[Midonin]

This isn't one of those threads that come around every once in a while. It's coming from another perspective in an attempt to hopefully bring the fandom together instead of subdividing it further, because people seem so intent on subdividing it. Whether it's coming up with reasons why certain series didn't sell, or simply looking at story elements and immediately seeking someone to blame, I've noticed the fandom tendency to split everyone into three groups, one clearly being the "good" group, and it more confuses me than anything else.

The first one is the "otaku". The term doesn't have a positive connotation in its home country anyway (though that does seem to be changing) and in Western fandom is supposed to be a value neutral term. But here, and more frequently everywhere else, it's used, strangely, for anything that seems to be too feminine. Whether it's cute and without any fanservice at all, or ero and with a lot of fanservice - it's true both are trying to reach the same demographic - and that's just for series without any male characters, in which case the same "otaku" are still blamed for problems that are actually required to make the genre work. Basically, the atmosphere/daily life-type comedy and the harem/love comedy are the ones often blamed on the otaku, or at least certain elements of them are.

Basically, the same "otaku" that everyone's attacking are being narrowed down to a strawman that surely can't apply to all of them. I suspect it's being used as some sort of scapegoat so people can brush off elements of series they're not comfortable admitting they'd like. If these elements really are disliked, okay, but to blame everything on the otaku is a bit suspect. They're just as discerning as the rest of us, they're simply discerning about different things - and those things aren't quite so bad themselves.

I don't know what percentage of this board has female posters, but this often ties into the other problem. Like the previously mentioned "otaku", "fujoshi" are treated more mysteriously than simply as some sort of fan. Sometimes they're spoken of in the same breath as people who enjoy yuri, sometimes not, but the general impression given is that people don't want "them" getting near "their" series.

So where does that leave everyone who doesn't fall into the first two groups? Apparently they're the "normal" fans, but this definition of normal seems just as stifling as the first two groups. By taking out so many interesting elements that put anime on its own playing field, the idea of what normal is looks rather... same-ish. It might be more respectable, but even respectability can fall into patterns, like with what defines an Oscar-winning movie or some such.

This is based on fandom observation, and if I got anything wrong, I apologize. None of these statements are attacking anyone directly. But I do feel it's a problem that keeps discourse from reaching a certain level. On some level, these niches probably do exist - the anime fandom is a wide and varied collection of subfandoms begrudgingly working together. But even those niches are more varied than surface impressions might give, and I think, out of a story, we're all looking for the same resonance in the end.