Some musings on fandom.
So lately I've been doing some thinking about not just KHR the series, but KHR the fandom. To be honest, ever since I got into Reborn I've found the fandom fascinating, because as far as my experience goes, it's completely unique. But lately it's been getting some heat from people in places like fandomsecrets. And I've come to the conclusion that people are hating on it for the exact same reasons that I'm in love with it.
So, essay/rambly thing goes here:
When I first started reading KHR, Naruto was my main fandom. I love Naruto for many of the reasons I love KHR; amazing characters, interesting plot, awesome battles, great art. Not to mention an uncanny ability to play my heartstrings like a violin, thanks so much Kishi and Amano. XD To me, despite wildly different premises, the two series had a lot in common. So when I made my first forays into the KHR fandom, I was dumbstruck by how utterly different it was.
Now, the Naruto fandom is filled to brimming with essays and analyses and theories; even the most minute little throwaway detail are treated like serious business. You can barely go a few feet without stumbling over a tl;dr. Some of it is utterly ridiculous, and some of it is wonderful and thought-provoking.
The KHR fandom doesn't really have that, at least not yet. There have been a couple of exceptions, but by and large any real serious discussion has been limited to the characters and, especially, the pairings. Not so much the plot. So it's really no surprise that every now and then the fandom is accused of being shallow and BL-obsessed, as offensive as it may be.
However, the KHR fandom also differs from the Naruto fandom (and most others, for that matter) in another key way, and this is the part that fascinates me: It is completely and utterly devoid of wank. I've been lurking in hitman_reborn for almost six months now, and in all that time I have never once seen an argument. Not the slightest hint of drama. Oh, sure, there are differences of opinion, but people never hold them against each other; they take it all in stride. Everyone actually respects each other.
That, to be perfectly frank, is mind-blowing to me.
And during the past six months, I've tried to figure out exactly why this is; what makes this fandom so different. At first I thought it must be because it's still a new fandom in a lot of ways, still taking its baby steps. But as time passed I realized that couldn't be it, because with every day that passes the fandom is getting bigger and bigger, more and more popular--and still no wank. Had to be something else.
Then for a while, I thought that maybe it was the demographics, because unlike many shounen series, KHR tends to attract more female fans than male. So maybe less testosterone equals less fandom warfare. But it wasn't long before I realized that was total bullshit, because in my experience fangirls can be just as bad as fanboys when it comes to that sort of thing. In fact, they can arguably be worse--if someone gave me a choice between a pairing war and a who's-stronger-than-who debate, I'd probably pick the latter every time, because the former is frankly TERRIFYING. And girls bash characters just as often as guys do, so no. Back to the drawing board.
So for a long time I just couldn't figure it out, and I eventually stopped wondering and just took it for granted because either way it was wonderful. But then things started cropping up on fandomsecrets and I started thinking about it again. The thing was, people weren't just bashing the fandom, they were also irritated because their friends kept pushing them to check the series out even though they just weren't interested. The typical exchange would go something like this:
Person A: I just don't get why it's so popular. The characters are dumb and there's no plot at all.
Person B: That's because you're not giving it a chance. The characters are great and the plot really takes off after the Daily Life Arc. You just have to get past the first 60 chapters or so, then it becomes awesome.
Person A: But that's just the thing--I don't want to read a series where I have to force myself past 60 chapters of garbage just to get to something good.
Person B: But the first 60 chapters aren't just trash; there's some good character development, etc. etc. etc...
And invariably, Person A just gets even more irritated and leaves, which frustrates Person B even more, and it's a bitter little cycle. But it's clear, at any rate, that the Daily Life Arc is at the heart of the problem, because like it or not, that's the hurdle that everyone eventually has to leap before they get to "the good stuff." So it only makes sense that someone who couldn't get past those chapters would come to think of the series as plotless and dumb, and would end up resenting the fandom for pressuring them to read it anyway. Of course, on the fandom side, it's only more frustrating because we know that after Daily Life comes all of these other great arcs and pretty much nonstop epic win. There's pretty much no way that someone up-to-date with the Future Arc can read a comment saying the plot is non-existent, and not be offended.
Aaaaand... that's when it hit me. The reason why the KHR fandom has no wank is the same reason why the series gets bashed so often: because of the Daily Life Arc. It's because the first 60 chapters of the series aren't serious and don't have any plot. Because anyone who can't be bothered to read something like that is not going to join the fandom. And conversely, the people who do continue to read the series, they do it because they have that sense of humor--or at the very least they have the patience to keep reading and see how things change.
And that, right there, is the difference.
It's no coincidence that the only wank in the KHR fandom comes from people who bash the fandom itself. No coincidence that there's no character-bashing, no pairing wars, no bitter debates. Because if you're the type of person who does that kind of thing, then chances are you're also not the type to bother with Reborn.
And I think that's also why there isn't as much tl;dr in this fandom, because a lot of the fans are just more relaxed about things. They'd rather write fic or draw art than obsessively pick apart the latest chapter, because that's just more fun. I think there's a lot less posturing in this fandom than in most others; the reason why we might come off as "shallow" is because we don't care about whether or not we appear shallow in the first place. People discuss what they want to discuss, and if that means a lot of fangirling and gushing then that's what it means, and who the hell cares?
And that's exactly what I love about this fandom, and why I honestly couldn't care less if people continued to bash it from here into eternity. It's just fun, and personally? I'd much rather spaz over a great pairing moment or muse over a really great fic characterization than get a headache from arguing and debating all day.
