MaplestoryFirst and foremost I feel inclined to preface with:
Please do not turn the comments into a discourse battlefield. It's completely okay to talk about things in the article itself, but for the past year all animecore related articles turn into a "why I hate children", "let's gatekeep this hobby", or a "is lolicon/shotacon okay" debate. I highly encourage discussion but let's try to keep it civil and not retread old grounds.
I see a lot of people confused whenever animecore is brought up and wonder where the term came from, how this subculture formed and what it actually is, so I'm writing this (somewhat abridged and poorly worded) article on it as someone who has witnessed animecore's "creation".
The -core suffix is derived from the term hardcore, which then became commonly used in the music scene to describe certain genres. Such genres include: hardcore, metalcore, deathcore, speedcore, breakcore, etc. I have yet to find any credible sources that can point to where the first usage of -core in an aesthetic sense is, but it likely originated on early 2010's Tumblr. Tumblr spent its first few years (it was created in 2007) finding its identity, with many people originally using it for its intended purpose: blogging. In the years following, the site gradually shifted to become a sort of "fandom hub", where blogging met fandom discussion. As the site grew, of course, people who were more interested in keeping their blog looking aesthetically pleasing would only reblog (the Tumblr equivalent to retweeting) images fitting a certain aesthetic-- this was also helped by the fact that Tumblr has a built-in HTML system where you can either create your own layout (called a "theme") or download them from others. What started off as a single-panel, infinitely-scrolling culture of ramblings and media analysis eventually turned into three-panel blogs full of carefully curated images.
It was presumably during this time that the -core suffix was adopted and changed into a word to describe certain aesthetics. If you remember the infamously embarrassing 2012 mustache, Starbucks and galaxy aesthetic-- yes, that was a staple of Tumblr at the time, and those galaxy pictures were labeled as "galaxycore". Another extremely popular -core aesthetic at the time was cottagecore, which makes sense considering that many early Tumblr bloggers were dedicated to medieval fantasy and/or the Lord of the Rings/Hobbit series. Cottagecore is defined by its soft browns and greens with a nature scene, typically accompanied by a quaint home or cottage and picnic baskets:
View spoiler
A typical cottagecore image.
It's important to note that not all aesthetics featured the -core suffix. For example, both steampunk and dark academia-- if I had to guess why, it's because they had their names coined before the big "-core" era.
One of the big things you'll notice with cottagecore in particular is its focus on a very surreal, whimsical type of beauty that's hard to recreate in our mundane lives. Many bloggers used their Tumblrs as a form of expression and escapism, which is why so many cottagecore images feature fog or gorgeous landscapes that seem out of this world. Another thing to take note of is that in recent years, these aesthetics have been even further categorized despite having only one concrete name before. It's no longer just cottagecore: it's also cozycore, goblincore, dollcore, angelcore...etc.
While it may seem unnecessary, Tumblr has had a history of being a safe space for neurodivergent or LGBT individuals. As such, there's never been much open distaste for marginalized groups, meaning that people were allowed to be as "cringe" as they want. A good example of this phenomenon is the 2014 MOGAI debacle. MOGAI is a term that means "Marginalized Orientations, Gender Alignments and Intersex"-- essentially, a more inclusive way of saying LGBTQA+. It's a term coined by Tumblr bloggers so that everyone who felt that certain labels didn't describe their identity well enough could make their own. While it can be argued that this practice could be considered harmful, it's important to note that Tumblr's identity has always been interwoven with those who are considered societal outcasts. The constant urge to further label extremely niche and specific aesthetics reflects this. If you'd like to learn more, here's a great video about the subject, and here's the MOGAI wiki.
