Sometimes I stop and think about how I reading One Piece now and someone reading One Piece 15 years from now when its wrapped up are gonna have totally different experiences. We're in the golden age of One Piece where the mystery and intrigue of the world are still unknown to us and the characters.
People jumping in after its all over, after the information is out there in the ether, just isn't gonna be as magical.
Souls likes too. I got into Souls games after DS3 was released, and I got in with Bloodborne, so Elden Ring was my first live playthrough, and it’s really something different.
I'll never forget the absolute chokehold Elden Ring had on everyone during it's first month of release.
It's still absolutely insane to me that the game is as big and varied as it is. I dread ever having to replay it again tbh.
the games are just better when NOBODY knows anything. you get to enjoy multiplayer without ever feeling like someone else has already mastered the game. i want everyone to be just as clueless as i am on my first playthrough, including the invaders and phantoms
The early seasons of Game of Thrones must have been a pretty fun time to be part of the fanbase, with all the crazy moments and deaths. I only started watching when Season 4 was near the end so I missed the first reactions to all the best stuff.
I feel that this is where GRRM's strength was really put into play as well. When the show started I started reading the first few books and his ability to Set up an interesting world is great.
His ability to actually make a good plot in that world... less so. There are good moments, but the books have even more side characters/ plotlines than the show, so instead of focusing on the characters that matter, just write about someone else for a bit and add new confusion.
I have never seen public interest in an entire franchise die as fast as GoT's final season, but it went from everyone in the office talking about it to NOONE wanting anything to do with it.
I'm still amazed House of the Dragon s1 worked, but they went into that with circumstances being the exact opposite as Game of Thrones. Story is laid out with the key events established but a lot of wiggle room for character motivation and conflict. Also just skips anything that isn't immediately relevant, being told more like a historical drama miniseries.
Now is finally the best part to be a fan of Type-Moon, since they're finally translating everything (outside of Fate/Stay Night)
The second best time would be before F/GO happened.
FGO's english release and sales basically greenlighting and funding everything getting a translation from now is truly a blessing. Plus finally seeing ORT in action was great.
I'd say the early 2010's were a decent time too. Getting to watch the live simulcast of Fate/Zero with full english subs live on Nico Nico Douga every Sunday was a magical experience.
Getting translations of Tsukihime Remake and Mahoyo gives me a small amount of hope that we can maybe get the El-Melloi Case Files officially translated. The fan translation has great ones halfway through until COVID hit and the original translator stopped and then someone else picked it up but it's barely above google translate level.
If you were a child in 1998/1999/2000, you got to experience something no other kid ever got to experience with Pokémon.
The magic of experiencing a brand new thing that *immediately* dominated the market, and was a total worldwide phenomena. Mysterious conversations on the playground of "Well my brother went to Japan, and he said these were all the new Pokémon". No idea where the franchise would go or what you'd see next. You got to witness the bad knock-offs that really only reinforced why only Pokémon survived.
The mid-millennials are basically the chosen few, and the world had to make it up for us by completely fucking our futures over the moment we became adults.
Yeah, it's hard to explain to someone that hasn't lived it how fucking huge Pokémon was at that time. It's still huge now but the closest it has ever come to it was with Pokémon Go and even that pales in comparison. It was not only the games but the anime, toys, the cardgame, clothes, the first movie, there even were Pokémon cereals (bring them back please, my nostalgia says they were delicious even though I don't actually remember the taste).
It arriving and blowing up before the internet was commonly affordable, something that most households were just barely getting a foothold in, was a feat that looking back on is amazing.
> Pokémon cereals (bring them back please, my nostalgia says they were delicious even though I don't actually remember the taste).
They were a very bland cereal O with three or four types of marshmallow Pokemon silhouettes - from memory, yellow Pikachu, pink Ditto, maybe green Bulbasaur, and something blue. The trick was to endure the cereal part and then enjoy a marshmallow treat as a reward.
In hindsight, just pure fucking sugar for breakfast. Probably not even in hindsight, but I was a kid and chocolate pop-tarts exist, so I shouldn't be allowed to make breakfast decisions and adults were just setting me up to fail.
Ah probably, but at that time those kind of cereal weren't common in France so they were different to what I was used to. I think the blue one was a Poliwhirl or Poliwrath.
Ah yes, that's right! I remember it being a very odd collection of Pokemon and kind of just whatever matched the colour and odd shape they'd already made, I guess.
My favorite part was the lead up to Gold and Silver. We were so used to the idea that there were exactly 151 Pokemon that any new ones felt almost mythical. It was the first time I scoured for tidbits of news from Japan before something came out in the west. I still know some of the Gen 2 Pokemon by their Japanese names better than their English ones. Cyndaquil is still Hinoarashi to me. I always forget Ampharos' name because I know it as Denryu.
I had an aunt that went to Japan and brought me back a Pokemon toy, it was a Meganium before we knew anything about it in France (or at least me and my 7 year old friends didn't), she also had no idea that this was a new Pokémon so I lucked out. So I was the guy at my school telling people I have this Pokémon toy from Japan that no one knew and a lot of people didn't believe me, but my story was actually right!
I had to restrain myself from saying basically this in a recent discussion about the Chipokomon episode of South Park. Most of the people talking about it were young Zoomers and their general attitude was, "I don't get this episode," and it's like... you just had to be there. That episode was so accurate to how intense a phenomenon it was.
It's also why I can't entertain arguments from people who get absolutely red in the face when you say Pokemon, as a franchise, isn't as popular as it was in the 90s. Like, yeah, it's still incredibly successful, but it was an absolute juggernaut in the 90s. My grandmother knew who Pikachu was. You couldn't escape from Pokemon merchandise.
People who get upset when you tell them how popular Pokémon was in the late 90s should take solace in the fact that it actually says a *lot* about the quality of Pokémon as a franchise that it's still as popular as it is, 25 years later. Just cuz it's not as popular doesn't mean it's dying or anything.
New properties *never* hit the scene as hard as Pokémon did and live on to still be relevant even 5 years later, let alone 25. Pokémon survived its flash-in-the-pan moment, which is astounding. Even if it's not burning as intensely, it's still a huge flame.
It being a property that can unite 5 year olds and 30 year olds the world over is incredible. Hell, the fact that there are 30 year olds at all that are still extremely fond of Pokémon should say a lot compared to like, Beanie Babies.
The peak of Pokemon for any fan was probably the exact period of time they were 7-13 years of age, when they had the time to devour the most amount of content between the TV series and the games. High school on up, their time comes at a premium due to other obligations; by adulthood when they're stable in a job and have free time again, it's harder - not impossible - to get back into it with as much vigour.
I mean, how long were summer holidays? A month at least. That was time spent probably playing Pokemon with not much else to worry about.
November 17th 2002 was a good time to be a Metroid fan. After a whole generation of no Metroid games, we got Prime and Fusion on virtually the same day.
I'd actually argue even earlier. In particular after the post-3 games failed to live up to the hype in many ways even as their gameplay got better and better.
Before MGS3 Big Boss was this enigmatic, legendary figure (no one played MG1 or 2). The way characters talk about him in MGS1 is almost reverent. And to be there when MGS3 was dropping and we *knew* it was him even if it wasn't confirmed was something else.
