Some of my local peers who are anime fans have been lodging complaints about the "new generation" of anime fans. This came to me as a bit odd at first, as my tastes rarely fell in line with most anime fans I met, online or off, which is why I started doing anime blogging instead of complaining about it or trying to change what I thought was "wrong" in these new fans. Something that a friend posted on the local anime forum that seemed to summarize well what many of them were really saying:

Anime fans used to be part of a little-known geek community that spent most of its time watching edgy, counterculture anime that might seem quaint now, but was revolutionary for its time. It was harder then hell to find, cost us an arm and a leg to get, and offered its viewers a glimpse of a visual medium that incorporated aspects of dramatic and artistic expression that were unknown to young Americans at the time. This was WAY back in the day - back when Final Fantasy VII and the PlayStation was king, and I was spending most of my college days in the bowels of Quarter Til learning how to beat the crap out of people on Street Fighter II.

Dragon Ball Z was the beginning of the end of anime for my generation. No longer were we presented with bizarre vistas of the future, tantalizing tales of the supernatural, or gritty chronicles of wars against an alien race. What the hell did Cartoon Network offer us? A bunch of guys named after vegetables staring at each other for countless episodes grunting with fury that only comes from vicious constipation, occasionally throwing a laser beam or a punch or something every 10 episodes.

Thankfully, there's a lot of GOOD NEW anime out there, much of which has already been mentioned in this thread. And I think it's unfair to classify all anime fans as empty-headed Narutards. I'm not even comfortable with the idea of dismissing Naruto altogether - I thought it was actually pretty good until they fell into a DBZ-like rut, and I hope to see some improvement in this series one day.

But it's all so commercial now. Anime fans are now subject to a barrage of almost identical anime (and manga) that are quantified and qualified into tidy packages allowing for the swift identification and consumption of what amounts to little more then an identical repackaged product by unknowing anime fans. You really have to dig deep to find something edgy, new, and original, just like we did back in the day. The problem is that we had to dig for lack of product, whereas now we have to dig through a ton of chaff to find the precious artistic grain that lies at the core of narrative animation.

I've never did subscribe to this "it was better back in the day" or "anime was better before DBZ" view when it came to anime. Yes, I'll poke fun of say Dragonball Z or Naruto, but I did sit down to watch the former once in a while with a roommate in college, and I did watch through 40 episodes of the latter before I got bored of it. I don't really think either is a bad show, and I actually consider Naruto to be a rather well done show. Heck, two of my favorite anime bloggers have enjoyed these series; Steven Den Beste says that DBZ was his gateway drug, while Author enjoys Naruto. Which is really the main point of this game of anime viewing: for enjoyment.

And yes, part of anime viewing originally was for something different. I don't fully remember my "gateway drug", but dim memories reveal that it's either Akira or Ranma 1/2 while in high school. Different from anything I've seen from American animation of the time definitely describes either of these. But I guess when you really start getting into anime, the patterns start becoming noticeable, and this illusion that anime is this magical new genre where anything can happen will shatter. To call new anime "being commercialized" just seems silly to me, as it's always been commercialized. And I definitely don't equate commercialized or popular to being crap.

Rereading the first sentence of the quote seems to highlight the expectation: the community. I guess anime fandom was a obscure and close-knit community at some point thanks to the rarity of anime then. But these societies change over time, especially as they grow. In reality, treating anime itself as a genre1 is a pretty fundamental mistake, as it is a medium on which many different genres are expressed that cater to different tastes. I don't expect the average con-going cosplaying anime fan to drop everything to watch and discuss the latest Makoto Shinkai work, for example.

Then again, it seems I'm not as sociable as most. I treat anime as a personal enjoyment. I really don't go out to physically meet new anime fans since I've long discovered that my tastes run very differently from most fans2, but I don't necessary run strictly perpendicular to mainstream. If I wanted discussion, I will follow the rounds of the few limited bloggers I have linked on here3 or post in my blog here4, but I am not against face-to-face discussion. In fact, I do enjoy a healthy discussion. I tend to prefer being on the reader side than an active participant5.

Lastly, I don't at all mind having to "dig through a ton of chaff to find the precious artistic grain that lies at the core of narrative animation". Not is it more likely that I would actually find the gem that other may miss, but, more importantly, I may find my gem that others may dismiss as trash. It's definitely better than the old days, where I may never be able to watch such "trash" to begin with.

UPDATE: Quote from a friend who's not an anime fan:

I just think that most anime fans are into anime to show off how cool and worldy they are and how much they hate the stupid American culture, yet embrace the largely backwards, repressed Japanese culture.

1. 1. Both inside and outside the fandom
2. 2. even Author noted on some of the obscure titles I've blogged in the past
3. 3. Though I need to take more advantage of Google Reader and start adding in bloggers that my linked bloggers link to....
4. 4. Like I'm doing now
5. 5. Mainly because my own view is often already expressed before I can put it in, and I think being redundant or simply just "me too"ing is disruptive to the flow of a discussion. Yes, I'm a slow thinker...