Comment on Mortal: A Transponyist Fanfiction

Fri, 03 May 2013 17:17:45 GMT

Hypothesis / speculation based on personal observation only:

MLP is similar to anime.

For various reasons, this demographic tends to be overrepresented among anime fans in western developed countries, partially (I speculate) based on the facts that watching anime requires 1) learning about it and being interested in this esoteric, nonconventional form of entertainment (this demographic tends to be more adoptive of nonconventional entertainment), 2) finding information about the anime shows to watch, which implies spending quite a bit of time on the internet for the vast majority of cases, and 3) actually finding versions of the anime shows one can watch, because for the vast majority of anime, if you don't speak japanese, you need to find a borderline-or-sometimes-outright-illegal version of it that was modified to add "fansubs", or fan-made subtitles translated in another language (e.g. english).

Most of the above is stuff that involves delving deep into the less-mainstream corners of the internet, or at least having a modicum of google-fu and the patience to learn the basic vocabulary of the genre.

Just that right there should tilt the numbers so that the base viewership contains a disproportionate amount of this demographic, and thus even if they were no more or less likely to enjoy it than other demographics, they would be much more numerous in its fandom.

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