Does elitism burgeon from experience?

After having watched so much of this shit, I can't help but fucking die a little inside whenever some dumbass kid says they "love anime xD!" Of course, they say this having watched around ten shows, half of which are shonen, 3 are SoLs, and 2 are RomComs. But after being so fucking familiar with the tropes and themes of anime, the archetypes on which characters are based on, and general plot lines and plot points, I can't stomach much of it.

Don't get me wrong, I still love the medium, and I think some of the best pieces of art have been done in anime. But I can't really imagine why people would watch, I dunno about 80% of the shit out there, unless they're relatively new. This season especially, I can't believe people watch garbage like Gamers or Fate Aprocrypha. The least insulting thing I can think is that because they haven't watched enough stuff to know better. I dunno man, I just think most anime is shit, like really bad, pandering, escapist, pathetic shit. And people that gobble it up don't know better. They could just have shit taste, sure, but I think that answer is a little bit too simplistic. Thoughts?

Pic semi-related.

Being so concerned with what other people are spending their time on/enjoy is a sign that your life is very boring.

You could spend that time improving yourself in a number of ways but you choose to waste precious time trying to feel superior to others.

Just think what a waste that really is.

I think you don't like anime and they do.

>I think some of the best pieces of art have been done in anime
I disagree, but I would like to hear why you think that.

I agree on elitism being born of experience. A lot of the hobbies I've been doing for 12+ years(anime, toy collecting, sailing) and when I see someone come in who is clearly new to whatever is being discussed, I just dismiss them. On anime, most anime classics are classics for a reason, they are universally lauded as must watch pieces of art. Most people will watch 1 or 2 classic shows then go watch whatever generic new thing there is and accept it as a classic in their eyes.

Yes. Nobody who has really delved deep into the art form would say Sword art online is one of their favorites. The only way that a shitty show like that COULD be is a lack of reference and fluency in the medium. Once you're able to notice more of the flaws due to experience and compare it to shows that do everything it does, but better, the problems start to crop up.

I disagree. If it holds sentimental value, or if their waifu is from it, or even if it just caters to their fetish, I don't see why an user can't love a shitty series.

Irony.

Sure. I hate most of it, but I love some dearly.

NGE as a whole and Angel's Egg are two beautiful stories about the human condition that use complicated, sometimes too much so, imagery and build an amazing chimera regarding the world in which they take place. What's more, they are works endemic the people that created them, and they stem from very specific instances in those peoples lives. The fact that they can make those dark times of theirs into art, and art that resonates with many at that, makes them beautiful to me. Could go on, but that's not what the thread is about.

SAO is a comfy show. Fight me.

>But I can't really imagine why people would watch, I dunno about 80% of the shit out there, unless they're relatively new.

Or they have nothing better to do or the motivation to do it. I'm sure plenty of people realize that Gamers is a banal bungfest that will have an unfulfilling conclusion for both the LN and the anime but that isn't going to stop myself or others from enduring the nightmare through some sort of sick, pleasured derived from watching the characters be as retarded as I am for watching this show.

Experience can make you elitist, but it doesn't have to. My experience has taught me that I enjoy some anime cliches and hate others. I watch stuff with the former rather than the latter.
I don't know what you consider to be artistically worthwhile. It doesn't matter to me, because I watch cartoons to be entertained, not to find some deep meaning.

It's not that hard to not get involved in the anime ""community""

ITT the OP thinks he's incredibly deep for having experienced the reality of Sturgeon's Law.

That would make them "pieces of art", but not necessarily "some of the best". What makes them better than other art that draws from the artist's experience, say, Ivan Denisovich?

The backlog of actually great anime is so immense that if they'd have nothing better to do they have so much tried and true shows to watch, the first currently airing show I've watched in 4 years was jojopart 4 and now Made in abyss.

As retarded as it sounds, it's another issue of motivation. What logical reason could they have for watching seasonal garbage rather than series known for quality other than maybe having more opportunities and people to discuss with? Maybe it's daunting when it's a lengthy series or something equally as trivial but there's all sorts of excuses.

Sure, but the convenience factor of airing shows is pretty high. You can easily make a short list every season of shit to try out along with threads and such about them. Finding older anime you might enjoy starts to become more difficult once you've exhausted all the obvious choices and it's much more rare to find active discussions on them.

I usually watch a least one from broad categories of kawaiishit, shonenshit, isekaishit, something with action, something deep and something from a few years ago. Palette changes with availability.

I assume it's better to watch stuff than complain about a lack of anime to watch. Also, if I ever happen to find something offensively bad, I can always drop it, you know?

OP you don't have any grounds to be elitist if you got into anime post Evangelion. Back then anime was truly the definition of cult. No one knew about it and you only found about it from word of mouth. None of the anime clubs and online communities existed that exist post 2000. There were no women into anime back then either. It was a completely basement dwelling nerd scene.
These are the only the people that can claim elitism. Since access to anime is so easy now.

nice 4x4 pic :^)
16/16 anime taste

Okay, grandpa.

