Some alternatives you might want to consider:
!anime@lemmy.world (it appears that @vole@lemmy.world might be rolling out their own episode discussion bot, which is something I'm looking forward to)
!anime@ani.social (no activity here, but it looks like a new community and they're looking for a moderator)
I want Lemmy to succeed as well, but not at the cost of growing a community for a subreddit hoarder. The two of us being here is a step forward in ensuring the success of Lemmy.
The last action by a moderator on that c/ was from 27 days ago according to their mod log.
It's really unfortunate that the largest anime community on Lemmy is operated by a person who currently "moderates" 292 subreddits on Reddit. And if any reasonable moderator can tell you, there's no way you can possibly be able to split your time across that many subreddits.
In my honest opinion, literally any other anime community is better than the one owned by a subreddit hoarder. This entire idea of hoarding subreddits/communities goes against the single most important principle of Lemmy, which is federation.
But I can't change your opinion. What you do next is up to you.
I'm bouncing around Reddit and Lemmy. Won't be contributing much to Reddit anymore and will be posting and commenting on Lemmy.
Anime --> !anime@jeremmy.ml
Broken link? Doesn't work anymore. If you'll be replacing an alternative, I suggest not substituting it with !anime@lemmy.ml as that one's owned by an infamous subreddit hoarder on Reddit.
You've raised another important thing I've never thought of: How do we even know how connected an instance is to other instances aside from hearing from other users. I didn't even know Beehaw was defederated until you mentioned it.
The other big issue with Liftoff is that you can't search for communities outside of your own instance without first adding the instance said community is hosted on. Unless someone can correct me on that.
Try out Reddit on a mobile browser. It's somehow less clunky than the official app, which is embarrassing.
Out of curiosity, what's so shitty about the conventions near where you live?