Wednesday, March 28, 2001Caroline 8:05 PM
*looks guilty* Sowwy. Real life sucks at the moment. Give me two and a half weeks and I'll feel much better. And I'll be able to blog more. And I'll be able to watch anime again. Darn Lent...
Monday, March 26, 2001Dr MM 10:13 PM
I know, I know. This blog has been sadly neglected lately. I've been watching tons and tons of anime (Kamikaze Kaitou Jeanne volume 6 is awesome) but sadly, I've been too lazy. Posting on this and my personal blog is rather time consuming... I'll try and do better though.Actually, we all will try and do better. Ne? *glares in the general direction of where the others live*
At first I didn't think I had anything to blog today (well, other than I skipped class) but then I remembered something.Ages and ages ago (okay, maybe in early February) some guy e-mails my club e-mail account wanting someone to help him in this English 101 report he's doing on anime (fortunatly not due until the end of the semester). I tell him to send the questions to my personal e-mail account and I'd try and help him. Today, I finally got around to answering his questions and here was my response.
> 1)Why do you think that that anime is popular here in the United
> States?I don't consider anime to be "popular." I think it's more of a cult following. Why does it have the following it does? I think that most anime fans, like myself, have always enjoyed animation. Unfortunatly, the animation you find in the U.S. is for children and the plots are lacking in plot and characterization. While anime has its shows that are aimed at children, there is also a large amount that's aimed at teenagers and adults. So, when I discovered anime, I fell in love with the complex plots, depth of characterization that you can find in Japanese animation, unlike U.S. animation.
> 2)Why do you think that people who are interested in anime seem to
> be so deep into anime? I don't know people who just watch anime occasionally,
> if they watch it they know thourally the entire plotline of one or several
> different titles. Why do you think this is?It's addicting. ;) But seriously, I'm not so sure that people are more "into" anime than other people are "into" their other hobbies. Anime is a hobby to me. It just happens to be a hobby that's more different from mainstream hobbies. I don't see anything different between spending hours watching an anime series and someone spending hours trying to fix an old car. We're all fond of our hobbies.
> 3)There seems to be a wide variety of people who like anime, there
> is no stereotypical anime fan. What is it about anime that kind of seems
> to transcend any single demographic group.I'd say that people in general tend to be interested in the things that attracted me to anime: art, plot and characters. However, I'd say that people who are interested in computers and computer science or science fiction and fantasy tend to enjoy anime more than people who have no interest in those things.
Random comments: Anime takes time to get used to. There are a lot of subjects in anime that people in the United States have a hard time accepting. Most American cartoons gloss over subjects like death and violence or treat them comically, while anime gives them a more realistic touch. A lot of Americans can't get over their preconcieved notions that animation is for children, so when they see blood on a screen they're shocked and tend to focus on that rather than the plot and charachterization. Or when they find out that there's animated porn, they focus on that. So, a lot of people in the U.S. have this notion that all anime is violence and porn without realizing the wide variety of anime there is.
He responded saying thanks and that my comments were "thought-provoking." Maybe I can help convert someone to otaku-dom. ;)
The side image is of Kinomoto Sakura from the anime series Card Captor Sakura. Image from belldandy.net. Thanks.