Whenever fans of a particular thing gather, there are bound to be some people who act out and reflect badly on the rest of the group. Usually, these people are the outliers, largely ignored by the majority of the fans. However, some select fandoms seem to attract a disproportionate number of bad-mannered crazies and develop a terrible reputation on the whole. It doesn’t matter whether it’s a comic, anime, movie, musician or a sports team at the source, I’m sure there’s at least one fandom for which you can relate.
Japan certainly has its fair share of obsessive fan bases. One Twitter user decided to put together a graphic for the country’s three worst offenders and their reasons why. Now, while we don’t want to over generalize and say that everyone in these fandoms is as rude as described, we can certainly see where they’re coming from…
Kagerou Project
Kagerou Project (often referred to as just KagePuro) is a series of songs by the creator, Shizen no Teki-P, which tell the story of a group of kids with something called “eye abilities.” There are 15 songs so far, all sung using the voice synthesizing program, Vocaloid. The stories of the children are further expounded upon on the related manga and novel series.
So what makes the fans so terrible? Like a small offshoot of Vocaloid fandom, fans of KagePuro act as if they’re part of a cult. According to the above Twitter post, they go so far as to actively attempt to convert others to their cause. The way that they comment to things online betrays their madness. And, their unpleasant attitudes have even caused trouble for the creator of the series, probably due to their short tempers and the fact that if they feel disrespected, even in the slightest, they will lash out terribly.
Kuroko no Baske
Kuroko no Basuke (Kuroko’s Basketball) is a sports manga by Tadatoshi Fujimaki and serialized in Weekly Shonen Jump. Following the release of an anime in 2012 and a subsequent surge of fan-made comics and merchandise, a string of threatening letters containing dangerous liquid and powdered substances was sent to the locations where fan-made goods would be sold, including Comic Market 83, which was forced to ban Kuroko no Basuke from their selling booths.
This Twitter user’s take on these fans is that they disrupt public order. When the manga is removed from events, people against the move will create an uproar by retweeting the news, though many of them do it just to gain followers. Fans exclusively of the manga can be likened to Al Qaeda. And yet, there are a lot of people in the fandom who are good at their cores.
Johnny’s Entertainment
JE is Japan’s largest and most influential talent agency. Many of the nation’s top boy bands, including Arashi, SMAP, and many others, are owned by the man at the top, Mister Johnny. The company is notorious for its hard-to-acquire concert tickets and exploitative approach to merchandise (like requiring fans to buy five versions of the exact same CD for the chance to possibly win a ticket to an exclusive event whose participating members have yet to be decided). To top it off, there are also evidenced rumors that the company is involved in male prostitution.
So what are the fans like? The Twitter post characterizes them as the absolute worst when it comes to manners, propriety, and language. They seem to have no morals, and their ranks are supposedly filled with sluts. And, the degree of their selfishness makes this Twitter user sick.
Wow! Those are some incredibly harsh words for describing dedicated fans! Whether this is accurate or incredibly overblown, let’s just say that obsession is scary…
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