Also holy shit, when did we get these. These things are fucking awesome. 
Writing about the anime and anime music video (AMV) communities is tricky. Anime fans are easily riled, AMV editors even more so. This is a rant about how the minds of AMV editors and anime fans work. Both communities have psychological problems, as exposed here. For this argument, the anime fandom will be distinct from the AMV fandom. I will dissect the processes inside each community’s heads when they are reacting to something. Feel free to write a counterpoint if you disagree.
AMVs
One of the AMV community’s favorite terms is “whoring”, meaning an anime has been used to exhaustion, making the anime “unoriginal”. However, claiming that an anime has been whored is fallacious. Lack of originality is not inherent to an anime series, but rather the fault of an individual editor. Because choosing an anime is part of the AMV editing process, choosing a whore anime actually makes the editor the whore rather than the anime itself. In fact, the perception of being whored could be reversed by an editor if he or she simply featured underused scenes from overused anime.
Whoring is also used in the context of “effect whoring.” This is where a video is overloaded with visual effects, appearing messy. While not always a bad thing, the practice is generally criticized in the AMV community. (I completely left out the whole bit on social life, because frankly it has nothing to do with anything. And you’ve given up on arguing over it? Apparently not, if you brought it up. -ed)
RAW EDITING VS EFFECT EDITING
Too often criticism is merely one editor expressing how he or she would have handled the video. These types of comments are not constructive and irritate editors to no end. The reality is that there are a multitude of ways to apply any video concept or effect, meaning there is no wrong way to handle it. These comments do nothing but create messes.
Being able to edit without using special effects is known as “raw editing”. This style of editing has become admired in the community, and an editor who uses this style is typically regarded as excellent. However, this thinking is faulty. Raw editing is merely a step in learning how to edit; it naturally progresses to being able to edit with effects. Not to downplay the importance of raw editing, as jumping straight to editing with special effects will create a messy video that lacks basics. At the same time, sticking to raw editing is spinning your wheels in a pothole. It fails to take you anywhere in the end. (Jesus, your analogy was terrible. I think I extracted whatever contrived argument you buried in there. If I didn’t, that is entirely your fault for being a terrible writer. -ed)
ANIMEMUSICVIDEOS.ORG
While the community is nicknamed The Org, sometimes The Problem is a more apt name. Historically it is a grassroots community, but it has taken an extremely negative and xenophobic tone. Community members frequently drive away newcomers with inappropriate hostility. Even established community members have voluntarily left in disgust with The Org’s negativity. (For the record, your original sentence on Chiikaboom was written completely backwards. -ed) The real issue is the fact that nobody on The Org finds a problem with this. Newcomers enter hoping for an accepting community and find the exact opposite, causing them to leave. These leavers then spread the bad image of The Org, casting a bad light on AMV editors everywhere, Org member or not.
YOUTUBE
The only way to describe YouTube (and this original paragraph -ed) is a complete mess. Here is a breakdown of its AMV community:
A famous editor edits a popular AMV. Editors who are subscribed to said famous editor are then inspired to use the same song and anime. The process repeats itself, growing exponentially until everyone has made a video with said song an anime. Alternatively, a new episode of an anime can feature an “epic battle scene”. A famous editor uses this episode in an AMV, sparking all of his or her subscribers to do the same. The process explodes again, until the episode in question has become too common, and as a result the “good” editors refuse to use it. Thus, good footage is snubbed and only used by low skill editors, wasting potential. There is also an added effect of The Org observing the bad videos with the unoriginal footage and attacking the community, creating drama. (Why on earth were there three paragraphs between the two halves of this thought? -ed)
The problem with the YouTube’s AMV community is that it’s solely based on popularity. YouTube has incredible editors who go unknown because no one knows about them. (Great tautology on that one. It’s your most coherent argument yet. -ed) Popularity is based on the anime and song you used, along with how many people want to watch it. Unpopular anime attracts less viewers, meaning a decline in popularity. The issue at hand is that the aforementioned “famous editors” may not necessarily be good editors, but merely popular ones. Thus, the editors who copy the famous editors are copying bad editors. Garbage in, garbage out.
