Well... me being a MHA fan, you could say this was coming...
I know what some might be expecting, but there are actually plenty of cool people inside fandoms.
Not looking further, here in Wattpad I have come to learn than those who are introvert in real life are often those who have more to offer. Those are the ones who write fanfics that provide me and many others with hours of fun; some of them have even worked as a source of inspiration to start my own writing. Not to mention I am very grateful to those authors and readers who have made me feel like I can express myself in English almost as well as in my own language.
Like I was saying, there are indeed people here I would easily want to be friends with in real life (no names, or else we wouldn't finish soon). Variety here is awesome: different countries, ages, religions, ideologies, hobbies... yeah, it is true that at the end of the day this is another social net, and as such, anything you know about an user is what that user wants you to know, but that doesn't make people less interesting.
All right, we better skip to the part everyone know it's coming...
Creativity and liberty of expression is always something to be protected and celebrated, we can all agree on that. Now, I don't want to put the B word after this last affirmation, because it is too important to make it look pointless, BUT it would be pointless indeed to deny there is a great deal of toxicity in anime fandoms. Anyone can have fun with crazy theories, over the top pictures, or alternative storylines in the form of fanfics, and that's great, BUT there must be a limit on what can a fan take seriously.
One of the things about anime that has always shocked me is the amount of hatred some characters can get. Right, there are those who are hated for the correct reasons, this is, those villains whose character is built up with that purpose. Many might be immediately be thinking of Frieza, but I personally love the example of Griffith, from Berserk: the guy is the leader of a band of mercenaries, a cunning warrior, a visionary, and all in all, a self made man who will stop at nothing to fulfill his dream of turning from commoner to king. He brings protagonist Guts and the other fan favorites together and he shares his dream with them and leads them to countless victories along the Golden Age Arc, and as a reader myself I was fascinated by this smart and charismatic prick who, despite that aura, I knew he was a manipulator and someone who was pathing his way to his dream by piling up the corpses of enemies and allies alike (in fact, there is a vision where this is literally depicted in both the manga and anime adaptations). But as a character you also know he's exceptional and brilliantly developed, so you come to accept him... and then the Eclipse happened. I will make no spoilers in case someone hasn't read or seen this masterpiece that only God knows if its author will finish someday, but... have you heard the quote/meme "Griffith did nothing wrong"? Well, my ass he didn't. As I was saying, this character deserves the hate he receives and I honestly can't wait to see him dead.
Then they are the divisive ones, which are actually rather common in Shonens. Enter Sakura, a female ninja who has more than earned her spot as one of the most popular and important characters in a long running series like Naruto; that been said, we can all agree she faces no small amount of critics, even today. Sure, at the beginning of the series she tended to be annoying and some may even call her selfish in her infatuation with Sasuke, and bland in comparison to him and Naruto (no offense to those who shipped him with Sakura, but even when Naruto protected her she used to hit him hard, so I am more than glad he ended with Hinata), but one must understand that character development must start somewhere, and anyone in adolescence can show his worst more easily than his best. That's how it works: you can totally like someone as a child and totally despise him as an adult, and viceversa. In my opinion, Sakura is by no means a character that must be hated, specially now she's a mother. I won't deny though her relationship with Sasuke sometimes escapes my comprehension.
YOU ARE READING
H. Fiction's Pub (Time To Talk)
Non-FictionThe book where I will give my view on subjects and problems that affect daily life. Since many of them shall be delicate, I will state some rules in the intro, which must be followed to heart, specially by me.
