About five years ago, I didn't like anime at all. I refused to watch it.
A friend of mine, one day, told me, "Red, you need to check out Ghost in the Shell."
"I don't like anime, no thanks."
"But this is totally different. You're a huge cyberpunk fanatic. You dress like Deckard to work at a hardware store."
"What makes it different?"
"It's... Hard to say. It's much better quality, and the story is awesome. Just trust me, I promise you'll like it."
"Holy crap. I'm sorry I ever doubted you."
Shortly thereafter:
"Hey, Red, have you ever seen Firefly?"
"No, I saw a couple of clips on YouTube before, it looked kinda stupid. Generally things with a lot of dumb YouTube clips tend to be stupid."
"Oh, trust me, it's not, it's different. You're big on wacky sci-fi stuff, you'll love it."
"What makes it different?"
"It's hard to say, it's... Very well done, and the story is awesome."
"WHere has this show been all of my life? I'm sorry I ever doubted you."
Naturally, after a couple incidents like this, one would be inclined to trust something when people say, "I can't really describe it, but it's extremely well-done and very good."
So naturally when the MPL thing came up, and almost every last one of my friends was raving about it, it only took a little bit of arguing to get me to try it.
"Red, you need to check out My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic."
"I, uh... Don't like flash-animated cartoons for preteen girls, no thanks."
"But this flash-animated cartoon for preteen girls is totally different from all of the other ones out there! And you're a huge, flagrant furry, so you're bound to like it."
"Oh, gee, thanks... What makes it different?"
"THe quality! And the story!"
I gave it a shrug and found an episode on youtube.
ANd to my credit, I sat through the whole thing.
"What the #^@& did I just watch?"
"Wasn't it great?"
"Maybe if I was 12 years old and part of a girl clique."
"Well... The first episode is kinda slow. YOu know, they have to set things up."
"Well, it's a kid's cartoon, you can't have the same level of backstory as Ghost in the SHell, and even they managed to tell the story over 24 episodes without leaving viewers too terribly lost if they missed one."
"Just watch the second one."
So I did. ANd it was exactly the same. Spastic sugar-rush humor intended for 8-12 girls, "lessons" and "morals" that even I managed to learn by the time I was about 15, even with a considerable case of Asperger's.
"Look. This is... This just isn't for me, okay? I'm really not enjoying this at all, I feel like the whole show is forced and kinda... Well, childish. And some times that's not a bad thing. Just... This time, it's not for me."
"Okay, okay, look. You just have to watch X episode from Y season. You'll totally get it then. I promise."
"Sigh. Okay."
About thirty minutes later I had an enormous headache and a newfound confusion with the show's immense popularity.
"What part are you at now, Red?"
"The purple dragon thing just did something clumsy and made an ass of himself, and they all learned a valuable lesson about friendship. Actually, come to think if it, it was exactly the $^*@ing same as the last two episodes that you had me watch."
"Hold on just a second. You have to watch this other clip. Just a clip."
"THat clip consisted of something getting hit in the face with an apple and going wall-eyed for a moment. What do you think I am?"
"Okay. Just one last clip."
"No. No more. You've wasted an hour and a half of my time and I want an explanation. What is it that you see about this mess of colors and helium voices that equates to 'entertainment'?"
"You're just too serious! You need to lighten up and enjoy silly things!"
"Look. If I wanted silly, I'd watch the Wren & Stimpy show, or the G-Mod Idiot Box. Or Jerry Springer. Or give my cat some catnip and shine the laser pointer on the ceiling."
"Hey! There's no need to persecute!"
"I'm not persecuting! The show is just retarded! If you want to watch it, that's fine. But stop trying to make me like it. Just stop. You want me to like the show because you're insecure about the fact that you like it, I get that. You don't have to be, that's fine! I won't start to hate you just because I hate something that you like. You like Jaegermeister. I hate it. We're still friends. You like trucks. I hate them. We're still friends. So please, stop trying to make me like My Little Pony."
After a few messages coming from this person subsequently containing brony-modified words such as "nopony" (nobody) "brohoof" (presumably "bro-fist") and several others, in what I can only assume was a poorly thought-out attempt to warm me up to the idea of the MLP show, I had to break contact with this friend for a while, with the excuse of "My brother pirated seven pornographic films and our ISP has dropped us, so I will be offline until we find a new service provider."
When I came back around a month after that, nothing had changed. That's when I started to worry. This seems to be more than just a fad. At least with Pokémon, there was afun, conmpetitive video game following. So one can sort of understand that.
I have my own theories, being a student of sociology, but they're all speculation, because any time you ask a brony why they like the show, they frigging always answer with some combination of factors including "story", "animation quality" and "Lauren Faust is a genius".
