With so many premieres, I felt like I neglected the fans panels a little this year at Otakon. Since panels is usually the biggest draw for me, I feel a bit guilty. There was a great variety, but one only has so much time. Still beyond our own two panels I did squeeze a few others in over the weekend.

I consider a healthy dose of fan panels part of a balanced convention diet. At some cons my entire schedule is filled with nothing but fan panels with the occasional guest panel if they have an interesting Japanese guest. Plus, as I become more active in the fan community I begin to know more of the people doing fan panels so I sometimes just stop in to support my friends who often do very intelligent panels (or at least entertaining panels). Fan panels have this passionate rawness that makes them unique and special. Sometimes that means you go to some real stinkers but such is the price you pay for some incredibly unique and eye-opening content.

I wrapped up a very busy Friday with Otakon Game Show. I ran into a lot of familiar faces who were waiting to take the qualifying quiz earlier in the day and once I heard Hisui made it on, I knew I had to check it out. It was a packed panel 6 where I was greeted with high energy and a handout with instructions on how to play along with your cellphone. This is what really set this game show apart and it actually worked really well. You simply sent a username to a special number by text (or you could use web if you had it), then subsequently sent your answer of 1, 2, 3, or 4 from then on. While the contestants where contemplating, the audience was doing its own deductions. This also seemed to cut down on people shouting out answers. There was even a leader board and small prizes for the crowd. I made it into the top slots for both rounds, which kinda makes me want to try out for the real show next year! This actually ended up being an unexpected highlight of the con.

Although I have been meaning to do so for a while, I finally got around to trying to be a participant on an anime game show. To be a contestant on the Otakon Game Show you had to complete a 15 question quiz mostly (but not entirely) made up of questions about anime from the last decade. Some questions were multiple choice or fill in the blank but there was one matching puzzle. I apparently knew enough to get into the top 4 positions even if I referred to Rolo from Code Geass as Lelouch’s fake brother. When the other three contestants and I  got on the stage, they had a pretty slick set up that used Buzz! controllers for the contestants while the audience could use their phones to answer alongside us. The setup was mostly like Jeopardy! but there was no penalty for missing a question. The categories were usually pretty amusing including a “Is it a magical girl show, a hentai, both, or neither?” category and a “Name that shower scene” category. And basically I got schooled. I started out strong but as time went on I firmly took last place. Even though I came in 4th I still got a nice assortment of prizes (and traded away my Soul Eater box set for a copy of Armitage III box with another contestant.) Everyone who participated was a good sport and I hope they had a good time. I know I enjoyed myself despite my somewhat embarrassing performance. Also since I could not recognize the Chun-Li shower scene, I was asked to turn in my manhood by several people. What people do not realize is that I never had it in the first place. You can watch my shame here and see me have to run off to the bathroom halfway through the show.

On the more educational side, I attended Daryl’s Remembering Satoshi Kon panel and the Anime and Manga Studies panel. The Satoshi Kon one is just what it sounds like, a celebration of Kon’s body of work which was cut short. The panel was extensively full of fans of the director already so Daryl smartly kept introductory information to a minimum. Instead the focus was on themes and motifs as well as some discussion of Kon’s otaku characters and their evolution. Kon himself was quite a fan and one of the clips goes on to show this perfectly as he tries on traditional samurai armor under the guise of research. While this was a celebration, it was also quite melancholy knowing Kon is no longer with us. Even more academic was the Anime and Manga Studies panel which featured people currently doing research or PhDs relating to the subjects. This panel was less formal than it sounds which was a good thing. Each panelist gave good advice and anecdotes about their work. Subjects that were discussed included anime and manga not being subordinate to another field of study; how not speaking Japanese can affect research; and how studying anime and manga contributes to the fan community. It certainly would give people curious about studying anime and manga a good place to start.

