Misaimed Fandom/Anime and Manga

Examples of Misaimed Fandom in Anime and Manga.


 * Multiple subsections of Evangelion fandom fulfill this trope in different ways. Rei was intended to be a Nightmare Fuel Station Attendant but was instead prominently perceived as a Fetish Fuel Station Attendant, while Shinji, the butt of a thousand Emo jokes (and an example of a main character that is also The Scrappy to some for not being a typical Super Robot hero), was at times a synthesis of creator Hideaki Anno's own personal struggles and intended to be sympathetic. In the case of Rei as Fetish Fuel, official merchandise panders to this initially misaimed interpretation.
 * Likewise in the same series, the enigmatic single-episode character Kaworu became popular, to the surprise of writers who admitted they were writing him to be unsettling to other characters. The manga (made after the anime) greatly compensates for this; for example the anvilicious scene where he puts a starving kitten out of its misery without blinking an eye, just to make his character creepier. (This has not, however, affected his much sooner planned appearance in the future remake of the show, or his existance as Shinji's friend in some of the Alternate Universe manga out there.)
 * On some level, though, it's rather hard to understand precisely why Anno and the other writers/directors thought that audience reactions would be any different from what they were. In Rei you have a girl with pale skin (keeping in mind that very pale skin has been seen as attractive in both Japan and the West for centuries), somewhat exotic features without being too alien, a figure (at 14!) that most supermodels would commit felonies for, manages to be one of the few principal characters that isn't a huge Jerkass to the main character at least occasionally, and an absolutely woobirific backstory for sympathy, and she's being preyed upon by the actual series Big Bad, provoking the obvious response in the audience. With Kaworu, you have a similarly exotic appearance (except for the other team), he's the only character in the entire series who is unconditionally nice to the main character, he makes a very interesting entrance and is neat to watch, and speaking of the Estrogen Brigade let's not forget some of those other scenes for a certain part of the base. And then of course his betrayal is magnificent and full of impact and spectacle. So on the one hand you have an exotically beautiful woobie that the audience can easily feel defensive about, and on the other hand you have a exotically handsome love-interest villain... precisely how did the staff involved think people would react to these two characters?!
 * The ending of the Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch manga was supposed to insinuate that love wasn't as important as personal fulfillment: Hanon and Rina know they will eventually have to choose to rule their kingdoms instead of staying on the surface. (This is analogous to the original The Little Mermaid story, except Lucia gets to keep Kaito.) Fans generally ignore this and give them future children with Nagisa and Hamasaki (Masahiro).
 * Kujibiki Unbalance was a Show Within a Show in the anime Genshiken made to parody nearly every romance anime by following all of the tropes. Kujibiki Unbalance was too spot on; it became a highly successful Spin-Off, while Genshiken itself almost didn't get a second season. (It was delayed almost a year.)
 * Ouran High School Host Club was intended to make fun of the school romance/bishounen harem genre. It includes many common character and plot tropes; however, many fans don't seem to realize or care that the tropes are not being played straight. Other fangirls are capable of self-deprecation. Still others see it as the best of both worlds, with the cuteness of a romantic comedy and the funnier humor of an Affectionate Parody.
 * With Serial Experiments Lain, producer Yasuyuki Ueda hoped to stir a "cultural war" (seriously) between traditional Japanese and American values, due to the latter's perceived negative influence on post-WWII Japan. His hope with "Lain" was to create a story that would be interpreted differently in the East and West and spark discussions on their cultural differences and perspectives. American fans interpreted the plot the same way as Japanese fans, which suggests that either Lain wasn't enough of a Mind Screw for his purposes, or Americans and Japanese are not that different at all... Misaimed Creator?
 * According to series creator Kazuki Takahashi, the main point of Yu-Gi-Oh!! was intended to be friendship. Unfortunately, the children's card game (that is almost always one-on-one!) element got out of control and is now the dominant aspect of the franchise. Also, Tea Gardner is infamous for her "friendship speeches" in the second series of the anime. She is also the most bashed by the fangirls, even when, technically, she's not the one who makes the most speeches.
