Journalism project – Rachel
Topic – Anime/Internet culture/filthy frank/PC world
Most things in society are not often talked about, mostly because people don’t want to explore things that are too out of the norm, or they don’t want to become politically incorrect. So many things have changed over the years, and these seven points can detail what is happening to our society; the things that most people don’t want to talk about.
· So many people in our society like anime, but over the years, the quality of the shows have taken a drastic turn for the worst. With shows like Rosario+Vampire, and Kill la Kill, the famed Japanese cartoon has shifted it’s values from the art of great Storytelling and intelligent plot lines, to just reducing itself to a myriad of eye candy for pseudo anime fans to fanboy over. A common example is the growing popularity of Harem anime, which is always about a boy or girl that ends up at a new place, and a bunch of new characters set their sights on him/her. While this plot is overused, the main thing that kills it is the fact that most episodes consists of nothing but fanservice, i.e. – shots of body parts that are meant to draw in male viewers. Good examples of this are Love Hina, and Ouran High School Host Club.
· One thing that ties to anime and Internet culture is the infamous fanbase. Every popular medium has one, and most of the time, fans of a certain subject are pretty crazy, and even twisted in the head if you dig deep enough. Every fanbase has proved itself to be capable of going off the deep end, especially with Internet culture. The youtuber Leafyishere has a rabid amount of fans, in which he calls “reptilians”. While there are sane fans of him, they are very hard to find, as most fans of Leafy are very young, blindly following every word he says, and some even worshipping him as a god. However, that’s only mild compared to the world of cartoons, for the world of Sonic the Hedgehog suffers the worst amount of insanity, from people writing erotic stories about the characters, creating terrible art of them, and some fans go all out, wanting to become one with the beloved character themselves. A prime example of this is a woman named Alex Henriol – known as the creator of the infamous website “Sonic Passion”. Members on the websites forum would discuss at length their perverted fantasies involving the Sonic cast, ranging from erotica to straight up BDSM related obscenities. However, it was Alex Henriol that publicly announced that she wanted to marry Sonic the Hedgehog, so much that she would go to the length of shooting herself just to make him happy. Fortunately, Sonic Passion was shut down, but there are still crazy people that lurk in the shadows, like anime fans, who represent a good chunk of the insane fanbase. While there are a good amount of level-headed fans out there, our world must consider the lot that likes to draw hentai, bears a Loli/Shota complex like it’s nothing, and most importantly – loves Japan more than they love themselves and their own culture.
· One part of the anime fanbase is the dreaded weeaboo – a person who is most likely white, but thinks they’re Japanese, and they love Japan so much, they worship it, all because they watched anime. This individual is dangerous, because they will defend the almighty Japan to no end, even the bad parts of the country’s history. A really bad case of weeaboo will love Japan so much, that it will hate all other Asian nations, such as – China, South Korea, Malaysia, etc. However, the weeaboo that we are all familiar with is the average weeaboo – the most likely white individual who is usually overweight and unwashed. Their diet consists of Pocky and ramen noodles, they dress in cosplay every day, and they insist on using Japanese words in their life despite knowing only three. In the absolute worst case, the weeaboo will wear a Naruto headband in public, for he constantly watches the overrated anime in his mom’s basement. However, the other form of anime fan is the “normal” fan, one who just casually watches anime for fun, and will never trash another person just because they have different tastes. The normal anime fan often despises the weeaboo, but a cherished pastime is to make fun of this failed specimen of alternative culture. While the two are vastly different, they are both bound by a certain thing – the Internet, a tool that keeps everyone together.
· Internet culture is the driving force behind every person with an inspired mind, and often bad intentions. Internet culture offers good and bad things, which is very important to know about. YouTube is a main source for all things that happen on the Internet, with You tubers like Superwoman promoting positivity, and Collegehumor rising from their slump of dead humor, and making a comeback with their successful show “Adam Ruins Everything”, and providing hilarious insight that criticizes today’s world. However, there are also bad things that come with such culture, like YouTube drama, a massive storm that has recently dominated everyone’s life. The main perpetrators of such YouTube drama are Keemstar with his show “Drama Alert”, often described as You tubers TMZ, Leafyishere with his rant videos that criticize other people, who are often vulnerable and unable to defend themselves against his rabid fans, Onision, who always causes trouble with every video he makes, notably for filming his girlfriend having a mental breakdown, claiming she had sepsis, countless claims of abuse from previous girlfriends, and a myriad of other detestable acts. More recent drama has begun to come to the surface. Eugenia Cooney, an emo youtuber first came into the public eye simply for being skinny, but over the years, many people have spoken out against her, calling her out for being anorexic, and even saying that she might die. These are all good and bad things, but the most important thing to do is to focus on the good, and remember that the Internet often is a source for news that one will not find anywhere else, and comedy that may never have been fathomed by human minds.
· Filthy Frank is widely known around YouTube, often describing himself as “everything a person should not be”. His videos are often crossed with black and blue humor, making it filthy, and dark at the same time. He often criticizes things that people are too afraid to talk about, making it his mission to be anti-PC. He does all of this while making music, telling jokes, and filming the bizarre entities that live in his house, which represent his characters. Filthy Frank sets himself apart from others by using the main components of surreal British comedy, an art form that most wouldn’t think about. He does this by incorporating his characters into videos, such as – Chin-chin – a dark figure that rules over Frank and his house, Pink guy – Frank’s best friend and fellow musician, and Safari Man – a bum who randomly stays at Frank’s house, often annoying him. These elements make for a great show, and it always draws people in, making them want to watch more. However, Filthy Frank’s humor is not accepted by our world today, since our PC culture has unfortunately dominated comedy.
· Our society has become very politically correct nowadays, so much so that we can’t express ourselves as freely as we used to. In this new PC world, it’s almost as if everything is offensive and racist, such as the incident where Hillary Duff and her husband dressed up as a native American and pilgrim for Halloween. Once that picture hit the Internet, everyone thought that they were being racist, which is a far cry from ten years ago, when people would wear stereotypical Halloween costumes, and no one would bat an eye. Our PC world is well-intentioned, as it tries to be a safe and accepting world for everyone, but a line needs to be drawn, especially when it comes to comedy.
· Our PC world is killing comedy, things that were said ten, or even twenty years ago would never be said now. A prime example of this is MadTv – a show that never held back when it came to comedy and issues that affected our world. The show has a sketch called “Special Olympics”, which details the plight of a mentally handicapped man being talked down to by a bunch of celebrities, and how he puts them in their place in the end. This sketch is very true to our world and was most importantly – Very funny. Unfortunately, our PC world would never let a comedian do a sketch like that today, simply because a mentally challenged person was being portrayed in a satirical way. It’s important to laugh, and laugh at ourselves, but because of the political correctness of our world, we are losing that ability, and our comedy is slowly becoming a dying art, forever doomed to languish in the realms of the past.