No one will argue that human beings defend themselves when they are faced with an opposing force either physically or mentally. Our nature as otaku is just that, to defend our love for everything Japan even if seems a little excessive. Is that love for the medium or are we just being overly critical? Let’s think about it using the power of examples.

When Attack on Titan: Final Season began airing recently, fans immediately began imposing their thoughts into the pool of forums online. We saw people rage about a new studio taking control—in this case, Wit Studio gave Attack on Titan to MAPPA—and had opinions on the animation before episode 1 even aired. The Promised Neverland faced some online backlash as well with fans arguing that content was cut from the manga source material and were adamant that this would be a reason this season failed. Yes, these issues are worrisome but here’s why we fellow otaku need to relax and calm down just a smidge.

Anime developers like MAPPA are studios well known for their excellence in anime production. MAPPA has crafted works like Terror in Resonance, Kids on the Slope, Yuri!!! on Ice and Kakegurui to name a few famous series. They know what they're doing and it's why we need to trust that they can handle a famous series like Attack on Titan with the same love we have. Basically, we need to have faith in the anime studios that have delivered works to us that we all loved and felt were truly master-crafts in the anime world.

Recent series Ex-Arm’s first episode proved to be quite terrible if we’re holding back our disdain a bit. That being said, anime viewers wasted no time in going to sites like MAL and rating the series 2.5/10 as if the entire series was done from the opening gate. We here at Honey’s Anime expressed our…disliking of Ex-Arm but we were sure to say one thing anime fans tend to forget. It was only the first episode!

A common anime viewing practice is to watch three episodes of a series before judging if they will continue watching the show weekly or move on/drop the anime series. While this “rule” has its own issues—what if a show goes on for more than 12 episodes—it allows a good means to avoid overanalyzing a show before anything has actually happened. Ignoring this simple rule and right away reviewing a series before episode 2 is a prime example of anime fans raging a bit too hard without giving a show a chance to redeem itself. Though in all fairness, Ex-Arm has a lot of redeeming if it wishes to save itself from a truly disastrous first episode.

Obviously, anime is like music, art, and various other mediums. One person might love Sword Art Online and Log Horizon while another may utterly hate hearing those words put together. That is just how we are as otaku, we have unique tastes in anime. Anime is a medium that ranges from horror like Higurashi: When They Cry- New to harem fantasy like The Hidden Dungeon Only I Can Enter. Anime is wacky, series, melancholy, and a million other emotions and that is why we need to really learn the most forgotten word of this current generation…respect.

Anime fans come in all flavors from old to young and from male to female. That is the beauty of Japan’s gift to us otaku. We are all different and it makes our tastes different which is why our passions also differ so immensely! There needs to be a time where the anime community realizes that just because we have different opinions from each other doesn’t mean those opinions are filled with negativity or hate. In the end, we all love what we love and that just makes us different in beautiful ways!