This thread will be a discussion of oneself`s experiences with cult fan-bases, especially of those pertaining to the ACG realm.

Here we go:

Love Live! School Idol Project:

One common thing in educational institutions is its affinity to create discrete cliques of students. I am a member of the clique of anime lovers in my school, and almost wherever I go, I see traces of Love Live. Either it`s people listening or discussing the music that mu`s produces, a heated debate on whether Nico or Maki is the best waifu, or it`s gamers playing the rhythm game on the iOS system. The influence go as far as to that I don`t think I have spent a day in school without seeing anything Love-Live related.

A more serious thing I realized is that the girls are also in this trend as well, as they also play the rhythm games and watch the anime like male fans do. If this was just male students, I could get this: Groups of thirsty people exercising their free will to love whoever he loves. Now it seems the influence of this franchise is big enough to even have attracted people out of its targetting demographic.

Meanwhile I often see two students in the corner: one is playing Touhou games and Kancolle, while the other student watches and plays another similar game, Idolm@ster. All of this happening at the same time when others are talking about Love Live. It seems that the other more influential fanbases have no competition here against Love Live.

"Security Guard? What in the flying f*ck are you doing?"


These events culminated when in one day, I was sharing my experiences on Love Live, and expressing my opinion of how the anime is just mediocre stuff like K-ON. Then, a male fan retorts me with the franchises` populous fanbase, the exact details of courage the anime gave him in life(I`ll give Love Live credit for that, it some times really cheers people up), and goes as far as to threaten to crush me with a "special train". I had no idea what he was saying except that he`s deep in Love Live, so I decide to investigate the "special train" with the search engine afternoon. And what`s this I found, a Love Live themed Itasha/subway train where people frequently visit and even kneel to everyday? I have now witnessed a form of true and perfect anime fan-base. One even more stronger than so many others, where instead of painting a car, an entire f*cking subway train was created by the fans themselves to serve as a cult-like shrine.


That was the time when I decide that I am done with this franchise. Now I will leave my gun and my badge here, resign my post as a loyal Love Live fan, and to not take part or encourage in any Love Live-pertaining affairs . Maybe I will look at it again just one more time for my dear Maki tho. She, like Akiyama Mio, is a real diamond in the rough.

Edit: Silver Lining here. Japanese Love Live fans harassed ISIS members on blogs sufficiently enough to cause them to quit and delete their accounts. Holy sh*t.

lol, fucking gross though

While I actually like the franchise the immense amount of popularity it gets is unreasonable. That people show that much devotion to even build altars for their favorite character makes it even worse. On the internet, you will usually see people arguing about who is the best girl, who is the worst girl etc. Over the time it is getting annoying to always read or listen to the same. I never understood what it is that made this Anime so popular, though. But thats not the point, because people seem to treat it as the best creation ever, as a masterpiece everyone should have watched.

Of course the Anime became popular here in Germany, too. Thankfully not so extreme as it happens in the asian region. But on conventions you will see a lot of Love Live! cosplays, or people going around with Love Live! merchandise. The only franchise here who can keep up with Love Live! right now is Kantai Collection, which is I would say slightly more popular than Love Live! here.

[Superstar] wrote:

The only franchise here who can keep up with Love Live! right now is Kantai Collection, which is I would say slightly more popular than Love Live! here.

There has got to be a joke in here about Germans liking KanColle since it's set in WW2. Touhou has a pretty big fandom here maybe in Germany too. Not so sure on KanColle since I quit my anime club a while ago.

Apex wrote:

And what`s this I found, a Love Live themed Itasha/subway train where people frequently visit and even kneel to everyday? I have now witnessed a form of true and perfect anime fan-base. One even more stronger than so many others, where instead of painting a car, an entire f*cking subway train was created by the fans themselves to serve as a cult-like shrine.

lmao, that would be interesting to see. I guess you could call that dedication.

So when waifu isn't enough anymore they turn them into their gods? That's some next level stuff right there.

Apex wrote:

Edit: Silver Lining here. Japanese Love Live fans harassed ISIS members on blogs sufficiently enough to cause them to quit and delete their accounts. Holy sh*t.

*claps*