For those of you who don't know, Attack on Titan was THE most talked about anime of last year. The plot revolved around a post-apocalyptic world in which humanity defends itself from giant humanoids called Titans from inside of three massive walls designed to keep them at bay. One day, Eren Jaeger, Mikasa Ackerman and Armin Arlert's lives are turned upside down when an enormous 'Colossal Titan' breaks through Wall Maria, allowing the smaller Titans to destroy towns and cities within. Eren's mother is eaten in front of his eyes and he swears vengeance upon the Titans, enlisting in the army alongside Mikasa and Armin.
So, you might be wondering what is so important about the Fine Bros. doing a reaction video to Attack on Titan. The thing is, this marks a probable new swell in anime fandom. Anime is still a niche subculture in the already diverse Geek culture. Anime has less people talking about it than, for instance, Star Trek, Star Wars or hell, even Game of Thrones. The point is that anime is still considered a really weird thing to like and that by having a Western YouTube channel actually sit down and talk about an anime as if it's no biggy will increase the fandom. The fact that the channel has over eight million subscribers and the video already has over seven hundred thousand views, with over fifty-five thousand likes further seems to confirm that our community will be gaining even more fans in the future.
So, the big question is whether these people will stop at Attack on Titan or continue to other shows. Well, I think it depends really. Attack on Titan isn't a Cowboy Bebop or Trigun. It's not something with references to Western culture. It's actually typically Japanese. Which makes it even better that so many people have liked it and will probably decide to watch the show. However, there are points where it becomes too Japanese (the gore, the expository dialogue, etc...). So, really, all I can say is that there probably will be an increase of numbers in our ranks, but not as massive as many will probably believe.
I also did like the argument of one of the Teens React regulars when talking about people who don't like anime yet like to watch animated films:
'People are like, "No, it's cartoons, we can't watch it, that's for children!' And then they'll go and see Frozen twelve times and the Lego Movie ten times, so you can freaking watch anime, people!'
Respect to this guy for finally telling it how it is. I totally respect you if you say you don't like animated films or animated TV series, but try not to put a flaw in your own argument. I am pretty sick of people almost constantly saying that anime are cartoons, implying children's television. At the end of the day, anime are adult cartoons, much like Archer, Family Guy and South Park. They're intended for a mature audience. It's true, shows like Pokémon or Yu-Gi-Oh! don't help that image but the majority of Japanese anime is for teens and adults.
As an avid anime fan, I think it suffices to say that I simultaneously leaped for joy, squeed and creamed myself when I saw this video pop up on my YouTube feed. The best thing was the positive reactions from the stars of the video. They all seemed to like it and believed that it was really good, especially the anime fans already on there. I'm just really glad for a reaction video to gain this much popularity and hopefully, our community will have a swelling of fans in the future.
