Subbing Versus Dubbing. The debate was even worse during the economic recession around The New '10s, but a lot of this comes from personal preferences.
Of the major anime distributors, there is the Funimation fans vs. Sentai Filmworks fans. The former will often criticize Sentai Filmworks for their rushed releases, poor dubbing direction, and using niche voice actors while the latter will often criticize Funimation for monopolization of the anime industry (a sentiment that only intensified throughout the English-speaking anime community in general after their merger with Crunchyroll and acquisition of other anime-licensing companies, such as Right Stuf/Nozomi Entertainment) and dubious marketing strategies and releases (particularly with Kadokawa Pictures titles). Regardless, Funimation vs. Sentai Filmworks is considered to be one of the biggest rivalries of the anime industry (both fanbase- and business- wise).
An interesting wrinkle here is the fact that such a rivalry for the most part didn't exist between Funimation and ADV Films (which more or less restructured into Sentai and Seraphim Digital after its liquidation in 2009). The argument about dub quality — to the point of some more diehard Funi fans invoking Poor Man's Substitute on Sentai — can also raise eyebrows; several VAs who are nowadays more associated with their work for Funimation regularly pulled double duty for both companiesnote likely owning to ADV and Funimation both being based in Texas... and continued to do so after Sentai's formation. In fact, the later half of The New '10s and beyond saw Sentai regulars start popping up in Funi dubs and vice versa, and the two companies themselves are on generally friendly terms if social media is anything to go by.
Fans who stream their anime from licensed services vs. fans who watch fansubbed anime stored locally on their devices. The former often cite supporting the anime industry and having more free space on their devices, while the latter criticize official streaming services for their poor subtitle and translation quality and don't want to have to be connected online to get their fix.
Spats between fans of the various "-dere" archetypes aren't uncommon. Tsundere versus Yandere are the most common because they're the two most popular. There's also "classic tsundere" versus "modern tsundere" fans.
Fans of Yaoi Genre versus fans of Yuri Genre. The two often don't intersect and tend to dislike the other. Since despite being similarly melodramatic stories about same-sex relationships on the surface, the two have very different cliches attributed to them that attract different fans. A common explanation is that heterosexual people are squicked out by fanservice of their own gender, but that makes no sense when you consider that the Yuri Genre is also extremely popular with women.
...which also caused the infighting within the Yuri Genre fans, especially male Yuri Genre fans vs. female Yuri Genre fans, with some rather sexist shades in the rivalry. Female Yuri Genre fans argue that male fans oversexualise the yuri couples that should've stayed romantic and that it's made for female audience, not male ones, while male yuri fans argue that Girl on Girl Is Hot, be it sexual or romantic and that male audience kept the Yuri Genre alive.
Fans of Mecha anime loathe K-On! They blame it for starting a Moe boom which saturated the anime industry and also criticize the show's lack of plot and art style. While fans of K-On! tend to ignore mecha fans, they do contest that K-On! actually benefitted the anime market and that mecha fans are merely blinded by nostalgia.
On the internet, Hentai fans vs. Ecchi fans, although the reality isn't very clear cut anymore, thanks to Rule 34 causing endless layers of overlaps between hentai and ecchi.
Hell, even anime fansites have this problem: MyAnimeList fans vs. AniDB fans vs. AniSearch fans vs. Anime Character Database fans vs. Anime News Network fans.
Aquarion Logos versus Concrete Revolutio: Choujin Gensou. While mostly restrained to /m/, fans of both series clash with each other because they share many similarities: Starting in the latter half of 2015, tokusatsu and mecha anime references are abundant, the main heroine being inept, over the top action scenes, both their fans claiming they are cultural artifacts and meant only for intellectuals, and neither made decent money in sales. Logos fans get accused for having their characters poorly written and favoring Monster of the Week episodes while ConRevo fans get accused for having their story chopped up into an incoherent mess and having atrocious music. The only difference is that Anime News Network praised ConRevo, but due to the site's biases in the Gundam community mecha fans rarely take ANN seriously these days. Not helped by the fact that Logos' review admitted to not understanding it or even watching the first installment of the franchise.
