That one convo with a Ghibli purist at a panel still bugs me

I was at Anime Expo 2023 waiting for a late night panel to start. Some guy next to me starts going off about how the English dubs ruin everything. He said anyone who watches dubbed Ghibli films doesn't really appreciate them. I told him I grew up on the Disney dubs and still love them. He literally said my opinion didn't count because I never saw them in Japanese first. Been thinking about that interaction for over a year now. Has anyone else run into these gatekeeping types at cons?

3 comments

3 Comments

kaid5928d ago

That gatekeeping stuff shows up everywhere, not just anime.

kimr1028d ago

Oh man, you're so right about that. I got into woodworking a few years back and some people acted like I wasn't a real woodworker because I didn't have a $2,000 table saw right off the bat. It's like everywhere you go there's somebody ready to tell you you're doing it wrong or you're not a real fan unless you've been doing it since birth.

nguyen.tara17d ago

Thing is, gatekeeping often hides behind being protective of a hobby's "purity". Low key it's just people scared that a bigger crowd means their niche thing won't feel as special anymore. The real loss is all the fresh ideas that never get a chance to breathe.