Reverse Pandering works just as well

You know the drill by now. A new show comes out, everyone praises it as the second coming of Christ, and a few weeks later, the hype dies out completely, because what did you know, they figure out it was never that good to begin with. The recent example is The Ancient Magus Bride, which when it first came out everyone was hyping as the best anime of the year, and even got a Crunchyroll award as the best drama.

Despite all the popularity, it got forgotten by most in just one month, because they suddenly realized nothing was going on in that show. The only actual thing that got them interested in the first place was the hype, that died out when the next season came and people began to hype other shows. I mean, why would they care about a generic fantasy show where nothing was ever happening?

Why would you waste your time on that when Crunchyroll is now hyping a generic satire of magical girls as the ultimate evolution of the magical girl genre? Now here’s the true quality you should be invested in… for the next three weeks… before they find something else to hype. As stupid as this sounds, it works for the gullible audience and it panders certain demographics, which is enough to make anything popular and successful for at least the first season.

And then there are cases like Osomatsu-san which become a success for all the wrong reasons. What began as a discount Gintama, ended up as one of the most sold series of 2016. And that is weird, because it’s not that funny, it’s not deep, or that well animated, or has amazing characters. The main reason of its success was how it accidentally attracted several thousands fujoshis into idolizing the brothers in the show, and eventually making yaoi fan fiction as usual.

And the funny thing here is that it was never a yaoibait. In fact, it was making fun of the fujoshis and their stupid obsessions. But they didn’t care as they were stupid enough to think it was poking fun at the stereotypes and in reality it was 100% gayshit. Which it wasn’t, and when the second season came and had zero ridiculing of the fujoshi culture, they dropped it like a hot potato and it was a total flop in sales.

This proves that you don’t have to pander a demographic as the only way for you to be successful. You can be making fun of them daily, and they are still going to like it. Self deprecation has a wide following too, you know. Enough with the unbearably one-sided positivity and hyping. Reverse pandering works just as well, because there are enough dumb people out there who can like a show for something it’s not.