It pains me to admit it, but I still use Reddit. I can't help it, it’s an easy way to look at specific news on a variety of topics all in one place. The other day as I was conducting my morning Reddit news check, I noticed that there seemed to be some uproar surrounding the Trash Taste anime podcast. And the uproar was coming from… the Trash Taste subreddit itself? Interesting. I checked the comments to get the gist of the situation, which is that one of the three hosts, The Anime Man, did not watch the recent Attack on Titan finale. I mean that doesn’t seem too bad. I proceeded to ignore the backlash considering it too little to be newsworthy. That was until out of curiosity I remembered a few days later to check the YouTube comments on that podcast episode. Oh dear, now THAT’s a community backlash. So what exactly has people so upset?

Apparently the three hosts Connor, Garnt, and Joey (The Anime Man) have been talking about doing an episode discussing the landmark ending of Attack on Titan. They went as far as to theme the episode after it, in a way to make the episode topical and generate more views. However, mere minutes into the episode, Joey admits that he didn’t watch the finale. This has set their fanbase into a frenzy for a combination of reasons. First, judging from the comments this is not uncommon behavior for Joey to fail to watch a series or anime when it’s obvious the fans would like to hear his opinion on it. In other words he ignores popular shit just to be different. Secondly, fans felt it was disrespectful to Garnt and Connor who actually did make sure to watch it. And third, Joey’s lack of effort comes as a slap in the face to the fanbase while their Patreon is very successful, currently sitting at earning approximately $33,490 a month. Lastly this AOT ending has divided people a lot as people argued about the manga vs anime endings and which was a more superior conclusion to the series. However, BOTH sides were pretty interested to hear the boys’ takes and opinions on this unarguably impactful and popular series to the anime landscape, and that didn’t happen as the vast majority of the episode was spent avoiding spoilers for Joey.

Come on now, we can't be this unprofessional while our mascot wears a suit.

All of the aforementioned factors (and possibly a few more, listen I don’t get paid enough to listen to the entire one hour and forty-nine minute episode) came together to generate a pretty fierce retaliation. And I have to say… I see their point. Years ago I remember having a discussion with Kinky that it feels like we watch more anime for the blog than actual famous anime YouTubers do for their channels nowadays. The reason is obvious enough. A YouTuber starts off with a strong passion for anime, builds an audience, and miraculously manages to launch a career. They base their entire career off anime, and after a few years of focusing on it, get burnt out and grow resentment for the medium and their large fanbase of people who only want them to talk about anime. As someone who writes about sex and anime content multiple times every week, I can understand the dilemma. From what I saw in the Reddit comments, even Joey himself has commented in the past he regrets locking himself into the name “The Anime Man” and its inherent associations. However, I do believe there’s a middleground to be found between doing nothing but anime content all the time and not bothering to watch the final episode of a huge series that you and your friends agreed to for an episode of a paid production. 

At the time of writing I didn’t see Joey address this backlash, so I’ll try to come back here and edit in an update if one does arise. He and the fellow hosts may choose not to respond as some of the comments did spiral away from criticizing Joey’s behavior and instead spewed out typical unhappy anime fan nonsense. Either way, I hope Joey sees how what he did was disrespectful to the co-hosts and audience members. Did you watch the Attack on Titan finale? Do you listen to Trash Taste? Has The Anime Man moved too far away from anime? Discuss some episodes, debate your friends, and acquire trash taste in the comments below!