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Is Anime Fandom Dead?

I'm almost 32 and I've been watching anime most of my life. Anime is the thing that I consume more than anything else besides maybe YouTube. It's really hard to tell between those two, but it's close. I do play games, and I occasionally watch movies, but mainly it's anime, manga, and YouTube. I also listen to heavy metal music a lot, but I didn't count it above because I don't listen to a wide variety of artists. Regardless my point is that I'm extremely passionate about anime. But in recnet years, in the 2020s especially, I've noticed a degradation in anime discourse. 10 years ago if you were an anime fan you watched ALL types of anime. And to me that's what it means to be a fan of...well, anything. But most people who claim to be anime fans nowadays only watch a few of the absolute most popular, mainstream shows. In my opinion that can never equate to being a fan of an entire medium? You wouldn't call someone a gamer if all they play is Call of Duty or Fortnite. No, you'd call them a fan of that particular series. Maybe you'd call them a Call of Duty Gamer or a Fortnite Gamer if you want to be generous. And I think the same logic should apply to anime. Being a fan of something means being engrossed in the medium on the whole. If all you read/watch is One Piece, you're not an anime fan. I know One Piece is really long, but even if you've read the whole manga, and then watched the entire anime, including filler and movies, you still haven't come close to scratching the surface on what this medium has to offer.

I want to make perfectly clear that I'm not trying to shame you if you only like a few popular anime. I'm extremely passionate but I want to make clear that that's not my intention. Although I will always encourage you to try more anime, of all different genres. My biggest problem is just that I'm bored with the community. I'm not bored with anime. I will never become bored with anime. Anime is the most creativly dense artistic medium that exists and it's not close. I'm bored with the anime community. It's become so steril. It's so difficult to find people that have seen enough anime that I can have complex discussions about anime with them anymore. In the 2010s those types of discussions were a dime a dozen to stumble upon, and they were so much fun. Now most people in the online animie community have barely seen any anime. It's imposisble to have informed opinions if you haven't seen at least 500 anime. I've completed 3,500+; if we count all that I'v eseen in general, it might be close to 5,000. And by the way when I say this I'm not trying to say there has to be objectivity in your opinions, becuase I don't believe any kind of art can ever be judged objectively. But when you experience more of a medium your opinions are inherently going to become deeper. But it seems to be that most anime ans are fine just consuming a few of the most mainstream shows nowadays.

Nowhere is this more apparent than in Anime YouTube. Anitube is so boring now. I said before that I watch almost as much YouTube as I do anime, but maybe .01 percent of that are Anime YouTubers. The main reason or that is because 99.99 percent of Anime YouTubers nowadays just talk about the most popular shows. There are channels dedicated strictly to One Piece, Naruto, Bleach, JoJo, Dragon Ball Z, and so on. And while that can be fun at first, and all of these shows are good I'm not throwing shade at them, it just gets old. The only one of htem I regularly watch is Tekking101. I've been watching him since 2013 and his personality makes his content never get boring even though he only talks about One Piece. My favorite era of anitube was 2015 to 2020, the video essay era of anitube, where anitubres were expected to be well rounded anime fans and they made analytical videos about all types of anime. Those videos were so much fun to watch and you barely get them anymore, at least from what I've seen. They're certainly not hte ones that get millions of views anymore the vast majority of the time. The only ones that are still around are Mother's Basement and Gigguk, (and the latter barely uploads on his main channel anymore), and good luck if you want to start doing that in 2026, you'll be fighting uphill in a blizzard with Rock Lee's weights strapped to your ankles and ten times the gravity of Earth just to barely get noticed. I know, because I've tried, multiple times, and that was a few years ago.

This isn't meant to discourage people from liking what they like. If you only enjoy a few different anime/manga then that's fine. I'm not your dad, do what you want. I also obviously don't want to shame you for not having seen much anime. Nobody just wakes up one day having automatically seen thousands of anime. That takes time and dedication. I just wanted to express my frustrations as a lifelong anime fan. There's a paradox that, as anime has become more mainstream in the west, anime discourse has become more shallow, at least from my perspective.

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Every Anime I Consider to be a Favorite (Fate/Zero is my absolute favorite). I currently have 102 anime, out of the 1,500+ normal anime I've completed, (normal anime means that I'm excluding hentai in that estimation), that I consider to be a favorite. They're all anime that I've rated at least a 9 or 10 on MyAnimeList.