The Asterisk War versus Chivalry of a Failed Knight. Both of these anime aired in Fall 2015 on the exact same day and the exact same time as each other, and contain many similarities between their settings, plot, and characters that they could easily be considered as "twin sister" series. The backlash against each other was to be expected, however, things got really heated when the latter series managed to pull off some things that greatly distinguished it from the former series and light novel adaptations in generalnote like Ikki getting into a relationship with Stella very early on, which was seen as the defining moment of the series, turning it into something rather unique that greatly surprised everyone while The Asterisk War pretty much ended up being a Cliché Storm that everyone else expected it to be. Not helping matters is that The Asterisk War managed to get a second season in addition to its light novels getting localized in English by Yen Press, while Chivalry of a Failed Knight still sits with one season and its light novels are still Japan exclusives (aside of a relatively brief period of availability in e-book form via Kadokawa and J-Novel Club before they had to yank the plug in February 2022 at the Japanese publisher's request... only for the light novels to once again return to the global BOOK☆WALKER store starting in late February 2024).
The Attack on Titan fandom had a brief rivalry with Berserk, Vinland Saga, and One Piece fans, due to many vocal critics of AoT often using first two titles as a go-to examples of dark stories that handle themes of trauma and vengeance better and have a protagonist much less toxic and healthier than Eren (especially in light of Eren's popularity in certain right-wing circles). As for One Piece, the same critics would point to it as having a much more clear and unambigious anti-fascist message, compared to Attack on Titan's infamous confused aesop. And on top of that, Attack on Titan and One Piece had long been competing on takubon sales charts and anime watch lists.
Blood+ and Blood-C fans remain at each other's throats. The former group regards the latter as the worst in the Blood franchise and Saya Kisaragi as a Failure Heroine who can't save lives while the latter group finds Saya Otonashi to be useless and overly dependent on Haji. There's also those who like the original OVA but regard the two spinoffs as cheap knockoffs.
Chainsaw Man is the hugely popular shonen whose Animated Adaptation had been hyped for months with a particularly large population of die-hard fans swearing it was high art, airing Fall 2022. Bocchi the Rock! is a Slice of Life about social anxiety that near instantly became a cult hit with ridiculously high ratings, airing Fall 2022. Cue ceasless bickering, despite the fact the two couldn't be more different.
Code Geass and Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann had some of this, as the two shows aired only a few days apart and are essentially polar opposites in terms of content, worldview, and "hardness". This is made more amusing with the English voice cast, which both feature Yuri Lowenthal and Johnny Yong Bosch as main cast members whose ideals clash with each other (in both series, the former is a passionate idealist while the latter is a calculating, sometimes Necessarily Evil pragmatist). The difference is that Lowenthal is the star of Gurren Lagann and Bosch is the star of Code Geass, with the other's ideals being portrayed as misguidedly Lawful Stupid. Super Robot Wars Z2 almost seems to nod and wink to this conflict by having Kamina and Zero dislike each other at first (Kamina thinks Zero is too shady, Lelouch thinks Kamina is just a loud meathead) before they establish a mutual trust and respect by fighting alongside one another.
Death Note and Code Geass both came out around the same time, feature BishōnenMagnificent Bastard protagonists, and have a lot of Ho Yay. They have a rivalry due to the similarities, though most comparisons are superficial as they're vastly different in genre and story.
Death Note vs. Liar Game are both psychological thrillers that features Magnificent Bastards facing off against one another in an intricate and increasingly complicated Gambit Pileup. There has been some debates on which series managed to pull off the intellectual warfare better, whose characters employed the smarter tactics in dealing with their opponents, etc.
Digimon has a pretty deeply Broken Base going on. Pick a season, any season, and no matter how you felt about it someone out there will tell you how wrong you are. And Goddramon help you if you so much as mention Digimon Frontier.