Fast forward a few years, adding -core to words to describe aesthetics became much more popular as a lot of smaller bloggers focused primarily on making their blogs look nice. Around 2016, the animecore aesthetic was born. It's pretty different from what it is nowadays, with early animecore images looking more like this:
View spoiler
Animecore initially began as an exploration of Japanese otaku culture and most of the images in that aesthetic were of NEET or hikikomori rooms found across the web. Walls of figure boxes, tiny apartments and lots of pink were staples. Other animecore-aligned aesthetics at the time were japancore and webcore, which are still popular today. Japancore eventually died out a bit as people came to realize that it was just fetishizing Japanese culture, with the aesthetic defined as being scenic images of Japanese landscapes or towns, sometimes featuring anime (hence the overlap with animecore):
View spoiler
This would be considered both animecore and japancore.
I can't avoid this topic any longer since it has a lot to do with the current state of animecore, but let's discuss kinning.
Kinning is loosely defined as identifying oneself with a fictional character, typically from games, anime or manga. It's not clear when the term was created but it's always had its ties to Tumblr. It used to be a very simple way of explaining to people that you liked a character from a series and identified with their struggles and personality, but nowadays it's become more serious where people don't like sharing their kins with others. While the core aesthetics had a massive spike in popularity in 2016, so did kinning, and often, people who kinned characters would dedicate their entire blog to a single aesthetic. It should also be noted that in that same year, there was a large chunk of Tumblr's userbase who joined only to blog about their mental health rather than about fandom things. Without getting too deep into this rabbit hole, the concept of "dissociation" (described as "separation of some aspects of mental functioning from conscious awareness, leading to a degree of mental dysfunction") was very common for many users who experienced poor mental health.
A lot of people directly associated dissociation with liminal spaces which had also seen a boost in popularity during this time. As a result, almost every aesthetic nowadays has been injected with the concept of liminal spaces in some way or form, despite "dreamcore" being its own aesthetic.
View spoiler
A "liminal space" aesthetic image from Tumblr. It's also tagged as nostalgiacore, oddcore, weirdcore, webcore and animecore. Keep in mind that this is not animecore, however.
Liminal spaces and -core aesthetics are now heavily associated with childhood and many are even associated with mental health. As mentioned before, Tumblr aesthetics have always been a source of escapism for many, and animecore has definitely been hit the hardest by that. Despite the fact that most animecore images are considered creepy or gross by your average, non-otaku Japanese citizen, the staple pink and cutesy nature has attracted many to that specific aesthetic. Dollcore, animecore, angelcore, webcore, nostalgiacore, weirdcore and many more are a way of expression for people who feel their voices aren't heard.
View spoiler
An image that would be considered animecore.
You'll notice that a lot of the people/kids who like animecore are from Tiktok, not Tumblr. It's important to note that kinning is extremely popular on a niche part of Tiktok, and as such the animecore moniker has been adopted by people on there. While most Tumblr bloggers are and have been content with being unpopular and in their own little corner of the internet, the culture on Tiktok is completely different-- the algorithm is extremely predatory and most if not all creators on there want more views, so it was only a matter of time before animecore blew up.
TLDR;
Animecore is an aesthetic that originated from Tumblr and blew up on Tiktok. Like many things from the early days on Tumblr, it's a form of expression for many and with the young demographic on Tiktok, it's only natural that many of its fans are kids. It's common for hardcore animecore consumers to be in their teenage years and are struggling with mental health (or ADHD/autism) and are using it as an outlet because they can "see" themselves in it. While you may not understand it, it's important to respect others and their interests. Let's all enjoy the hobby together.
I wanted to write up this article for a while but didn't know how it would be received so I held off. I think that as someone who spent a lot of my developmental years on Tumblr, I had some insight that not many other people could provide on the subject and as such I wanted to share my knowledge with those who don't know much. I apologize for rambling and my poor English but hopefully you came out knowing more than you did before. Cheers!
The current "queen" of animecore herself, Mayura.
Please do not turn the comments into a discourse battlefield. It's completely okay to talk about things in the article itself, but for the past year all animecore related articles turn into a "why I hate children", "let's gatekeep this hobby", or a "is lolicon/shotacon okay" debate. I highly encourage discussion but let's try to keep it civil and not retread old grounds.
I see a lot of people confused whenever animecore is brought up and wonder where the term came from, how this subculture formed and what it actually is, so I'm writing this (somewhat abridged and poorly worded) article on it as someone who has witnessed animecore's "creation".
