The other day I was at my local comic book store (back issues and dollar bin of course) and since I had nothing to do that day I went over to the table top gaming section and some people playing DnD were taking a break and since I've always wanted to play Dungeons and Dragons or something like it I talked to the Dungeon Master and he was very friendly and let me watch their next session. All this to say it really infuriates me how the whole "toxic nerd" or "toxic fandom" perception has become a reality.
Nerds (not meant as an insult of course since I'm one) have always been a pretty open group if you show an interest in the hobby. I can't tell you how many times I've gotten recommendations in this group, especially with Anime/Manga since I am pretty much a normie in those areas (working my way out of normie status with Anime). Also, there have been numerous times where I've talked someone's ear off because they asked me where to start reading comics of certain characters, what Star Wars EU books they should read, endless discussion about Skyrim lore, Science Fiction books, and the list goes on. Also we all remember online forums in the 90s and early 00's.
I just despise how nerdiness is seen as so horrible now simply because people who have been invested in a book, game, or hobby are demonized when some douchebag takes over the IP and makes unnecessary or pointless changes. Rings of Power being the latest example. Heaven forbid as well if you go into the comments section of a gaming site and have the weird idea that a gaming site is for gaming news/info and not for political diatribes of the journalists.
So, who do you blame most for this? Us nerds for being too friendly and not gate keeping properly? Shills in media? The rise of the fake geek and the trendiness of "nerd stuff" to people who then get jobs in things they don't really care about? People like Anita and Zoe?
I figure at some point normies will get bored and move on. Look at Star Wars. Between OT and PT it was just the “nerds” like me reading the books, comic books, or playing the games. Even after the prequels. Then Disney got a hold of it
The Big Bang Theory created the Eternal September of nerd-dom.
It definitely is one of the things that made it trendy to call yourself a nerd
Watch Legend of the Galactic Heroes.
Our first mistake was not forming a semi-circle.
Nice visual. I love sci-fi and that sounds like a Sci-Fi anime. Last anime movie I watched was Fist of the North Star and I loved it. Was going to get the manga.
Ninja Scroll, Record of Lodoss War, Akira, Vampire Hunter D (though it's apparently impossible to get the original dub and the new one is shitty. The old one was also shitty but still fun.)
Also, basically any '80s anime that made its way to the US is great. The aesthetic was much more varied back then, but still recognizable. Project A-Ko, Appleseed, Space Pirate Cobra, A Wind Called Amnesia, Demon City Shinjuku. Most of the translations are pretty terrible but I honestly don't care. They're fun in an '80s camp way.
As to your original question: women generally just don't like nerds. The ones who claim to be nerds are mostly unbearable attention whores who don't actually have any nerdy interests. Socially, what "women" say about a group is what "society" thinks about the group.
Is this why you see a woman who writes for the Mary Sue get upset because a guy asked her what comic books she reads because she was wearing a super hero shirt or something. She will then go on to describe that as being interrogated.
I’ve seen Akira. That’s really good. First anime I ever saw was Robotech. I’ll check out the others you recommended. Thanks!
You mentioning those anime especially Demon City reminded me of another 80's OVA I saw not long ago on YouTube of all places - Goku: Midnight Eye. It's a mini-series edited into a two-part movie, about a detective in a cyberpunk-esque future, with lots of violence, and nudity and the story is totally goofy... but it's got that AESTHETIC.
The 90s were the turning point to mopey highschool shit and then by the '10s it was pure Tumblr tranny propaganda.
Yes, but it has some of the best humor I've ever seen. This picture graces my wagie cagie.
Still sounds good. Not everything needs action crammed into it
A lot of the classic 80s anime was basically military fiction in space, or cyberpunk stuff, since the mangaka were children of sailors who'd served in the IJN (Grave of the Fireflies was a giant fuck-you to the impending globohomo'ing of Japan)
That series attracts people from both the left and the right (and also a lot of women for some reason) which is funny for a political show.
Somewhat off topic, but I used to admin for a popular LoGH discord and was removed by the head admin for removing a temp ban from someone who posted a "transphobic" meme.
Blame 'fangrrrls' and those who cater to them. Women are not the root of all evil, but the culture around them is.
"I'm a neeeeeerd tihi, give me attention" is a big part of what has happened.
i fucking hate critters
While corpo's are well known to make bad decisions with franchises due to being out of touch, nobody saw the rise of a terrorist ideology raping major franchises come from a mile away.
As for the main cause of the regressive leftist propaganda being allowed to get this bad, being a corporate minded individual and a globalist conspirator go hand in hand.
One glaring example of this is whenever I hear that something is going to be "updated for a modern audience". All I hear is "screw the actual fans, this is simply a platform" . Perfect example would be the Wheel of Time showrunner. He made it clear from day one that he didn't care about source material.
In regards to "updated for a modern audience", that's just their extremist ego's talking.
Those animals including McFarlane would likely go berserk if we were to take Family Guy and censor jokes that conflate perversion with sexism and republicans with tradcons/other undesirable groups.
McFarlane hasn't written Family Guy since 2011, IIRC.
