"AprilSeven" wrote:But WHY? Where did that start? is it a Japanese thing?
Animal-persons isn't really an Asian-only thing, us Americans have had our fair share of it. (That cat-woman character from She-Rah comes to mind...) I tried to look up a bit more on the history of animal-persons (Catgirls specifically, or to be more correct, Nekomimi.) Unfortunately I couldn't find anything on its origin, but it's certainly not something that defies Japanese. Thinking that way is highly stereotypical.
Now to be more on topic, one thing about fandoms that personally annoys me are... ignorant people, or 'stupid people' as I personally call them, no offense to anyone here.
I used to be part of the Ginga fandom (Yoshihiro Takahashi's works, such as Ginga Nagareboshi Gin, etc.), specifically at this one community forum. And one very common thing about the Ginga fandom is that it is filled to the brim with animal loving-crazed 'kiddies' who are usually very ignorant or blinded by their love for animals. Don't get me wrong, I love animals, but they were just too much.
I remember once when it was 2009, and we happened to be talking about that new Jungle Emperor Leo special (the one with chibi Leo). And many of the members were COMPLAINING that it had a HUMAN character who got a lot of screentime, and this one member was all "But I want to see gazelles running in the grass, waahhhhhhhh." Oh noooeeessss, a human!!1!
Now if I had known Tezuka a little more then, I would have been all over their *****, ******** about how wrong they were all were all, and that they did not have the slightest idea that animal-human coexistence was a very important theme in the Leo franchise, and that Tezuka would probably be disappointed in them. I certainly was. It just makes me rage, and they're like that with ALL human characters in every single animal-based series.
I felt like the only member in the entire fandom who actually appreciates what the characters Daisuke and Takeda Gohei of the Ginga series did. Ultimately I grew hating the fandom and left the forums, especially after the staff became pathetic excuses for admins.
Rant over.
My biggest issue was when a fellow church member tried to convince me that Star Wars was more "Christian" than Lord of the Rings. There are some problems with this: Tolkien specifically wrote, I think in an introduction, that LotR is "fundamentally, a Catholic work". So I think we can agree that Catholics have similar values to Christians. Star Wars, as much as I enjoy it, is based on the principles of Joseph Campbell and New Age thinking. This person's entire argument was that LotR had wizards, and ST had none, so ST was more Christian. 
If he had done LotR research, he would realize that Gandalf and co. are servants to a higher deity, whereas in Star Wars their is no higher authority figure, the world being "governed" by the Force, with humans able to manipulate for their uses. 
Though was it kids or adults that participated in the Harry Potter outrages? I don't recall.
