I cannot describe the visceral level of aversion I have to mainstream shit. It doesn’t matter if the show is the best thing on earth, if the general public knows about it (And I don’t mean the internet, I mean the average person) then I refuse to watch or partake in it. I have no idea why and it genuinely kills me to be like this and I have no idea why.
It prevents me from joining most fandoms nowadays unless the fandom is niche. Things like Hotel Hazbin, Studio Ghibli films, Star Wars, The Office, K-pop (in general), Kpop Demon Hunters, most popular anime… WHY. WHY AM I LIKE THIS?? Is anyone else like this? Is there a reason for this or a phenomenon that causes me to feel this way?
Even people just going: “Oh yeah I love One Piece, you should watch it sometimes” makes me go “Oh fuck nah I’m good” as if the damn show was a personal insult. I feel like a stuck-up prick when I do this but I genuinely can’t control it, it makes me UNCOMFORTABLE to watch these shows and the more someone recommends it to me the worse it gets. It doesn’t even have to be recommended to me personally I can just see other people raving about it and go “Aw great now I’m gonna have to listen to this shit for the next 9 months.”
This can also happen with media that was previously unpopular but then got popular. Junji Ito was one of them. The moment I saw Hot Topic was selling merch of it and that multiple anime’s were coming out based on it, I stopped reading his books altogether. I used to buy up every single one of his books and read them constantly, now? I just lost interest and moved on, hoping the hype would die back down and then I could enjoy it again
Many things are dull/meh to garbage and loved by people because of marketing and poor taste (and you know it, you know it’s slop for human cattle while they don’t, and the fact that people willingly engage with it is depressing and makes you feel alone), many things are actually good/great and become somewhat popular also. You shouldn’t have a problem with the latter case by itself, although as we all know that might mean sequels, prequels, spinoffs and “creative resets” and eventually some australopithecus will come around and say something like “hey, did you watch Dune: Prophecy/The Rings of Power, it’s so fucking good, bro!”, lol, which is annoying/painful.
I try to just be happy for them the same way my wife is happy for me when she sees me enjoy a greasy, cheap, industrial meal. The difference is my taste buds and intelligence are disconnected so I can realise I’m enjoying the slop… it’s not the same with media for obvious reasons.