Dragon Ball Z versus Sailor Moon, what with the shows being complete opposites in every way besides being anime aired in the 90s, making it into something of a battle of the sexes. The fact that they occupied the same timeslot for quite a while didn't help... Although it is Hilarious in Hindsight, seeing as how the two shows were produced by the same company (Toei Animation) and have very similar styles. However, there is a fair amount of Friendly Fandoms going on as well due to the large number of fan-made crossovers.
In the Spring 2013 anime season, we had Gargantia on the Verdurous Planet and the (continuing into summer) Attack on Titan, both animated by Production I.G. Some Titan fans blamed Gargantia for "stealing" some of their better animators and money, resulting in some Off-Model scenes and still shots (even though many of those stills originated in the Attack on Titan manga). It didn't help that Titan Episode 6 featured some of the most egregrious stills and "QUALITY", while Gargantia's Episode 6 featured a particularly well-animated bellydancing scene.
Girls und Panzer has an in-universe example between two Sensha-Do styles. The Euro-Asian Classic Style uses panzers in as near mint condition as possible, whereas the American Unlimited Style emphasizes heavy customization.
Haruhi Suzumiya vs. K-On!: This stems from the fact that these shows were both adapted by Kyoto Animation, and that the second season and the premiere season of Haruhi and K-On! respectively were both broadcast during the spring of 2009. This is especially since Haruhi returned from a three-year hiatus, and its second season was highly anticipated at that time. Among other things, Several Haruhi fans blamed K-On! for the Off-Model way Haruhi was drawn in (her upper teeth showing and her head being rounded at the edges), never mind the fact KyoAnifirst used that style on their CLANNAD adaptation. The fans also blamed K-On! for ruining the second season after the success of the Disappearance film. K-On! fans would retort by pointing out the widely-contestedEndless Eight arc. However, tensions between the two fandoms have cooled down over time as fans of Kyoto Animation as a whole have to come to enjoy both for different reasons.
Mind you, if Haruhi EVER enters a power level battle discussion, it'll be outright chaos as people argue who is stronger out of Haruhi and your favourite mecha that jumped out of Pandora's box.
Higurashi: When They Cry versus School Days. This one started over the "Nice Boat Incident" involving the murder of a Japanese police chief. While School Days merely got its final episode postponed, there were plans to outright cancel the Higurashi anime, right around the time of the big reveal of the identity of the Big Bad. The media was also much harsher on Higurashi with far fetched logic and outright misrepresentation of the series narrative trying to connect the series to the murder. Needless to say, the fandoms have not gotten along ever since.
Lady!! has one with Candy♡Candy, because there's no doubt that Lady drew a lot from it (and even the author admitted to being a huge fan of Candy♡Candy). However, Lady!! takes a different turn with the plot threads and also has a more serious tone. Some fans allege Lady!! is a Serial Numbers Filed Off version of Candy, while others believe that Lady!! is a betterversion of it. Not helping matters is that in many parts of the world, Lady!! was introduced first (mainly the Middle East and the Philippines), leading them to accuse Candy of being the ripoff.
Even worse, in South Korea when the Lady!! movie was released, the Korean dub studio realized how similar it was to Candy♡Candy, and decided to change the name of the movie to Lady Candy (ìº”ë””ë ˆë””). They also changed protagonist Lynn's name to Candy, believing that it would help the series sell more (see here). This led to many Koreans confusing Lady as part of Candy.
Macross versus Robotech: Many Macross fans look at Robotech as a bastardized Americanization. Some Robotech fans consider the addition of Super Dimension Cavalry Southern Cross and Genesis Climber MOSPEADA to the original Super Dimension Fortress Macross storyline to improve all three series, or at least prefer them to the official Macross sequels. The Robotech fandom is also split between people who enjoyed the licensed RPG, comic book adaptations, or novelizations, and the "purists" who treated all the spin-off material as bastardizations.
It happened with Majestic Prince and Valvrave the Liberator in 2013 as both were mecha anime that premiered on the same day despite have nothing in common aside from being in the same genre and being loaded with Fanservice; MJP fans often take it a step further with claims of how well received their anime was while Valvrave was comparatively panned, and in turn the fans of the other show countered that Majestic Prince sold less copies.
