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No. 388914
A thread to talk about the evolution of fandoms, be it specific ones or just in general. Fandoms that blew up suddenly vs over time, got worse, got better, more popular, divisive, fun, or just changed with the times. Talk about how it was back then when you joined vs now, ageing out of them, maturing fandoms, old vs newer fans, or how any fandom you partaked in was handled at any point in time. Take a stroll down memory lane and share your own personal moments or stories within fandom. You may also add stuff like how male vs female fans carried themselves within those fandoms. Enjoy!
No. 388961
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I'm pretty sure its been discussed on one of the threads in /ot/, but the biggest difference I've seen is the emphasis on buying merch. Obviously, itabags and collecting have been around but it seems so more rampant and empty, maybe because the wider availability of merch outside japan and the variety of merch.
Since you mentioned Lain, it will always make me laugh that the newer fans are almost always hyperonline NLOGs or e-girls to the point that it makes me question if they actually watched the show or are just too stupid to get the point
No. 388999
>>388961Itabags only became a thing in 2014 with love live and I think that’s when companies started going really ham on merch
There was already a lot of figures by that point but post love live (or slightly before with like maybe oreimo) they basically started releasing as many as possible and got even more intense with badges and charms
No. 389025
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>>388961I remember back when DIY was a thing. Making your own buttons, drawing fanart on printer paper and cutting it out into bookmarks then laminating it with tape, making anime keychains that were regular photo keychains but with a picture of your husbando or waifu instead, printing out screenshots to use as posters… the quality was beyond shit but it was so much fun. It's jarring to see kids get into an aesthetic or FOTM anime/game and immediately purchase everything related to it, only to get rid of it all a few months later when it's no longer getting them enough attention. Even in 2016 when we had more access to official merch there was a ton of swapping, group ordering, scouring Yahoo Japan for obscure merch, and DIYing what you couldn't buy, which included making zines and sharing information on how to make props and cosplays. There's no community aspect to fandom on social media nowadays except showing off what you have and getting jealous of other people's big ticket items. I know that the focus has shifted because of algorithms and the belief that owning items equals having a personality, and that there are plenty of fans who still do make their own stuff and have fun with their fandoms. It's just sad to see how the focus has completely shifted to consumerism when not that long ago you had people sharing folders full of Deviantart tutorials and character references from badly scanned official artbooks so you could make your own fumos and charms. Even fucking 4chan had tons of papercrafts and tutorials.
No. 389026
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>>389025Ayrt, and yeah I do miss when people made DIY merch. I remember printing out papercraft vocaloids and putting them on my desk. I think fanzines are still going on strong, at least in the fandoms I'm involved with. But I'm also in smaller more niche ones. Do people still make their own cosplay? I havent been to cons or really interacted with the community anymore.
>>388999Good to know my memory is fucked because i swore i saw them on /cgl/ before then kek
No. 389029
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>>389025aarrghh nonna you just reminded me of when i made hetalia bookmarks out of printed off zerochan fanart when i was 13 to share with my friends! and how i also made phone charms out of oven bake clay! and i sent a penpal a hetalia charm and she sent me back her homemade aph england badge! i pinned it to my hat during autumn and winter. i even made fruits basket parody comics with my shoujo fangirl friend. this is what my pre-internet brain has been missing, i'm gonna get back into arts and crafts thank you for reminding me nonna. mwah.
No. 389036
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>>389029That's very sweet, I still remember how fun it was to make the costumes for hetalia cosplays, or how me and my old friends would meet in the library to read history books just to imagine the aph characters interacting with each other kek
No. 389125
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>>388914The whole pro/anti fan thing makes me feel so old I don’t understand it. I thought it meant being pro or anti a ship which is normal dumb fandom shenanigans but apparently there’s cp involved?
One thing I can’t get used to is male fans talking the same as tumblr fans talk. I used to escape to jump to reddit to escape 15 year olds politically analysing aot but seeing redditors also engage in pointing out how so and so is racist, homophobic, sexist, transphobic to win arguments is very confusing.
No. 389127
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>>389125Kek the actual meaning of the term has been changing according to people's assumptions but it's supposed to be about the pro side not caring what other people do in terms of shipping. So in theory if a ship is considered
problematic they just won't say anything and instead mute or block if they dislike seeing it while antis will go out of their way to say something about it. The cp comes in if you think of anime characters as real living beings and it's why you shouldn't align yourself with a side and avoid people who do if you don't give a fuck about any of this and don't want to get targeted. It's braindead people who spend their time making graphics like picrel who pretend to care about this. Looking it up introduced me to the terms "darkship" and "comship", the first one is about shipping
problematic things and the second one is about totally only doing it to cope I swear!! It's so funny how they're always into the things they chastise others for
No. 389129
I feel completely estranged from my fandoms, I can't even pinpoint if it was the fandom that changed or if I did. Maybe it's a bit of both, but I do miss forums. Social media made the fandom feel so weird.
