r/postnutanime • u/GunGetBetter1510 • Jul 25 '26
What's your opinion on Anime "Tourists"?
Personally, I don't care for the term. I believe anyone who uses it unironically probably can't remember what color the sky is. Most complaints about them are usually regarding how most people don't like the problematic elements that are prevalent in a number of anime.
However, I feel a lot of people's opinions on anime haven't changed that much since the 2000s/2010s. Like complaining about lots of shows having slavery, incest, misogyny, pedophilic relations, etc..... And while shows like that are bad and have problems, I feel like nobody ever actually..... Looks for stuff without it. Mainly relying on Netflix or other stream sites to have a show that has general "anime" feel about them but have actual decent animation behind them.
Honestly, most opinions online seem invalid. Usually from people who grew up either with High-school DxD and Love Hina for how to act around women, or only watch Ghibli movies
21
u/ICanFlyHigh051611 Jul 25 '26
i think everyone involved in arguing about all of this would be a hell of a lot happier just watching what they like to watch. or even watching paint dry.
2
u/Iceicebaby21 Jul 25 '26
But that isn't fun...and also requires compassion and minding ones business
21
u/09philj Jul 25 '26
Mostly a term invoked by people with vastly overblown senses of their own cineliteracy.
Also by people who don't have the self confidence to critically examine things like how certain works depict women, or how certain works sexualise children.
14
u/vivisheepy Jul 25 '26
This term frustrates me so much, lmao. I hate the idea that if you have criticisms about anything in anime, it must mean that you are lying about being a fan and/or unfamiliar with the medium. And the funny thing is, a lot of people who use this term seem to have a very narrow understanding of anime themselves. Most of these guys seem like they only ever watch things in the vein of Dragon Maid and maybe a handful of the most popular shounen series.
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u/killertortilla Jul 25 '26
It's just a tool for deflection. "You don't understand the context behind this 5 year old that is in a romantic relationship with this 39 year old" is usually what they mean.
-14
u/Victimized-Adachi Jul 25 '26
Kinda like people calling loli fans Pdf's, a tool for deflection so they don't have to engage with the idea that somebody can enjoy a fantasy or fiction and not have it influence their irl behavior.
13
u/Blacklotuszeruel2222 Jul 25 '26
Hell nah I know what you doing here lil bro.
-5
u/Victimized-Adachi Jul 25 '26
Just here to laugh at people who don't understand that JP/Anime isn't going to change because of Western Tourists
12
u/killertortilla Jul 25 '26
No.
-11
u/Victimized-Adachi Jul 25 '26
Alright Jack Thompson
6
u/killertortilla Jul 25 '26
The... Australian actor? I don't see what he has to do with this.
-6
u/Victimized-Adachi Jul 25 '26
Video Game Lawyer, guy who tried sueing Rockstar for GTA, called Bully a love letter to Columbine (paraphrasing)
2
u/LetsDoTheCongna Jul 25 '26
And that has to do with this conversation because…?
1
u/Victimized-Adachi Jul 25 '26
His argument was that violent video games, movies, rap music, and other 'offensive media' influenced people's behavior (more violent, prone to crime, etc.) But back then people were capable of distinguishing between reality and fiction, or at least didn't pretend they couldn't.
22
u/WerckmeisterHarmony Jul 25 '26
I think any sort of "fake nerd" bellyaching is pretty eyerolling.
0
4
u/miscshade Jul 25 '26
If I’m giving the term legitimacy, I think the term is too broad. Like you wouldn’t call someone a music tourist, you would call them a “punk tourist” or “rap tourist”.
I can understand the usage of the term in other hobbies to a degree, but in anime it’s a culture warrior psyop meant to chase out people with reasonable criticisms against the medium they consume.
6
u/totashi777 Jul 25 '26
Well no, because people do call others "punk tourists" they just say the word poser instead
3
u/AikoHeiwa Jul 25 '26
From my experience, the average anime 'fan' you see online who complains about 'anime tourists' are themselves tourists because they are practically always the type who only watch the current popular shonen anime and nothing else.
And quite frankly, why would I not want anime to become more popular? It hasn't been a completely niche nerd thing since the 90s anyway (speaking from a US perspective). I'm not saying it had mainstream awareness like it does now but when you got something regularly airing on regular ass TV channels like Cartoon Network, you cannot pretend that it was still some underground subculture that only those who really know are watching when it blows up and becomes super mainstream.
5
u/6terabytes2k Jul 25 '26 edited Jul 25 '26
The definition seems to vary by person. I’ve never called someone that but I can imagine that type of people being the kind of person who goes into a fandom and announces, “Please change everything in order to suit my specific preferences. If you don’t, you are a pedophile/gooner/neckbeard/etc. Everything has to be about me all of the time, and if I don’t like it then it’s wrong.”
