The limits of counterculture
Posted: July 25, 2009 Filed under: Uncategorized 14 Comments »
Countercounterculture is not cool. Nor is it… cool.
Though I may have made fun of the Endless Eight arc in a post this week, I am in no way attempting and failing to be a cool counterculture freak. Just because one series suddenly fails doesn’t mean that it’s cool to support it in an obviously stupid attempt to be unique. Though I may go against the usual views on many anime, it’s not like I’m specifically trying to.
I honestly think that Bakemonogatari and GTO suck. There’s no point in telling others that I think GTO sucks ten years after it aired and five years after people stopped caring if somebody went against the popular belief that GTO is a masterpiece.
But when you get people who spout things like:
im sitting here laughing at all who can’t handle it
and
this rage is really funny
…that’s going way past the line that separates “okay” from “what the hell are you thinking?”
I mean, disliking GTO is something that I can justify. I could probably type up a 2000-word post on why I don’t like GTO. Liking GTO is mainstream. I dislike it, thus I’m not mainstream.
Laughing at Harurage is just stupid. I mean, if you could justify an opinion that E8 is good, that’d be a different matter (take a look at ghostlightning!). But when you’ve got people reacting to the reaction, that’s in no way justifiable. There’s not even an opinion on the actual subject of debate – the arc itself – anymore! It just turns into a “WHO CAN BE THE COOLEST COUNTERCULTURE GUY” contest where nobody was old enough to have watched Haruhi when it was airing (though I shouldn’t really be talking here. I watched Haruhi in 2007).
LOL THIS RAGE IS FUNNY BECAUSE I DON’T HAVE $500 IN HARUHI MERCHANDISE AT HOME AND JUST WATCHED THE FIRST SEASON YESTERDAY LOLS!!1one
This rage may be stupid (take all the people rating this clearly-not-such-a-bad-anime a 1/10 on MAL, AnimeSuki, etc.), but these people who try to jump off the bandwagon when it’s going at 100 mph are sucidial idiots who need to lern2haruhi, or at least lern2notbeidiots.
And just to state my position on Haruhi so as not to be compared with wannabe unique people: Haruhi S2 has been an enormous letdown (THAT INCLUDES TANABATA, MIND YOU), but it’s a lot better than many people are making it seem.
Yes, this is what flips my switch. I often get people accusing me of trying to be counterculture (i.e. K-ON! overbashing or Bakemonogatari hating when I actually like the two series – which I don’t), and the idea has been stuck in my brain.
Bah. I’m angry.
My inner Maurice has come out.
I’m enjoying the “Harurage” because I find it amusing that people are getting so worked up after waiting for so long for more Haruhi. My enjoyment has nothing to do with trying to be cool. In fact, I couldn’t care less about countering counterculture or wanting to be unique or whatever. I guess what I’m saying is, I like seeing these people who are apparently in a lot of pain because of a cartoon. There’s nothing more than that.
“I’m enjoying the “Harurage” because I find it amusing that people are getting so worked up after waiting for so long for more Haruhi.”
This. People are getting what they want with more Haruhi, but they aren’t getting what they want with what they wanted to see from Haruhi. Saying that S2 has been a let down is understandable, and I respect that. It’s the overreactions that are fun, because these were the same people ragging on KyoAni for not producing more Haruhi, and now they’re ragging on KyoAni for not giving them the Haruhi that they want.
Screw the Harurage I can be neutral on everything. Which is why I suck sometimes.
It’s one of those instances I guess when the winning response is not to respond at all. You can’t win them all I guess.
Really, news about news is a losing game. Back to the actual anime please!
There are also limits to countercounterculture, but in the end, it all boils down to a vicious circle of stultification and trolling.
Not to say that I do actually enjoy the harurage, it fuels my Endless Schadenfreude. 🙂
While one can enjoy Endless Eight for meta reasons while finding little to nothing to enjoy in watching the episodes themselves, I do think that people trying to appear cool by ‘not hating’ it, or by LOLing at the haters is inauthentic.
I really enjoy the idea of it, the audacity of it, the failure of it all, and it being a wealth of interactive/participative fun.
I’m enjoying the Harurage because it’s coming from many of the same people who defended K-ON by saying “it is what it is,” whatever the hell that’s supposed to mean. Is Haruhi S2 not what it is? Isn’t it? “If you don’t like it, you’re not watching it right,” right?
Bah. Good responses, and I honestly can’t answer a few.
But I was browsing one of the four forums that I frequent, and out of the ten people who responded to a Haruhi thread first, five of them were people who commented on how they “lol at harurage” without saying anything else, which pissed me off. That’s more people laughing at ragers than people who actually raged! In fact, there was only one person who semi-raged, and that was me!
Personally, I hate Endless Eight. There’s no way around it. But I can still somewhat keep my sanity and not rate it below Hetalia Axis Powers.
I lol at Harurage because a lot of the people who are mad as hell are the same people who were, prior to the airing of the second season, repeatedly telling me I was stupid and clearly didn’t actually know anything about anime because I didn’t like the first season and dropped after five episodes.
Harurage is funny. That’s it.
You’re missing the point. People are laughing at those who are still pissed with Haruhi because of how pointless it is to still be pissed. Sure, it may have been”mainstream” to be full of RAGE 3 or 4 weeks ago, but at this point, being annoyed is just stupid. “Get over it” I think is the general thought process behind laughing at the rage.
Bah. The problem is that I’ve seen much, much, much more people claiming that they “lol at Harurage” than people who are actually raging!
If there were mobs of people running around while yelling obscenities and burning their Haruhi merchandise, then I probably wouldn’t be talking. But everywhere I go, I see people, as Omisyth says, thinking “Get over it.” If this is the general opinion, then who is this directed at? Where are these Haruragers? I’ve yet to see mobs of them on forums or in the blogosphere. I see one rager in a Haruhi thread, and then I see five people “lol” at the rager. I don’t know where the caves these “ragers” are hiding in are. 😐
P.S.: I don’t frequent /a/, but to contain Harurage to a single place, no matter how big it is, is illogical. There should be more Haruragers around the internet.
P.P.S.: Though of course, people like adaywithoutme who never liked Haruhi to begin with are exempt from this.
Hmm….making fun of the Endless Eight series is hardly counterculture as more people are doing just that. I still love the concept of a schoolgirl as a, no, THE Goddess, though.