A notable one between this title and Black Clover, as both fought to be the new flagship series of Shonen Jump in the post-Naruto era. Black Clover became a target for mockery due to its overuse of cliches and formulaic storytelling in counterpart to My Hero Academia's more unusual approach to the Shōnen Genre getting praise. The rivalry grew bitter as the former's fans felt the acknowledgement that the latter work was getting was undeserved, accusing it of being as much of a Cliché Storm.
My Hero Academia also has one with Boruto, a work whose fans feel is truly deserving of becoming the new flagship shonen series over My Hero Academia, seeing as it is a Sequel Series of Naruto.
Neon Genesis Evangelion vs. RahXephon: Fans of the former accuse the latter of copying many elements from their series (as well as End of Evangelion to a lesser extent) while fans of the latter counter by saying theirs is superior critically. It did not help either side that the plots for both anime franchises were very tightly merged together in Super Robot Wars MX.
For the Spring 2011 season, there's a small rivalry between A Channel and Nichijou, especially because of a simple timeslot conflict. A Channel fans cry Screwed by the Network; Nichijou fans call "Follow the Leader" and "bland" for the former.
The Nichijou fandom also has a strong rivalry with fans of Daily Lives of High School Boys (Danshi Koukousei no Nichijou), or "Nichibros", over which anime with "Nichijou" in the title is superior. Interestingly enough, Nichijou and Daily Lives also are Friendly Fandoms, with much of one fandom being well-acquainted with and fond of the other fandom's target work.
Toriko quickly established itself as a powerhouse in Japan. Some said that it was replacing Bleach as a flagship manga for Shonen Jump (in light of Bleach's anime endingnote prior to being Un-Canceled in The New '20s, that is), and the author of One Piece himself had declared Toriko as his biggest rival.
Occasionally, Fullmetal Alchemist would have been added to the mix, with the debate centering on whether it's too different to compare to the other three, and if not, whether it's the best out of the four. Notably, that discussion is far less heated (especially once FMA ended), if only due to FMA fans having their own Fandom Rivalry within their own base (e.g. the first anime vs. the manga and the second anime, as mentioned earlier).
In spite of both having their anime version end prematurely, Fairy Tail and Blue Exorcist are creeping their way into the debate, though neither are in the same level as Toriko right now. The argument over Fairy Tail is whether it has the deepest character relationships, or if it's too much of a Fanservice-laden series. The argument over Blue Exorcist is between those who feel it plays around with a lot of supernatural show tropes, and those who think it's a generic shonen with prettier characters. Though since the Fairy Tail anime resumed for its final season in late 2018 after a brief hiatus, it's possible that it might be able to establish itself better.
Meanwhile, fans of Fairy Tail and fans of One Piece are often at each others' throats due to the similar art styles and how Fairy Tail's author Hiro Mashima vehemently denies being influenced by anything related to One Piece.
Reborn! (2004), surprisingly, has avoided much of this discussion, but there are still some sections that debate about it all the same. The argument over the series is whether it has great Character Development on the protagonists, or if its Cast Full of Pretty Boys is too much of a shoe-in for female-oriented Fanservice.
Since One Piece hasn't been topping the charts in terms of yearly sales anymore, it's naturally come to brawl with some of the other popular shounen fandoms, especiallyDemon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba. Using sales as a point of superiority is something both fandoms are guilty of, and this escalated as Demon Slayer continued to be adapted into anime. See below.
Fandom Rivalry is actually a natural result of the competitive nature of the manga industry. Within the Jump magazines themselves, there's a table of contents where series placed higher are seen as more valued by Jump and readers want to see their favorite series at the top, sometimes driving them to attack competing series with criticisms to make it look worse for other readers. It gets even more intense when there's a new serialization round where the success of a new manga will mean the cancellation of another and even manga that have earned a safe spot in Jump are often used as a point of comparison. If there's a reason any potential fan has problems getting into the manga community, chances are it's due to this hostility.
