At the 2022 Anime Expo, I saw how toxic 'discussion' panels can get

I was in a packed panel room in Los Angeles about a popular shonen series. The moderator asked for thoughts on a character's death, and the first person at the mic just yelled 'overrated' and listed a bunch of YouTube talking points. For the next 20 minutes, nobody actually discussed the story, they just argued about which online reviewer was right. It felt like we were just repeating other people's hot takes instead of sharing our own views. Has anyone else been to a panel that just became an echo chamber for internet arguments?

2 comments

2 Comments

michaelrodriguez7d ago

Seen that happen before. I just started asking specific questions about the actual scene. Asked about the music choice right after the death, or what the character's last line meant. It forces people to talk about what was on screen, not what some guy online said. Works pretty well to break the cycle. You just gotta steer it back to the source material.

richard_mason7d ago

Yeah, that's a solid trick.