>They could just have shit taste
Or maybe the one with shit taste is you.

I stopped tracking my watched anime many years ago, after achieving more than a year of watch time on MAL. If you throw in sleeping and eating I've probably discarded two or three years of my life.

After a while you realize that whether an anime is good depends on what you are looking for at the time. It also becomes impossible to maintain a favorite anime. They all start to blur together and favorites change over time anyways.

Frankly if someone is capable of naming a favorite anime I consider them to be a casual.

Maybe people like different stuff than you OP and even if it's similar shit they still like it. Now leave with your blog to somewhere else faggot.

Because sometimes people don't care enough to go for high class stuff. I mean I literally have a masters in philosophy and I read a philosophy book maybe once a year. High grade spectacle or even just spectacle is pretty entertaining.

>learn japanese
>stop giving a fuck about the opinions of dumb EOPs

Oh look, it's babby's first elitist. Have you ever considered that maybe you don't actually like anime? Most people who enjoy the genre know 90% is shit, so they either focus on the 10% that's good or eat shit with smiles on their faces.

It's never going to be high art, and if that's what you're looking for then I'd recommend live action movies and novels but 90% of those are shit too. For every Citizen Kane there's a Michael Bay movie, for every Great Expectations a Harry Potter.

Watch more anime and lurk more.

Why is everyone replying to this brainlet faggot who doesn't even know what "burgeon" means?

You and I think alike.

Hello OP, welcome to Sup Forums!

>implying Sup Forums isn't an elitist board

Well...atleast it used to be before the invasions...

Sup Forums is elitist toward people like you.

I'm an 80s oldfag who kinda internally looks down on MAL/seasonalshit taste if I'm being honest. But there's probably some guy with rare Osamu Tezuka cels in his closet who looks down on me. It doesn't matter, it's all foreign kiddie cartoons. You like what you like

>for every Great Expectations a Harry Potter
Great Expectations was the Harry Potter of the 19th century. It was so entry-level that it was serialized like manga is today. Shit sold 100K copies within a couple cities back when literacy rates were fractional of what they are today.

Very few things are as high-brow as their enthusiasts would claim them to be.

I watch less and less anime as the years go by, it all just bleeds together. I'm not even some arthaus snob, Code Geass is one of my favorite anime, it's just that even the brainless "fun" stuff isn't entertaining. I only imagine that the people who watch 10+ shows a season have nothing better to do, or are new to the medium.

Sup Forums ruined all the good feelings anime used to give me. Im not going to blame it all on Sup Forums seeing as I continue to come here despite everything to build and compare my opinion to others. All my favorite anime I watched without Sup Forums because Sup Forums inevitably taints my experience, Maybe its pointing out minute imperfections or subtle failures but being the way I am once I see it I cant forget it after someone mentions it. I stopped enjoying anime in mid 2016 after watching it off and on to varying degrees for 16 years. I now watch anime simply to keep the void filled, to maintain the only thing I have any expertise, like continuing to play a shit game just because you have lots of good gear or items in it and you've invested so much time. everytime I log into Sup Forums and see threads like this or pic related the fog lifts. Please stop user, I fancy myself strong of will but heavy doses of reality are bound to make me an hero eventually.

Elitism is born from experience but not that much experience. There's a point where you watch enough that you just stop caring. Like people who argue they have 400 shows on their MAL vs people who just stopped recording all together. As long as you arent being a dick about it, you sound like you belong in latter half. What you described doesn't sound like elitism to me.

>learning a language that is borderline impossible and requires learning 4 separate alphabets ranging over 4000 characters just to be literate

Already addressed this. I detest a lot of stuff, and love a few things here and there. I just can't understand the conformism. Sup Forums wasn't like this. I mean, ironically, it was. But the new trend of thought, which scares me to death if people actually believe it, is similar to what you're saying: "If you don't like it, then it's not for you, faggot. I'm the target audience because I choose not to criticize it's imperfections."

I'm not expecting every new show to be a timeless classic or a masterpiece or whatever. I just don't want the same mindless, mediocre kitsch presented in new dresses. I think a lot of anime's greatness stems from its desire to experiment and be unconventional. It's what made the medium what it is today. Why play it safe? Why eat up the shit that plays it safe. A lot of folks here tend to dismiss these things as Japanese culture, and that the Japanese are really that infatuated with their shitty jokes and premises; I can't buy that. And I don't know why others do.

>caring what a bunch of unnamed virgins think of your favorite anime in a Danish waffle making image board

>Literally doing exactly what the guy in the picture was talking about

I dont know if I cant take it anymore, he was right, we're all dying here

Kill yourself, OP. Gamers is one of the best shows this season, and it was a great season for a summer.

Anime was always about stepwise evolution; Evangelion took notes from Ideon, Ideon from Gundam, Gundam from Mazinger Z, Mazinger Z from World of the Worlds. I could go on and on for other "classics."

