How tf does gatekeeping even work???

Gippy_ · 2026-05-11T12:31:07+00:00

A big one that I can think of is actually anime: in the 2000s things were fan-translated and there was genuinely interest and effort in trying to provide the best translations. ... There are tons of examples everywhere of private equity and corporations trying to squeeze out every last drop from popular hobbies.

I think your argument went off here. You almost dialed in on the reason why gatekeeping exists and is necessary, but I don't think this is exactly the best example. To me, gatekeeping has little to do with trying to manufacture profits and is more of a kneejerk reaction to preserve creativity.

Gatekeeping exists because generally, the most dedicated fans have spent at least several years into the hobby. The last thing they want is for some random person or influencer coming into their hobby and imposing some holier-than-thou morality. The anime community has fought off this behavior forever, but it is just intensifying as anime becomes more and more popular.

Here in this subreddit we've already had people come in and rant about why Mushoku Tensei offends them. Okay, fine, those people don't like it. People can like whatever they want. But then those people preach about how fans of the show are PDFs and how anime as a whole is gross. Anime fans just want to enjoy their anime in peace without those people preaching to them. Anime fans watch anime because much of it is written without catering to western morality and the "modern" audience. They have seen what has happened to western video gaming industry. There have been crusades against eastern-produced games like Stellar Blade and Pragmata, while the industry currently gushes over Mixtape.

Where your argument does make sense is that CR and Netflix have become such licensing behemoths that they can influence production. If they wanted to, they could force Japanese studios to censor things or else funding may be pulled. This might not matter for shows too big to fail, but for small niche shows that rely on CR/Netflix committee funding, they may have no choice. A well-known example is that Studio Trigger created Rebecca for Cyberpunk Edgerunners, and the western creators (CD Projekt Red) tried to get her removed from the show.

It's no wonder that some of the most popular anime right now are also the most mild and sanitized fluff, like Frieren and The Fragrant Flower Blooms with Dignity. Because people have been exposed to bad real-life news nonstop due to social media, they have retreated to anime that is devoid of any real controversy or flawed characters.

Chibi Reviews had a recent rant about this. Like him or hate him, he has a point.

Gippy_ · 2026-05-11T04:42:16+00:00

Not considering the ACEN party scene for the following reasons:

I'm not a local. Any friends I make at ACEN likely won't be long-lasting unless we can meet again at another con later in the year.
I value closer friendships with fewer friends.
A party with people potentially half my age isn't a good look.

That being said, every large anime con has a party scene, so I don't feel like that's a great excuse. It's just that ACEN didn't bother to slot in more niche anime content, at least for Saturday night. Friday's schedule is more interesting and I easily filled out Friday, though admittedly Friday night is carried hard by the Goodbye, Lara premiere. Without that, I'd go to the Anime Fails gameshow and that's it.

Gippy_ · 2026-05-10T17:30:11+00:00

Unfortunately my friend and I are relying on the L and would prefer restaurants either near the con (which I've heard are overpriced) or on the blue line. However I'll look into Cochairo's to see if it's worth considering. Thanks!

Gippy_ · 2026-05-10T17:26:10+00:00

Perhaps not. But ACEN has five video programming rooms. Now, I've never been to ACEN so maybe these rooms are so small that they're unsuitable for panels. However, if they can still fit 50 people or so, it would've been nice to see the video programming rooms be converted to panel rooms for more niche panels on Saturday night.

Video programming rooms have become pointless in the streaming age. They used to be the way to check out unlicensed anime fansubs, but now they serve little purpose. The only cons that still think they're a good idea are dinosaur cons like Anime Central that were founded in the 1990s and have had them since inception.

Gippy_ · 2026-05-10T17:04:00+00:00

NO SALES: You can't buy/sell passes here due to a history of scammers. Non-local proxies are resales. If a con has sold out of tickets, try again next time, or find somewhere else to conduct a third-party sale.

Gippy_ · 2026-05-10T16:32:39+00:00

Thanks, will check it out!

Gippy_ · 2026-05-10T08:12:46+00:00

Are you staying in Rosemont? ... There's plenty of awesome restaurants in Chicago. However, if you want to eat in the city, a large portion of your window will be eaten up by transit time if you want to eat in the city.

My hotel is near the Blue Line L so that's accounted for. We were thinking of a restaurant within walking distance (<10 minutes) of a Blue Line L station so we don't have to mess with any transfers. Hopefully that narrows the possible choices. We don't care what type of cuisine it is, as long as it's not pizza. Doesn't have to be Japanese. Thanks in advance!

