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
I’m going to have to answer this based on my personal experience and I’d know because your detailing is very similar.
Mainstream content reinforces the idea that the world and society all but feel manufactured. They’re the things that got chosen to be popular, they’re what is going to be market, they’re what is going to be talked about and so on and so forth. Sometimes it is chosen but other times, there’s definitely a formula in the works that just gravitates people instantly.
That’s all fine and well. But if you’re an individual who’ve developed their own tastes and you’re not getting in any engagement with anyone about those tastes, you’re going to get lost in the fold very quickly because you’re not part of what everyone considers the ‘in’ thing.
Your last bit tells me that it’s a you-thing. You dropped everything that you liked, because why? Because you saw merchandise being made in a store? But it’s like, did anyone force what you enjoyed down your throat? You’re waiting for the hype to die down? I don’t get that, because all that you’re doing, is limiting your personal enjoyment and your personal moderation about how much you enjoy something.
You don’t have to go out, buy the merchandise, buy anything that so much has your favorite thing on it. You don’t have to engage with the mass volume of the community that gets noisy to engage. You’ve sucked out whatever interest that was left over things that are optional. It’s one thing if a series changes because of fan demand, that I can understand and it has happened to people’s favorite series.
But if a series is still going for what it is, unaltered and naturally enjoyed but still popular but you want to sit it out anyways? That’s kindof on you.