>That pic
Really hits the mark. Sup Forums's greatest strength is also its greatest weakness. Pressure free, anonymous social interaction means there's a low barrier to entry for the insecure. The problem is that the insecure also tend to be either spiteful people or people who are very sensitive to the spitefulness of others, creating a downward spiral of negativity. Admitting you actually like something (other than the five or so "acceptable" shows) is a sign of weakness and opens you up to bullying.

In that regard you're probably right that a lot of older shows are better than newer ones. Personally I think that's the nature of the medium. To copy some of Miyazaki's criticism: it's geared towards the obsessive otaku market first and foremost (unless some shonen with mass appeal shows up, like AoT or sort of BnHA or the old Big Three). This narrow target audience + a stagnating economy = playing it safe.

Manga is a different deal: the barrier to entry is lower, and you need a lot less sales to "play even". Most still play it safe, but that's also where most of the variation comes. But stuff like Voyonich Hotel will never get an anime adaptation because it's too niche, sadly.

When you spend all day along the same people, it's going to affect you.

>And I don't know why others do.
In the back of my mind, I almost think that there are people on this board who are more interested in being a part of the community than actually watching anime. So they'll pass time watching shit they don't like just so they can excitedly chat about it on Sup Forums, their viewpoint changing based on the board's reception.

>The problem is that the insecure also tend to be either spiteful people or people who are very sensitive to the spitefulness of others

Or both

Keyword is evolution. Shows are taking inspiration but not adding anything worthwhile.

>Sup Forums's greatest strength is also its greatest weakness.

Yeah, it really helps to keep that in mind about this place when spending time here. Even if you don't take the shitposting personally and just realize that it's probably someone who would be happy to talk to you in real life about anime, it's hard to not absorb some of that spiraling negativity.

It could be worse, though. We could be fujos fighting in shipping wars.

Elitism comes from experience, but once you gain enough experience you transcend elitism.

>We could be fujos fighting in shipping wars.
Tell me about it. I used to enjoy Hetalia a few years ago and fucking hell.

> I just think most anime is shit, like really bad, pandering, escapist, pathetic shit. And people that gobble it up don't know better.
Ah yes, you are at that point. You watched enough anime to think that you know everything and the others don't.

Watch more anime and you'll start to see good things in the worse anime.
Stop thinking that everyone is like you, they do have different taste.
Stop thinking that anime is 80% shit, it isn't'. It's 80% mediocre, which is different, but the fact you used shit tells me you need to feel better about yourself by criticizing other people.

my biggest mistake regarding anime will be seeing more than 50
just finished my 50th, (the GOAT LoTGH) and I don't think there'll ever be anything out of this medium than can stimulate my mental fortitude more than it did. *Sigh* I think this is the end for me, I can finally put this anime phase past me knowing I've reached the PEAK of stimulation, as a veteran anime connoisseur. Feels superb concluding on a high note, I might watch a series or two very couple years but nowhere near as vigorous as I used to be.

Is there anything more pathetic than false flagging?

Even way back in the day when I'd only seen 4-5 complete series, I could tell that some of my favorites were absolutely not good shows. I really can't honestly defend Kimagure Orange Road or (to a lesser extent) pink jacket Lupin III in the light of day, but I still like them.

I think an elitism about wanting to spend your time watching good anime is fine, but I've long since stopped judging people for liking trash, since I like my own kind of trash.

the inevitable replies that false flaggers get even after other people have called them out?

most elitists arent too elite on this board

This is a Sup Forums tier thread. You should all be ashamed.

Your problem is being unwilling to enjoy flawed things. This is the same kind of absurd romanticism that leads to high divorce rates: you fall in love with someone thinking they're perfect, and get butthurt when you realise they're not.
Everything is flawed. Learn to love flaws, or give up on loving anything.

>love flaws
Acknowledging them seems enough, forcing yourself to like flaws is simply delusional.

You should love some of them, or you'll never love anything without a list of caveats and reservations.
Depressed people are realistic. Being slightly delusional is normal and healthy.

How do you differentiate elitism developed through refined taste from being contrarian for the sake of it? Fuckers here would be praising stuff like SnK and Re:Zero if they were as obscure to normies as Flip Flappers or something

>How do you differentiate elitism developed through refined taste from being contrarian for the sake of it?
Arguments. A good critic will have solid arguments that will even make fans of what they're criticizing see their point, even if they don't necessarily end up agreeing with the critic. A contrarian often has much shoddier arguments that are easily poked through, because they inherently have a problem with the show's popularity rather than its quality. That's not to say there can't be valid criticism of a popular show, of course.

Not him but what is this garbage you are spouting? You think the problem is only wanting "perfect" anime? Fuck no, there is no such thing. I only want something good to keep me watching every week, just one facet of a show's writing that is interesting or a cut above the rest. But most shows struggle with even that.

>NGE
Stopped reading right there