The rest of the weekend saw me going to two different styles of fan panels. First there were the highbrow intellectual panels. I went to the Ani-Gamers’ Fandom & Criticism: The Art of Active Viewing which is one of their war-horse panels. Evan manages to keep it fresh by always having a different person in the third seat and this time it was Elliot Page alongside himself and Ink. The discussion was fairly lively and there was one young gentlemen in the front who was extremely engaged in the conversation. At first I assumed he was totally against the idea of the panel but it was eventually clear that he was just passionate. They had to limit the audience to three responses to each topic or they could have been there all night. Charles Dunbar and Ed Sizemore weighed in their feelings as well. I would have spoken up but I was just on the panel at AnimeNEXT so I already used my Toaru Majutsu no Index, Type-Moon, and Macross 7 analogies enough as it was. While Fandom & Criticism went off without a hitch the Cyborgs, Cybernetics and Metal Men was plagued with problems. The lady running the panel had a Mac that refused to cooperate with the projector so no matter how much the staff tried. But she was a champion and still did a good panel despite no longer having her visual backup. She started with a quiz on the truth and lies about real world cybernetics that showed that while we don’t live in the Ghost in the Shell universe we might not be that far off. She went into the controversies that cybernetics bring up in real life and what they reflect in modern society about our hopes and anxieties for the future.  The interaction between the audience and the panelist was good and I would like to see the panel again when everything was working. Even though he was a guest, I am throwing Roland Kelts’ Japan’s Intellectual Property Problem panel in this section. He started with a look at what IP is and how the Japanese and American view the protection of such rights is very different. This of course has led to many conflicts which is only exasperated by the fact that American anime fandom is a fandom built on piracy. Of course someone in the audience had to make the defense of piracy argument but in his defense he was much more polite and rational than most people on the Internet with that same stance. Christopher Macdonald was in the audience and piped up that physical media sales are in a major decline and streaming video profits are still chump change for most titles. If nothing else the conversation about the revenue sharing licenses explains why ANN retires certain streams after a while.

And of course, we ran our own panels, too. I was quite worried about Best Manga You Never Read having a Friday 9AM time slot because of past years with panelists and attendees being able to get in the building early. No need to worry though, Otakon was on top of it! We were able to pack panel 4 that morning. This was also a bit frightening to be honest. Once again this panel focused on TokyoPop titles that are either forgotten or sold so badly as to be canceled. Unfortunately, since the panel was first thing were weren’t able to scope out what series were in the dealer’s room. Some titles got crowd reactions like Sgt. Frog but for the most part I think we were able to give people new things to check out. The crowd was smaller, but still attentive, for Investigating Detective Anime. This was our third time running it so we are finally getting the hang of it. This is an introductory panel so we are still contemplating doing something a bit more advanced as some point. There was a lot of good questions and discussion after we finished our presentation, too.

I did not just go to high-minded panels where academics pondered complex concepts from ivory towers while smoking pipes and drinking brandy. I also went to some down and dirty fun panels. I unfortunately started my fun panel run with the Let’s Play Ero-ge! panel. I was hoping to learn about a few obscure but story rich porn game titles. The problem was this panel had two distinct sections. One was very strong and one was very weak. The part that I cared the most about was weak: the actual explanation of eroge was slapdash and shallow. They really only mention three titles and their guide to finding and installing games was full of important holes. They did not even mention how to use AppLocale which is vital in the installation and use of Japanese games and is often the most tricky part of getting into eroge. The strongest part of the panel was when they played Yume Miru Kusuri while selected audience members dubbed the dialog. At this point, the audience was really having fun and the panel worked well. They should just drop the pretense of being educational and just make the whole panel a “Lets dub some eroge” panel. It would be more honest and far more popular. On a lighter note, I saw the Gyaru Culture Revealed panel. The panelists looked at both the Gal culture in Japan and how there is a small but vibrant Gal community in the U.S. as well. It was informative look at the history of Gal culture and how western fans have made it their own. They even did a makeup demonstration. They were obviously big fans of the Gal lifestyle and it showed.

Having to choose between the many mecha panels, I went to the What Makes Gundam Great panel to meet up with some friends I don’t normally see. The panel was mostly interesting to me as a way of gauging the pulse of the Gundam fan community. Even though it was an introductory panel, almost everyone in the room was a decently hardcore fan. So as the panelist went through the Gundam series you got a good sense of what was popular and what had its haters. Of course Zeta got nothing but cheers but what else to you expect from an audience of hardcore Gundam fans. The two shows that got the most hate were SEED and AGE. I already talked about Age at length on the blog but I did get an interesting insight about SEED. The guy running the panel mentioned that SEED was very popular among non-mecha fans. Is SEED’s more mainstream popularity why it gets all the hate it does from the hardcore Gundam fans or is that putting the cart before the horse? Of course there was one guy with a very Nazi like uniform and a Zeon flag shouting “Sieg Zeon!” the whole panel. You know, just in case someone had not been scared off by crazy Gundamn fans by the point. And from one form of insanity to another I went to Anime’s Craziest Deaths. I was going to go to the Manga Gamer panel but since some my suitemates were holding me a place in line I decided to go to Anime’s Craziest Deaths. I was a bit depressed after losing the Aniplex raffle so watching people being eviscerated picked up my mood. Daryl’s clip show panels are usually very entertaining and this was no exception. It was full of bloody goodness with people dying in the most spectacular manner. It was heavily 80′s-centric but that is when you tended to get your most entertainingly gratuitous deaths. I would be curious to see it again in a few years to see what Daryl adds and removes as the panel evolves.