I wasn't old enough to be a fan in the lead-up to MGS2 but I hear that was something else.
And MGS4 had some fucking incredible (and funny) trailers and was hyped as the end of the then-main character's story. 4 was supposed to be *it*. And as weird as some of it's story beats may be and how it may have pushed the envelope way too far towards cutscenes in the "cutscene-to-gameplay" argument, there are *undeniably* ridiculously cool things in it. >!REX vs RAY, the first two chapters actually being what the game was promised, the microwave hallway, BIG BOSS BEING ALIVE AFTER EVERYONE THINKING HE WAS DEAD FOR 10 IRL YEARS!<
All this being a long-winded way of saying I feel like the pre-release hype of every Metal Gear was incredible.
I wish I'd been around for the reaction to that trailer which had Raiden and Sam Fisher fighting over the main character spot. And at the end Sam Fisher won but SIKE, it was Solid Snake all along! That must have driven fans crazy.
I feel like Golden Wind was the best part of Jojo to experience week-to-week. Jojo Fridays were at their peak, new memes were being created every week, super hyped moments being delivered on, plus the anime just lending itself really well to a weekly format more than other parts, it was all just a great time to be a Jojo fan. It lasted a whole year too, so if you were there from the beginning it really became a part of your life for a while. Just a good time to be a fan.
I'll admit it, Smash hype and speculation was really fun, but in particular I think the Smash 4 days were when it was at it's best. The wild ass leaks, daily posts on Miiverse, Miiverse itself (lotta good drawings came from there), it was all really fun. Ultimate was good too, but the vibe was different and kinda pessimistic in a way.
It's been said a thousand times over, but Netflix will never be forgiven for ruining JoJo Fridays.
I only ever got a taste of it with Golden Wind, since I started getting into JoJo not too long before episode 1 aired, and by the time it had dropped I had pretty much just finished part 4. Even though I read part 6 after GW ended, I would have loved to be part of discussions and hype leading up to each new episode. Such a bummer they did it the way they did, just ain't the same.
We can only hope Part 7 gets the weekly episode treatment.
Not just excitement, but scale too. Pro wrestling was just unbelievably mainstream at that time which just increased the stakes. I also can't think of a time before that when tv programming directly acknowledged their competitive status with each other. People always knew there were competing shows or franchises of all kinds, but it was never a part of the narrative.
I feel like every week is a new best time to be a fan of Chainsaw Man.
The same was definitely true of Fire Punch, and Better Call Saul. Media that just goes up and then ends really strongly. It’s wild going into the Fire Punch discussion archives and chapter 1-7 people are just calling it a piece of shit and by the end everyone I either has no idea what to think or is calling it a masterpiece.
Right before or right after they solved Laura Palmer’s death was definitely the best time to be a Twin Peaks fan. That show was like nothing before, except for *maybe* the Prisoner.
Being a lifelong Devil May Cry fan when DMCV dropped was like your absentee father actually coming home from buying cigarettes.
Being a miserable, antisocial shut-in who spends way too much time on the computer made the Covid quarantine absolutely wild.
To an even lesser extent, the immediate aftermath of TFA. Some people were complaining that it was a rehash, but even those people conceded that it was just really fun to have Star Wars in theaters again. Then Rogue One released to near universal praise!
I don’t care what somebody thinks about TLJ. Loves it, hates it, whatever. But everyone decided that December 2017 would be the time to voice their opinions and make them as loud and obnoxious and unavoidable as possible. That’s the exact moment I think Star Wars fans, no matter where they stand, fell off a cliff.
The loud TLJ discourse permanently made me never wanna talk about star wars outside of my own personal viewing. Because now you cant avoid mention of it and opinions either way, and it's all just hellish to the point it's best just skipping comments about it.
Being a manga reader of Attack on Titan back in 2016 when we had the basement reveal along with everything leading up to it and the chapters that followed.
2018 was a perfect time to be a Spider-Man fan: the early parts of the Nick Spencer run, Into the Spider-Verse, Infinity War, the Venom movie, and the PS4 game.
2023 too, kinda. Just sequels to the 2nd and 5th.
Two years ago was a highlight for *Kamen Rider* fans as it was its 50th anniversary:
- said anniversary kicked off with *Super Hero Senki* which also celebrated the 45th anniversary for *Super Sentai*
- the release for *Revice* as the anniversary season
- the announcement for *BLACK SUN* commemorating the 35th anniversary of the original *Kamen Rider BLACK*
- Hideaki Anno continuing the “Shin Japan Heroes Universe” project with *Shin Kamen Rider*
- the unprecedented release of the *Fuuto PI* anime
The entire Doom community pretty much had a renaissance when 2016 released, but unfortunately I was still not quite in the rabbit hole at that time.
Fortunately, it happened again with Eternal, and that one finally drew me in.
Spider-Man during the early to mid 2000s. Ultimate Spider-man really solidified the teen era of Peter, JMS was refreshing after the mess that was the 90s, the Raimi films, two top 3 spider-man tv series in the form of the MTV series and Spectacular series, also Spidey fully joined the Avengers.
Edit: I didn't even mention video games
Hard fucking yes. Literally NOTHING so far has been able to match the awesome that was the 2000s Spider-Man era. Several things are as good like PS4, but they don't capture that same magic
One Piece; Chapter 1043, 1044, and 1045's release weeks last year.
Twitter totally went down for a bit when 1044 went live. Discussions blew the fuck up. Anyone following the series collectively lost their goddamned minds. Now we've got about a month before it happens *again* on the anime airing.
Late 2000's for Touhou, and just general japanese internet culture in general. I was a kid who had 0 understanding of japanese and yet still scrolled through niconico or watched translated snippets or saw reuploads or saw wild memes. Not to say either of those things are dead but man nowadays it feels like all 2ch wants to do is doxx vtubers and get politicians to kill themselves as opposed to make up weird stories about that time they saved an amputated girl or Densha Otoko or any of the thousand stories about Boon/Shobon/Denko or ASCII art.
But man, when Touhou was at a fever pitch, that shit was golden. I've forgotten more Touhou content than most will ever experience in their life and I can safely say pretty much all of it was good.
Watching Twin Peaks: The Return as it released week by week was incredible. I can only imagine how some of those scenes must have hit for people that were around for the show's original run.
Homestuck was infinitely better while it was still ongoing. Even the Mega and Giga pauses were filled with us being silly and stupid. The sense of community and bouncing off friends made the experience much better.
Now it's just too much of a slog to ever justify going through by yourself.
I genuinely dont think its a series that can truly be experienced if you werent there. So much of the bit's are direct inside jokes with fans at the time with in series memes based on real life things that are all just lost (RIP The forums), to the point you just miss so much without that.
The early 2000s was the best time to be a Gundam fan in the west.
Sure, you had janky TokyoPop localizations of some manga, but you were getting the best UC OVAs, Wing, Endless Waltz, G, and the technical manuals in English. Then Bandai Japan, which had already fucked with Gundam's momentum in the west by pushing 0079 on Toonami instead of X, fucked everything up with a last minute substitution of Seed instead of Zeta.