As far as I'm concerned, if that makes me shallow, then I'm happy to oblige.
So, essay/rambly thing goes here:
When I first started reading KHR, Naruto was my main fandom. I love Naruto for many of the reasons I love KHR; amazing characters, interesting plot, awesome battles, great art. Not to mention an uncanny ability to play my heartstrings like a violin, thanks so much Kishi and Amano. XD To me, despite wildly different premises, the two series had a lot in common. So when I made my first forays into the KHR fandom, I was dumbstruck by how utterly different it was.
Now, the Naruto fandom is filled to brimming with essays and analyses and theories; even the most minute little throwaway detail are treated like serious business. You can barely go a few feet without stumbling over a tl;dr. Some of it is utterly ridiculous, and some of it is wonderful and thought-provoking.
The KHR fandom doesn't really have that, at least not yet. There have been a couple of exceptions, but by and large any real serious discussion has been limited to the characters and, especially, the pairings. Not so much the plot. So it's really no surprise that every now and then the fandom is accused of being shallow and BL-obsessed, as offensive as it may be.
However, the KHR fandom also differs from the Naruto fandom (and most others, for that matter) in another key way, and this is the part that fascinates me: It is completely and utterly devoid of wank. I've been lurking in hitman_reborn for almost six months now, and in all that time I have never once seen an argument. Not the slightest hint of drama. Oh, sure, there are differences of opinion, but people never hold them against each other; they take it all in stride. Everyone actually respects each other.
That, to be perfectly frank, is mind-blowing to me.
And during the past six months, I've tried to figure out exactly why this is; what makes this fandom so different. At first I thought it must be because it's still a new fandom in a lot of ways, still taking its baby steps. But as time passed I realized that couldn't be it, because with every day that passes the fandom is getting bigger and bigger, more and more popular--and still no wank. Had to be something else.
Then for a while, I thought that maybe it was the demographics, because unlike many shounen series, KHR tends to attract more female fans than male. So maybe less testosterone equals less fandom warfare. But it wasn't long before I realized that was total bullshit, because in my experience fangirls can be just as bad as fanboys when it comes to that sort of thing. In fact, they can arguably be worse--if someone gave me a choice between a pairing war and a who's-stronger-than-who debate, I'd probably pick the latter every time, because the former is frankly TERRIFYING. And girls bash characters just as often as guys do, so no. Back to the drawing board.
So for a long time I just couldn't figure it out, and I eventually stopped wondering and just took it for granted because either way it was wonderful. But then things started cropping up on fandomsecrets and I started thinking about it again. The thing was, people weren't just bashing the fandom, they were also irritated because their friends kept pushing them to check the series out even though they just weren't interested. The typical exchange would go something like this:
Person A: I just don't get why it's so popular. The characters are dumb and there's no plot at all.
Person B: That's because you're not giving it a chance. The characters are great and the plot really takes off after the Daily Life Arc. You just have to get past the first 60 chapters or so, then it becomes awesome.
Person A: But that's just the thing--I don't want to read a series where I have to force myself past 60 chapters of garbage just to get to something good.
Person B: But the first 60 chapters aren't just trash; there's some good character development, etc. etc. etc...
And invariably, Person A just gets even more irritated and leaves, which frustrates Person B even more, and it's a bitter little cycle. But it's clear, at any rate, that the Daily Life Arc is at the heart of the problem, because like it or not, that's the hurdle that everyone eventually has to leap before they get to "the good stuff." So it only makes sense that someone who couldn't get past those chapters would come to think of the series as plotless and dumb, and would end up resenting the fandom for pressuring them to read it anyway. Of course, on the fandom side, it's only more frustrating because we know that after Daily Life comes all of these other great arcs and pretty much nonstop epic win. There's pretty much no way that someone up-to-date with the Future Arc can read a comment saying the plot is non-existent, and not be offended.
Aaaaand... that's when it hit me. The reason why the KHR fandom has no wank is the same reason why the series gets bashed so often: because of the Daily Life Arc. It's because the first 60 chapters of the series aren't serious and don't have any plot. Because anyone who can't be bothered to read something like that is not going to join the fandom. And conversely, the people who do continue to read the series, they do it because they have that sense of humor--or at the very least they have the patience to keep reading and see how things change.
And that, right there, is the difference.
It's no coincidence that the only wank in the KHR fandom comes from people who bash the fandom itself. No coincidence that there's no character-bashing, no pairing wars, no bitter debates. Because if you're the type of person who does that kind of thing, then chances are you're also not the type to bother with Reborn.
And I think that's also why there isn't as much tl;dr in this fandom, because a lot of the fans are just more relaxed about things. They'd rather write fic or draw art than obsessively pick apart the latest chapter, because that's just more fun. I think there's a lot less posturing in this fandom than in most others; the reason why we might come off as "shallow" is because we don't care about whether or not we appear shallow in the first place. People discuss what they want to discuss, and if that means a lot of fangirling and gushing then that's what it means, and who the hell cares?
And that's exactly what I love about this fandom, and why I honestly couldn't care less if people continued to bash it from here into eternity. It's just fun, and personally? I'd much rather spaz over a great pairing moment or muse over a really great fic characterization than get a headache from arguing and debating all day.
As far as I'm concerned, if that makes me shallow, then I'm happy to oblige.