Why do Final Fantasy fans hate anime/manga?

[Squall Leonhart Loire]

Don't get me wrong, I am not a big of fan modern mainstream anime or really most of modern anime with a plethora of exception which are ultimately outweighed by the amount of modern anime I dislike, cannot stand, or simply do not find appealing.

However, I grew up with the medium and I still am huge into the anime/manga of the past, from the 70's to the mid 2000's which is my personal golden age for it. It's a huge part of my life and still is in spirit.

I meet a lot of Final Fantasy fans that seem to take a disliking towards anime/manga. Now before you ask or say that you haven't seen this either it's something that I personally have experienced with FF fans from various different parts of the web. They seem to get mad or irritated when you say that Final Fantasy is anime influenced or when newcomers or people who don't play the games call it "anime" because it's Japanese.

It's no surprise FF is heavily influenced by anime so why would some FF fans be irritated by it? Have you experienced this?

[krissy]

i can safely say that never in my life

if anything the opposite is true in my experience and ff nerds are nerds in other areas as well

[Spuuky]

Yeah I feel like FF fans, especially those on the Internet, are infinitely more likely to be anime fans than normal people. I'm not really myself, but am I really a Final Fantasy fan anymore, either? I don't know.

[Sephiroth]

Final Fantasy is basically nothing but anime so ... well.

As far as I am concerned, I do watch a lot of anime.

[Fynn]

Yeah, you'll notice this place gets regular "favorite anime" threads

I guess a better question would be: Why do FF fans make broad, sweeping generalizations based purely on incomplete, anecdotal and/or introspective data? :p

[maybee]

I used to love anime/ manga when I was younger, though today I feel too old for it and now it's creepy/ awkward to watch. These days it's usually young 14-16 year old girls that the audience is supposed to enjoy seeing her panties or be sexually aroused by her. Anime is fine, if you are a teen I feel, but any older and it gets in the rounds of awkward and uncomfortable.

While Final Fantasy isn't innocent sometimes with this either, the sexualized women are well.... that, women. Fran is adult, Tifa is a adult, Quistis is a adult, Lulu as far as I'm aware is a adult.

There is some characters that are sexualized that are younger like Tidus and Vaan, clearly designed for the straight female teenaged eye, but again, it's not always young teenaged girls.

Though maybe I find this easier because I'm bi.

Sometimes I do watch some Full Metal, Ouran Host Club, Titan, and Utena though.

[Spuuky]

While Final Fantasy isn't innocent sometimes with this either, the sexualized women are well.... that, women. Fran is adult, Tifa is a adult, Quistis is a adult, Lulu as far as I'm aware is a adult.While this isn't really necessary disagreement, the oldest human woman you listed there is 22 at the time of their game. To people who grew up with the early Final Fantasy games, that's basically a child at this point.

Fran doesn't really count since she's a random made-up age due to being a bunny.

[Depression Moon]

Is Lulu the 22-year old? trout she looks my age or thirty-one at the oldest. Ooh, she doesn't age well.

I don't see how 22 is a child at all. Just a few years younger than me.

[Spuuky]

Yes, Quistis is 18, Tifa is 20, Lulu is 22.

[Freya]

I used to love anime/ manga when I was younger, though today I feel too old for it and now it's creepy/ awkward to watch. These days it's usually young 14-16 year old girls that the audience is supposed to enjoy seeing her panties or be sexually aroused by her. Anime is fine, if you are a teen I feel, but any older and it gets in the rounds of awkward and uncomfortable.


yeah I feel similarly with some more modern Anime. I still watch some here and there but not near as much as I use to. There's a lot that makes me uncomfortable.


And in my experience, yeah most FF fans either once liked anime or currently do.

[Fynn]

I think the issue is that is just that in the past we only got a limited amount of anime released here. Now we get access to everything, and otaku culture has spread, so it's easy to associate new anime with creepy T&A. But there's still a lot of really good, original, creative stuff being made nowadays, you just need to know where to look!

[Depression Moon]

You didn't expect this backfire did you Squall?

Fynn, what do you recommend?

[Fynn]

Well, currently watching this smart little show called Relife that is pretty much a deconstruction of the Japanese nostalgia for high school times.

Kids on the Slope is an incredibly heartwarming/breaking tale of friendship that takes place in the 60s and it has jazz and Yoko Kanno's music and it's beautiful and I wanna cry just thinking about it

Mob Psycho 100 is incredibly fun for a show that's mostly a parody of supernatural detective anime

And Your Lie in April. Genuinely gut-wrenching. Doubly so if you've attended music school because then all the pain and pressure just resonates so well with your personal experiences of this cruel artistic world.

[Fox]

Anime is fine, if you are a teen I feel, but any older and it gets in the rounds of awkward and uncomfortable.



I turn 28 in May

UH OH

For realsies though, if you want something you can watch with your non-otaku friends: Shirobako. It's an anime about making anime and although all the leads are women they aren't really sexualised in any way and all but one are college graduates.

Other recent and pretty much 100% safe recommendations include:
- My LOVE Story! (high school romance where nobody is a dense idiot for more than half an episode)
- Barakamon (famous calligrapher goes to live in a rural village to find inspiration. Finds it in local scamp)
- Flying Witch (Witch in training lives with relatives and has a cat. Perfect if you just want something relaxing. It is the comfiest show ever made)
- Snow White of the Red Hair (Fantasy romance between an intelligent, ambitious young woman and a prince who actually respects that and is pretty awesome)
- Sweetness and Lightning (Single dad makes yummy food for his young daughter)

- Keijo!!!!!!!! (this one is a joke. Do not even google Keijo. Anything with 8 exclamation marks in its title should be treated with extreme caution)

I tend to watch slice of life/comedy/romance over the Attack on Titans, Iron Blooded Orphans and Aldnoah Zeros of the world.

[Fynn]

So is that like an all-female version of Bakuman?

[Fox]

So is that like an all-female version of Bakuman?

I don't really know Bakuman well. From what I've seen though, not really. Shirobako is relatively down to earth - a lot of it is the main character making phone calls to various departments to check on deadlines.

[Fynn]

Oh, that's cool. Though I liked Bakuman's approach as well - present real-life situations in a way that you normally would a shonen manga. Another one of my faves.

[Fox]

Oh, that's cool. Though I liked Bakuman's approach as well - present real-life situations in a way that you normally would a shonen manga. Another one of my faves.

Sounds like I should probably watch it then! Some of my favourite moments of Shirobako are where it crosses into the ridiculous; like the opening scene of the show which is an Initial D parody with production assistants from rival companies hatchback drift racing at 50km/h.

[Fynn]

Yeah, Bakuman is totally over-the-top from start to finish and it's brilliant.

[Rez09]

I'm in agreement with the general opinion here: most FF fans I know love anime. I'm generally the odd one out on that front, and even then I don't hate anime, I just find myself easily annoyed by / disinterested in the overwhelming majority of what I encounter.

[Cell]

I used to be a big anime fan (circa 96-2005) but I only watch old stuff I missed due to being in the UK now (Lodoss War, for instance).

I just got fed up of the relentless assault of moe.