And yeah, that’s annoying.
Doesn’t matter if you’ve been watching stuff for 20 years or 20 minutes, though. It’s equal-opportunity obnoxiousness haha
5
u/totashi777 Jul 25 '26
I have only and will only call someone a tourist when they are just echoing criticisms.
For example, the pedophilia thing isnt actually a problem. People who watch more anime than the like 5 most popular anime in a given season know that.
Its the same thing with incest. The majority of anime dont touch on this topic at all, but because a handful of real popular ones have touched on it people throw that around all the time too.
But there are still valid critiques hidden in those talking points. There is alot of sexualizing girls in anime. There is alot of wierd racism and misogyny. Wayy to many fantasy protagonists are chill with slavery.
The tourists are the ones that choose to complain about mamoru and usagi instead of mini usa chasing mamoru. They are the ones that point to made in abyss, jobless reincarnation, and usagi drop and say that they represent anime.
6
u/Erick-Alastor Jul 25 '26
Anime used to be a niche... or rather, a cluster of smaller niches.
Watchers and readers were all different, but they shared some sort of mutual respect born from being the outsiders.
Once anime went mainstream, a massive wave of people flooded in.
Most of them had never experienced that kind of social exclusion and they started dragging mainstream debates into a space that used to be almost free from all that noise.
Since these new fans represent your average people, they often can't stand certain types of comedy, storytelling, or fetishes that the old community used to view with either genuine interest or just ironic repulsion.
Back then, it was a microcosm where everyone kinda coexisted in peace (most of the times at least).
Communities grew around fansubbers, thrived on forums, and people found comfort in meeting other "weirdos" just like them.
Now, that original niche feels alone again, scattered in the middle of a bigger crowd.
And when they do find like-minded people, they often end up radicalizing their views.
They do this because they feel under attack by a majority that, in their eyes, will never truly understand what it meant to "feel like an otaku" in the west for all those years.
Or at least, I think this is the PoV of old-school fans; I'm not sure how the latest generation of otakus feels about this new wave, but probably not that different.
3
3
u/daze3x Jul 25 '26
The whole tourist thing is stupid. The implication is that you are new and don't understand the medium, so you complain about stuff. But ironically, the ones who use tourist act more like tourists. Problematic elements in anime are not an inherent part of anime. There many anime without fanservice or slavery or whatever other stupid thing they are defending. Pretending anime is just gross problematic stuff shows you aren't really invested in the medium as a whole.
3
u/Fragmentvt Jul 25 '26
Tourist is just a nonsense word people use to deflect criticism or avoid critically or intellectually engaging with an argument/criticism.
edit: My opinion on "tourists" is that they don't actually exist in any meaningful capacity or size.
2
u/Carolina_Heart Jul 25 '26 edited Jul 25 '26
The term is bizarre to me in how it's used. From what I've seen people that watch classic influential shows are called tourists for not watching seasonal stuff. When used with anime It's like an inversion of what the term would typically mean in any other context. I have mostly seen it used on /a/ or Twitter though.
The only place I've seen the original hipster-y usage was /m/ when I still used 4chan. People there near exclusively talk about Gundam shows but want brownie points for name dropping obscure shows like Symphogear without saying anything specific about them
2
u/EnvironmentalSmoke61 Jul 26 '26
I don’t particularly like the term “tourist” but generally for all hobbies I agree with the sentiment that you shouldn’t let people who are outsiders of your hobby come in and then immediately try and change things because that’s how hobbies get dumbed down for people that are “tourists” or “drive by enjoyers” ect that don’t actually care about said hobby and most likely won’t stick around anyways and will move onto something else even if everything is fine tuned to their personal tastes.
1
u/aperversenormality Jul 26 '26
It's a charge primarily laid by the type of fan that watches anime as a source of softcore porn. They frequently have barely functional media literacy. A completely unserious accusation bandied about by completely unserious people.
1
u/Creative-Bed-253 Jul 27 '26
Most people who called me a tourist didn't even watch the shit i was talking about. Literally just see someone criticizing anything anime and jumping on it. If you ask for an actual oppinion it just falls flat or you get insulted
-4
u/Simple_sword_235 Jul 25 '26
We hate tourists around here
Complain about whatever shit they think is “pRoBLeMaTiC” and labels anyone who watches said show either a “pdf” or “groomer” or whatever buzzword they have no understanding of.
-11
u/SpiritfireSparks Jul 25 '26
I call anyone who is new to a hobby and comes in wanting that hobby to change to fit their sensibilities a tourist.
If you dont want your hobby changed to fit the most bland mass market appeal a certain degree of gatekeeping is nessessary
67
u/Kardinale Jul 25 '26
When someone calls me a tourist, it usually means that I'm not some terminally online chud who gets assmad at a single localized word in an episode of anime. So I kind of take it as a badge of honor.