It's become something almost everyone knows. Like, anyone with a TV knows what Anime is. They don't know the exact definition, but they have seen at least one Anime. They call it cartoons but uh, lately, I really can't see the difference either.

One thing that's really annoying about Anime is it's fan base.

Some Anime series that were pretty popular on television include Naruto, Dragon Ball, Bleach, Fairy Tail, Inazuma Eleven etc (to the point where some of these were even dubbed in Hindi for Indian television) And there are a LOT of people who have just seen these popular Anime and go on to call themselves an "Otaku" (the word has lost all meaning now, those that were actual otaku don't even feel like calling themselves one)

These people, after having watched the big 4 Anime (Naruto, Bleach, One Piece, Fairy Tail) go on and like 1000s of Facebook pages and join 100s of Anime groups. These groups have debates based on strength of characters and in every argument, there are those few people who just scream "Naruto beats both because he has rasengan."

That's the thing, you can't debate about the strength of two characters from different Anime rationally. There's no real way of comparing the powers. We don't know if Ichigo was vulnerable to the wind-type Rasenshuriken, or if Goku blowing up planets would really kill some Hollow or Vaizard (they don't need oxygen and they can fly, go figure)

Of course, you can pit Luffy's haki against Naruto's shadow clone saying that he's capable of wiping 1000s of enemies in one hit but countering that Naruto can do this a lot of times whereas Luffy's energy source is limited and on and on. But you really can't find out which one's stronger.

It's only possible if there was a crossover or if the two characters come from two series that were written by the same person. And only he can compare them, by declaring certain weaknesses in both to make the debate a bit more logical.

So, mostly, there are 2 kinds of "otaku".

1. They watch 5 series, call themselves "otaku", forget about Anime and just socialize with other wannabe-otaku with their limited knowledge and basically fangirl all over the Japanese culture and say things like "OMG I WISH I WAS BORN IN JAPAN!!! I CAN EAT ONIGIRI ALL MY LIFE!!!"

2. They watch Anime and don't fucking waste their time fangirling over Japan, they know it's Anime that matters, not the language or the people that make it.

The "wannabe"s love Japanese for some reason. They only know a few words like Arigatou or Sayonara and shit like that. But then they say things like "I wish I could live in Japan."

It's not the dream place you think it is. It's just like your city. It has a small spot for the geek that you are, but the common people are still going to treat you like a loser because you watch cartoons. People there don't worship Anime, they think it's just as bad as your parents do.

I mean, it's not as if people wouldn't have seen Anime if it wasn't Japanese. It's just that it was made by the Japanese, so we can't imagine it in any other way. Like, if it was Indian, the world would still be watching it, because it was made that way. The same logic applies everywhere. Why do most people have their taskbar at the bottom? Because it was made that way. 

And for some reason, it's become a trend to role-play. No, not as characters from an Anime, as a family. I don't see how it's related to Anime other than the fact that everyone in the family is either nee-chan or nii-chan or ototo or kaa-san or oto-san etc. It's just a bunch of people taking up different roles in a make believe family, and yet, it only seems to happen in Anime related groups.

And normally, people that are this obsessed with such things are called no-lifers, as in, they don't study, socialize, work, just watch Anime etc. Well, I actually defend no-lifers saying that they can just maintain a balance between both but lately, it seems like no-lifer is too good a word for these "otaku".

No-lifers are supposed to not have any friends, well these people have too many in my opinion. All fake online friends, sure, but, that's too much socializing. They watch a 30 minute episode and then talk about it for 3 hours.

Now, I'm not saying mainstream Anime is bad and only for the wannabe otaku, the Anime is popular for a reason, it's because it's good. But, it's too over-rated and it's fanbase is too fucking cheap. I remember when I had only seen Naruto and I was new to Facebook. I would meet Naruto fans everywhere but when I asked them if they thought Madara Uchiha was alive, they just said "Lol who is Madara Uchiha? Is that Sasuke's father?" and on further asking, I found out most of them only watch the first season. So, out of the millions of fans that these Anime have, only a few 1000 are legit fans.

Non-mainstream Anime is much better. If you meet a fan of, say, Hyouka, you know he's going to be a true fan to have seen something that uncommon. Hyouka is still pretty common (for some reason) as even I'm not that much of an Anime watcher.

The point here is, people say that the Otaku community is growing at a rapid pace. Well, that's bullshit.

It's dead.

It's been taken over by weebs saying "Nee-chan, can we haz Sasuke as our ototo?" to their role-playing families, taken over by people that do "owo .w. ouo eue :3 -3-" instead of "Detective Conan has shown some remarkable improvement in it's 14 years of airing, it went from a poorly animated anime with tonnes of fillers to a solid storyline with good graphics that it is today." It's been taken over by "Erza <3 Lucy <3 Nami <3 Sebastien <3 Grey <3 Sasuke <3" instead of "I like how Light kills criminals instead of using the Death Note for his own reasons."

So, if you're thinking this is a good time for Anime, it's not. The world has too much Anime right now. Basic economy rules. When there's an increase in supply, there's a decrease in demand. And, I'm at a point where I wouldn't mind the whole thing ending.