Planet With versus Zoids Wild; both anime aired in summer 2018 starring cat-themed main mecha and on /m/ one can't go making a thread of one without the other being hurled verbal potshots. Planet With is often slammed for unoriginality and slow pacing while Zoids Wild is often mocked for being childish and fansubs stopping at Episode 7.
Puella Magi Madoka Magica vs. Infinite Stratos for domination of the winter 2011 anime season. IS fans insist that Madoka is pretentious while Madoka fans consider IS to be another stupid, generic harem show.
Speaking of Madoka, looks like Nanoha fans are gearing up for a showdown about being dethroned as the most popular non-standard magical girl series.
Madoka fans also do heated battle with fans of classic magical girl shows like Sailor Moon, Cardcaptor Sakura, and Pretty Cure due to the vastly differing tones. Madoka fans often dislike classic magical girl series for being feminine or "boring", while classic fans hate how Darker and EdgierMadoka is and often believe that it's ruining the genre by making series actually aimed at little girls passe.
There is one with the fanbase of Revolutionary Girl Utena over which is the better Deconstruction of the genre, if Madoka is considered a deconstruction at all.
The more recent HappinessCharge Pretty Cure! got a lot of ire from the Madoka fandom as they perceive the series to be a Take That! towards them as the characters can achieve their dreams without being punished for it, act selflessly for others without expecting to benefit from it, etc.
Princess Tutu is another Magical Girl deconstruction whose fans occasionally butt heads with Madoka's fans, to the point that it's been said that if one were to have watched Tutu first, they would have hated Madoka.
Fans of the character Madoka have fought with Haruhi fans over which one is the "real" God figure.
Madoka is often compared to Neon Genesis Evangelion. However, on /a/, it's probably best to keep Madoka fans and Evangelion fans at least five miles apart, especially with the movies for both franchises playing in late 2012. Needless to say, both argue over which is the better Darker and EdgierDeconstructor Fleet series.
Madoka and Yuki Yuna is a Hero are often compared and the fandoms butt heads a lot. Both have middle schooler pink haired Magical Girl protagonists and blonde Cool Big Sis characters who break down at least once. With the revelation that Yuki Yuna is a Herois just as dark as Madoka, if not worse, the rivalry really got heated. Madoka fans often consider Yuki Yuna a poor ripoff of the series while Yuki Yuna fans often believe it improved on Madoka.
The Bokurano and Puella Magi Madoka Magica fandoms get this due to the fact they're both Darker and Edgier deconstructions of counterpart genres (mecha and magical girl). The fact that Madoka had a reference to Bokurano, which means the writers at least know of the series, doesn't help.
In Brazil, Saint Seiya vs. Dragon Ball Z. The former was the "breakout anime" of the country and the one which opened the doors for many other to come due its huge success. The latter came some years after and was another huge hit and the comparisons started, as well the fights between the fandoms. Sometimes YuYu Hakusho is dragged into the mix (the one who replaced Saint Seiya after so many reruns), although both Brazilian fandoms praise Yuyu despite the disagreements about which one is better and despite Yuyu fandom being very vocal, saying YuYu Hakusho is way better than Dragon Ball Z and Saint Seiya.
Sailor Moon and Saint Seiya were pretty divisive in some parts of Latin America during the time they aired, mostly a shonen-vs-shoujo, or more to the point, boys-vs-girls type of rivalry.
In addition to the aforementioned rivalry with the Higurashi: When They Cry fandom, there's School Days fans vs. every other harem anime fans, strangely enough. School Days fans argue that the deconstruction really portraits the Harem Genre's flaws and that it's a realistic depiction, while fans of other harem anime argue that the harem genre needn't be realistic to be good and that everything is a work of fiction.
Sword Art Online fans and Log Horizon fans, due to similar premise of their respective series. Out of all rivalries mentioned here, this is easily the most violent of them all, so much so that it's pretty much considered suicidal to refer to both SAO and LH in the same sentence in, well, any anime-specialized website.
And let's not forget about Sword Art Online vs .hack. Many fans of the latter accuse the former for stealing its premise and being considered "original" when the fact is that both series actually debuted in the same year (2002). Sword Art Online then was just a pilot web novel meant to be an entry for a contest. It didn't become a fully published series until seven years later.
