The secret war between ‘Bluey’ and anime fans

Reddit has a theory there’s a secret war between ‘Bluey’ and anime fans, and it’s wild.

Iconic Aussie children’s cartoon Bluey has been bombarded with negative reviews in a targeted attack to bring down the beloved program’s online ratings, Reddit users have speculated.

Online sleuths have identified what they say is a secret war raging between anime fans and the children’s series on movie and TV website IMDb.

At the end of last month, Bluey’s executive director, Daley Pearson, tweeted a screenshot of an IMDb page that showed a Bluey episode — titled “Sleepytime”, for all you fans — ranked second on the list of best TV shows of all time with a star rating of 10 out of 10.

Sleepytime is the #2 rated episode of any TV show ever on @IMDb 🪐 💙 💤 #Blueypic.twitter.com/vjgufOtQrz

— Daley Pearson (@Daley_Pearson) July 31, 2022

I don’t even have kids and I love Bluey, so I find no fault here — however, a Reddit theory suggest that anime fans did.

A mere three days after Pearson sent out the tweet, the Bluey episode dropped down the list to 17th place. The number of people rating the show increased by 700 during this time, and the star rating stats show that there was a sudden uptake in one-star ratings, making it the second most popular rating for the show. Seeing as the most popular rating is 10 stars, it’s looking pretty suspect.

At the same time, a popular anime series rose up from nowhere to the top spots. Why? It seems the trolls got to it.

The number of one-star reviews increased dramatically since the tweet. Picture: IMDb

A Reddit thread of Bluey fans (yes, that is a thing that exists) suggests anime fans saw the tweet and started to review the show badly, while at the same time rating their favourite shows well, for the sole purpose of getting their own favourites higher in the rankings.

Reddit was quick to point out that trolling is really the sincerest form of flattery the internet can provide.

“It’s a badge of honour really,” wrote one user. “Anything starts to get haters once it gets enough elevation. The fact that it’s getting review bombed, the silly recent attacking articles – all just testament to how good this show is that’s it’s hit that level. And that it’s a kids show makes this all more amazing.”

Fans can’t believe anyone would take it so seriously. Picture: Bluey

Others have suggested that this could be the start of an all-out war between fans of a kids’ show and of anime.

“If it HAS to come to this, then I HOPE us in the Bluey fandom can make a rebellion over the anime fans,” said one Bluey supporter.

“This might be one of the worse things we’ve done, but we shall bring upon war. If you want to contribute to attacking the Anime fandom than comment on this post and leave poor reviews on Attack on Titan!”

“Welcome to why so many anime fandoms are so toxic,” said another.

Yet no one summed up the situation so neatly as this Reddit user and Bluey fan: “The internet is such a weird place.”