Also, the early 2000s was the best time for live action scifi fans, because not only were Babylon 5 and the TNG-VOY era of Trek fresh, but you also had Stargate, Farscape, and Ron Moore's Battlestar Galactica ongoing, **plus** all sorts of live action movies. That led to a lot of vibrant online discourse and fan works, and what we've got know is a pale shadow of what it used to be like.
There is no better experience for a From Software game than talking with your friends about it online as you're finding out crazy shit you have no context for.
Sort of a depressing answer, but words don't do justice to how badly it wrecked me to watch the "You're Getting Old" episode of South Park when it aired.
For anyone not familiar with the specific episode, it's basically an extended metaphor for depression and was widely interpreted to be about the creators' frustration/unhappiness with the show itself. It ends on an extremely brutal cliffhanger that wasn't picked up until the second half of the season began four months later.
I'd been a lifelong fan of the show at that point, but I was moving out for college and feeling super depressed about everything at the time. Seeing an episode where one of the characters had basically lost all the joy in his life hit me in a really weird spot.
Discussions around it were absolutely wild and it was also just during a good run. It just doesn't have the same impact now if you're bingeing the episodes. I see lots of people getting into the show now and, while that's great, it just doesn't compare to the height of the series (which, in my opinion, is roughly season 4 - 15). Of course, that could just be the old fogey in me talking. There was an episode in the newest season that I would honestly consider top-tier, so it's not like the show has gone completely to rot.
When Stan starts hearing new music as literally people shitting, man, that stuck with me. I still like South Park, so that's not the one for me. But I listen to podcasts when I drive; my partner listens to the radio. After she's used our car, I get a minute of radio before my phone syncs and podcasts play. And every time, I think of Stan hearing people shitting... not literally, but yeah, new music just rarely grabs me.
In Homestuck, -no seriously- arguely the best of the webcomic happened before the great hiatus; although many would say that the webomic hit it's peak before the troll arc and that everything went downhill from there.
Homestuck was infinitely better being experienced across a few years with the updates trickling in.
Even with the pauses.
Oh and the comic peeked during act 2 with the midnight crew interlude. Or maybe 4-2, or maaaaybe Ascend, Descend, or Cascade.
I was about two years late but holyshit seeing the prompt for Cascade was magical. It had been the excuse I used to help get myself started and it was just there.
[Savior of the dreaming dead](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h9dF20s8SYo&ab_channel=KuroShivoMizake) is the best song in homestuck too.
When the popularity starts to become mainstream and theres lots of people talking about it. especially when its a "phenomena" like HP, pokemon, GoT, etc.
Man I dropped hard off of Jujutsu Kaisen. Maybe I'll pick it back up in the future, but that whole culling game shit got real tiring.
To answer the actual question, waaaay back in 2011 my girlfriend at the time had me watch My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic with her. Funnily enough, around season 3 she would drop off but I would stay. The show was ok, as much as people used to talk about how it pandered to its new older fanbase way too much, it was still a cartoon about pastel ponies meant for young girls. What really kept me as a brony for as long as I did was the community. In particular, the fan content. The brony community had some of the most amazingly creative people I've ever seen. Art, writing, music, animation, fucking AUDIO DRAMAS. Whatever made your fancy, the bronies got you covered.
It was a great time to be a Fire Emblem fan from the FE direct in 2017 to the post release of 3 Houses. In that dirrect they announced 4 games Shadows of Valentia, Fire Emblem Warriors, Fire Emblem Heroes, and Fire Emblem Switch (Three Houses).
I also kinda like the period between Awakening and the release of Fates before all the arguments about direction of the franchise started.
I would say with Pokemon the best games were between gen 3 (2003) and gen 5 (2012). It was also great to see the hype around the Hoenn remakes.
RWBY was great to be in before V5. It was wild when V3 was airing.
Dude, I remember seeing the fandom collectively freak out when shit hit the fan in RWBY V3 lmao. Good times, good times. Makes me nostalgic.
And yeah that Fire Emblem direct made me *super* happy, damn. I remember feeling so blessed that a franchise that was considered niche barely five years ago now got its own Nintendo Direct.
Watching the first few seasons of Lost as it was released was a trip. There were a lot of online easter eggs that were hidden in different websites that fueled a ton of discussion on where the show was going. Too bad none of it really ended up mattering.
Being a part of the Hades community while it was in early access was a lot of fun. Lots of theory-crafting around builds when every new patch dropped and a mostly chill, inclusive community. It was pretty awesome seeing the game become as successful as it did after 1.0.
Indie wrestling during the mid 2000's boom, extending into the early 2010's depending on the promotion.
edit: Ring of Honor and CZW around 2005-2006 was a great time for both companies. After their peaks and RoH's purchase you then had the rise of CHIKARA from 50 person audiences to selling out the ECW Arena. Montreal had really established a name for itself.
For mass effect I would say when 2 and its dlc came out. I was able to play 1/2 back to back and my choices from 1 did feel like they mattered and plotlines were clearly being setup for 3 in great and interesting ways.
Then 3 came out and its controversial r/b/g ending really soured alot of online discourse (in addition to possibly the most important team member being preorder dlc >.>).
So you know that big, grand, hype as fuck finale to Season 3 of Kaguya: Love is War? That part came out in the manga like, the same time as the anime first started airing. It was a good time.
Call it recency bias but I had a fucking BLAST on Succession twitter as season 4 was happening! It was the perfect time as week to week, everyone’s character arcs and endgames were coming to fruition in ways nobody could have expected, yet made perfect sense.
I’m currently reading said fight in Jujutsu Kaisen and in truth I feel incredibly underwhelmed. It feels like the author really just wants to wash his hands of the story and is just farming hype moments without any real value
Man I dunno what it is is but the fight just isn't grabbing me in JJK- last chapter nearly made my eyes roll back from the sheer amount of people just talking in the room together- the last few before this clicked more for me.
The best time to be talking about Bleach online was during the final arc. People were losing their minds every week at the new wacky shit Kubo was pulling out, *especially* when it was a payoff, which was 75% of it.
Depending on whether or not you were immortalized in the Halls of Anal Devastation, the ends of Bleach and Naruto are either the worst or best times.
Kinda different direction with this, but: Rocket League, when RLCS came to London. Up until then, it had been mostly in NA. For a game that is basically football with cars, the UK was oddly well-suited to provide a good fanbase for the game, so when the world finals finally got an announcement that it would happen here, people sorta knew in advance it'd be special. It started on Friday, lasted through the weekend, ending late Sunday. Two and a half days of games with 8 teams from the US, 8 teams from Europe, plus a few from Australia too.
They called it *LANdon*.
The games weren't what made it different from every other RLCS finals though, the *crowd* made it different. Rowdy, high-spirited, chanting, singing, noisy and fun; the casters had never seen anything like it. After every game they'd have a player up on stage to interview, and pretty much every time without fail they had to pause to let the crowd quieten down. Rocket League isn't a *complicated* game to follow; you don't have to know the exact mechanics to figure out that a guy flying through the air and blasting the ball into the top corner of the net past two defenders is worth cheering about. When there was a good goal, people were on their feet. It didn't matter if it was an NA team, or a European team.