 * Another example is that over the course of the anime/manga, there are fans who still view Seto Kaiba as The Woobie, even though he's long since become self reliant, and that Yugi and his friends are jerks who don't understand what he's been through, or fawn over Kaiba's Badass traits so much that they will overlook or pardon his Jerkass moments. Even the Toei staff working on the anime seems to feel this way. In the manga though, it should be clear that outside his few redemptive moments, Kaiba's behavior should not be idolized or emulated and that, while you are supposed to sympathize with Kaiba's troubles, you're not supposed to think that excuses the crap he pulls.
 * Also the card game episode of the manga was supposed to be a parody of Magic The Gathering telling people not to take tcgs too seriously. The card game proved so popular that it spawned the Magic The Gathering ripoff and the cartoon that defined Serious Business in a children's card game.
 * Rurouni Kenshin fans who complain how much it sucks that Kenshin doesn't kill anyone, despite this being a major, plot-critical character trait. Some fans have intelligent criticism of the series' simplistic take on morality and violence--but many do seem to think it'd be cooler if Kenshin would kill people, or don't care. The author included an in-universe example of this viewpoint: Saitou Hajime not only thinks it'd be better if Kenshin reverted to his old ways, but is also continually trying to force him to do so. When Kenshin finally resolves his last issue with his past, Saitou rejects his challenge because he was searching for something that Kenshin can no longer provide.
 * Wolf's Rain fans who sympathize too much with the wolves, claiming that "They don't really want to hurt anyone," even though many killings happen on-screen. The only one who shows any remorse is Toboe. Kiba, the human-intolerant leader, gets squeed over as well--but even if he were human, he would still be a messed-up, violent, bad-tempered misanthrope. It's not that he's bad--his issues are extremely understandable and he does grow to genuinely care about the others--it's just unlikely that The Power of Love alone could cure his issues. Especially if she's human. But as their human-looking forms are all Bishounen, it's completely understandable. Wolf's Rain also happens to be a social and religious allegory. Some fans ignore this in favor of fawning over how pretty the wolves are.
 * Gundam Seed Destiny fans who think either Blue Cosmos/LOGOS or Well-Intentioned Extremist Durandal were right. Word of God is that Durandal thought what he was doing was right, which some fans have exaggerated into claiming that it outright states that Dullindal/Durandal/whatever translation you use was right in the first place. but ! This is one of those cases where fan claims about Word of God must be taken with a grain of salt. Also, in Char's Counterattack, there are quite a few fans who maintain that Char was the hero. Despite, you know, his trying to drop an asteroid on Earth. Char himself considers this act Necessarily Evil, but evil nonetheless.
 * If you want an example of Misaimed Fandom for Gundam, look no further than the Principality of Zeon from the Universal Century. Later series play up the space Nazi aspect so much that the only difference between Zeon battle flags and Nazi ones is the replacement of the swastika. But Zeon has a truly staggering fan following, both in Japan and in the Western world, who admire Zeon soldiers as the pinnacle of manliness and loyalty. While Gundam is all about Gray and Gray Morality, and it's the leaders who are the greedy scumbags while the common soldiers run the gamut, it doesn't change the fact that Zeon's default response to anything was to throw a WMD at it, whether it's a Colony Drop (original series, 0083), biological weapon (Rise from the Ashes), or nuclear missiles (0080). This isn't helped by the fact that several stories like 0083 and 0081 focus on the interactions of close-knit groups of Zeon soldiers and try to gloss over the fact that they want to (and did) kill millions of innocent civilians in the name of independence.
 * Gundam also has viewers who didn't get the memo and missed the fact that one of the franchise's key points is War Is Hell; these people can usually be identified as the ones who say things like "The giant robots are great, but I wish they'd shut up with all that talky philosophy bullshit and just fight each other!"
 * Many Naruto fans (for a justifiable reason) wanted to see Naruto kill just for the sake of revenge. The entire point of the arc (and most of the series) is that revenge is a form of cheap satisfaction that never solves anything, which just leads to more revenge, and that some problems are best solved without violence (and if Naruto killed him he would have proved his belief that people are incapable of overcoming their hatred or showing mercy to those that have hurt them to be completely right). Oddly enough, these fans also seem surprised by his tragic backstory, even though it had already been mentioned, and even though Naruto never accepted Freudian Excuses as justifications for misdeeds, often criticizing the logic behind them.Though Naruto does break its own aesops a lot.
