Okay, thread time. I know this isn't exactly a new take, but it needs repeating. For a while, anime fans wanted their hobby to be accepted by the public. They wanted anime to go mainstream. That was a colossal mistake. Anime should have never gone mainstream.

Let me explain. When weebs said they wanted anime to go mainstream, they wanted it to be accepted as it was. They wanted the highschool girls in short skirts, the Shonen power ups, the bizarre plot elements, all of it to be accepted. Sadly, that's not how mainstreaming works.

At first, it looked like anime might be accepted for what it was. In the early-mid 2010s, shows like Attack on Titan and SAO were getting mainstream attention. Porter Robinson did a collab with A-1 to make an anime music video, and Adult Swim began co-producing more FLCL.

It was looking like anime might become mainstream as is. But it should be painfully obvious by now that it won't. From CR pushing SJW stuff at cons, Funi inserting politics into dubs, and not to mention normie fans getting offended at normal anime tropes real fans accept.

It's become obvious that the only way the mainstream will accept anime is if it sheds all it's uniqueness and becomes generic Western crap. It must pander to Western politics, Western outrage culture, Western "sensibilities." In other words, it may as well stop being anime.

For whatever reason, the mainstream just can't accept anime for what it is. Maybe it's too "weird," maybe Western sensibilities are too fragile, but I'd rather anime stay the way it is and keep it's charm than become Marvel/Star Wars/whatever crap Hollyweird is rehashing now.

Since this is blowing up, might as well go ahead and make the typical statement. Don't support Crunchyroll or Funimation. These companies censor and alter content. Instead, sail the high seas to watch online, and use sights like @playasia to purchase straight from Japan.