This may shock you to hear, but sometimes people take issue with the things I write on this blog. I know! People getting angry on the internet. Fancy that. While I usually respond to these criticisms when they appear, I’ve noticed that a few of the same ones crop up repeatedly. So I decided perhaps the best method of responding to these people is to do a catch-all response.
Why do you watch it if you don’t like it?
Because I didn’t know for certain that I wouldn’t like it before I watched it. I’m not so close-minded that I never try anything outside of my immediate comfort area. Sometimes I stick with something because I see promise, which is proceeds to squander, but I didn’t know it would do that before I watched it, did I? And when I don’t like something, I generally stop watching it.
Unless we’re talking about terribad anime here, for which the appeal lies in something a bit different. A sort of morbid fascination. But in my experience, that’s not what people are talking about when they make this complaint. Actually what they’re saying is “how dare you write bad things about my favourite anime! I shall dismiss your entire argument by saying you shouldn’t have been watching it in the first place”.
You can’t review something if you haven’t finished it yet
Ironic that I get both this complaint and the one above this, but lets give internet dwellers the benefit of the doubt and say it’s always entirely different people making these two arguments. I’m not reviewing the entire anime. Of course I can’t, I haven’t seen all of it. I’m just commenting on what I’ve seen so far. Funnily enough, eating part of a sandwich means you are allowed to comment on that part of the sandwich you’ve already eaten. And as I outlined already, when I don’t like something, I tend to stop watching it.
Again, I’ve noticed that this point is used to dismiss the negative criticisms of their favourite anime by arguing that everything you say is invalid because you didn’t watch all of it. Yes the review would be a lie if the person was pretending the review was a blanket statement of the entire anime, but that’s not the case. It’s commenting on what I’ve already seen. Unless the following episodes literally erase your memories of watching the earlier episodes and replaces them with super happy fun times, your experience watching those early episodes are still relevant. The ending of Kobato may be wonderful and amazing and deliver a satisfying payoff for all the development that came before it, but that doesn’t change the fact that the experience of watching the first 16 episodes was really fucking boring.
You can’t review something that hasn’t come out yet.
Little bit different to the first two points, in that this tends to be directed towards my season previews. My response for this would be “well duh”. Of course I don’t know exactly how each anime is going to turn out. That’s why it’s called a ‘preview’. That ‘p’ is rather important. You’re the only person here saying that this is a review of the anime rather than a prediction. Do you go into the bookies and yell at the staff for predicting what the most likely score for tomorrow’s game is?
You just hate mainstream anime
Yes, I seriously get this complaint. People try to dismiss what I write because my taste is not mainstream enough. My favourite anime is Death Note. You do not get more boringly mainstream than that. If the complaint was coming from, say, a Naruto fan, then maybe he has a point. I do tend to go for late night otaku friendly titles rather than mainstream shounen giants. But in my experience, this complaint comes from people who say I hate ‘mainstream’ anime and I’m trying to be all hipster because I don’t like Yuru Yuri. In short, complete and utter morons. My theory here is that they don’t agree with my tastes, but can’t say it’s taste so try to say I’m objectively wrong by claiming I’m anti-mainstream.
You’re overthinking it
Fuck you. No seriously, fuck you and your dead brain. I suggest you shut you eyes, rub them with your knuckles and then watch the pretty patterns since you’re apparently afraid of actually thinking about why you enjoy your entertainment. When I’m unpacking something in a review, what I’m doing is explaining why I found something enjoyable. The enjoyment came first, the long-ass explanation came second. The fact that there was so much meaning I was able to instantly get in that one scene is why I fucking liked the scene so much in the first place. It’s not ‘overthinking’ because I was able to get all these points without having to think about it! This applies to negative reviews too. This is not me ‘ovethinking’ it. This is what I got without having to think about it, and I’m just explaining that in the review.
You’re just a hater/why are you always so negative
Because when you’ve run out of ways to justify why my points are completely invalid without actually engaging in critical debate about the anime in question, the obvious response is to jam your fingers in your ears and say “WHY YOU SO NEGATIVE WAAAH”. Actually it’s more “you’re just a hater and therefore you hating my favourite anime means nothing because you hate everything”. So yes, it is just another way to justify why dismissing all my points is a totally valid response without engaging in critical debate. Lovely.
Firstly, I’m not “always so negative”. I believe a cursory glance at the main page on this blog will show that there’s a balance of positivity and negativity. I like some anime, I don’t like others, so I write about both. As for why I write negative criticism at all when we should really just be bathing in the warm spunk of each others love for anime, it’s because I like to write about what I watch. When I don’t like what I’ve watched, I say so when I write about it. It’s really that simple.
Your taste sucks
Because when we’ve totally run out of ways to justify why the person in question did not like your favourite anime, we try the final last gasp method of saying their subjective opinion is objectively always wrong. Are we really so afraid of critical debate that we must try to delegitimise any sort of negative opinion? Why can’t we embrace the fact that we’re all different and find joy in understanding why other people feel the way they do? Sure some of their opinions may be dumb and based on flimsy justification, but in understanding why someone else likes or doesn’t like something, you get a greater understanding for that piece of entertainment and the medium as a whole.