 * Another example is that whilst many Naruto fans see Sasuke as a Complete Monster (or at least a Smug Snake) who eats babies and enjoys kicking puppies, others see him as a Badass with absolutely no flaws, who is not emotionally unstable in the least and who simply does bad things because he's "cool" and "badass" and "evil". Both sets of fans are wrong, as it's pretty clear that while he's supposed to be sympathetic, or to have been sympathetic once before he crossed the Moral Event Horizon, most of his life choices are shown in quite a negative light.
 * To this day, there are a lot of Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann fans who refuse to accept that Simon is the main character of the series. These people often cast Kamina as the "real" main character, ignoring that . Perhaps it has something to do with Kamina being more... boisterous than Simon, or perhaps more impetuous (it's worth mentioning that his impetuousness was deliberately portrayed as Kamina's fatal flaw)? Not to mention how the majority of fans see Kamina as a Memetic Badass on par with Chuck Norris and swear that he's the most powerful member of the team. Sure, he looks cool, and he's Hot-Blooded in a series that already oozes Hot Blood, but
 * Higurashi no Naku Koro ni in general. The series is a dark murder-mystery about what happens if your True Companions are torn apart. The anime and manga up the female Fan Service in their official arts to over 9000... Still, most of the fans are female. On the same topic, a lot of fans seem to dislike whenever nothing "scary" or gory happens. They're completely missing the point of the series. We're supposed to be happy that there is nothing wrong and that everyone can just go on with their lives.
 * Believe it or not, fans of Franken Fran, but Fran isn't evil. Nor is her sister Veronica supposed to be good. If you truly pay attention, then you'll notice that they are both intended to be neutral. It's especially apparent with the OVAs, where no violence happens and its slapstick fun. Fans can't just let the kids live normally..
 * In a similar vein to Zeon (and the various factions of other Gundam series in general - it is a Sunrise series), Britannia in Code Geass often gets portrayed as significantly less evil in the fandom than in the series. Even the series humanizes The Empire to a degree in R2, seeming to forget that they're, you know, evil aggressors. Much like Zeon, the soldiers themselves are often pretty decent (albeit with a number of racists), and even the leaders (Princes and Princesses) are often shown to genuinely love and care for one another - to an extent.
 * Lelouch is a prime example of Misaimed Fandom. Lelouch is a pragmatist who keeps his head and makes the best use of any situation, even if it involves killing bystanders/foolish allies or disgracing those that he loves, but he's obviously not happy when his subordinates or friends die, and his end goal is to replace the current system with one that's kinder and not as exclusive. The whole "Lelouch is evil" party is pretty dumb, even more so if they still sit in that camp after the final story arc.
 * While Sora Naegino from Kaleido Star did go through quite the Break the Cutie at times, her boss Kalos Eidos was a Stern Teacher and her second season May Wong got to befriend her after being subjected to quite the Break the Haughty. To the fandom, however, Kalos and May are absolute Complete Monsters who fap to the possibility of Sora failing, and Sora should pretty much be spoon-fed success and stardom even when she has to re-shape her Wide-Eyed Idealist ways into a somewhat more mature stance, so she can both keep believing in the best of people and not crush under the pressure of being the star of the Kaleido Stage.
 * Some fans hijacked Grave of the Fireflies and used it to fuel their arguments about how evil and cruel America was to Japan in WW 2. Leave aside the multiple layers of rose tinting in the glasses used to view Imperial Japan as the innocent victims forced to go into war, it also entirely misses the point of the film. The point of the film was that war is absolutely terrible and horrific for anyone who personally experiences its horrors, regardless of whether their side is "right" or "wrong."
 * Even more so, director Isao Takahata explicitly, in as many words and with no room for debate or wiggle-room, disavowed any sort of anti-war message at all in an interview with Animage Magazine in 1988. He was actually aiming to instill guilt and shame in Japanese teens/young adults who were (at least by Japanese standards) running amok by essentiually saying "you see that? You see what your parents had to endure during World War Two so that you ungrateful bastards could have the kind of comfortable life you're leading?" This point is driven home when  Seita, at the end of the movie, gives an accusatory glare to the audience while sitting on a promontory overlooking 1988-vintage Kobe.
 * An Eyeshield 21 fan basically has to introduce him/herself first as either a fan of the football games, or a fan of the boys, before talking at all about the series.