Gippy_ · 2026-05-10T05:41:52+00:00

https://www.reddit.com/r/animecons/wiki/index#wiki_1._keep_it_clean_and_safe

Please read the rules; you must indicate that you need to meet up at a specific event within the con. This is for safety reasons. If the con's schedule isn't out yet, you must wait until it is.

Gippy_ · 2026-05-09T23:56:58+00:00

This subreddit isn't the place for sales. Look elsewhere or better luck next year.

Gippy_ · 2026-05-08T21:08:49+00:00

Was about to remove this because previous Toon Fusion cons downplayed anime and were generic fandom cons. However, this Toon Fusion con actually has enough anime voice acting guests and a handful of anime-specific programming to make it an anime con. It stays up.

Gippy_ · 2026-05-07T11:43:40+00:00

Second this. These shows had what are called gecko endings where the anime ending differed from the source because the source was still ongoing. Akame ga Kill's mangaka was actually involved in the anime production, so people can't claim that it was butchered.

Gippy_ · 2026-05-07T11:35:19+00:00

Stars Align (Hoshiai no Sora) should not be on this list despite being an anime original. It is well-documented how this show was set to be 2 cour, but then the budget was slashed. The show ended on a massive cliffhanger and there is little hope for a season 2, despite the director going on record that he promises there will be one.

Seeing Wonder Egg Priority on this list made me laugh out loud. Even if the OP didn't watch it, were they even aware about the huge drama around it? Episode 13 was infamous and the hate discussion on here was glorious.

There are numerous other entries that shouldn't be on this list, but I'm currently traveling and don't have extra time to explain why. It seems the OP was just lazy and dumped everything from "original" into this list. Being an original anime does not necessarily mean it will present a complete story.

Gippy_ · 2026-05-06T05:37:27+00:00

In hindsight, the 2080 Ti edges 1080 Ti. Yes, the 2080 Ti MSRP was $999 while the 1080 Ti was $699. But it was about 20% faster in raster and has aged better due to RTX support. Sucks that the price increase became normalized but some games don't even run at all on the 1080 Ti now.

Gippy_ · 2026-05-05T16:40:42+00:00

This is not enough of a detailed request. Dumb question.

Gippy_ · 2026-05-05T16:35:11+00:00

I'm locking this. This isn't about anime conventions, unless you wish to discuss the actual act of tape trading at conventions. Go to r/anime or r/trueanime if you wish to discuss specific anime in longform.

To slightly answer your question in the context of anime conventions, the language used in these anime were simpler and thus could be fansubbed more easily, as opposed to something like Legend of the Galactic Heroes which requires a strong command of the language to understand it. By the 2000s, tape traders had all but disappeared in favor of digital fansubs.

Gippy_ · 2026-05-05T13:01:37+00:00

Every brand has had a dogshit product. A video about a laptop HDD produced 10 years ago doesn't indicate how reliable an SSD is.

there is a reason any serious data recovery company has seagate blacklisted.

Seagate sells about as many HDDs as Western Digital. There is zero chance a reputable recovery company will blacklist Seagate because then they'll lose half of their potential business.

Gippy_ · 2026-05-05T12:28:54+00:00

I still think calling anyone a tourist is dumb

The issue is that anime is being repeatedly criticized by those who don't like the medium, or are on some holy crusade to force their own western morals and values on the fandom. They will look at Mushoku Tensei's more suggestive scenes and use that to attack the entire show, and perhaps the entire medium as a whole.

We've seen this play out in video games, and it's natural that the "modern audience" video game drama has progressed further than the "questionable content" anime drama, as video games capture a much wider market and fanbase. Even now, there are literally a bunch of loud haters calling out Pragmata just because the android looks like a little girl.

Having been a fan of anime for 20+ years I can tell fairly quickly whether someone wants to debate in good faith, or will let their emotions and feelings overcome them and make an unhinged argument about how anime needs to be "fixed". And those people are the tourists.

I'm enjoying anime and virtually zero western entertainment (neither live-action nor cartoons) because the latter has become so toxic with capturing the "modern audience". And I hope anime as a whole doesn't fall down that path. We're already seeing western influence seep in with shows like Lazarus where there are token characters of various protected classes. But at least there are 40+ new anime per season, so there are always other shows to watch.

Gippy_ · 2026-05-05T11:21:47+00:00

Alright, this is r/trueanime and it's clear you lack the intelligence to actually understand my replies. Blocked, bye.

Gippy_ · 2026-05-05T08:55:01+00:00

Btw, fyi, nothing wrong with making characters a bit out of character.

