The first thing everyone needs to understand is that everyone has very different tastes and things they enjoy.  Even in such a niche fandom as Tokusatsu. One person’s all time favorite series might be someone else’s least favorite.  A show currently airing that you might be enjoying might be savaged by fandom in general.  

I think the biggest problem is that people (myself included at times) tend to consider our favorites to be ours, a part of who we are and we take them to heart.  When we see someone else tearing them apart or getting upset about then, we feel a need to get defensive and protect “our” series.  This is just a part of human nature and even if the attack isn’t directed at us, we can feel that it is.

There are a lot of people in the tokusatsu fandom that I deeply respect and who follow me but we have wildly different opinions on individual series and series creators.  While I do not agree with their takes on things, I always respect their opinions as long as they are respectful of mine.

On the other side, there are elements of any fandom that get so upset about a series that they insult the people who are enjoying it.  That’s not acceptable.  Dissatisfaction with a television series or a movie should not ever be seen as a fault of the people who do enjoy it.  It is not the fault of the people who enjoy it that someone else finds the quality lacking. 

An example from my own experience.  I had serious issues with Kamen Rider Gaim.  I didn’t hate the show but it didn’t blow me away like it did with some other fans.  

Yet, I didn’t go out of my way to attack people who enjoyed it by posting on their posts about my issues.  I answered questions about my criticisms when I was asked but for the most part, I don’t want to rain on anyone’s love parade anymore than I want them to come to my blog and dump on a post I’ve made about something I am enjoying.

I wish we could all be mature about our likes and dislikes but sadly, this is the internet and expecting maturity and respect is oftentimes expecting too much. We need to strive to be the ones who bring that to the table and not respond to negative comments with more of the same.  It just feeds a cycle that escalates into name-calling and derision that no one has any time for.  

We should all be too busy watching toku to get involved in flame wars and personal attacks.