 * Ah! My Goddess has this in spades. Some fans take Keiichi's laid-back attitude as a sign that he's weak-willed and would be subservient to any of the other members of the main cast, despite the fact that the series wouldn't work if that was true.
 * Bakugan Battle Brawlers has the Doom Card, a symbol of evil that basically sent losing Bakugan to hell and was an implement of the Big Bad and all around made people do nasty, terrible things. The kids LOVE the Doom Card...
 * Gunslinger Girl was taken by many to be a deconstruction of Lolicon. Turns out, not so much...
 * This seems to happen a lot with especially shady characters in Kubo Tite's works. For instance, Ranewater Calder in Zombie Powder had many female fans despite him being a complete raving sociopath who liked to cut off innocent people's fingers just so he could get a hold of eternal youth. An example from Bleach would be Ichimaru, who should leave you with a disgusting feeling. Apparently, some Fangirls like that feeling.
 * Grimmjow has a huge fan following. You know, the guy who's basically an Ichigo/Renji hybrid minus any sense of morality.
 * A very spoileriffic example from Fullmetal Alchemist.
 * This didn't stop many people from enjoying this scene a little too much, especially considering the fact that is an arrogant, brutish Jerkass and a Complete Monster who
 * Which does NOT mean that  wasn't falling into despair and insanity while they fought. It doesn't change things that much whether you like   or not, or whether you think he deserved it.
 * Though on the other hand, he did deserve it. even admits as much. The problem isn't what's being done, it's why it's being done. Again, portrayed quite well in the anime.
 * The problem with presenting this as a Moral Event Horizon for  lies primarily in the Show, Don't Tell principle. The audience doesn't really have any reason not be totally behind him at this point. After all, he's done this very same thing previously and the result is always a Crowning Moment of Awesome. His   is a high point in the entire series. He's saved the main characters and dispatched major villains so often that when everyone suddenly objects to his finishing a fight and decides to waste time that they in no way have to stage a needless intervention they're the ones who come off as being unhinged, not him.
 * to be fair, the difference between the  and all the other times you mentioned, is that with   he went out of his way for a long time and primarily just tortured him rather than simply ending it. yes it was a Kick the Son of a Bitch moment, and yes it was very awesome, but that doesnt really change the fact he was going way too far. not to mention the fact he's terrifying. its not surprising they felt the need to intervene
 * Revolutionary Girl Utena has this in a bunch of different flavors, which was sort of bound to happen. A big part of this is either focused on whether is a Complete Monster or The Woobie, whether Utena should be a prince or a princess, and shipping wars. Oh, the shipping wars...The ironic part is that the show makes a large part of deconstructing these arguments and pointing out that no person would have such flat motivations. But it wouldn't be a Misaimed Fandom if they listened.
 * Death Note fans who root for Light even through his most callous casualties and perceive him as the god proxy he touts himself as is this, as in Death Note 13, both creators say they consider Light to be evil. The infamous "Manga Murder" case (in which a Belgian man murdered people whose names he wrote in a "Death Note" replica, presumably imitating Light) is the Most Triumphant Example of this possible Misaimed Fandom. That said, there are SOME who cheer him on because he's so brilliantly twisted and evil who don't qualify here, but for those who actually believe he's The Hero... they definitely qualify here.
 * Note that this even extends to the Director of the anime. He's gone on record of saying part of him was pulling for Light to be the victor of the manga, despite his evilness. This is in contrast, however, to the Director of the live action movie adaptations, who has said that one of his goals (particularly in the second film) was to convey Light's evil properly like he felt it was conveyed in the manga.
 * In an inverted example, a lot of fans who dislike Light seem to pick upon his declaration of divinity as one of his crowning sins. Now, whilst this does show his tremendous ego and doesn't exactly do his audience sympathy many favours, you'd have thought that being a bit arrogant and offending some viewers' religious sensibilities would be kind of small fry compared with murdering hundreds of people a day, including some for just getting in your way, for several years running.
 * Though it should be pointed out that whilst murder is a horrible thing, to many religions attempting to usurp God would be considered an even worse act.
 * Even more baffling is the amount of Light/OC fanfic, portraying Light as a Jerkass with A Heart Of Gold who just needed a strong-willed woman to catch his eye. This completely ignoring the countless women with their own varying rapier wits and amounts of backbone in-series that he treated like objects to be used and tossed aside.