The -core suffix is derived from the term hardcore, which then became commonly used in the music scene to describe certain genres. Such genres include: hardcore, metalcore, deathcore, speedcore, breakcore, etc. I have yet to find any credible sources that can point to where the first usage of -core in an aesthetic sense is, but it likely originated on early 2010's Tumblr. Tumblr spent its first few years (it was created in 2007) finding its identity, with many people originally using it for its intended purpose: blogging. In the years following, the site gradually shifted to become a sort of "fandom hub", where blogging met fandom discussion. As the site grew, of course, people who were more interested in keeping their blog looking aesthetically pleasing would only reblog (the Tumblr equivalent to retweeting) images fitting a certain aesthetic-- this was also helped by the fact that Tumblr has a built-in HTML system where you can either create your own layout (called a "theme") or download them from others. What started off as a single-panel, infinitely-scrolling culture of ramblings and media analysis eventually turned into three-panel blogs full of carefully curated images.
It was presumably during this time that the -core suffix was adopted and changed into a word to describe certain aesthetics. If you remember the infamously embarrassing 2012 mustache, Starbucks and galaxy aesthetic-- yes, that was a staple of Tumblr at the time, and those galaxy pictures were labeled as "galaxycore". Another extremely popular -core aesthetic at the time was cottagecore, which makes sense considering that many early Tumblr bloggers were dedicated to medieval fantasy and/or the Lord of the Rings/Hobbit series. Cottagecore is defined by its soft browns and greens with a nature scene, typically accompanied by a quaint home or cottage and picnic baskets:
View spoiler
A typical cottagecore image.
It's important to note that not all aesthetics featured the -core suffix. For example, both steampunk and dark academia-- if I had to guess why, it's because they had their names coined before the big "-core" era.
One of the big things you'll notice with cottagecore in particular is its focus on a very surreal, whimsical type of beauty that's hard to recreate in our mundane lives. Many bloggers used their Tumblrs as a form of expression and escapism, which is why so many cottagecore images feature fog or gorgeous landscapes that seem out of this world. Another thing to take note of is that in recent years, these aesthetics have been even further categorized despite having only one concrete name before. It's no longer just cottagecore: it's also cozycore, goblincore, dollcore, angelcore...etc.
While it may seem unnecessary, Tumblr has had a history of being a safe space for neurodivergent or LGBT individuals. As such, there's never been much open distaste for marginalized groups, meaning that people were allowed to be as "cringe" as they want. A good example of this phenomenon is the 2014 MOGAI debacle. MOGAI is a term that means "Marginalized Orientations, Gender Alignments and Intersex"-- essentially, a more inclusive way of saying LGBTQA+. It's a term coined by Tumblr bloggers so that everyone who felt that certain labels didn't describe their identity well enough could make their own. While it can be argued that this practice could be considered harmful, it's important to note that Tumblr's identity has always been interwoven with those who are considered societal outcasts. The constant urge to further label extremely niche and specific aesthetics reflects this. If you'd like to learn more, here's a great video about the subject, and here's the MOGAI wiki.
Fast forward a few years, adding -core to words to describe aesthetics became much more popular as a lot of smaller bloggers focused primarily on making their blogs look nice. Around 2016, the animecore aesthetic was born. It's pretty different from what it is nowadays, with early animecore images looking more like this:
View spoiler
Animecore initially began as an exploration of Japanese otaku culture and most of the images in that aesthetic were of NEET or hikikomori rooms found across the web. Walls of figure boxes, tiny apartments and lots of pink were staples. Other animecore-aligned aesthetics at the time were japancore and webcore, which are still popular today. Japancore eventually died out a bit as people came to realize that it was just fetishizing Japanese culture, with the aesthetic defined as being scenic images of Japanese landscapes or towns, sometimes featuring anime (hence the overlap with animecore):
View spoiler
This would be considered both animecore and japancore.
I can't avoid this topic any longer since it has a lot to do with the current state of animecore, but let's discuss kinning.