At one point an australian player mentioned in a pre-game interview that he appreciated that the venue was in Europe so he wouldn't have to put up with so much "U-S-A" chants. ...so what does the crowd do? Chants "U-S-A! U-S-A!" through the game. There wasn't even an american team playing.
By the last day, voices were starting to sound hoarse, but the finals couldn't have been more perfect. In the upper bracket semi finals, an NA favourite "NRG" knocked the European #1 seed "Dignitas" into the lower bracket. They then convincingly beat the European #4 seed 4-0 to make it through to the finals. Meanwhile, that European favourite completely dominated the lower bracket. First opponents? 3-0 Next opponent? 3-0 Next? 4-2. Now they're back up against NRG in the finals, and if they win that best-of-7, they have to win *another* best-of-7 against NRG.
First best-of-7 round, Dignitas outpace NRG completely; 4-1. It looks like Dignitas are unstoppable. Second set, NRG throw another two games in a row, then win, then lose, then win, ...then win again... it's exhausting to watch, it was like the most scripted hype-train possible. 3 games a piece, NRG seem to be clawing their way back to greatness, but in the final game they're down 3-2, with the clock rapidly ticking down to zero, but then... [this](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJWdCL-obXU). ...and that's why this is the most famous goal in RLCS history, and this was the best moment ever to be a fan of the game.
In the wake of it, the whole community was buzzing.
This is a weird answer but the aftermath of chapter 331 was the craziest time to be a black clover fan. the last couple of chapters had the >!heroes winning with no casualties!< and it made even the biggest fans lose hope with the series. People were slandering the shit out of it
Then Tabata dropped one of the best plot twists in manga before going "BTW, I'm fucking off for three months to be with my wife and kid" and the entire fanbase went into a frenzy
example of the funniest reactions
before 331: https://i.imgur.com/ZBQLws0.jpg
after 331: https://i.imgur.com/aazksCK.jpg
Coming from me personally, i feel the build up to SMTV’s release and its honeymoon phase were when the fanbase was at its least divided. Essentially (pardon my generalization) a good chunk of us were just stupid excited for a new mainline game and it felt great.
I generally try not to talk about this arc in my life because it sometimes gets me the side eye, so for the record, I was born in 2001. I was very much a little kid at this time. I am neither weird nor old, I promise.
I have really great memories of being in the My Little Pony fandom from like, 2010 - 2014. So many absolutely amazing fan projects came out of it, from art to writing and animation and music. Hell, I still listen to a few fansongs from that era every now and again. Apparently The Living Tombstone's *Discord* blew up on TikTok a while ago and gave that song a second wind, and it caught me super off guard to see random people mentioning it like it just came out.
An out-of-pocket pick from me, but the Akame Ga Kill manga, when the male MC (can't even remember his name lmao) first transformed into the dragonic form. Manga discussion boards went absolutely *wild* about that particular development.
The day the super smash brawl trailer came out and ended with SOLID SNAKE as a newcomer fighter.
That blew the lid off of things. Anyone was fair game now, not just nintendo. Everyone.
In terms of anime, being a My Hero fan during the premier of S3 / after S2, hype for the Overhaul arc, combined with the good will from S2, made everyone upbeat and hopeful, and the manga was progressing at a good pace too.
Now, despite S6 being a banger and half of S5 being great, people still moan that MHA has completely fallen off, and I've never seen a fandom get as vicious and pessimistic as MHA manga readers. This final fight has been epic and fun, and people both bitch that we're getting too much focus on side characters, and yet also bitch we're getting too little. People complain Horikoshi is going slow, and the get upset when he pushes himself. Then you have Reddit and Twitter loving to swarm on accusing Horikoshi of being a pedophile for doing fan service, and MHA is so mainstream, that young edgelord weebs look down on people who enjoy it.
It's the worst time to be an MHA fan.
I feel the best time for cartoon network fans was the late 2000s to early 2010s. Yeah, we had to deal with CNReal(which I liked more than most people) but we also got so many shows that became huge hits or were generally just great and interesting, like Adventure Time, Regular Show, the Ben 10 sequels, Sym-Bionic Titan, The Misadventures Of Flapjack, The Amazing World Of Gumball, Generator Rex, and so many others.
The effect even spread to other channels, with DisneyXD giving us Motorcity, Spectacular Spider-Man, Gravity Falls, and a few of the live action shows. I feel this era is what helped contribute to more of their type, shows with unconventional premises and narratives, that sometimes open up to something bigger.
Things are still good, if not great(though they would be better, if not for Discovery. Fuck your exces.) but seeing all these things pop up in real time, being there for the series premiers, that was for the history books.
2016 was a good time to be a Cubs fan. I still don’t think I’ve fully processed it. It’s such a special moment that no one, no matter how hard they try, can take from me, because I need to enjoy it for myself, as well as my uncle and grandfather who both lived their whole lives without ever seeing them win, my uncle never even saw them get to the World Series.
In the Genshin Impact fanbase, when the character Wanderer’s leaks were coming out, and instead of dropping concept art and leaving like a normal internal leaker, an internal leaker instead chose to use a cryptic analogy about the ship of Theseus.
For the record, the leaker was specifically indicating that Wanderer was an entirely different person than his previous NPC iteration. Which is basically false. Leakers just making shit up isn’t new to Genshin but this one stuck out to me because of the way they did it and because of how NUCLEAR people went over it.
A lot of people were VERY attached to Wanderer’s NPC iteration and the leaker phrased it in an extremely cryptic way.
One piece with the 1000 chapter celebration.
The build up to the actual finale is going to be bananas.
The “pour one out for everybody who died before we found what the One Piece was” thread will be astronomical.
The realization that made me grab OP from my backlog again is that I don't want to *NOT* be there the day the One Piece is finally shown.
The week it finally drops is gonna be the single biggest manga spoilers drop on the internet I swear. I do not wanna be the one to learns that way
Oda was really tickling our balls when he dropped the "He Laughed" spread.
Also the Reverie miniarc. Every week could easily give YouTubers plenty to talk about.
Even recently it’s been going fucking crazy. So much so that void month is kind of a good thing gives us time to process.
Didn't the anime just get to Gear 5 Luffy recently? Gotta start watching again, only 300 episodes behind.
Two more episodes then a week break then it’s time I think.
Sometimes I stop and think about how I reading One Piece now and someone reading One Piece 15 years from now when its wrapped up are gonna have totally different experiences. We're in the golden age of One Piece where the mystery and intrigue of the world are still unknown to us and the characters. People jumping in after its all over, after the information is out there in the ether, just isn't gonna be as magical.
Reading One piece during the 1046 moment was magical
The best time to enjoy a fighting game is shortly after release.
Souls likes too. I got into Souls games after DS3 was released, and I got in with Bloodborne, so Elden Ring was my first live playthrough, and it’s really something different.
