Greetings, readers and visitors! Starting today, I will experiment with anime writing prompts. This idea was largely inpsired by Yomu’s recent posts on the Umai Yomu Anime Blog. (You should check out that site if you haven’t yet.) Thanks, Yomu, for the idea.

As much as possible, I plan to incorporate currently airing anime into these writing prompts. But for today, the prompt is not specific to any anime. It’s a general discussion question: what are some unhinged opinions you’ve heard about anime? This prompt comes from an old Reddit discussion on r/anime. Below are three examples of unhinged anime takes I’ve heard from others. Please let me know some examples of your own in the comments!

Organization Note: Writing prompt posts will be classified under the “Random Rants” tag and the “Anime Rant” category.

---

Unhinged Opinion #1: Anime is Bad for Christians

I’m an atheist and I personally believe Christianity is largely harmful – however, Christians themselves are often good people. In any case, Christian or not, I believe in treating people with basic respect. Despite my current stance on the god claim, I actually grew up in a small community of extremely close-minded, fundamentalist Christians in the USA. That’s where I heard this absurd take that suggests anime should not be viewed by good Christians.

There are various arguments my parents once used to justify this opinion. (Note: they have both since mellowed out and changed their minds.) Most of the arguments were extremely pathetic and sometimes bordered on xenophobic. One chief argument, for example, says that anime is a bad influence due to the presence of foreign and/or unchristian philosophies and cultures. Other weirder arguments were specific to certain anime series. For instance, “Pokemon is bad because it encourages people to call on little demons instead of God.”

Needless to say, this is a fringe opinion that doesn’t represent most modern Christians. I would venture to say that the majority of anime fans in the USA are Christians. That’s just statistics, since Christianity is the most prevalent religion in the States. (Interestingly enough, there is a fast-growing group of non-religious people in the USA; but despite the speed of our growth in recent years, we are still a minority compared to the religious.) The point is that you can definitely be Christian and still enjoy some anime.

---

Unhinged Opinion #2: All Anime is Hentai

There is a huge variety of anime, with no show exactly the same as the next. Though many series contain ecchi elements such as nudity or excessive fanservice, that doesn’t apply to all anime. Even if it did, that still wouldn’t technically make it hentai. In order for it to be hentai, it would have to include sex scenes and be created with the intent to be used as porn.

The idea that all anime is hentai is patently absurd, so let me explain a bit more about this “opinion.” It’s a misunderstanding. The people professing this opinion usually accept correction quickly once things have been explained to them. So, it’s not a willful denial of facts; it’s just that some people who never watched anime before got the wrong idea. They confused animated porn with animated series in general. This is also a very fringe misunderstanding, so I’ve only had to correct it once with a stranger online.

---

Unhinged Opinion #3: Anime is Too “Woke”

While this may still be an uncommon take, it seems to be more popular online compared to the previous two examples. It’s normally right-wingers, incels, and people chronically online who promote the silly idea that anime is too “woke.”

My first objection to this take is that nobody seems to be able to define “woke” – with the exception of extreme right-wingers who define it as anything inclusive of minorities (LGBT+, people of color, etc.) By their definition, “wokeness” is something I believe we should strive for. There may be other ways to define “woke” which have more negative connotations, but nobody has been able to explain it to me in a satisfactory way.

Regardless of exact definitions, the point people are trying to make is that anime is too inclusive, with too much minority representation. If this were true, I would celebrate. After all, unlike the extreme right, I believe inclusivity is a positive thing. But the fact is that anime is definitely not up to speed with other democratic countries when it comes to being inclusive and providing progressive themes.

Japanese anime still contains loads of casual sexism, anti-LGBT+ rhetoric, and a stark lack of alternative ethnic depictions. While there are certainly still examples of this in western cartoons as well, they are not nearly as common, and they are constantly being called out for their problems by vocal online communities. See the difference? In closing, with there being so many problematic and hyper-conservative elements in anime, it’s ridiculous to think anime has become “woke.”

What about you, readers? What inhinged anime opinions have you heard? Let me know!

~Thanks for reading~

---

~

~

~