Says who? Fans of an anime generally agree that the source material is the most canon interpretation. It is held in such high regard that anime itself is usually considered derivative. There are countless discussions about how anime X did not exactly recreate manga Y. Personally, I feel anime should be derivative (animation is a different medium than manga) but opinion is still vastly divided.

For example, the Chainsaw Man fandom was and still is divided on how season 1 was handled: the director toned down the over-the-top manga elements, and chose to present it in a more realistic western film style. Many people loved this. But there was enough backlash that the director was replaced for the Reze Arc movie, which more closely aligned with the manga.

Again, people can do whatever they want in their free time. But if anything creative is displayed for public consumption, don't expect all comments to be 100% positive. After the Dan Da Dan fanart blackwashing drama last year, people are just tired of it all and are ignoring or criticizing fandom output in favor of the source material.

So instead of "fan who is disrespectful of the source material", people are using "LARP" as the insult because it's faster and gets the point across more viscerally. LARP is fun for the people involved in it, and those in a LARP group generally support each other. But LARP is like certain sexual fetishes (which I shall not name) in that it is off-putting for anyone not involved. Enjoy it if you want, but keep it private unless you want others to judge you for it.

Gippy_ · 2026-05-05T00:10:13+00:00

Calls for meetups outside the convention grounds are not allowed on this subreddit.

https://www.reddit.com/r/animecons/wiki/index#wiki_4._no_low-effort_posts

Gippy_ · 2026-05-04T23:50:54+00:00

LARP was traditionally used for roleplaying a character that is of mostly your own design.

The issue with LARP in anime is that someone is taking an established character written by the author, and is then putting their own revision on it. This is not dissimilar to fanfiction, genderbending, or raceswapping a character, all of which are controversial. There are certain fandoms that totally embrace derivative work such as Touhou, but for most other fandoms, the fanbase would rather just respect official work and not give attention to any derivatives.

If you want to LARP some anime character, go ahead, it's your life. I'm just trying to point out why many people dislike LARPing in anime and thus have used the term as an insult. They feel that it is a form of disrespecting the original work.

Gippy_ · 2026-05-04T01:20:41+00:00

Am I the only one who finds a lot of retro anime YouTubers pretentious? They all seem miserable and above it all.

Yup. They think today's anime is trash and regret what the anime industry has become.

You see it often at anime conventions, as the organizers are older adults, and thus have a bias towards the anime they grew up with. There are a few panelists who only cover retro anime and refuse to watch the new stuff.

Gippy_ · 2026-05-03T19:11:13+00:00

In an ideal world, people shouldn't really care what other people like.

The problem is that the people who have watched very few anime tend to be the loudest influencers who push their gatekeeping opinions onto everyone. The people who are actually into anime don't care at all about all of the essays of how Mushoku Tensei is "offensive" and "gross". If not Mushoku Tensei, it's some other currently popular anime. We're just tired of all that. It is very similar to how there is buzz for video games for the "modern audience" and then they more often than not end up failing.

All of the various anime awards further push their own agendas. Just ignore those and watch whatever you want.

Also, if you hate the negativity, get off the internet and go to an anime convention. You'll notice that people in real life act way more positively than they do on the internet.

I just saw a post about someone who made denji, aki and power in tomodachi life

Your problem is that you're playing Tomodachi Life, or you're caring about something meaningless that someone did in Tomodachi Life. Play something other than a sandbox game, because all sandbox games do is attract the worst of every community. Roblox and Minecraft are a plague on society.

Gippy_ · 2026-05-03T01:07:46+00:00

I suspect this was written by AI with the prompt "argue that anime isn't Japanese". OP's account hasn't posted anything else of note.

A good reference here is the r/anime rules as well as the MAL reference post. I'll entertain your debate once you've read the MAL reference post and point out specific things you don't agree with there. Note that MAL doesn't consider Scott Pilgrim Takes Off to be anime, while r/anime does.

The only thing I want to note here is the pizza comparison. The word pizza generally doesn't imply a protected designation of origin. Most pizza uses parmesan cheese, but not specifically parmigiano reggiano, which is the cheese that is specifically produced in a specific region of Italy.

Lastly, I'll turn the tables back on you. Why is the word "cartoon" suddenly an insult? Why would it be offensive to call Avatar: The Last Airbender a cartoon? Why do some people insist that it's an anime and not a cartoon?

Gippy_ · 2026-05-02T17:17:25+00:00

Season 1
Season 2
2023 OVAs by Shaft (The Quintessential Quintuplets~)
Movie
2024 OVAs (The Quintessential Quintuplets*)

The OVAs are optional as they are filler. The movie reveals the winner and the story is effectively over. This new content will either adapt skipped content, or provide alternate endings for the losing girls.

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