General Anime/Manga/Otaku Thread

[BumblebeeCody*]

I don't understand how people can have such a poor attitude towards anime. I just watched Howl's Moving Castle for probably the 13th or 14th time and the ending feels just as good to watch as it always has. There aren't a lot of movies that have that effect yet for me, more anime movies do than non-anime ones.

Semi related.

Pretty cool video. My own problem is that it lives of the point of "I want others to care".
Anime may not be mainstream to older people, but every single person I've ever met (my generations) knows what Anime is AND they(we) also watch Breaking Bad.
Mainstream itself means, "being widely known to large audience"...and well, so effing what? It may not be mainstream but that doesn't mean it shouldn't ruin your experience with the show nor you care. Pokemon being mainstream didn't change the show in anyway so it's pointless to care whether other people like it not, because it's for you (the fans of anime).
Another (not really a problem as such) with the video is that it (rightly so) has a problem of uncultured people. The guy in the video points out that there are those who have a very shallow view of anime and see it as a cartoon whereas animes like Akira and Cowboy Bebop are very much for a mature audience. Why care about what those people think? It's the same as people who think Nintendo is for kids.

There's also other factors to consider and no I'm not taking digs at America (or the UK) but it's a fact that our countries have a very select level of entertainment. America exports it's products(Music and films especially, the gaming industry is far from as select as the other industries) on a mass scale.By that I mean, if you were to go to another country in Europe, you'd find all the generic western exports like Katy B, Justin Bieber and the (terrible) Transformers/World War Z films etc. BUT you'd also find what that country's own products in an abundance. Our countries never really air what other countries have to offer, but other countries do.
The point I'm making is that outside products(Japanese Anime, French Films, German Music) haven't gotten the mainstream audience because American/UK media have a very controlled grip on what people have access to.
There's another reason that Gangnam Style is an important song, as that is because it broke the mainstream/cultural barrier. It's up the the people in those countries to educate themselves on what's out there but that's not going to happen anytime soon.

I also don't think Anime/Japan are weird at all. For every "weird" Onepiece there is, there's always an Adventure Time to rival it.

So again, it not being mainstream is irrelevant due to a lot of different factors. That being said, the Internet has broken "educated" a new generation. It's mainstream on the Internet...if that counts.