 * Also, in another instance of this trope, similar to the Rei Ayanami example, there's L, the socially inept, disheeveled, insomniac rival to Light, who was admitedly designed to be ugly and unpleasant looking. The massive fangirl following massively disagrees.
 * Death Note 13's "How to Read" also reveals that Takeshi Obata tried to complicate the morality of the series by purposefully giving L an ugly character design that no one would be attracted to.
 * Word of God says Ciel and Sebastian from Black Butler are villain protagonists who have no affection for each other and shouldn't be pitied. However, a lot of Yaoi Fangirls want them to be Happily Ever After.
 * Many Robotech fans completely ignore the point that Robotech is supposed to be a multigenerational epic. this means that characters come along and leave (either through death or simply time passing) when their stories are finished. A large number of them are obsessed with Rick Hunter as though he were the central main character of the Robotech Universe. He appeared briefly in the 2007 followup Shadow Chronicles film as a barely recognizable, aged, white haired version of himself (Actually, he looked far older than what he was supposed to be). This naturally upset fans who wanted to see Rick, Max, and the others flying their Veritechs and kicking serious alien ass like in the original Macross Saga despite the fact that Shadow Chronicles takes place about 35 years later.
 * For some reason, a lot of Robotech fans couldn't care less for the Southern Cross and Mospeada segments of the show. They may as well just call themselves Macross fans.
 * Ironically enough, Hikaru (Rick), Misa (Lisa), and Minmay (Minmei) have not appeared in any Macross sequels so far and there's zero likelihood that they ever will. Shoji Kawamori, the creator of the franchise, has said on numerous occasions that he feels that their story ended with the Megaroad launching and has no interest in revisiting those characters, and a mention in the instruction manual for the game Macross M3 implies that they and the rest of the Megaroad fleet disappeared without trace. Max and Millia appeared as supporting characters in Macross 7 (and Max makes a cameo in the spinoff manga Macross 7 Trash), but they are mostly periphery characters, taking a back seat for "Fire Bomber". Roy Focker appears as a supporting character in Macross Zero. While original-series fans have fond memories of Hikaru, Misa and Minmay, there doesn't seem to be a lot of clamoring for their return outside of the occasional nostalia product (video games and the like) -- most new fans have glomped onto Macross Frontier.
 * In the Pokémon anime, the rival of each series induces one of these. While they're normally a jerk to Ash instead of a friendly competitor, a lot of people cheer them on for this, saying that they're much cooler than Ash and better trainers. This is most evident in Paul, the Sinnoh rival. Yet people still cheered him on when he abused his Pokemon in order to make them stronger.
 * It's get worse when the writer had him get away with such actions and let him walk away scot-free without being called out on it. And ironically, because the fangirls latch onto Paul and not let go, the Unova rival Trip is bashed because he's not a total Jerkass.
 * The Wandering Son fandom can be this at times. A lot of the fandom seems to be under the impression that either, or both, of the protagonists are just gay despite the fact that the manga explicitly states several times that they are Transsexualism, and even has a post-op who they compare to. Other fans think it's a romance Shojo (despite really being Seinen) where Takatsuki and Nitori are going to end up in the end.. Despite the fact that while they may end up together, the manga isn't about that.
 * Believe it or not, many people want to become Hikikomori after watching Welcome to The NHK. Yeah.
 * Worse still, this continued even after the author wrote in the afterword of the original novel that the point of the story was how horrible this lifestyle was for him.
 * Considering that Candy Candy is a Shoujo manga from The Seventies, it had pretty revolutionary 'messages': "Be honest to yourself", "Don't throw away your own beliefs", "Work hard to earn what you get in life", "Romance is important, yes, but not the end and be all to a woman's life". The fandom, however, ignores almost all of them (and specially the last one) only to focus on the romantic part of the plot, and specially on  Even older fans in their 30's and 40's, who should know better, fall into this trap.
 * Some parts of the Loveless fandom activley ship pairings that are canonically stated to be abusive (eg- Seimei/Soubi), either ignoring or fetishizing the fact that they aren't healthy. Also applying Draco in Leather Pants to Seimei and Nisei.
 * Axis Powers Hetalia was intended to parody National Stereotypes. With this in mind, the amount of Misplaced Nationalism in the fandom (especially in regards to characters like America and Poland) looks ridiculous.