Once again I got into arguments on Twitter with people who think Anime is mainstream now. Everything I said in the post over a year ago still stands.
But obviously I have more to say so I'm making another post on it.
And again the argument that baffles me the most is people thinking the mere existence of Anime or Manga being sold at Walmart proves it's mainstream. They don't get how something can be Niche but still sold in mainstream stores, Walmart's whole brand is based on the illusion that you can buy anything there, that you'll never need to go anywhere else. I'm pretty sure my brother purchased Insane Clown Posse CDs there back in the day.
And it's not even every Walmart, my local Walmart has no Manga and an increasingly shrinking Anime section. They just assume if their Walmart has it then it must be standard.
The Internet has always facilitated Echo Chambers, but Social Media has allowed people to be in one while thinking they're not. When you primarily talked with other Anime fans on old Message Boards or Yahoo Groups you also knew this was not the whole of society. But now we talk with other Anime fans on the same website where we learn what new policy the United States President has announced. Most people on Twitter actively avoid the people with Anime Avatars, so all the Anime Avatars mostly only interact with other Anime Avatars and trick themselves into thinking non Anime Avatars are going extinct.
I of course inevitably get the accusation that I'm arguing this because I don't want it to be mainstream, that I'm some kind of modern hipster. I'm actually actively trying to get more people into the Anime that I like, I recommend shows to the people I know offline, I leave comments on non Anime YouTube videos recommending Anime that's relevant to whatever the topic was. And that may be exactly why I'm acutely aware of how not Mainstream Anime still is. If Anime were indeed now just as normal a medium of entertainment as regular Movies and TV shows I wouldn't have soo much trouble getting people who specialize in talking about Horror as a Genre to watch what is nearly universally considered the best work of Horror in it's medium.
The thing is the nature of the Internet has made it more difficult to tell the difference between what indeed everyone is into now or just all the people in your circle. And I'm starting to realize some of these people who think Anime is mainstream now don't even think of "Mainstream" and "Niche" as mutually exclusive.
And yes to an extent everything is Niche in that people hyper into it specifically will always be Niche, even with Star Wars it's still Niche to have actually read more then a handful of the old EU Novels, or maybe even to have read any.
And maybe that's my mistake, arguing that Anime isn't Mainstream while still assuming Superheroes and Star Wars do qualify as mainstream now, by acting like regular old Nerds are totally the élite ruling class now. Everyone loves MCU movies, but being the Comic Book Guy on the Simpsons who has opinions on how things were changed from the Comics will still get you mocked.
The difference is in how big and influential a percentage those hardcore fans are of the total viewership. It used be if a Superhero movie was hated by most Comic Readers it would ultimately be considered a mainstream failure too because they were still most of the long term investment, they were still the vanguard who's opinions less Nerdy could would consider in deciding if something is worth watching, but now pleasing them has become less necessary.
People who wanted Modok to be taken seriously are considered joyless manchildren by the vast majority of people who are interested in seeing Ant-Man 3. Netflix' Cowboy Bebop for all it's "hype" was still mostly watched by the people who care enough about the Original to be offended that parts of it weren't taken as seriously as they wanted. Some of the same people who hated Netflix Bebop may also like Modok because they're Anime Fans who only recently started casually liking MCU movies like Trixie The Golden Witch.
I'm neither of those groups, I can enjoy both the silly and the serious versions of the things I care about. But that's not the point of what I'm arguing here.
And even Bebop is more mainstream then most Anime because for a certain generation there are a lot of people who've only seen a few Anime that put Bebop in that few.
Maybe not all the people who think Anime is Mainstream now are denying that those particularly into it still get socially stigmatized for it, but some definitely have.
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