Oh boy, let's make some enemies.
Anime is trash. Well, not even anime specifically, but any cartoon that takes itself too seriously, of which anime series are almost always guilty. It's a bit like going to a circus and having the clowns try to put on a Shakespeare play. Cartoons have their roots in caricature, the grotesque exaggeration of real life. In my opinion, the format simply doesn't work for anything else, and cartoons and anime that try to be dramatic and sober (read: most anime) just come across as pretentious and somewhat ridiculous. I also find people get unreasonably defensive about anime so it's my favorite target when I'm looking to ruffle some feathers.
Sci-Fi is also trash. Star Wars, Star Trek, you name it. Being even remotely scientifically literate completely ruins them, as in order to appreciate them at all you're basically forced to turn your brain off, not think about things too hard, and just stare at the pretty explosions and space ninja fights on the screen. Suspension of disbelief is one thing, but when an entire movie or series falls apart if you don't apply it to literally every single scene, it just doesn't work. I can't will myself to be that dumb. It's for this reason that I hope to god shows like Firefly and The Expanse bring on a new renaissance of realistic Sci-Fi media, as they're honestly better in just about every way. Funny how actually trying to understand science leads to writing better science fiction, instead of just tossing out sciency-sounding words and aesthetics.
Horror is trash, most of it anyways. If a horror movie relies on jump scares and loud, obnoxious, chaotic scenes to convey any sense of fear to the audience, it's not conveying fear, it's startling them. That's not the same thing, and by the time they leave the movie theater they've probably forgotten about it. Unfortunately, that describes the vast, vast majority of the horror genre. There are very few horror movies that actually present a real sense of deep, meaningful fear that stays with you for more than a few minutes after the jump scares pass, but the ones that do are usually really good.
Action movies... aren't actually all that trash, at least on a conceptual level. There is something to be said for a movie that doesn't require you to think too deeply about it, and instead lets you soak in some mindless action scenes and offers you a bit of escapism from the dystopian waking nightmare that is your life. Yeah, I know that sounds hypocritical after what I said about Sci-Fi media, but there's a key difference; action movies usually don't try to be smart. When you decide to dress your movie up with scientific concepts and themes, but, when you peel away the sciencey-sounding terms and futurepunk aesthetics, it turns out to be completely and entirely contrary to reality on just about every level, that's a problem. I was promised science fiction; you gave me just fiction. When you offer a dumb action movie with lots of explosions and fight scenes and deliver a dumb action movie with lots of explosions and fight scenes, that's fine.
Breaking away from movies and media for a while, people suck. Like on a basic, fundamental level, humanity is awful. So many people are selfish, divisive, prejudiced, and willfully ignorant that it's kind of become the norm. Many people are kind of desensitized to it, perhaps being guilty of it themselves. Hell, we all suck a little. But it holds us back so much as a species and I am entirely pessimistic about our chances of ever rising above our sucky nature. This little ball of rock we're on has some serious problems heading its way, and we our odds of overcoming them aren't looking good. Call me black-pilled if you want; I would love to be wrong, but I don't think I am.
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