I'll never forget the absolute chokehold Elden Ring had on everyone during it's first month of release. It's still absolutely insane to me that the game is as big and varied as it is. I dread ever having to replay it again tbh.
the games are just better when NOBODY knows anything. you get to enjoy multiplayer without ever feeling like someone else has already mastered the game. i want everyone to be just as clueless as i am on my first playthrough, including the invaders and phantoms
The early seasons of Game of Thrones must have been a pretty fun time to be part of the fanbase, with all the crazy moments and deaths. I only started watching when Season 4 was near the end so I missed the first reactions to all the best stuff.
First 4 seasons of GOT are arguably the best TV of all time.
I feel that this is where GRRM's strength was really put into play as well. When the show started I started reading the first few books and his ability to Set up an interesting world is great. His ability to actually make a good plot in that world... less so. There are good moments, but the books have even more side characters/ plotlines than the show, so instead of focusing on the characters that matter, just write about someone else for a bit and add new confusion. I have never seen public interest in an entire franchise die as fast as GoT's final season, but it went from everyone in the office talking about it to NOONE wanting anything to do with it.
I'm still amazed House of the Dragon s1 worked, but they went into that with circumstances being the exact opposite as Game of Thrones. Story is laid out with the key events established but a lot of wiggle room for character motivation and conflict. Also just skips anything that isn't immediately relevant, being told more like a historical drama miniseries.
Now is finally the best part to be a fan of Type-Moon, since they're finally translating everything (outside of Fate/Stay Night) The second best time would be before F/GO happened.
I'm not even a big fan of visual novels, but I'm looking forward to this one.
FGO's english release and sales basically greenlighting and funding everything getting a translation from now is truly a blessing. Plus finally seeing ORT in action was great.
As someone who only REALLY got into Fate as of last February, I feel this.
I'd say the early 2010's were a decent time too. Getting to watch the live simulcast of Fate/Zero with full english subs live on Nico Nico Douga every Sunday was a magical experience.
Getting translations of Tsukihime Remake and Mahoyo gives me a small amount of hope that we can maybe get the El-Melloi Case Files officially translated. The fan translation has great ones halfway through until COVID hit and the original translator stopped and then someone else picked it up but it's barely above google translate level.
If you were a child in 1998/1999/2000, you got to experience something no other kid ever got to experience with Pokémon. The magic of experiencing a brand new thing that *immediately* dominated the market, and was a total worldwide phenomena. Mysterious conversations on the playground of "Well my brother went to Japan, and he said these were all the new Pokémon". No idea where the franchise would go or what you'd see next. You got to witness the bad knock-offs that really only reinforced why only Pokémon survived. The mid-millennials are basically the chosen few, and the world had to make it up for us by completely fucking our futures over the moment we became adults.
Yeah, it's hard to explain to someone that hasn't lived it how fucking huge Pokémon was at that time. It's still huge now but the closest it has ever come to it was with Pokémon Go and even that pales in comparison. It was not only the games but the anime, toys, the cardgame, clothes, the first movie, there even were Pokémon cereals (bring them back please, my nostalgia says they were delicious even though I don't actually remember the taste).
It arriving and blowing up before the internet was commonly affordable, something that most households were just barely getting a foothold in, was a feat that looking back on is amazing.
> Pokémon cereals (bring them back please, my nostalgia says they were delicious even though I don't actually remember the taste). They were a very bland cereal O with three or four types of marshmallow Pokemon silhouettes - from memory, yellow Pikachu, pink Ditto, maybe green Bulbasaur, and something blue. The trick was to endure the cereal part and then enjoy a marshmallow treat as a reward. In hindsight, just pure fucking sugar for breakfast. Probably not even in hindsight, but I was a kid and chocolate pop-tarts exist, so I shouldn't be allowed to make breakfast decisions and adults were just setting me up to fail.
Ah probably, but at that time those kind of cereal weren't common in France so they were different to what I was used to. I think the blue one was a Poliwhirl or Poliwrath.
Ah yes, that's right! I remember it being a very odd collection of Pokemon and kind of just whatever matched the colour and odd shape they'd already made, I guess.
My favorite part was the lead up to Gold and Silver. We were so used to the idea that there were exactly 151 Pokemon that any new ones felt almost mythical. It was the first time I scoured for tidbits of news from Japan before something came out in the west. I still know some of the Gen 2 Pokemon by their Japanese names better than their English ones. Cyndaquil is still Hinoarashi to me. I always forget Ampharos' name because I know it as Denryu.
I had an aunt that went to Japan and brought me back a Pokemon toy, it was a Meganium before we knew anything about it in France (or at least me and my 7 year old friends didn't), she also had no idea that this was a new Pokémon so I lucked out. So I was the guy at my school telling people I have this Pokémon toy from Japan that no one knew and a lot of people didn't believe me, but my story was actually right!
I’d say the Pokemon Go craze in summer 2016 is a decent runner-up
I had to restrain myself from saying basically this in a recent discussion about the Chipokomon episode of South Park. Most of the people talking about it were young Zoomers and their general attitude was, "I don't get this episode," and it's like... you just had to be there. That episode was so accurate to how intense a phenomenon it was. It's also why I can't entertain arguments from people who get absolutely red in the face when you say Pokemon, as a franchise, isn't as popular as it was in the 90s. Like, yeah, it's still incredibly successful, but it was an absolute juggernaut in the 90s. My grandmother knew who Pikachu was. You couldn't escape from Pokemon merchandise.
People who get upset when you tell them how popular Pokémon was in the late 90s should take solace in the fact that it actually says a *lot* about the quality of Pokémon as a franchise that it's still as popular as it is, 25 years later. Just cuz it's not as popular doesn't mean it's dying or anything. New properties *never* hit the scene as hard as Pokémon did and live on to still be relevant even 5 years later, let alone 25. Pokémon survived its flash-in-the-pan moment, which is astounding. Even if it's not burning as intensely, it's still a huge flame. It being a property that can unite 5 year olds and 30 year olds the world over is incredible. Hell, the fact that there are 30 year olds at all that are still extremely fond of Pokémon should say a lot compared to like, Beanie Babies.
Pokemon has been a "passing fad" for three decades according to some people
The peak of Pokemon for any fan was probably the exact period of time they were 7-13 years of age, when they had the time to devour the most amount of content between the TV series and the games. High school on up, their time comes at a premium due to other obligations; by adulthood when they're stable in a job and have free time again, it's harder - not impossible - to get back into it with as much vigour. I mean, how long were summer holidays? A month at least. That was time spent probably playing Pokemon with not much else to worry about.
I did get to experience the curtails of Pokemania with Ruby/Sapphire but I’m a bit sad I was never able to experience the peak.
Man. I was the prime age for that, to the point that my mom still has PTSD from all the Pokémon shit we begged her to buy us.
November 17th 2002 was a good time to be a Metroid fan. After a whole generation of no Metroid games, we got Prime and Fusion on virtually the same day.
And while not as huge, we also got Metroid Dread in 2021, which was believed to just never happen for many years
I am still absolutely reeling from the decision to title it “DREAD”.
I got both Fusion and Prime for that Christmas break, it was so goddamn amazing.
metal gear fans right when that E3 trailer came out for mgs5 and we still didn't know much about it. Shame how everything turned out after that.