He could have easily intervened if someone was doing something stupid though.
Why bother? The royalties keep rolling in until it dies, and even after because of all the repeats.
That phrase is a key warning signal everything you loved will be stripped out and replaced with fag, tranny, woke, open borders anti-White propaganda.
And the producers' names...every time
I'm starting to believe that a lot of this negative association with the term Nerd was because they were naturally great at gatekeeping their hobbies as you needed to invest time in reading the books, buying the toys or learning to play to join in.
That used to keep out most if the toxic ones that wanted to change the hobbies to suit them. Then they started to notice that Nerds had a lot of money for their hobbies so slowly started to inch their way in saying nerds aren't bad just misunderstood, bypassed some of the gatekeeping and now we are at the current state of infiltration where anime has only held their line thanks to language barriers and competitive market.
I really hope anime doesn’t fall. Looking back the worst thing to happen to nerd hobbies was becoming trendy. Like when the MCU was really popular so many ppl would tell me they were into comic books when they simply watched MCU movies
I would go the other way, I think the only major gatekeeping tactic nerds had was that their activities had no social prestige whatsoever, so only people interested in the activity was join. There was no point for others.
Once nerdy activities started gaining social prestige, nerdom lost it's only defense mechanism.
This. Security through obscurity and hostile culture.
Nerds are being attacked by the system for resisting the system's massification of nerdom's spaces. It's a structural problem because the ownership of nerd IPs end up kissing the ring of Woke Capital in order to stay in business.
I'd like to point to part of the problem personally: Women getting ito those spaces. And who do I specifically blame? Joss Wheadon who made Buffy. Now, wether you like it or not doesn't matter here, he brought a lot of women into the hobby which did a bit of good but it also brought in some more normies, that was strike one.
In general I think it's the issue with the whole NPC thing, I believe a lot of people who followed the "nerd culture" to get into it are just following trends. They just joined up, thought nothing of it and now those very same people think they gotta change it to be more "inclusive". It's really like programmed bots, they don't think, they don't even like what they are in to. They just want to change it. Actual fans want more but not change anything. Guess why manga's still popular, because it's still fun and doesn't change the formular(too much). Thank god for 90% of Japanese creators not giving a fuck what Gaijins want.
Also for your anime normieness: watch some Gundam my dude.
Insert the one meme where a mass of women pushes a small group out of a hobby, then complains they aren't part of the new group and demands access or they'll sue, then kick out the original holders to rinse and repeat.
Or the one over time showing a lady mocking a group of nerds about gaming and then complaining that she wants to play too
Is that the one where the nerds are talking about eSports and then the thot finds out about the prize pool and demands a women's bracket?
A different one. The one you describe sounds funny
I dunno but maybe if they think we're so "toxic" they will leave the fandoms and we can begin gatekeeping again. Embrace your inner toxic nerd.
Another big factor I haven't seen mentioned yet, these weirdo guys and cliche girls that have taken over nerd culture for movies and games were able to organize and spread their cancerous ideas because of Tumblr.
Where before, the popular girls into nerd things would never admit it out loud and would keep it to themselves, on Tumblr they had a place to share their passion...and then share their dumbass ideas for making mediums worse.
Also all these types from Tumblr were millennial children and have now grown up and work in the media industries of news, movies, games, etc. except they kept their toxic online personalities and brought it with them, ruining everything.
Nerds get respect now, and were clerks back in the day. Tolkien was a nerd. He wrote a series for other nerds. That series became very popular. Nerds loved it, and it made tons of money from them.
Gaming was a nerd hobby. YouTube had to manipulate their algorithm to hide how popular games were to keep the other smaller groups happy.
Nerds were a major buying power for a long time. They also gained more respect. Now they're the big names, and people respect them. The popular folks, who were never actually popular, kept losing out to nerds.
Then you need to understand how nerds are portrayed as not cool. A nerd specifically chooses to not be cool or popular. Since normal is also considered mature, then nerds must be children. Note how women refer to men in the same way.
To be a nerd is to be a child. If nerds rule, then the world is becoming immature.
This is the popular kids revenge. If everyone is a nerd, then no one is. Then they can rename nerds and continue gaining false popularity.
I don't call shitting all over the IPs we used to enjoy "respect".
Give royal space force: wings of Honnêamise a try, it's one of my favorite movies.
As for nerds we were inconvenient, from MTV making a wrestling show that hid the audience other than plants or Nintendos 'I'm not a gamer' ads it's clear they've seen us as a blockade from a less critical, more consumer driven market.
That sounds like a good one! Great analysis. I remember when I first started seeing nerds attacked or those who wanted a faithful adaptation attacked.
It's super beautiful and full of creative design work, definitely a movie I notice something new and neat everytime from the design of the weapons to things like phones and the money.
Yeah around the time of xmen 2 was when it started off but that whole first wave of 2000s comic movies were embarrassed as hell to be associated with us. I also think normies are more lucrative, most nerds worth their salt wont buy official gw paints or premade terrain, make their own character sheets and miniatures. That DIY attitude has to die as far as their concerned.
I’m actually thinking about downloading some amiga and Commodore 64 games