1.Carnival Phantasm


2.KonoSuba: God’s Blessing on this Wonderful World


3.Showa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu


4.WorldEnd: What Will You Do at the End of the World? Are You Busy? Will You Save Us?


5.Gankutsuou: The Count of Monte Cristo


6.Shiki


7.Toradora


8.Hunter X Hunter 2011


9.Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood


10.Hellsing Ultimate


11.Yu Yu Hakusho


12.Psycho Pass


13.Ghost in the Shell


14.Fate/Zero


15.Baby Steps


16.Code Geass


17.NANA


18.Beck: Mongolian Chop Squad


19.Shimoneta: A Boring World Where the Concept of Dirty Jokes Doesn’t Exist


20.Yakitate!! Japan


21.Shinsekai Yori


22.Monster


23.Infinite Rivyus


24.Kemono no Souja Erin


25.Higurashi no Naku Koro ni


26.Death Note


27.My Teen Romantic Comedy is Wrong as I Expected SNAFU


28.Snow White with the Red Hair


29.Nagi no Asukara


30.Azumanga Daioh


31.Is the Order a Rabbit?


32.Gakkougurashi


33.Fullmetal Alchemist 2003


34.Hunter X Hunter 1999


35.InuYasha


36.Black Lagoon


37.Black Lagoon: Roberta’s Blood Trail


38.Noragami


39.Dragonball


40.Dragon Ball Z


41.Dragon Ball Z Kai


42.Dragon Ball GT


43.Dragon B all Super


44.Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters


45.My Hero Academia


46.Rurouni Kenshin


47.Fate/stay night: Unlimited Blade Works TV


48.Fate/kaleid liner prisma Illya


49.The Familiar of Zero


50.Spice and Wolf


51.Little Witch Academia


52.Highschool DxD


53.Hikaru no Go


54.Fullmetal Panic


55.Nodame Cantabile


56.Gungrave


57.Fushigi Yuugi


58.Astro Boy 2003


59.Sengoku Basara


60.Hakuouki


61.D.Gray Man


62.Black Butler


63.Cat Planet Cuties


64.Chihayafuru


65.Devilman: Crybaby


66.Daimidaler: Prince vs Penguin Empire


67.Freezing


68.Good Luck Girl


69.Nanatsu no Taizai


70.The Ancient Magus’ Bride


71.Violet Evergarden


72.A Place Further than the Universe


73.Love is Like After the Rain


74.Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid


75.Interviews With Monster Girls


76.Scrapped Princess


77.Lovely Complex


78.MM!


79.Basilisk


80.Please Teacher


81.Happy Sugar Life


82.Aggressive Retsuko


83.Bloom Into You


84.Baki the Grappler


85.Castlevania


86.That Time I Got Reincarnated As a Slime


87.The Third


88.Tsukuyomi: Moon Phase


89.Tokyo Magnitude 8.0


90.Love, Chuunibyou, and Other Delusions


91.Forest of Piano


92.Attack on Titan


93.Dororo


94.Samurai Jack


95.Avatar: The Last Airbender


96.Teen Titans


97.Demon Slayer


98.Vinland Saga


99.Trigun


100.K-ON!


101.Interspecies Reviewers


102.Redo of a Healer


103.Horimiya


104.Welcome to Demon School Iruma-kun


105.Kaguya-sama: Love is War


106.Tonikawa: Over the Moon for You


107.The Duke of Death and His Maid


108.The Quintessential Quintuplets


109.Smile Down the Runway


Favorite Manga (in no particular order)
1.Berserk


2.Vagabond


3.Vinland Saga


4.Komi Can't Communicate


5.My Hero Academia


6.One Piece



My Favorite Ecchi Anime (in no particular order)
1.Freezing


2.HIghschool of the Dead


3.High School DxD


4.Sekirei


5.Monster Musume


6.Valkyrie Drive: Mermaid


7.Prison School


8.Food Wars


9.Seikon no Qwaser


10.Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon?