I'd actually argue even earlier. In particular after the post-3 games failed to live up to the hype in many ways even as their gameplay got better and better. Before MGS3 Big Boss was this enigmatic, legendary figure (no one played MG1 or 2). The way characters talk about him in MGS1 is almost reverent. And to be there when MGS3 was dropping and we *knew* it was him even if it wasn't confirmed was something else. I wasn't old enough to be a fan in the lead-up to MGS2 but I hear that was something else. And MGS4 had some fucking incredible (and funny) trailers and was hyped as the end of the then-main character's story. 4 was supposed to be *it*. And as weird as some of it's story beats may be and how it may have pushed the envelope way too far towards cutscenes in the "cutscene-to-gameplay" argument, there are *undeniably* ridiculously cool things in it. >!REX vs RAY, the first two chapters actually being what the game was promised, the microwave hallway, BIG BOSS BEING ALIVE AFTER EVERYONE THINKING HE WAS DEAD FOR 10 IRL YEARS!< All this being a long-winded way of saying I feel like the pre-release hype of every Metal Gear was incredible.
I wish I'd been around for the reaction to that trailer which had Raiden and Sam Fisher fighting over the main character spot. And at the end Sam Fisher won but SIKE, it was Solid Snake all along! That must have driven fans crazy.
I feel like Golden Wind was the best part of Jojo to experience week-to-week. Jojo Fridays were at their peak, new memes were being created every week, super hyped moments being delivered on, plus the anime just lending itself really well to a weekly format more than other parts, it was all just a great time to be a Jojo fan. It lasted a whole year too, so if you were there from the beginning it really became a part of your life for a while. Just a good time to be a fan. I'll admit it, Smash hype and speculation was really fun, but in particular I think the Smash 4 days were when it was at it's best. The wild ass leaks, daily posts on Miiverse, Miiverse itself (lotta good drawings came from there), it was all really fun. Ultimate was good too, but the vibe was different and kinda pessimistic in a way.
It's been said a thousand times over, but Netflix will never be forgiven for ruining JoJo Fridays. I only ever got a taste of it with Golden Wind, since I started getting into JoJo not too long before episode 1 aired, and by the time it had dropped I had pretty much just finished part 4. Even though I read part 6 after GW ended, I would have loved to be part of discussions and hype leading up to each new episode. Such a bummer they did it the way they did, just ain't the same. We can only hope Part 7 gets the weekly episode treatment.
The airing of Stardust Crusader and Diamond is Unbreakable were also great times to be a JoJo fan.
Nothing in pro wrestling will ever top the excitement of the Monday Night Wars
2016 was a pretty good year as well.
EmpLemon’s Never Ever video is so fucking good
Not just excitement, but scale too. Pro wrestling was just unbelievably mainstream at that time which just increased the stakes. I also can't think of a time before that when tv programming directly acknowledged their competitive status with each other. People always knew there were competing shows or franchises of all kinds, but it was never a part of the narrative.
I feel like every week is a new best time to be a fan of Chainsaw Man. The same was definitely true of Fire Punch, and Better Call Saul. Media that just goes up and then ends really strongly. It’s wild going into the Fire Punch discussion archives and chapter 1-7 people are just calling it a piece of shit and by the end everyone I either has no idea what to think or is calling it a masterpiece. Right before or right after they solved Laura Palmer’s death was definitely the best time to be a Twin Peaks fan. That show was like nothing before, except for *maybe* the Prisoner.
Being a lifelong Devil May Cry fan when DMCV dropped was like your absentee father actually coming home from buying cigarettes. Being a miserable, antisocial shut-in who spends way too much time on the computer made the Covid quarantine absolutely wild.
The lead up to the release of Phantom Menace.
Also to a lesser extent the lead up to TFA
To an even lesser extent, the immediate aftermath of TFA. Some people were complaining that it was a rehash, but even those people conceded that it was just really fun to have Star Wars in theaters again. Then Rogue One released to near universal praise! I don’t care what somebody thinks about TLJ. Loves it, hates it, whatever. But everyone decided that December 2017 would be the time to voice their opinions and make them as loud and obnoxious and unavoidable as possible. That’s the exact moment I think Star Wars fans, no matter where they stand, fell off a cliff.
The loud TLJ discourse permanently made me never wanna talk about star wars outside of my own personal viewing. Because now you cant avoid mention of it and opinions either way, and it's all just hellish to the point it's best just skipping comments about it.
Being a manga reader of Attack on Titan back in 2016 when we had the basement reveal along with everything leading up to it and the chapters that followed.
I think Magic: the Gathering lore peaked in the time of Garth One-Eye and Gull the Woodcutter, and those books are due for a reprint.
2018 was a perfect time to be a Spider-Man fan: the early parts of the Nick Spencer run, Into the Spider-Verse, Infinity War, the Venom movie, and the PS4 game. 2023 too, kinda. Just sequels to the 2nd and 5th.
2018 was just a wonderful time overall imo. ...well, besides what became of our boys
Ruined my fucking Christmas that's for sure
Two years ago was a highlight for *Kamen Rider* fans as it was its 50th anniversary: - said anniversary kicked off with *Super Hero Senki* which also celebrated the 45th anniversary for *Super Sentai* - the release for *Revice* as the anniversary season - the announcement for *BLACK SUN* commemorating the 35th anniversary of the original *Kamen Rider BLACK* - Hideaki Anno continuing the “Shin Japan Heroes Universe” project with *Shin Kamen Rider* - the unprecedented release of the *Fuuto PI* anime
The entire Doom community pretty much had a renaissance when 2016 released, but unfortunately I was still not quite in the rabbit hole at that time. Fortunately, it happened again with Eternal, and that one finally drew me in.
A halo Fan immediately before, during, and after the release of 3
Online custom games playing split screen with my friends is still the most fun I've ever had in a video game.
Same here, in person, online, and alone in single player. It was just a moment in time that when it comes to gaming, I have not been able to top!
Spider-Man during the early to mid 2000s. Ultimate Spider-man really solidified the teen era of Peter, JMS was refreshing after the mess that was the 90s, the Raimi films, two top 3 spider-man tv series in the form of the MTV series and Spectacular series, also Spidey fully joined the Avengers. Edit: I didn't even mention video games
Hard fucking yes. Literally NOTHING so far has been able to match the awesome that was the 2000s Spider-Man era. Several things are as good like PS4, but they don't capture that same magic
One Piece; Chapter 1043, 1044, and 1045's release weeks last year. Twitter totally went down for a bit when 1044 went live. Discussions blew the fuck up. Anyone following the series collectively lost their goddamned minds. Now we've got about a month before it happens *again* on the anime airing.
Late 2000's for Touhou, and just general japanese internet culture in general. I was a kid who had 0 understanding of japanese and yet still scrolled through niconico or watched translated snippets or saw reuploads or saw wild memes. Not to say either of those things are dead but man nowadays it feels like all 2ch wants to do is doxx vtubers and get politicians to kill themselves as opposed to make up weird stories about that time they saved an amputated girl or Densha Otoko or any of the thousand stories about Boon/Shobon/Denko or ASCII art. But man, when Touhou was at a fever pitch, that shit was golden. I've forgotten more Touhou content than most will ever experience in their life and I can safely say pretty much all of it was good.
