#i also would like to note i didnt entirely disagree w/ the video essay and found it had some very relevant points

[demonio-fleurs]

one time i watched a very short video essay that basically boiled down to "there are no auteurs in anime and part of the proof is the fact that you can't name the director of your favorite episode" and that line makes me want to continually scream into a void bc like

one, you probably would know if you could read kanji/japanese bc it's listed in the credits. so you could 100% remember and go "oh, this person animated this episode that's awesome!"

two, you can always google it. it's free. if you watch an episode of anime and go "wow, this is amazing, i wonder who directed it?" you can always look it up. it'll take you less than 5 minutes in most cases it's so easy.

and i honestly think thats my biggest gripe w/ modern anime fans. there's no effort anymore. people don't want to do the research. they consume and consume and consume, but can't take five minutes to do a quick google search despite so many answers to their questions being at the tip of their fingers. it's lazy.

it reminds me of when vegapunk's message was cut off and the last character was "mo" and someone in a discord im in used fucking chatgpt to figure out what the "mo" could have been, instead of looking it up himself. it's so lazy. you want to be able to guess the right answer and look cool but can't take the time to google it yourself.

i also don't think this is necessarily an anime fandom only issue too, i'm sure plenty of other fandoms have the problem of people refusing to do more research and using short cuts or just assuming that if they can't find the answer it doesn't exist. it's not even a generational problem bc i follow so many people younger than me who are willing to put in the time and effort, i think it's just people who are new to fandom post-pandemic and don't understand that the research is part of being in a fandom. or maybe i'm just old and grumbly. who knows? i gotta open tomorrow i need to stop ranting about this shit.