My Honest Opinion About “Supporting The Anime Industry”

The narrative of supporting what you love is supposed to be the easiest task to accomplish, and yet, it’s so complex.

Do you remember in the past, specifically in the early-mid 2010s, when every big name individual, either a youtuber, or a blogger, would tell you to support the anime industry through legal methods? The objectives were, buy physical media, or simply subscribe to an official licensed streaming service online, such as Crunchyroll, Funimation, Netflix, Hulu, and etc.

This type of method was the standard de facto for supporting the anime industry, according to these “experts”. In reality, however, I’ve noticed that contributing to the anime industry is a bit more complex than one would think it is. In what sense exactly? Well, let’s view it this way.

For the longest time, contributing to the anime industry is seen as a good act by fans. Especially since the anime industry itself is always struggling 24/7. You constantly hear news about how the anime industry is suffering net losses, studios closing, workers being overworked to death and getting very little pay in return, and etc. Even more so since 90% of us got into anime through the luxury of free illegal streams without a single pay at all. Even then, that’s still happening as of today.

But what if I were to tell you that contributing to the anime industry is a lot more complicated, and to an extent, much more different than what many believe in? How the industry’s support by it’s fans is less about moral standards, and more about the responsibility of the consumer and also the efforts of the industry itself? What do I mean exactly?

Before you drop my article and automatically assume it will be about me having to tell you that you must contribute to the anime industry to save it with your own hard earned money, or vice versa about me telling you that you shouldn’t contribute the industry because it refuses to help itself and make it complicated for consumers like us. Then I would like to ask you to please keep reading because if you assumed that, then you are incorrect. In fact, it’s a completely different take.

Sony Just Killed Physical Disc Production For Future PlayStation Games

In one of the most disappointing and horrific acts by a video company, the best-selling platform brand will make sure that, “you will own nothing and be happy”.

When the PlayStation 5 was released back in the fall of 2020, aka, during the madness of when the COVID-19 pandemic was running rampant and political discourse entered into free fall never seen before in American history, I told myself that I had plans to buy a PS5, and, eventually I believe I would. As the years went by, I kept telling myself the same thing that eventually I’ll buy myself a PS5, but, somehow, as my life went on, I never did. Jump to six years later, the same narrative was applied to me all the time, but I was never able to figure out why I haven’t bought myself a PS5 yet? I know it’s not money issue, because here I am completely okay with spending $300-$400 on cosplay and buying $100 tickets to attend big name anime conventions. Maybe I thought that priority for other stuff from my same passion was more important for me? Maybe it’s because as a working adult, I don’t really have free time to invest on a console that forks a lot of money and keeps getting more expensive each year? Could it be that it’s library of games didn’t convince me to buy a PS5? Maybe it’s because switching to PC Gaming four years ago made my gaming experience just- (CALM DOWN FANBOYS IT’S JUST A JOKE RIGHT?)

… Maybe?

I came up with so many theories on why I haven’t bought myself a PlayStation 5 just yet? However, today, July 1, 2026, I finally realized why I haven’t bought one, and, the move pulled by Sony only enforces it. What am I talking about? Well, here’s what Sony has done that will probably enrage you, but at the end, nothing will be done about it.

My Kaito (Vocaloid) Photoshoot at Anime Festival Orlando 2026

My First cosplay photoshoot in six months. This time, it’s blue boy Kaito from Vocaloid at Anime Festival Orlando!

While at Anime Festival Orlando, I realized something quite shocking, despite previously attending other anime cons like Brick City Anime Festival, and Anime Day Tampa, I haven’t taken any cosplay photoshoots of my cosplay at all. In fact, I haven’t taken one since Sarasota Anime-Fest 2025, when I cosplayed as Len Kagamine. It was quite the surprising realization.

Since the start of Sarasota Anime-Fest, I’ve enjoyed the anime convention experience back to back, and my cosplay journey has been very revolutionary so far. In fact, so amazing, that it doesn’t feel enough. I am so hooked into my cosplay journey that I hope it continues to expand. Here are some photoshoots of my Kaito cosplay. It’s nothing special really, but it definitely feels amazing doing these photoshoots. Call it a warmup because I still got some more great cosplay stuff to go!

