Anime Fanbases (Fangirls and fanboys)

[asian_tofu]

I'm not sure whether or not this should be in the Otaku Lounge or something, whatever.

Attempting to refrain from flaming these types of anime fans, but what do you consider a fangirl or fanboy? The imagery I get is usually some person who obsesses over an anime...very obviously. He or she enjoys using random Japanese words in their dialogue (and/or spelling it incorrectly if typing it) and shrieking out randomly "OMG {insert anime character here}'s HOT!!" He or she pretends to be an expert on anime without even being able to understand what doujinshi is.

It can get irritating.

--BLUE

[Guest ScirosDarkblade]

Hm, you summed it up pretty well. I guess I could add

1.spends all of his/her money on random anime and manga and various ridiculous anime memorabilia
2. thinks Batman and Superman are lame yet displays a complete lack of knowledge about American comics
3. thinks being able to poorly draw anime characters makes him/her an "anime artist"
4. thinks cartoons like Teen Titans are trying to "rip off" anime and dislikes them for it

[AzureWolf]

For the sake of simplicity, fanboys will be used in place of fanboys/fangirls.

[FONT=Book Antiqua][SIZE=2][COLOR=blue]Well, I have to disagree with the overall tone that this thread is giving fanboys. I don't see anything flat-out wrong with fanboys: they are just expressing their interest in anime more openly than others. Haha, that doesn't make any sense, does it? I guess, before I could say that, I have to explain what I think fanboy means.

A fanboy, in my opinion, is a person strongly devoted to the recreational activity of anime. Their freetime is consumed by either watching it, or expressing their interest in some fashion. That includes purchasing anime peripherals, manipulating said peripherals, discussing anime with others, shouting popular Japanese phrases, and so forth.

Speaking of peripherals...Sciros, taking the tone of this thread and your other points into consideration, it sounds like you think spending all of one's money on anime is a bad thing. So, a person likes one thing above all other things. Yeah, that's weird, but not necessarily wrong (as long as they don't spend more than they can spend, like crack addicts...).

As for all of the points that match my description of the anime fanboy, I don't think those points are bad things: just weird. As for the ones that [i]don't[/i] match my definition, I have to say it sounds like you are confusing "fanboy" and "poser."

See, posers are the worst. They are very haughty, trying to act all knowledgeable about anime, seeing anime as the entertainment god, and basically setting everything else on the backburner in the hopes that people will acknowledge their "1337ness." Posers are people who try to act as anime gurus (i.e., what you thought fanboys do), when in actuality they looked up a few things on a forum or two and regurgitated the same information anywhere they can - especially IRL! Oh, and googling a few easy-to-find spots to d/l anime and then acting like it's a rare thing that many others are not capable of doing.

A poser may not know what the hell he is saying, but he'll be d@mned if anyone else knows anymore than him. A lot of posers don't even know they are being polled, haha. Quite a few times, a "new, popular and must-see" anime is discussed among pollers, and the poser will gain interest and feign knowledge of the fabricated anime. It's pretty nifty: you can find quite a few results of this test online. The results may surprise you.

An easier indicator for poser-like behavior is simply discussing an anime they've seen. If they can only spew facts (i.e., air dates, about the author, budgeting and studio junk) and can't derive [i]actual content[/i] from the show itself, that's a definitive poser: it confirms that their knowledge is superficial.

In short, I think you are referring to posers and not fanboys, but feel free to correct me.[/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT]

[asian_tofu]

Hehehe...I just realized that even though I've spend two years seriously into anime, I'm still a n00b because at least one of those years I spent through a very fangirl-like stage (w/o, thank god, the random Japanese words and the character obsessing).
Azure Wolf, you've brought up a pretty good point. Posers in my opinion are people who've gotten into anime because it's become somewhat mainstream nowadays. They pretend to like anime because it's popular, and watch a few overrated series to get the gist of it before...and then the rest of what you said.

Fanboys, I have to admit, aren't exactly like fangirls. They're more into the near-religious worship of anime, while fangirls just scream a lot and spam (more of the time). Of course, that's from past experiences [shudder].

--BLUE

[Dagger]

That's an apt analysis, Azure. :)

[quote name='ScirosDarkblade']1.spends all of his/her money on random anime and manga and various ridiculous anime memorabilia[/quote]

In addition to seconding what Azure said regarding this point, I'd like to mention that I'm more inclined to feel skeptical when when I encounter a ranting, raving fan who (thanks to DVD rips) [i]doesn't[/i] spend any money on anime, or one who brags about his enormous collection of... bootlegs. There's nothing especially wrong with merely being a big spender and/or a fanatical hobbyist, although it won't win you a ton of friends.

[quote name='AzureWolf][FONT=Book Antiqua][SIZE=2][COLOR=blue]A poser may not know what the hell he is saying, but he'll be d@mned if anyone else knows anymore than him.[/COLOR][/SIZE'][/FONT][/quote]

*nods* That's another fairly simple way to identify posers: they always, [i]always[/i] try to one-up fellow fans (in terms of how long they've been watching anime, the number of anime they've seen, the size of their respective collections, sheer knowledge, etc).

~Dagger~

[Sol-Blade]

Heh, im guessing you haven't been to the [adult swim] boards lately. Im sorry, no offense to them...but they seriously have to get some of those (How can I put this nicely...) idiots under control or something. Seriously, half the people there watch one show and they call themselves guru's of (insert show here), which I think is an incredibly lame attempt at showing off one's [I]supposed[/I] knowledge.

