How Fandom Battles Affect Mental Health

We all understand that the anime subculture plays host to many people on the autism spectrum and other kinds of neuro-atypical people. Even if we don’t acknowledge it every day, it’s well-understood by anyone who’s spent some time among other anime fans.

Many people who feel cast-out from normal society for one reason or another find refuge in the anime subculture, surrounded by other social outcasts, most of whom are cast-out simply for their odd fixations or behaviour. Again, this is something that’s well-understood.

Also well-understood, but even less talked about is that many people in the anime subculture battle depression, self-harm, suicidal ideation, and other mental health issues, and that anime and the surrounding culture help them cope.

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So I’m understandably sickened when I see the subculture dragged through the muck for the personal gratification of a few of its thought leaders, industry personalities, and major players. I’m reasonably upset about people with influence normalizing the use of insults to push certain fans into the shadows of the culture. I can be forgiven for wanting to throw up when I see a famous voice actress, whose character portrayals no doubt resonated with many (Myself included), tell a fan to kill themselves because he’s unhappy about the whirlwind fandom has become.

Respect for the people in the subculture is one of the core criteria on which I value-judge thought leaders. Routinely and for years, thought leaders in the anime subculture have failed this very simple test in various ways. Writers for major outlets allude to fans of certain shows being pedophiles. Marketing staff for big companies in the anime space engage in arguments with fans on Twitter. Anime dub directors, producers, and actors show open disdain for fans who disagree with them on political issues, going so far as to change around dub scripts to directly insult them.

How many of us work stressful jobs, have stressful lives, have to manage our own mental health, and turn to anime to help make everything a little easier to deal with? Aren’t the people in positions of influence in this subculture supposed to make that easier?

This is what happens when we stray too far from the media the culture’s built around. Our influencers have abdicated their responsibility to serve the culture in favor of serving their own ends, their own egos, and their own pet issues. Claiming to be fighting on behalf of the fans, but curiously only ever sticking up for fans who hold certain political values.

Nothing is ever said about the rank-and-file anime fan who comes back from a stressful day at the office or retail and just wants to relax with some moe without being accused of pedophilia or sexism. Nobody worries about their mental health, or how they might be affected by their subculture turning into the same political firestorm they see in the outside world.

Instead, those in positions of influence draw battle lines no one asked for, and then insist everyone take up the battle alongside them, or else get accused of being part of the problem. And those who dare to question the need for such division are browbeaten and harassed, creating a back-and-forth that just makes things worse.

Too many people have taken up the secondary elements of fandom as primary. The arguments, controversies, and politics have become their main engagement with the subculture, and with anime itself.

These same people can often later be seen lamenting why they’re so depressed and how fandom isn’t fun anymore.

They unwittingly decided to sacrifice their time and energy to some thought leader’s endgame, letting themselves get convinced that there’s a problem in the fandom that’s so urgent it must take precedent over their own enjoyment of the subculture.

Don’t fall into this trap. We’re here to have fun, enjoy ourselves, and enrich our lives. Everything else is secondary. Don’t let people convince you that the social and political battle is primary. It’s only primary to them. It’s their problem.

Don’t let people siphon off of your mental health to fight battles only they insist must be fought.

Always come back to the media, the things we gathered around in the first place.

And support each other. Not as people on the same side of a battle, but as fellow otaku, inhabitants of this subculture who understand what each other are going through, and who don’t need to agree on superficial issues to care about one another as people.