Hard Formspring Questions: "Why have a website devoted to bashing something you like?"

As always, you are welcome to ask me questions via Formspring. Here is one that just came in:

I don't understand Colony Drop. I read the site, and it's all about cynical bashing of anime. But I read other sites by the same guys, you included, and they all seem to like anime. Why have a website devoted to bashing something you like?

Alright, it’s been a couple of years since we started CD. Why not talk about this?

The premise of this question is that Colony Drop exists to trash anime as a whole, and that’s not really the case. I like anime. All the guys who staff Colony Drop like anime.

Saying “I like anime” is not an all-or-nothing proposition. We don’t sign up for the entirety of the medium and the culture that surrounds it just by having enjoyed a Ghibli movie, or Gurren Lagann, or Death Note, or K-On, or Super Cult Animation Genocyber.  In fact, I just named a bunch of anime that couldn’t be further from each other taste-wise. Nobody has to like it all. Most people won’t.

Everybody at CD has pretty distinct tastes. We have many fundamental disagreements on such matters: for example, Jeff and I are watching Madoka and the rest of the guys wouldn’t go near it with a ten-foot, heart-tipped magic wand. We have guys hanging out in the IRC channel who love stuff that the majority of us hate. We don’t give them shit for that, and they don’t apologize for what they like, just like we don’t. We deal with each other’s preferences and we move on.

Obviously from reading the site, you’re aware that there are things that we don’t like. The most popular articles (that don’t deal with porn) on the site are ones where we choose particular topics to “drop a colony on”, as folks like to say. I don’t have to hate anime to dislike Haruhi, call out Tokyopop’s old OEL contracts for being exploitative, or debunk various anime fan myths.

Just because one likes anime doesn’t mean they need to be satisfied with the products, the industry, or the fandom. People act as though you throw out your right to be critical of something when you’re a fan, and that’s bullshit. We speak up because we want things to get better.

Of course we’ve got a character and a voice going. When I write pieces for my blog, I write just like I’m talking to a good friend: a very informal voice. When I write something for ANN, I don’t make any snarky comments whatsoever, no matter how many I think of while I’m reviewing that Strike Witches action figure. I do this because I’m writing for a specific audience, and I know that an audience reading an toy review isn’t looking for criticism or snark about the source material. (On the other hand, as I’ve said to my fellow ANN staffer Erin before, it’s a good thing that I don’t write Shelf Life.) When I write something for CD I absolutely turn up the snark that’s already comes to me naturally, and I play it up until it’s just a little silly. It’s our bit, and it’s not changing. I think it’s fun. A lot of people aren’t going to. So be it.

As I was saying, these are by far our most popular posts, and they make our image. I’m content with that. However, we run plenty of reviews of anime we do like. Some of them are titles you wouldn’t expect, like my own glowing review of Marimite. These articles aren’t looked at or discussed or remembered half as often as the inflammatory posts. This is how it always goes.

When I look at the front page of Colony Drop right now, I see an April Fool’s gag, an early industry time capsule, a thoughful Ghibli review, two medium-snarky stories about anime/manga, fandom, and the industry, a reserved and cautious writeup of a Danny Choo panel, and of course Shit Otaku Say. I don’t see “bashing anime” in any of that. It’s definitely not our goal.

Comments

[Groove-A]

All forms of media need to be scrutinized. I totally agree that viewing a medium should be done with some critical thinking and that if more people subscribed to this we would have a healthier and more robust geek culture.