMV/Zavvi/Waterstones

Friend: So...er...is any of this like..."erotic".

Me: Er...some probably is. I dunno.


...happens every time. Doesn't help when the stuff right in front of us on the shelf is Sundome and some pervy-looking nurse anime. =/
 
Back in the day there was definitely a stigma about it, nowadays most people who I talk to, if I end up mentioning it, are watching something or other themselves, or at the very least we can reminisce about Dragonball Z, Pokemon and Digimon.
 
Have the stereotypes died out?

A while back a friend I hadn't seen in a while paid me a visit, they noticed my anime collection and asked; "Got any porn ones?" :roll:

From my perspective it seems the stereotypes are still very much alive in larger society. I just ignore them now, since it's ultimately their ignorance and not mine.
 
i go to a college were i overheard people talking about the dbz movie and then talking about how they used to watch it.
Theres an anime club with 6 regulars, i also caught one guy with a naruto wallpaper on his desktop and an old college friend of mine had gantz introduced to her and now shes into everything.
To be honest theres less of a stigma and more of a trendy niche feel.
 
Mates at college know i watch alot of anime, and we always have conversations about all the erotic animes out there.
I tell them bluntly that i have watched 1 or 2 and they say they have seen them aswell with there other mates so we just have a laugh about it really :p
 
I remember telling one of my friends and knowing that she got the completely wrong idea about it. I showed her an anime afterwards and she confessed that she thought it'd be big haired, card-wielding and/or big boobed sluts. Funny really. This kind of thing only happens because of the shows that get mainstreamed.
 
It's more stereotypical to find a non-fan saying "Oh, you like porn?" than people actually being pervs... What morons. :D

The closest thing I've had was the Pokemon thing. If I have a stigma on me, then I don't notice it. Either that or I paint it on like a bullseye, expressing the fandom rather than hiding it. But I usually get "That's a cool looking shirt there..." and the likes.

*Pause* Wait... The was the time when I walked into Uni in my Foundation year, and my friends looked at my Ikki Tousen bag... "Oh, so you like those kind of girls?" was the query when they saw Ryomou/Hakufu with panty shots and partially ripped clothes. I replied that I liked my eye-candy, since I am a stereotypical male. (How ironic...)
 
My gf says it all looks like Pokemon.
But before that she thought the word 'Anime' stood for cartoon porn. So its funny.
If people are so clueless about this you'd think that.... they wouldn't have an opinion to begin with.
 
I don't get any hassle from my gf as I have sat her down and made her watch some of the series and she became a fan of the cute characters from Ichigo Mashimero.

As for mates, well they still refer to it as anime porn, but when you bring up films like Spirited Away and other Miyazaki works I know they have watched and they soon go quiet and change the subject
 
Erm, my friends are very easy-understanding so they believe me when I explain to them that hentai is more of a 'ad-on' for anime. As for others, I think the main stereotype is that they wont even try watching it because they think "cartoon are for kids" or because "I've seen it all before, i watched pokemon when I was younger".

As for being offended, no way; I can enjoy anime by myself, I don't need a crowd of people watching anime. Anyway, who cares about them kind of "lets follow along with the crowd and be stereotypical like everyone else". Most of them are sheep who can't think for themselves.

I will always enjoy anime, and never be offended by it, or anything else I enjoy.
 
Nice response.
I have to honest and say that I don't have a group of people to watch anime with. But hey, its all good :)
 
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