You want to talk about posers? Well seems like anyone who posts something like...oh I dunno: "OMG I LUV TEH SHOW [B]INUYASHA[/B] ITZ SO KEWL ITS THE ROXXORS!!!!!!!!!11!1" or somewhere along the lines of that...has either:

[U]One[/U]: A typing disablity, hey it happens. :D

[U]Two[/U]: Absolutely no common sense or respect for other people who read that post along with a complete absence of a mind, or any sort of knowledge at all.

[U]Three[/U]: Nothing better to do.

Seriously, how many people do you know that haven't seen anything outside of [adult swim]? I always get a kick out of people who hear me talking about anime and they instantly bring up the [as] line-up. Granted, it is the only channel at the moment that shows any sort of anime to the public (G4-TechTV isn't availible to everyone, along with other channels...) so I can understand that. But still, when they just constantly bring up Cowboy Bebop or Trigun it bugs me. It's sort of a pet peeve to see someone just talk about them. You don't see many people talking in L33t about shows like D.N.Angel or Escaflowne...no it's almost always about a show on [adult swim]. The facts don't lie...

Again, not to bad-mouth the [as] boards but 3/4ths of the users there don't have a clue what they are talking about sometimes. The ones who do are considered gods apparently. Again with the guru's...you ask them a question they can't answer and they get all po'ed about it. Lame.

So what im saying basically, is yes, there are your handful of...stubborn, ignorant, hard-headed..."fans" out there. But there are a great deal of people who are at least intellgent enough to post something longer than one line or know more about a single episode. Another note: In my opinion...usually if they have a username with some kind of fanboy/girl crap in it like "ShippoRuLeZ" or "Spike555" and so on...are kind of a dead giveaway. Not all the time, but usually...:rolleyes:

I for one, am not trying to brag, but I have seen enough shows to know that there is more out there than Cowboy Bebop and Inuyasha. They don't know what they are missing.

[Godelsensei]

[COLOR=Gray][FONT=Courier New]The difference between fanboys and posers has been established by Skippedry-chan and Azure-jiji, so I'll just muse:

[i]It's like the difference between Indy fans and Emo fans.[/i]
[/FONT]
[/COLOR]

[Ezekiel]

[COLOR=DarkSlateGray][SIZE=1]This thread is definitely interesting...since it pretty much described me in the first two posts O_o I'm still going through a fangirl stage...so sue me. Anime boys are far better than the boys in my neighbourhood anyway XD

Seriously now, the point about spending all their money on anime is true, and like others have said, there's nothing really wrong with it.
I'd say that I've honestly spent about...£600 pounds on anime/manga in the last year and a half, but I wouldn't brag about my huge collection of anime items. In fact, I'm guessing it would only be half the size of any American fans collection, spending the same amount.

Why? Because I have to import most of my stuff, everything except the manga has to come from overseas and it really adds up.

I think I've got about 50 manga now and only one complete series, each of them cost £7 plus, some even cost me £13.

Away from money issues, I'm still guilty of using random Japanese words in a time of boredom/insanity. But I am trying to rectify that by going on a Japanese course, so hopefully it won't be so random in the near future O_o

One thing that does annoy me about the 'posers', as everyone is calling them, is something that Sol-Blade talked about.

I usually purposefully try to find out about the not so popular anime, then I hunt down the DVDs and manga, it's usually a lot more interesting.
Digimon is what got me into anime, but what's the fun in watching a show that everyone's heard about? Isn't it better to answer the question of, 'What's your favourite TV program' with Gensomaden Saiyuki?

So yeah, I speak for the fangirls...and since some people online think I'm a guy, the fanboys too. More power to us, I say, as long as we don't spam. :rolleyes: [/SIZE] [/COLOR]

[Skye]

[size=1][font=veranda][color=indigo]>> Well? you could say this, I guess:

All men are fanboys.

>< It depends on of WHO though. Don?t hurt me. As Jamie said(Crucifix), it was pretty much summed up in the first two posts, and then she practically described my life. >>[/size][/font][/color]

[EVA Unit 100]

I don't consider a typical person who watches anime only on [as] or some other source to be a poser. Just like I wouldn't consider the average guy who plays baseball and doesn't play basketball, soccer, or football a "poser". But I wouldn't consider them a fanboy/fangirl either. Here is my personal dictionary of terms to use for different anime fans:

[U]Casual Fan[/U]: Someone who watches two or three animes (probably Sailor Moon or Dragonball or Bebop or Akira or something along those lines), likes them, and then just walks on with appreciation

[U]Poser[/U]: Someone who might watch two or three animes and then suddenly thinks they know everything about anime when all they do is rant and rave and go crazy about the few animes they have seen and spurt out facts about ones they haven't

[U]Junior Fanboy/Fangirl[/U]: Someone who has seen a few animes and wants to see more, and actually watches new things as opposed to posers

[U]Closet Fanboy/Fangirl[/U]: Someone who loves anime but just won't admit it in public

[U]Fanboy/Fangirl[/U]: Someone highly obsessed with anime, and goes to all the cons, collects things, has heated internet debates, and watches a lot of anime, and still somehow has a life to varying degrees and wants to get others interested in their obsession (this would likely be where I fit)

[U]Otaku[/U]: Has a lot, if not more, of the obsessive fanboy behavior, but refuses to do anything beyond their anime obsession and often just wants non-fans (or fans of lower degrees of fanhood) to go away rather than to convert them

[U]Afficianato[/U]: Someone who knows a lot about and watches and critically reviews a lot of anime, but lacks the obsessive behavior of fanboys and otakus