11.Redo of a Healer


12.Interspecies Reviewers



My Favorite Shonen Battle Anime/Manga (in no particular order)
1.Naruto
2.Bleach
3.One Piece
4.Magi: The Labyrinth of Magic
5.The Seven Deadly Sins
6.My Hero Academia
7.Yu Yu Hakusho
8.Hunter X Hunter 2011
9.Rurouni Kenshin
10.Dragon Ball
11.Dragon Ball Z
12.Dragon Ball Super
13.InuYasha

My Favorite Romance Anime (in no particular order)
1.Ah! My Goddess
2.Spice and Wolf
3.Lovely Complex
4.Toradora
5.Kamisama Kiss
6.Snow White with the Red Hair
7.Akatsuki no Yona
8.InuYasha
9.Nisekoi
10.The Kawai Complex Guide to Manors and Hostel Behavior
11.My Love Story!!
12.Eureka Seven

And finally, the list of CULTURE (in no particular order)
1.Fault
2.Resistence
3.Dropout
4.Oujo & Onna Kishi W Dogehin Roshutsu
5.Space Pirate Sara
6.Dokidoki Little Ooyasan
7.Gaki ni Modotte Yarinaoshi!!!
8.Garden The Animation
9.Hitoriga: The Animation
10.Imouto Paradise
11.Kuroinu: Kedakaki Seijo wa Hakudaku ni Somaru
12.Muma no Machi Cornelica
13.Saishuu Chikan Densha Next
14.Shoujo Ramune
15.Suki de Suki de, Suki de The Animation
16.Anoko to Iikoto
17.Oni Chichi franchise
18.Hatsu Inu franchise
19.Seikatsu Shuukan The Animation
20.Prison Battleship
21.Baka na Imouto wo Rikou ni Suru no wa Ore no xx dake na Ken ni Tsuite
22.Ijirare: Fukushuu Saimin
23.Imouto Paradise

My Favorite Bands (all of them are metal except for Weird Al) (in no particular order)
1.Weird Al Yankovic
2.Architects
3.Visigoth
4.Amon Amarth
5.Warkings
6.Symphony X
7.Infected Rain
8.Beast In Black
9.Avenged Sevenfold
10.Brand of Sacrifice
11.Battle Beast
12.Archenemy

My Favorite Video Games (in no particular order)
1.Sly 2: Band of Thieves
2.Jak 3
3.Metroid Prime 2: Echoes
4.Spider-Man 2
5.Ratchet Clank Future: A Crack in Time
6.Super Mario 64
7.Marvel's Spider-Man
8.Horizon Zero Dawn
9.Devil May Cry 5
10.Infamous 2
11.Ghost of Tsushima

My Rating Scale
10- Rarely given to super superb shows. However, not perfect. Every show has flaws. However, the flaws here are so minor, nitpicky, and insignificant, that they're not even worth talking about.

9- A very good show, minimum flaws

8- A quite good show, occasional flaws

7- A fairly good show, some flaws

6- A decent show, more pros than cons

5- Borderline rating, didn't like or hate it

4- More cons than pros, not to great

3- Very shoddy show, not much effort

2- Barely credible as a show, it sucks

1- Total Shit

0-A special location reserved for shows that are not only total garbage, but also offensive. If I felt offended and/or disgusted after finishing an anime, this is where it goes. Since ani list doesn't allow you to put 0's, however, I'll have to put it in the notes instead.

My Beliefs When Watching Anime

1.There's no bad genre of anime. Even tropes that most people hate, like fanservice, I think can be done well.

2.There's three things I think fanservice can be done well. The first is for it to be what I call "diagetic." That is, the fanservice feels naturally placed in the story. For example, if I'm watching a slice of life show or a school show, it wouldn't seem uncommon to watch girls changing in a dressing room, or to watching at the pool or at the beach, because that stuff is part of life and worth acknowledging. The second way fanservice can be done well in anime is if a show both doesn't reference the fanservice and has likable characters. One of my favorite anime is Highschool DxD. In that show, it isn't uncommon for some of the girls to be fighting while completely naked. However, all of the girls, at least among the protagonists, are likable, plus the fact that there is fanservice isn't really seen as a big deal in the story, for the most part. In addition, while the main character Issei is likable to an extent, he still IS a raging pervert, so whenever he gets the shit beat out of him for being one it seems justified. And the third way a fanservice anime can be good is if the plot is completely ridiculous and entertaining, such as in Qwazar of Stigmata.

4.No anime is flawless, even in ones I'd consider to be a 10 out of 10 masterpiece.

5.Every anime has at least one good thing about them, even ones that I'd consider to be an appalling 1 out of 10 show.

6.I don't believe in the three episode rule. I have limited time on my hands, and I want to watch every anime ever. Because of that, I can't waste time watching three whole episodes of an anime to determine if I like it or not. If a show doesn't grab me within the first episode, then I don't care about it.