Kinning is loosely defined as identifying oneself with a fictional character, typically from games, anime or manga. It's not clear when the term was created but it's always had its ties to Tumblr. It used to be a very simple way of explaining to people that you liked a character from a series and identified with their struggles and personality, but nowadays it's become more serious where people don't like sharing their kins with others. While the core aesthetics had a massive spike in popularity in 2016, so did kinning, and often, people who kinned characters would dedicate their entire blog to a single aesthetic. It should also be noted that in that same year, there was a large chunk of Tumblr's userbase who joined only to blog about their mental health rather than about fandom things. Without getting too deep into this rabbit hole, the concept of "dissociation" (described as "separation of some aspects of mental functioning from conscious awareness, leading to a degree of mental dysfunction") was very common for many users who experienced poor mental health.
A lot of people directly associated dissociation with liminal spaces which had also seen a boost in popularity during this time. As a result, almost every aesthetic nowadays has been injected with the concept of liminal spaces in some way or form, despite "dreamcore" being its own aesthetic.
View spoiler
A "liminal space" aesthetic image from Tumblr. It's also tagged as nostalgiacore, oddcore, weirdcore, webcore and animecore. Keep in mind that this is not animecore, however.
Liminal spaces and -core aesthetics are now heavily associated with childhood and many are even associated with mental health. As mentioned before, Tumblr aesthetics have always been a source of escapism for many, and animecore has definitely been hit the hardest by that. Despite the fact that most animecore images are considered creepy or gross by your average, non-otaku Japanese citizen, the staple pink and cutesy nature has attracted many to that specific aesthetic. Dollcore, animecore, angelcore, webcore, nostalgiacore, weirdcore and many more are a way of expression for people who feel their voices aren't heard.
View spoiler
An image that would be considered animecore.
You'll notice that a lot of the people/kids who like animecore are from Tiktok, not Tumblr. It's important to note that kinning is extremely popular on a niche part of Tiktok, and as such the animecore moniker has been adopted by people on there. While most Tumblr bloggers are and have been content with being unpopular and in their own little corner of the internet, the culture on Tiktok is completely different-- the algorithm is extremely predatory and most if not all creators on there want more views, so it was only a matter of time before animecore blew up.
TLDR;
Animecore is an aesthetic that originated from Tumblr and blew up on Tiktok. Like many things from the early days on Tumblr, it's a form of expression for many and with the young demographic on Tiktok, it's only natural that many of its fans are kids. It's common for hardcore animecore consumers to be in their teenage years and are struggling with mental health (or ADHD/autism) and are using it as an outlet because they can "see" themselves in it. While you may not understand it, it's important to respect others and their interests. Let's all enjoy the hobby together.
I wanted to write up this article for a while but didn't know how it would be received so I held off. I think that as someone who spent a lot of my developmental years on Tumblr, I had some insight that not many other people could provide on the subject and as such I wanted to share my knowledge with those who don't know much. I apologize for rambling and my poor English but hopefully you came out knowing more than you did before. Cheers!
The current "queen" of animecore herself, Mayura.
Comments28
I was also thinking of cottagecore when I thought about the -core stuff. I've been into 'mori kei' (森系/森女系) for many years (before Tumblr days), which would not seem as immediately apparent as 'cottagecore' to an English language-only audience. I was also on Tumblr in the early 2010s when mori kei stuff got more popular, and eventually the various -cores popped up. At first I thought that 'mori kei' and 'cottagecore' might be distinct from each other, but a lot of the things that'd be called 'mori kei' long ago would likely get the 'cottagecore' label these days so I just adopted it as another term for 'mori kei'. It does not mean that I've gone for a new trend, just that people figured out another term for this thing I like.
I guess I generally like animecore too, but the kinning part (especially the extreme side of it) just feels like something that I'm out of touch with, though I guess they're not new concepts either. Relating to characters seems like a normal human thing even without the anime part. Obsessing over a character to the point one would be hostile to other fans isn't new either; specific incidents have just become more easily spreadable with social media. I was aware of the existence of VERY possessive Japanese fangirls many years ago and I avoided going into the communities they could be found in so idk much about them other than that they exist.