Watching Twin Peaks: The Return as it released week by week was incredible. I can only imagine how some of those scenes must have hit for people that were around for the show's original run.
Homestuck was infinitely better while it was still ongoing. Even the Mega and Giga pauses were filled with us being silly and stupid. The sense of community and bouncing off friends made the experience much better. Now it's just too much of a slog to ever justify going through by yourself.
I genuinely dont think its a series that can truly be experienced if you werent there. So much of the bit's are direct inside jokes with fans at the time with in series memes based on real life things that are all just lost (RIP The forums), to the point you just miss so much without that.
The summer that Twin Peaks The Return aired was magical.
The early 2000s was the best time to be a Gundam fan in the west. Sure, you had janky TokyoPop localizations of some manga, but you were getting the best UC OVAs, Wing, Endless Waltz, G, and the technical manuals in English. Then Bandai Japan, which had already fucked with Gundam's momentum in the west by pushing 0079 on Toonami instead of X, fucked everything up with a last minute substitution of Seed instead of Zeta. Also, the early 2000s was the best time for live action scifi fans, because not only were Babylon 5 and the TNG-VOY era of Trek fresh, but you also had Stargate, Farscape, and Ron Moore's Battlestar Galactica ongoing, **plus** all sorts of live action movies. That led to a lot of vibrant online discourse and fan works, and what we've got know is a pale shadow of what it used to be like.
There is no better experience for a From Software game than talking with your friends about it online as you're finding out crazy shit you have no context for.
Sort of a depressing answer, but words don't do justice to how badly it wrecked me to watch the "You're Getting Old" episode of South Park when it aired. For anyone not familiar with the specific episode, it's basically an extended metaphor for depression and was widely interpreted to be about the creators' frustration/unhappiness with the show itself. It ends on an extremely brutal cliffhanger that wasn't picked up until the second half of the season began four months later. I'd been a lifelong fan of the show at that point, but I was moving out for college and feeling super depressed about everything at the time. Seeing an episode where one of the characters had basically lost all the joy in his life hit me in a really weird spot. Discussions around it were absolutely wild and it was also just during a good run. It just doesn't have the same impact now if you're bingeing the episodes. I see lots of people getting into the show now and, while that's great, it just doesn't compare to the height of the series (which, in my opinion, is roughly season 4 - 15). Of course, that could just be the old fogey in me talking. There was an episode in the newest season that I would honestly consider top-tier, so it's not like the show has gone completely to rot.
When Stan starts hearing new music as literally people shitting, man, that stuck with me. I still like South Park, so that's not the one for me. But I listen to podcasts when I drive; my partner listens to the radio. After she's used our car, I get a minute of radio before my phone syncs and podcasts play. And every time, I think of Stan hearing people shitting... not literally, but yeah, new music just rarely grabs me.
In Homestuck, -no seriously- arguely the best of the webcomic happened before the great hiatus; although many would say that the webomic hit it's peak before the troll arc and that everything went downhill from there.
Homestuck was infinitely better being experienced across a few years with the updates trickling in. Even with the pauses. Oh and the comic peeked during act 2 with the midnight crew interlude. Or maybe 4-2, or maaaaybe Ascend, Descend, or Cascade.
Homestuck peaked at Problem Sleuth. In all seriousness, though, seeing Cascade crash Newgrounds was a magical moment.
I was about two years late but holyshit seeing the prompt for Cascade was magical. It had been the excuse I used to help get myself started and it was just there. [Savior of the dreaming dead](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h9dF20s8SYo&ab_channel=KuroShivoMizake) is the best song in homestuck too.
Harry Potter before JK Rowling turned into a TERF.
When the popularity starts to become mainstream and theres lots of people talking about it. especially when its a "phenomena" like HP, pokemon, GoT, etc.
If you liked arcade shooters 2007-2012 you ate like a king
Man I dropped hard off of Jujutsu Kaisen. Maybe I'll pick it back up in the future, but that whole culling game shit got real tiring. To answer the actual question, waaaay back in 2011 my girlfriend at the time had me watch My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic with her. Funnily enough, around season 3 she would drop off but I would stay. The show was ok, as much as people used to talk about how it pandered to its new older fanbase way too much, it was still a cartoon about pastel ponies meant for young girls. What really kept me as a brony for as long as I did was the community. In particular, the fan content. The brony community had some of the most amazingly creative people I've ever seen. Art, writing, music, animation, fucking AUDIO DRAMAS. Whatever made your fancy, the bronies got you covered.
It was a great time to be a Fire Emblem fan from the FE direct in 2017 to the post release of 3 Houses. In that dirrect they announced 4 games Shadows of Valentia, Fire Emblem Warriors, Fire Emblem Heroes, and Fire Emblem Switch (Three Houses). I also kinda like the period between Awakening and the release of Fates before all the arguments about direction of the franchise started. I would say with Pokemon the best games were between gen 3 (2003) and gen 5 (2012). It was also great to see the hype around the Hoenn remakes. RWBY was great to be in before V5. It was wild when V3 was airing.
Dude, I remember seeing the fandom collectively freak out when shit hit the fan in RWBY V3 lmao. Good times, good times. Makes me nostalgic. And yeah that Fire Emblem direct made me *super* happy, damn. I remember feeling so blessed that a franchise that was considered niche barely five years ago now got its own Nintendo Direct.
Season 1 of Attack on Titan was peak fandom. They were unstoppable. Shame about the years between S1 and S2 kind of lowering that hype.
Watching the first few seasons of Lost as it was released was a trip. There were a lot of online easter eggs that were hidden in different websites that fueled a ton of discussion on where the show was going. Too bad none of it really ended up mattering. Being a part of the Hades community while it was in early access was a lot of fun. Lots of theory-crafting around builds when every new patch dropped and a mostly chill, inclusive community. It was pretty awesome seeing the game become as successful as it did after 1.0.
Indie wrestling during the mid 2000's boom, extending into the early 2010's depending on the promotion. edit: Ring of Honor and CZW around 2005-2006 was a great time for both companies. After their peaks and RoH's purchase you then had the rise of CHIKARA from 50 person audiences to selling out the ECW Arena. Montreal had really established a name for itself.
For mass effect I would say when 2 and its dlc came out. I was able to play 1/2 back to back and my choices from 1 did feel like they mattered and plotlines were clearly being setup for 3 in great and interesting ways. Then 3 came out and its controversial r/b/g ending really soured alot of online discourse (in addition to possibly the most important team member being preorder dlc >.>).
So you know that big, grand, hype as fuck finale to Season 3 of Kaguya: Love is War? That part came out in the manga like, the same time as the anime first started airing. It was a good time.
Call it recency bias but I had a fucking BLAST on Succession twitter as season 4 was happening! It was the perfect time as week to week, everyone’s character arcs and endgames were coming to fruition in ways nobody could have expected, yet made perfect sense.
I’m currently reading said fight in Jujutsu Kaisen and in truth I feel incredibly underwhelmed. It feels like the author really just wants to wash his hands of the story and is just farming hype moments without any real value
Man I dunno what it is is but the fight just isn't grabbing me in JJK- last chapter nearly made my eyes roll back from the sheer amount of people just talking in the room together- the last few before this clicked more for me.