Remember Madoka Magica vs. Infinite Stratos (relatively chaste, melodramatic, serious Tear Jerker vs. raunchy, Love Triangle- and Shipping-drivenBattle Harem)? Violet Evergarden vs. DARLING in the FRANXX is like that x9001. Despite the two shows having very little in common other than being the most hyped anime of the Winter 2018 Anime season and being put out by the two arguably most popularanime studios at the time (2018), arguments between the two fanbases can get very nasty very fast, and not just on /a/. Fan wars in the Chinese anime community got to the point that supposedly a Violet fan reported Darling's heavy Fanservice to the government Moral Guardians, resulting in the show being temporarily banned in the most populous country on Earth! (Darling fans have been little better, often relentlessly trolling threads and articles about Violet.) Darling being a two-cour anime has only dragged out the webfights, which as of this writing (almost two months after Violet ended) show few signs of slowing down.
Darling also earned, in its final episodes, the hatred of fans of Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann and Neon Genesis Evangelion for using themes too similar to those two works and ultimately, failing to do them justice, present them in a different manner or become a noteworthy Spiritual Successor to any of these series, leading the fans of the other two series to consider Darling an overhyped, weak and generic anime. Ironically, this ended up with the Darling fandom making a bold declaration that in these days, mecha genre is dead and the mecha elements they're using are not supposed to be important, what's important is the character drama and interaction. This ended up putting Darling fandom in the crosshair of not just Gurren Lagann and Evangelion, but a majority of Mecha Show fandom. note The two aforementioned shows, aside of greatly widespread series like Gundam and Code Geass, are considered by the Darling fandom as "the only mecha that matters"; any other mecha shows that do not carry those names aren't supposed to be considered significant. All of these shows' fandoms were, unsurprisingly, not amused.
Due to the aforementioned bold declaration, the Getter Robo fandom took the matters at hand and initiated another personal rivalry, since Getter Robo Arc also aired in the same time and it certainly had similar elements: Dinosaur-based characters. The Klaxosaurus of Darling were supposed to be "waifu", but the Getter characters has fought against the Dinosaur Empire. While Darling fans dismissed Getter as an insignificant mecha anime and ignored its long-running status, Getter fans were even fiercer in stating that Darling really was the forgettable seasonal anime that wouldn't stay in the heart of fans for so long (unlike Getter whose influence are still kept since the 70's, and further kept alive with appearances in Super Robot Wars, something that ironically never tried to include Darling in it), chanting one of their memetic devotion exclamation while mocking Darling's more volatile fandom: Dinosaur waifus are temporary, believing in the Getter is eternal!
Fans of Voltes V vs. fans of Voltron. Particularly infamous in some corners of fandom, where Voltes V proponents will slam Voltron as a rip-off and dedicate fanfiction and videos to the characters being slaughtered or made out to be villains threatening the Voltes V team. Flamewars will spark over which giant robot would wipe the floor with the other, and whether or not the "Voltron" title plagiarized the "Volt" in Voltes (fans who point out that the original title was GoLion tend to get ignored in the shuffle). The arguments all boil down to which Five-Man Band series is the legitimate and superior title, whether or not the latter was plagiarism, and if it's possible for fans of either to enjoy both.
Watamote versus Himouto! Umaru-chan. Perhaps because of their similar subject matters (though very different presentations), a fair amount of vitriol gets thrown back and forth between fans of these two series on /a/. The announcement that Umaru would be getting a second season of anime only made the situation worse.
Fans of every spinoff series tend to clash on what show is the best one. Many diehard fans of the Duel Monsters series mock and disregard every spinoff that comes out, while the others think the original either didn't age well or treat those diehard fans the equivalent of "Genwunners".
There are inter-fandom rivalries between people who like the manga, people who like the anime, and people who like the dub, as well as fans of the individual anime series. Character-based rivalries also spring up, like Jonouchi fans that dislike Kaiba or Kaiba fans who dislike Jonouchi and Anzu.
). This led to many Koreans confusing Lady as part of Candy.