There are those who defend light novels being as bad as they are, since they are meant to be empowerment fantasy instead of dealing with problems in a pragmatic way. Complaining about them being what they were always meant to be is silly. 

I would be fine if they were openly calling schlock entertainment as what it is, but the thing is, they don’t. When I was a kid watching 70s mecha on television, nobody was calling them smart or deep. Even as kids we knew very well that they were cool, fun, exciting, and nothing more. 

This changed after the coming of the internet since everybody is constantly trying to make something seem like it is a billion times more than what it is by adding content. Everything is nowadays a subversion, or a deconstruction, or thought-provoking, or a masterpiece.   

This is the result of allowing fandoms to have too much freedom. Without quality control working as a filter, anybody with zero experience in the arts is free to produce cringe-worthy fan fiction full of homosexuality and incest that insults the credibility of the very thing he loves so much. The lack of nuance and tact has turned the fans into their favorite title’s worst enemy.

The worst part is that you can never hope to reason with fanboys of any kind. They defend their shit since all they care about is maintaining the illusion they love so much by making up any excuse you can think of and abuse every logical fallacy there is. To them escapism is the ultimate goal and as such the faults in the narrative are not a minus; they are a plus because they support the illusion by alienating it even further from reality. 

What makes it worse is that the industry is listening to these fans more and more. They throw so much money at them, and offer so much free publicity, to the point they have to listen if they want to keep making money. This wasn’t the case before the internet, where a company would have to wait months or even years before understanding what their fanbase wanted less or more of. Nowadays they dictate what the industry should make based on pre-airing hype and polls. 

And I am not saying this is entirely bad. Getting feedback as soon as possible is the best way to improve something while it’s still in production. It’s just that they do not listen to a few experts but rather to a mob of needy manchildren that care only about instant gratification instead of long term consistent quality. Listening to what the majority wants is only going to give you the worst possible advises.   

A famous counter-argument to this, is to assume it would be stupid for the industry to produce stuff not many want to buy. Of course and you have to listen to the demands of the industry; that is how capitalism works. Regarding that, I am of the impression that the masses don’t know what they want until someone presents them with the option. 

Every movement or innovation began as a proposal by a few charismatic individuals and then spread to everyone around them. The fans are not experts, they are average people who just demand stuff without thinking ahead. It’s the few that offer the option and the rest approve or deny it.

When industry creators are not making what they want and instead listen to what the masses want more of, they only keep producing more of the same, since it is impossible to make most people like what you want. Many series with very good writing and stellar presentation are overlooked by the majority, exactly because they are not crowd-pleasing. In fact, most famous directors and mangaka receive death threats when they do not pander enough. Respect lost its meaning when you don’t make money by being yourself and the fans don’t like you anymore. 

A bizarre situation forms where the professionals are not free to create what they want to create, while the normies are free to fill the internet with cringe that makes everybody in the medium look bad. And yet it has been proven countless times how this model makes a lot of profit, since it is much easier to make money with effortless works that pander the actions of said audience. Screw innovation and quality, just keep making derivative light novels that are as bad as the very fan fiction everybody makes fun of. 

By the way, I am not saying fans do nothing but harm. What kind of a show do you have when nobody likes it? It’s just that there needs to be some sort of limit to how much devotion you are supposed to show towards whatever you love. If you are blindingly defending it while acting like a complete idiot, you are giving a bad image to the very thing you are trying to defend. You know, like the crusades.     

Take me for example. I am a fan since I was a kid. I am obsessed with anime, I constantly make reviews and videos about them, while being the first to point out everything that is wrong about the very medium I am following for most of my life. I did not limit myself to a single genre, I did not watch 3 shows before calling myself a fan, I did not give up once I watched what was popular at the time, nor did I ragequit when tards were constantly reporting and banning me from forums. And let’s not forget the trips I do to other countries so I can meet in person my followers. I am a real fan and you should all try to be like me. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oIGsUnAyfW8