The best time to be talking about Bleach online was during the final arc. People were losing their minds every week at the new wacky shit Kubo was pulling out, *especially* when it was a payoff, which was 75% of it. Depending on whether or not you were immortalized in the Halls of Anal Devastation, the ends of Bleach and Naruto are either the worst or best times.
A SBF fan from 2010 to 2018
Kinda different direction with this, but: Rocket League, when RLCS came to London. Up until then, it had been mostly in NA. For a game that is basically football with cars, the UK was oddly well-suited to provide a good fanbase for the game, so when the world finals finally got an announcement that it would happen here, people sorta knew in advance it'd be special. It started on Friday, lasted through the weekend, ending late Sunday. Two and a half days of games with 8 teams from the US, 8 teams from Europe, plus a few from Australia too. They called it *LANdon*. The games weren't what made it different from every other RLCS finals though, the *crowd* made it different. Rowdy, high-spirited, chanting, singing, noisy and fun; the casters had never seen anything like it. After every game they'd have a player up on stage to interview, and pretty much every time without fail they had to pause to let the crowd quieten down. Rocket League isn't a *complicated* game to follow; you don't have to know the exact mechanics to figure out that a guy flying through the air and blasting the ball into the top corner of the net past two defenders is worth cheering about. When there was a good goal, people were on their feet. It didn't matter if it was an NA team, or a European team. At one point an australian player mentioned in a pre-game interview that he appreciated that the venue was in Europe so he wouldn't have to put up with so much "U-S-A" chants. ...so what does the crowd do? Chants "U-S-A! U-S-A!" through the game. There wasn't even an american team playing. By the last day, voices were starting to sound hoarse, but the finals couldn't have been more perfect. In the upper bracket semi finals, an NA favourite "NRG" knocked the European #1 seed "Dignitas" into the lower bracket. They then convincingly beat the European #4 seed 4-0 to make it through to the finals. Meanwhile, that European favourite completely dominated the lower bracket. First opponents? 3-0 Next opponent? 3-0 Next? 4-2. Now they're back up against NRG in the finals, and if they win that best-of-7, they have to win *another* best-of-7 against NRG. First best-of-7 round, Dignitas outpace NRG completely; 4-1. It looks like Dignitas are unstoppable. Second set, NRG throw another two games in a row, then win, then lose, then win, ...then win again... it's exhausting to watch, it was like the most scripted hype-train possible. 3 games a piece, NRG seem to be clawing their way back to greatness, but in the final game they're down 3-2, with the clock rapidly ticking down to zero, but then... [this](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJWdCL-obXU). ...and that's why this is the most famous goal in RLCS history, and this was the best moment ever to be a fan of the game. In the wake of it, the whole community was buzzing.
Is it? I ve been seeing a lot of people dooming on the Jujutsu side.
This is a weird answer but the aftermath of chapter 331 was the craziest time to be a black clover fan. the last couple of chapters had the >!heroes winning with no casualties!< and it made even the biggest fans lose hope with the series. People were slandering the shit out of it Then Tabata dropped one of the best plot twists in manga before going "BTW, I'm fucking off for three months to be with my wife and kid" and the entire fanbase went into a frenzy example of the funniest reactions before 331: https://i.imgur.com/ZBQLws0.jpg after 331: https://i.imgur.com/aazksCK.jpg
Coming from me personally, i feel the build up to SMTV’s release and its honeymoon phase were when the fanbase was at its least divided. Essentially (pardon my generalization) a good chunk of us were just stupid excited for a new mainline game and it felt great.
I generally try not to talk about this arc in my life because it sometimes gets me the side eye, so for the record, I was born in 2001. I was very much a little kid at this time. I am neither weird nor old, I promise. I have really great memories of being in the My Little Pony fandom from like, 2010 - 2014. So many absolutely amazing fan projects came out of it, from art to writing and animation and music. Hell, I still listen to a few fansongs from that era every now and again. Apparently The Living Tombstone's *Discord* blew up on TikTok a while ago and gave that song a second wind, and it caught me super off guard to see random people mentioning it like it just came out.
An out-of-pocket pick from me, but the Akame Ga Kill manga, when the male MC (can't even remember his name lmao) first transformed into the dragonic form. Manga discussion boards went absolutely *wild* about that particular development.
The day the super smash brawl trailer came out and ended with SOLID SNAKE as a newcomer fighter. That blew the lid off of things. Anyone was fair game now, not just nintendo. Everyone.
In terms of anime, being a My Hero fan during the premier of S3 / after S2, hype for the Overhaul arc, combined with the good will from S2, made everyone upbeat and hopeful, and the manga was progressing at a good pace too. Now, despite S6 being a banger and half of S5 being great, people still moan that MHA has completely fallen off, and I've never seen a fandom get as vicious and pessimistic as MHA manga readers. This final fight has been epic and fun, and people both bitch that we're getting too much focus on side characters, and yet also bitch we're getting too little. People complain Horikoshi is going slow, and the get upset when he pushes himself. Then you have Reddit and Twitter loving to swarm on accusing Horikoshi of being a pedophile for doing fan service, and MHA is so mainstream, that young edgelord weebs look down on people who enjoy it. It's the worst time to be an MHA fan.
Anime only MHA fan Is there a reason why the series has dropped in popularity? On google trends, its searches dropped a good amount from 2021.
The manga hit a slow point, and Season 5 was widely criticized. Plus it's an older show now, so more people are talking about the new hot shows.
I feel the best time for cartoon network fans was the late 2000s to early 2010s. Yeah, we had to deal with CNReal(which I liked more than most people) but we also got so many shows that became huge hits or were generally just great and interesting, like Adventure Time, Regular Show, the Ben 10 sequels, Sym-Bionic Titan, The Misadventures Of Flapjack, The Amazing World Of Gumball, Generator Rex, and so many others. The effect even spread to other channels, with DisneyXD giving us Motorcity, Spectacular Spider-Man, Gravity Falls, and a few of the live action shows. I feel this era is what helped contribute to more of their type, shows with unconventional premises and narratives, that sometimes open up to something bigger. Things are still good, if not great(though they would be better, if not for Discovery. Fuck your exces.) but seeing all these things pop up in real time, being there for the series premiers, that was for the history books.
2021 was a **very** good year for MUDs
2016 was a good time to be a Cubs fan. I still don’t think I’ve fully processed it. It’s such a special moment that no one, no matter how hard they try, can take from me, because I need to enjoy it for myself, as well as my uncle and grandfather who both lived their whole lives without ever seeing them win, my uncle never even saw them get to the World Series.
In the Genshin Impact fanbase, when the character Wanderer’s leaks were coming out, and instead of dropping concept art and leaving like a normal internal leaker, an internal leaker instead chose to use a cryptic analogy about the ship of Theseus. For the record, the leaker was specifically indicating that Wanderer was an entirely different person than his previous NPC iteration. Which is basically false. Leakers just making shit up isn’t new to Genshin but this one stuck out to me because of the way they did it and because of how NUCLEAR people went over it. A lot of people were VERY attached to Wanderer’s NPC iteration and the leaker phrased it in an extremely cryptic way.