A rant on Kamen Rider fans

[Zindaku]

Before I start, I would like to apologize to any readers that I might offend.

A few years ago, I was part of an anime club in college, where we also watched some tokusatsu(Which was pretty much all Kamen Rider). We had just finished watching Den-O, and we were doing our end of the term event were we watch whatever our members wanted to see. I brought in an episode of Ultraman Mebius. Well the next time we did the event, I wanted to show the Ultra Galaxy Legend movie(we sometimes watch movies as well), and they outright denied my request, and they also forbid me from ever showing any Ultra media again, saying only Kamen Rider was allowed in the club!

I know some people have their preferances, but wasn't that event suppose to let everyone show what they like, no matter what?

Still, that really hurt my feelings and ever since that day I've held a low opinion on Kamen Rider fans, who I consider arrogant and jerkish, as well by extension the Kamen Rider franchise, which I consider overhyped, over-commercialized, and I'm sorry for this, inferior to the Ultra franchise. Hell, whenever someone makes a comment on why there are so many dislikes on a Ultra video on youtube, I say it's the work of Kamen Rider fans.

I know there are some who like both franchise and there are some decent Rider fans out there, but such an insult to a long standing and respected franchise that I hold dearly cannot be forgiven so easily.

So again, I am sincerely sorry for anyone I may have offended, but I've held these feelings in for a long time and I needed to get them out.

 

[Hobo ODST]

So you're tarring all Kamen Rider fans with the same brush due to the actions of a handful of KR fans?

 

[Zindaku]

So you're tarring all Kamen Rider fans with the same brush due to the actions of a handful of KR fans?

Not all, just those extreme fans who watch KR and nothing else. Like I said there are Rider fans who are not arrogant jerks, it's just that I needed to get these feelings off my chest.

Heck, I respect Kamen Rider, I just wish they go back to the Ishinomori days of Evil Organizations and Cyborgs.

 

[Bad Wolf]

You should really have talked to your club about how you felt instead of lumping everyone together.

Hell it wasn't that long ago some people held that opinion about the Ultra series because of a few bad apples in the fandom.(one of those apples being myself)

 

[Ivanhobe]

I think your complain pretty much applies to every single fandom, and not just Tokusatsu.

Wherever you go on the internet, you will find fans of a certain genre that shun certain shows or works in favor of their favorites, not because of quality but because that particular piece of work is almost the only thing they know or because it is popular.

Take the case of an acquaintance of mine; she joined the anime club at her school and when they were deciding what shows to watch, she did an amazingly absurd ammount of research for shows that might appeal everyone and even made a poster with descriptions and everything so they might come around to chose one of those. At the end, they didn´t choose any of the shows she researched (all of them pretty damn good i might add) in favor of shows like Gundam, Cowboy Bebop and other shows that while undeniably good and classics on their own, they were considered "mainstream" and fit right in their comfort zone.

The point of that story is, when it comes to fandoms you will ALWAYS find people that stick to the popular works and not even glance the rest, even if those works are just as good or even better than the one they prefer.

You use Kamen Rider as an example, but i have also see Garo fans doing the same thing, sometimes when people join a fandom they do it because its "hip" and "cool" (people still use that words, right?) and stick to the popular stuff because it makes them feel like they are genuinely part of something.

I find this to be a pretty common behaviour and i think this is something most fans go through at some point, i went through that and eventually grew out of it, so while i do find it annoying i try to be patient with people, if they really want to shut themselves in that corner, then that is their choice, but if they want to know the glory of Ultraman, then i will keep my arms open.

 

[Japaneseseriesfan]

Had I read this about a year ago, I'm probably immaturely get mad at this post and get ahead of myself, but I get where you're coming from.

Although I considered myself mainly a Kamen Rider fan since I outgrew things like Sentai and Ultraman as a child, I never thought of dismissing it. But that's because I was alone, so in my free time, I watch it, giving it the chance it deserves.

It sounds like the club you went to had a certain aura everyone was comfortable with. You can't just suddenly try to shift the atmosphere around you by forcing every to see what you want them to see, they just aren't going to see things your way that easily.

It takes a long time of effort and persistence to get them to stop judging things by its cover, I know it certainly took me long enough to get back into more animes and mangas than I used to be in High School (where I was searching for where I belonged or fit in the norm (which was when I finally learned to accept that I wasn't like people around me, it helped me maintain a sense of stability, a calmness if you will) and not a lot like I was when I was a younger kid and didn't give a care about the world nor what anyone else said about what I enjoyed as entertainment).

Don't do it so suddenly, do it subtly. Use references if you have to or even exaggerate lol, but not so much as to annoy, but as much as you would like someone coming up to you and trying to convince you to watch something.

Also, you should also have a clear understanding of cultural differences as to point out why things go the way they do. I remember having people question me about why the Riders were even fighting in Ryuki, because they simply couldn't grasp the concept that its a story about men killing each other for a wish in a battle royal, and not a soap opera with men running around in rubber suits (which is what most people would sarcastically troll about because ironically, that's the way to do it, even if it is weird.)

Remove context and anything can become silly. Probably like most statements by trolls lol.

 

[Herman the German]

Marginally related, I think; it's been annoying the hell out of me how people get so OVERLY AGGRESSIVE (at least as far as YouTube comments are concerned) when someone (not entirely unreasonably) asks something to the effect of "japanese power rangers???" on a Rider video; Rider fans get vicious and downright hurtful most of the time and honestly, it's giving the fanbase a pretty bad image much like people who do the above. =/

 

[lazycoconut]

In all honesty, I think Ultraman fans can be just as bad. It seems to be a fairly common opinion that most of Tsuburaya's output is better than Toei's, and comes up a lot among the crowd that thinks that most/all recent Toei stuff is incredibly poor or is not "real" tokusatsu. In Japan, Ultraman is a more prestigious franchise than Kamen Rider (which itself is more prestigious than Sentai.) It's just that Kamen Rider is currently more "mainstream" because Ultraman has been in decline for a while and it's a long time since there was a full-length series.

I agree that school/college anime clubs tend to have a narrow repertoire of recent, popular shows and a limited range of older "classics." You would probably get a similar reaction if you requested to show an unpopular or lesser-known anime. And if a small group of people is used to getting their own way as to what gets shown at club meetings, it's not surprising for them to be territorial and shut others out. I do think there's a lot of herd mentality and unnecessary bashing among Kamen Rider fans (I hate the way people pile on Decade and Fourze, for instance) but that's common to tokusatsu fandom in general, and probably most fandoms ...

 

[FreedomR8G6B1]

and they also forbid me from ever showing any Ultra media again, saying only Kamen Rider was allowed in the club!

What's wrong with Ultra...it as good as Rider...:sly:

LONG LIVE WILL SMITH AS ULTRAMAN!!!:buttrock:

I hate the way people pile on Decade and Fourze, for instance

I get Decade...ask several different people and they have their own reason hating on Decade...

...as for Fourze...the way folks slam Fourze is no different than the way they slammed Den-O.

*stares at a certain someone*

 

[CaptainB_Money]

that club must be full of full retards if they allow only Kamen Rider but no Ultraman. Sounds like a lot of message boards on the fandom and 'leaders' of famous message boards.