The Death and Rebirth of The Anime Elitist

Once considered the Vanguard of the anime community, this once stronghold of a practice has become almost non-existent, and completely different.

In September 2011, I remember finishing Angel Beats! The reception was positive, and I was filled with such joy, happiness, and that fuzzy post-anime depression feeling. During my time on MyAnimeList, I added it to my completed list, and when I did, I was met with a very rude awakening by somebody I didn’t even know at all…

He went onto my profile, left a comment, and said these exact words to me:

Seeing your icon and your favorites list while finishing a shit anime reminds me of everything wrong with modern anime and the anime community as a whole. All I have got to say is, go fuck yourself. – Random Anime Elitist in 2011

These words, said in such a hilarious fashion, left me in a confused state. Like, what did I do to deserve to be insulted? I don’t even know the guy at all, and he just insulted me out of nowhere just because I like an anime show and he doesn’t? How immature can he be?

The thing is, my interaction with him wasn’t my first. Later on, I began to encounter more of these toxic fans, and every time I did, there was something I noticed: Their favorites, and their type of anime, are 99% the same. These artistic, underground anime titles that are vastly different from the typical mainstream anime titles that many of us—including myself—watch. I thought, “Who are these people?”

That’s when I discovered the term “anime elitist”… A group of self-proclaimed vanguards whose goal was to gatekeep anime as a whole, and to express some sort of superiority complex against others who liked a different taste in anime, while trying to change the way anime should be watched and viewed—and expressing hostility toward anyone who said otherwise.

Once an instrumental part of the anime community, if you’re someone like me who’s been around the anime community for a while now and has noticed that anime elitists don’t hold the iron grip on the community like they used to in the past—well, you’re not wrong. Anime elitism, as a whole, no longer exists strongly in the anime community. And in this article, I will be talking about the anime elitist and its role—from its dominant rise to its ungraceful fall.

Tampa Anime Day 2026 Review

My first local anime con of 2026 was one of the smallest anime conventions and turned out to be the unexpected crowned winner so far!

Missing out on Swampcon, Freecon, and ACEcon day 2 was brutal. After all the much-anticipated hype for those three, I couldn’t attend them, and to make matters worse, April turned out to be a month with no anime conventions or events whatsoever. So, to sum it up, I was unable to duke it out in the otaku interactive fun activities that I’ve been doing since Sarasota Anime-Fest, which started in December 2025. Of course, it didn’t last too long, but nonetheless, boredom was strong, and I could tell that Animangemu’s content was growing a bit stale for my readers.

That’s when Anime Day Official, the group that I’ve been following for over a year, finally announced its scheduled date for Tampa locals, and the timing couldn’t have been better. Right at the start of May, I knew that my drought of attending anime cons was finally about to end.

If you’ve been following me for a while now, I’m sure you’ve read my articles about the anime cons I’ve attended previously, like Brick City Anime Festival and Sarasota Anime-Fest, for example. Similar to my previous anime con experiences, Tampa Anime Day is yet another example of a local anime convention done right. In fact, it’s arguably the best I’ve attended so far.

Located at the Sheraton Tampa Brandon Hotel in Tampa, Tampa Anime Day was my first true local anime convention of the year. I know many of you probably thought it was ACEcon, and while that’s true for the broader Tampa metro area as a whole, ACEcon was held in Palm Harbor. If we’re talking about Tampa itself, then this was the first actual local anime con of the year. It also had the shortest travel distance for me (except for Brick City Anime Festival during my time at my former local base in Ocala). Anime Day Official is known for hosting events in several cities across the country, like Nashville in Tennessee and Huntsville in Alabama. Florida has had three so far: Jacksonville, Orlando, and most recently Tampa. I wanted to attend last year, but was unable to do so.

Now, I was finally able to attend in 2026, and how did my first true local anime con turn out? Well, a tiny bit of spoilers, but it went beyond my positive expectations. In fact, it was so darn good that I can’t wait to tell you about all the awesome stuff that happened for me at Tampa Anime Day. Buckle up and get ready for the show!