I enjoyed reading your article, and I also like some of the other -cores you mentioned
( ๑•́ㅅ•̀๑)و
Anytime I see a "what does animecore mean?" thread or comment pop up in the future I'm going to link this blog lol.
From what I've seen it's quite the opposite, where the hardcore kinning was back on tumblr, meaning the kind where people actually believed they were the living reincarnation of a character or species (creating infamous posts like the dragonkin eating their mother's diamond jewellery lol). Obviously a lot of these posts were trolls but nevertheless the term was still associated with a more psychotic attachment to a character. This is what I always associated kinning with until the term started to change around 2019ish on Tiktok and such where it just meant a character you relate to, or see yourself in, then kinning became basically: 'He just like me fr'. Not sure what it's like on Tiktok nowadays though, since I don't have that hellscape of a social media anymore.
MAN i was deep in my tumblr era when kinning started reaching criticality. it started with ppl associating themselves with a character in order to cope and ground themselves, but it got absolutely insane lol ppl were sending death threats and calling eachother slurs and calling eachother out for kinning problematic characters
i remember the dragon kinnie thing omg..
i used to be friends with someone who kinned a perv/pedophile character, adamantly asserted that they were "critical" of their kin's actions and denounced the character's pedophilia before being exposed for grooming a minor absolute mental
as someone who was DEEP in the tumblr scene (still am haha) especially during the mid 2010s AND was big into early animecore blogging, animecore is almost inherently linked with mental health and mental illness
1. animecore itself frequently reflects symptoms of poor mental health. cluttered houses, game consoles, anime web graphics, devotion and shrines to specific characters are often synonymous with agorophobia, NEET/hikki culture, internet addiction, dissassociation from reality, even porn addiction
obviously these aesthetics by themselves are harmless (i personally love web graphics and cluttered collections) but are often associated with and borrowed from ppl who are suffering from poor mental health
2. almost every single animecore or japancore person i ever come across have publicly shared their mental illnesses and conditions. autism was a pretty common one i saw among animecore bloggers, but a lot of them had trauma-related disorders as well. i myself have ocd.
as you said, for a lot of folks, animecore and ESPECIALLY kinning are popular forms of escapism for ppl who are struggling with their mental conditions. seeing people living these vastly different lives, having all these cool things, and surrounding themselves with their favorite things is extremely enticing and idealized. thats why you'll see a lot of young, misguided ppl make cringey statements like "i cant wait to turn 18 and move to japan" or "moving to japan to escape your abusive mother✌
Tbh, I've never had too much of a strong opinion on animecore, just seems fine to me. Seen a lot of people either try to distance themselves or hating on it / people into it but from what I've personally seen, it's mostly cute and something many younger folk enjoy.
What I will comment however, as someone who never had tiktok but was in tumblr, that:gloomysalem • 10 days ago • #125284703This is a very good article! I do, however, have a completely different view of how you described 'kinning'.
From what I've seen it's quite the opposite, where the hardcore kinning was back on tumblr, meaning the kind where people actually believed they were the living reincarnation of a character or species (creating infamous posts like the dragonkin eating their mother's diamond jewellery lol). Obviously a lot of these posts were trolls but nevertheless the term was still associated with a more psychotic attachment to a character. This is what I always associated kinning
^^^^ this was my same experience, and for many of the people I knew online.
Specially within fandoms, when you got people who kinned the same charas or charas that interacted, it always ended up in infighting and drama of who was the real one, who wasn't, there could only be one; accusations over their (true and absolute) view on chara interactions and pairings that transpired to the people irl, vitriol, etc. It was pretty weird but only because of how hateful it'd often turn from something so simple as heavily identifying with a character. If anything, I'm mostly glad tiktok made it into something more benign again.
I also wouldn't worry about posting informative articles too much. I think some of the articles with this topic got backlash because of how the OP handled comments, and you've been pretty chill in the comment section.