Rant: The anime meetup I went to last Saturday was a total letdown

I finally dragged myself to that anime discussion group at the downtown library, the one everyone hypes online. They spent the whole hour arguing about which subbed version of some 90s show is better, and nobody wanted to talk about anything new. I brought up a recent slice-of-life series I've been loving, and three people just stared at me like I insulted their grandma. The worst part is, the organizer kept cutting people off to push his own favorite show, and it felt more like a lecture than a chat. Has anyone else dealt with meetups where half the group won't even consider watching anything past 2010?

2 comments

2 Comments

grace4195d ago

Have you thought about trying a different format altogether? I had a similar experience and almost gave up on meetups entirely, but then I found a group that does a watch-and-chat thing instead. We stream an episode together on Discord for 20 minutes, then talk about it right after. It totally changed the vibe because everyone's on the same page and there's no room for gatekeeping old shows. Maybe see if the library or another spot has a group that watches stuff live rather than just arguing about it. Sometimes you gotta shop around a little to find the right crowd.

spencer6645d ago

Oh boy, that sounds exhausting. I've been to a few meetups like that and it's always the same handful of people who treat their tastes like some kind of badge of honor. The gatekeeping around older shows is ridiculous, especially when someone just wants to share something they enjoy. That organizer needs to learn how to actually host a discussion instead of giving a monologue. It's a shame because a good meetup can be really fun, but one or two loud folks can ruin the whole thing.