YouTube also features a terrible commenting system. Feedback on AMVs are typically limited to one word and are completely unhelpful. While The Org discourages these kinds of comments, YouTube commenting is somehow less unhelpful than The Org’s commenting. (At least that’s what I think you meant. Please be clear in pronoun use. -ed)
Just like The Org, Youtube editors also treat newcomers poorly. Experienced editors frequently refuse to give out song names or provide advice to an inexperienced editor for any number of reasons. Any new editor who survives the process goes on to mimic the behavior when newcomers ask them for advice. The result is a vicious cycle. (I snipped out a huge chunk here because half of it was just repeating garbage you already said and the other half was more irrelevant personal life junk. -ed)
AMVNEWS
The Russian counterpart to The Org,. while difficult to navigate without literacy in Russian, the website does have a few positive points. The first is the ability to link to YouTube, The Org, or any other video host and without needing to upload directly from your computer. Another nice thing is that uploaded videos will get views, even without the uploader being an active community member. This stands in contrast with The Org where being an inactive community member translates to being ignored. However, the critics in this community are terrible. Unless you are a personal friend or you use an anime and song to the critic’s personal taste, you will receive a negative review. (Did you really have to mention three times that the website is Russian? And what the hell do you mean by “easily debated”? Do me a favor and use words you actually understand. -ed)
AKROSS-CON
An AMV contest which is an excuse to churn out as many After Effects videos as possible. Inexperienced editors will use this contest as a proving ground for their effects editing and typically fail. The winner will be a famous editor or someone who has years of experience in After Effects. Twitch and Camera tricks are in most videos, along with Naruto and Bleach. (And then you didn’t mention once that this contest is also Russian. I’m guessing you’re undercompensating for the previous paragraph. -ed)
THE NOOBS
New editors generally lack the drive to improve. They ask questions which are easily answered with the use of a search engine or simply a careful eye. Newcomers are also too quick to ask questions, frequently without any manners, rather than experimenting on their own and learning for themselves. Many editors had to learn how to do things for themselves, meaning it should not be too difficult for inexperienced editors to figure it out too. (And here’s the “Why back in my day...” section. Good work. Also, I’m completely nixing your bit on the word “pro” because it makes even less sense than everything else you wrote and just doesn’t have a damn point to it. -ed)
ANIME
The spectrum of anime fans varies much more widely than AMV fans. Many are more sane, many are crazier. Because anime fandom has so many levels to it, some of these echelons are what causes the community to be so terrible. A prime example are individuals who devote themselves to a single series entirely too much. The most common types are “Narutards” and “Death Nerds”, who follow the series Naruto and Death Note, respectively. These people are generally embarrassing and are also frequently the cause of poorly editing YouTube AMVs. (Yes, I just crammed your Narutards and Death Nerds bits right into that paragraph. I also skipped over the Pokemon section because you’re talking about a video game. Last I checked, video games are not anime. -ed)
ANIME FANS
The most prominent type of anime fan is unfortunately also the most common. These fans are not only obsessed with anime, but think they are awesome because of it. They typically spew single-word Japanese phrase, in perceived anime-style accents. Of course, the words they love shouting are not words that are actually used in everyday Japanese. Once in a while you will encounter a fan who can speak a sentence or two of Japanese, which means they actually have interest in Japan outside of anime.
Another problem with the anime community is hostility towards differing opinions. A bystander looking to get a reaction can easily fish for one from an anime fan by openly insulting anime. (If you’re going to use internet slang, know how to spell it. It’s not that hard. -ed) Because some anime fans are easily baited by these comments, they publicly react in outrageous ways, making everyone else look bad by association. Even on YouTube, fans will post videos where they rant (ahahahahahaha -ed) and explain why anime is amazing and why insulting it is like insulting them as a person. To anime fans, anime can be a religion. (Though I scratched it out, I thought I’d comment that originally there was an ATHEISM FUCK YEAH comment at the end of this paragraph. Way to be a stereotype. -ed)
OTAKU
This is the anime fan that, while devoted to his or her hobby, has not lost his or her mind. Tell an otaku that anime is bad, and he or she will probably agree that some of it is bad and do not lose their heads in a heated debate. Because otaku have such prolific experience with anime, they understand that some anime will not meet the standards of others. However, otaku tend to have a lot of pride in their hobby, taking time to understand the Japanese culture. They also tend to own a large amount of anime paraphernalia, meaning they do a lot of shopping and know where to go to buy anime or manga. Ironically, otaku usually have their origins in being entirely too devoted to a single series, such as being a Narutard. (Why on earth are you trying to paint otaku culture as a good thing? You even pointed out that it’s a bad thing in Japan. Jesus god fucking damn. Also, I’m cutting your section on anime haters because it is again completely irrelevant. Unless you want to argue that people who hate anime are actually part of the anime community. Then again, given how you wrote this rant, I wouldn’t be surprised if you do think that. -ed)
CONCLUSION TO MY RANT
Occasionally we need to take a step back observer ourselves, both as individuals and as a community. Maybe a few points made here (hahaha yeah right -ed) have caused you to take that step back. If we are this flawed, how can we call ourselves a community? We fight amongst ourselves, allow outsiders to get the best of us, put each other down, and hate each other for no reason.
IT’S JUST NOT RIGHT! (just like this rant -ed)
We act like children. Even on the Internet, maturity is still a factor. If you want to fight and argue, keep it to yourself. The AMV and anime communites need to change and develop a better perspective. Change can happen, but it can’t be one person. The communities must change as a whole, with effort from everyone. If one person reads this (and I’m wondering why I did -ed), then perhaps I have expedited that change..
