seiya19 said:
First of all, do you believe that Cowboy Bebop and Code Geass are popular ? I believe they're, and both of them are in your personal top 5... Assuming you agree, wouldn't this be enough to keep an open mind about popular anime, as opossed to being biased against them ? Anyway... An opinion, no matter how "refined" it is, is still an opinion. It's still subjective, therefore not more valid than anyone else's. Not even concensus is enough to invalidate or diminish someone's opinion, as both things are perfectly capable of co-exist. As I said before, being biased against a certain genre or "mainstream" anime in general is clearly not keeping an open mind, as you're letting these labels get in the way of truly evaluating the actual work. It's no different than those who stay away of non-mainstream anime because of equivalent reasons. There's a lot of elements that determine whether something becomes popular or not, many of them not having anything to do with the work itself. So, using this metric to prove that something is "good" or "bad" in terms of quality is ridiculous, no matter what side you're on. I'm sure we can all come up with examples of popular and unpopular works that we like, so why let popularity or lack of it influence our personal taste ? Asking for others to keep an open mind and try new things when you're not willing to do so is an example of hypocrisy. If you're not willing to get out of your own "comfort zone" from time to time, no matter what it is, don't ask for others to do it. Personally, while I always try to keep an open mind, I do have my limits and favoritisms so I realize that I can't criticise others for the same thing, just express my views. Besides, you can't prove that a person who likes a certain work would change his mind if he had more experience. Maybe, maybe not, but there's no evidence either way. By the way... While I surely can't claim that I have a lot of experience with anime (I've probably seen around 50, while being just informed of others), I can claim that I have a fairly relevant amount of experience with videogames, given that I started playing them in the NES era. And just like with anime, I don't believe this puts my opinion above others in any way, as it's also subjective. In addition, I still enjoy many games that I played when I was younger and didn't have as much experience, a few of them still being among my favorite games ever, even after playing them several times throughout the years. And I know many others do too. |
Of course Bebop and Geass popular, they're huge (honestly, every show in my top 5 is pretty popular with KnK and Nodame being primarily in Japan). I'm not sure how I ever said I didn't have an open mind about other popular shows (especially considering how many of them I've seen!). Just because something is popular doesn't mean I start to dislike it, a hipster I am not.
Second part, I disagree wholeheartedly. It's like a movie critic, would you take Roger Ebert's word on a movie over user comments on fandango.com? The users view aren't worthless, but I believe the critique or view of more versed person, in whatever the topic of interest is, is far more valuable than your average opinion. While that is a rather big strecth to compare someone like Ebert to our discussion, I do believe it helps make my point.
While it is mostly anecdotal and personal experience, I disagree with the bolded. As you said, there's no evidence we can grasp upon, but I think it works a lot like nostalgia. I refuse to watch DBZ again as I have fond memories and do not wish to lose those fond memories.
To the last part, due to you playing games over many years, I would value your opinion far more than someone who just started gaming and when they do, they only play Halo or the new Call of Duty. Doesn't make their opinion worthless or somehow bad, it's just that they have really expanded beyond whatever their 'comfort zone' is.