>>388961The shrines became more intense over time. Idk if the fact they're sharing them more online than they did before, but I've seen several basements dedicated to a single media, which used to feel like a very rare and out of the ordinary thing. Maybe social media encourages people to buy more stuff or to compete with each other in a way.
>>389125kekk I struggled to understand that too, but it seems it is not about a single ship and more about shipping in general. Being pro means you are ok with
problematic ships and antis are against them. I felt very confused when they started using anti and pro in this general sense, I always wondered what ship were they talking about.
No. 389195
>>389125It's all so stupid. Making fandom into a morality crusade has made everything worse. Antis claim they care about pedophilia but never report men openly sharing IRL porn of actual human children, they only attack other women who like a fictional ship the antis have collectively decided is bad. Proshippers decided to align themselves with lolishotas because that's the part of the internet that doesn't dox them for watching Free.
Now you have hysterical pearl clutching children sobbing about how Steven Universe is child porn because Steven and Connie fuse, and equally retarded children caping for pedo rehabilitation and the removal of child protection laws that restrict the enjoyment of porn addicts.
And it's now necessary to prevent witch hunts by drawing and writing characters as obese troons who are every type of BIPOC and have all the mento illnesses. Remember when we all used to mock 9/11 Hetalia fanart for how insensitive it was, and how stupid the artists were for making fanart of current political issues and tragedies instead of bringing awareness to those topics in a normal way? Let's go back to those days.
No. 389244
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the jerma fandom
No. 389253
>>389025Even zines (wihch received a surge in popularity lately) barely have that "soul" in them because they're always comercial zines and/or charity ones, which means they cost $50 minimun because they kee bundling it with crap.
I do love the more professional stuff, but its hard to keep up with them when its all so expensive, sometimes I just want to pay $10 for the zine alone because I like the art.
In general, like with many other things, people just saw they could profit from fandom and now just make merch/art for money. Maybe its just me, but even if they enjoy the series if they keep pumping out stuff for their shop it kind of loses "value" since it's made for money rather than for love for the seires.
No. 389523
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Ik it's stupid, but South park, after the flood of tiktokers lots of people left or went private, especially some asian artists I followed since they hated being sent hate/reported and banned unfairly for drawing the boys being "problematic". I won't even get into the dumbass shipper discourse, with the proshippers defending unironic irl pedoshit and the antishippers hating you for enjoying the damn show. I thought 2017 was the dumbest year for this fandom but tiktokers managed to outdoit in 2022/2023 by a landslide.
I just browse old 90s-00s sites and check up on DA groups now because everytime I check twitter/tumblr it's some dumbass discourse and reddit is just moids praising the Randy episodes for no reason and the same trivia without any fancontent. I hate that the new episodes are getting shittier and it's gotten to the point where even the games are shitty and devoid of edgy humor. I miss when there was more comedic fancontent as well but now that will get you "cancelled" and the moids don't make shit anymore either.
I hate both the show and the fandom are both neutered now and seeemingly afraid of being controversial or edgy only worried about being "current" and "political". It's south park guys, can't we just have a good laugh again?
No. 389527
>>389525I miss when the biggest drama was style vs kyman shippers
or even the current episodes airing, now even that is framed as political/
problematic. Even the most obnoxious part of fandoms back then (ship wars) are worse now.
Also make sure to backup your favorite stuff nonna, lots of shit I loved back then is unsearchable or deleted now.
No. 389904
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>>389860I'm also a kymanie too but the ship wars were preferable over this political/gendie shit because people could at least keep to their own groups or tags unless they were stirring up shit. The 2017 kyman pine mountain antisemitism/politically correct infight was the dumbest shit ever and also nuked lots of good fancontent.
I love most anime style fanart but also understand how people hate the artstyle or Kyle with straight hair although lots of artists got a lot better about it nowadays
although the biggest crime for me is people who draw Kyle with freckles.And yeah it's weird gendies finding south park through tiktok but then again lots of tumblr "sjws" back then found it through the yaoi anime fanart or the preteen fangirls through deviantart and they also were very annoying, it's funny to see most annoying people being weeded out after finding a episode they find offensive though.
No. 389920
>>389908It's okay
nonnie, we all have headcanons we hate, specially those who seem incorrect but are widely accepted. Kyle canonically does not have freckles because he is a daywalker, not a ginger
No. 439028
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How common is adding breast removal scars to characters in your fandom?
No. 439121
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>>439037It was way before covid nonna, also Tenko literally isn’t a radfem she said she wants Saihara to transition.
