I called Anime “Shitty Cartoons” in front of Anime fans
I think they took it quite nicely….to kick my ass.
The unfortunate date was the 29th of June when I decided to be brave for once in my life. Now I should offer some context, I have watched anime only a few times in my life, and my first thought was, “well what a waste of time no?”. I do not want to turn this into the title of the story itself so I should be honest.
I did not become an instant fan of Anime but I saw the depth in stories, I just didn’t like the constant recaps that were used at the start of each episode. And the unrealistic characteristics that were associated with the protagonist. There would be episodes that would tell a story of 5 seconds in a run time of 20 minutes.
Yes, I know. I don’t have to justify my preferences but I have done it so that at some point if an anime fan clicks on this story, he understands the context of what happened in the latter part of this article. And lastly, I want to say that I read the story with an open mind and the intention to laugh. So, the following are the events that transpired when I became vulnerable to some angry Gokus (hope I have said the character’s name right).
There was a popular Instagram meme page that I used to follow. They once posted a controversial statement, that I considered pretty normal at the time, “Anime equals cartoons”. I was probably lying on my bed with my hair astray and wearing the same clothes from two days ago when I attempted to be smart like the admin and commented, smiling to myself proudly, “not just cartoons….shitty cartoons”. That was enough to bring fire to which I never knew I was the culprit.
It was some minutes after which I received a notification on my phone showing that a certain user jabbed at my life by replying “like your life?”. To be honest, if he hadn’t put a question mark at the end I wouldn't have thought about it as I believed that my life was, for the most part, shitty. Don’t know whether it was cartoonish or not. So, I replied concurring with the commenter’s question by replying “yes I totally agree”.
I realized soon that this first back-and-forth had attracted an audience around it as a lot of likes were received on both ends but it was the entry in the comment chain of a newcomer, who said tagging me “well then watch Anime and your life won’t be shitty anymore”. The suggestion was subtle but the delivery was brutal. And hence, I replied in the same way “ok on your request I will watch the cartoons”. My use of the word “cartoons” was looked over and the commenter answered “deal”.
Dodging or being shot at by the first two replies, one female brought a side thought to the comments chain. She said tagging me “you are very brave” in Hindi and I am very self-aware so I knew she was not flirting with me. So, I continued my desperate rant by replying to her “not as brave as those people who sit and watch anime for hours”. Ouch! I could imagine even an anime fan appreciating that comeback. But it turned out that the commenter was also an anime fan as she replied “Anime lovers are believers! But being able to oppose them in their home ground is bravery (clap emoji)”. So, she was not being sarcastic. wow! and she gave me a bit more confidence to counter my aggressors.
A decent person suggested “try death note I felt the same” but I was so high on one-liners at that point that I responded with another “I thought watching any anime was a death note for yourself (laughing emoji to add some balance). Thanks for the suggestion. Will watch”. But the commenter was nice enough to respond that it's short and episodes are 20 minutes each adding I should thank him later. He might still be waiting for that thank you. People trickled on in the comments by telling me I should not judge before watching and with more requests to checkout “death note” but I was looking for some real material.
One person said that if you will watch death note, you will have dreams of people dying and that was one more reason for me not to watch anime ever. a new commenter said tagging me “says the kid who has never seen anime” and I replied, “no. says the kid who has grown up and stopped watching cartoons”.
The arguments were dying out as people realized I was a person with leisure time and fewer brain cells than a fish. A last comment that said “so you’ve chosen death (skull emoji 2 times)” got my attention. I replied with a trickle of truth “already dead inside after watching anime”.
And after that, people left the chain deserted. To date, I receive likes on my primary comment and I know if there was ever a dislike button on Instagram, I would have received those way more.
Two things were proven in that comment chain though. I was a stubborn loser and people loved anime to death. I appreciate the fandom for anime and I hope one day I could share the same passion.
If you liked this story do let me know in the comments!