Fan panels are the heart of conventions and Otakon goes to such lengths to create a quality fan experience. This fan produced programing is what sets them apart from the other big conventions around. While there were some questionable scheduling decisions, there was a robust amount of panels to attend all times of the day. A great job was done by all! Thanks everyone for coming out! Please fill out the feedback form from Otakon if you have time.

I think I went to a good selection of fan panels this year. This did not stand out as a the best line-up Otakon has ever had, but I don’t think it was as weak as I heard some people say it was. I had a good time and most of the panels I did not like were mostly a matter of not being what I wanted rather than being flat-out bad panels. Of course I always miss out on panels due to various running around. I am curious if anyone went to any of the following panels: The Weirdest Games You’ve Never Played, Deculture! A Macross Panel, Mythbusters: Anime Edition, Underrated Mecha Anime, Toei Tokusatsu, or the Madoka panels. If you saw those panels, would you kindly leave me a comment on what you thought? I would appreciate it.

When it comes to panels AnimeNEXT has its own draw as a mid-sized convention. While they will not accept any darn panel they are pretty fast and loose with what they accept as long as you make a convincing argument. It makes it the perfect place to test out new panels, play with old ones, or try radially unusual topics. All four panels we ran were either new panels or majorly overhauled from the last time we ran them. At the same time the convention is big enough that most panels get a good draw no matter how esoteric. But don’t let me fool you into thinking AnimeNEXT is the amateur hour. There are some great high-level panels as well as wildly popular clip show presentations. AnimeNEXT has a solid enough panel lineup so that you always have something do.

AnimeNEXT is a place of familiar faces, even if you’ve never spoken to them directly. This is never more true than when attending panels. You get a variety of veterans who run a number of panels old and new. I like to think we are included in that bunch by this point as well. But there are also new people throwing their hats into the ring.

Usually the most packed panels are always the clip show panels. The Best Of Martial Arts Fight Scenes 2: The Rematch was a selection of fight scenes from various martial arts movies. Since it was just videos of the fights it was all killer and no filler. The guy running the panel  would give the clips some set up and then jump fight into the action. Apparently every time the guy in charge runs this panel he picks a different theme and this year was pretty clever. Each of the clips was part of a duet. At first he would show a pair of martial artists fighting in one movie and then the second clip would be the same actors in a different movie fighting again but as different characters. It was an inspired idea and rather well executed. I also went to the AnimeNEXT classic clip show panel of These Are A Few Of My Favorite Scenes. I am surprised they put it in a workshop room as panels like this can usually fill an event hall. The panel was amusing as always but we only saw he first hour. I wish I could have stayed longer but we had to drive home and we were all tried as it was. The Yakitate!! Japan clips were hysterical and I always enjoy more attention being paid to the Secret of Kells. Always a great panel and always has something new to see. Fanthropology: Behind the Study of Fandom was a Charles Dunbar panel so it was done professionally with a sense of fun. The panel looked at anime fandom and the unique challenges and benefits to its study. Charles interacted with the audience quite a bit. I myself would have piped up but there was almost always three of four people who had something to say about any given topic so I just let them talk.  It is always interesting to see anime fans talking positively about fandom as opposed to the less than bright picture the internet paints. My favorite panel of the convention was the JoJo’s Posing School panel. It was simply brilliant. Based on the Jojo’s Posing School in Japan the idea was to learn how to strike the insane poses from the Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure manga. At the same time as the panelists were teaching you the poses they also taught you about the manga. It was great because the interactive nature of the panel made everything fun and more likely to stick in your head more than any lecture on the manga would. It even changed the way I look at doing panels. I will add some element of interactivity to any panel I do in the future after seeing how effective it was. I don’t think every panel I do will be this interactive but I am sold on the principle. Plus it helped wake me up Saturday morning because I sorely need some pep. If you see this panel on the schedule of any con you go to I highly recommend it.

One of the earlier panels on Friday was Inside the Industry, I wasn’t immediately sure what it was going to entail but decided to pop in before going off to do our first panel of the convention. Robert Axelrod and Leah Clark hosted what essentially was an invitation to ask them whatever you wanted to know about the American voice acting business. Mr. Axelrod was a hoot as he told some stories. Like many others he started out to be a traditional actor. One job offered to send him to do voices in Japan when he was just 19-years-old, but he turned it down and didn’t end up voice acting till many years later starting with a show called Banner the Squirrel. He even did a funny high-pitched voice! Vertical Inc. was the only company to be running a panel at AnimeNEXT that I saw. There was much GTO talk as it expands their manga line in yet another new, and unexpected, direction. Though Mr. Chavez said this has been his hope all along as he is a big Onizuka fan. He also showed off the first couple Drops of God covers and the sadly final book of Black Jack which is a departure from the current designs but isn’t set in stone yet. While not there in any official capacity, the American Animation folks showed off what is upcoming. This seemed like a good route since there is a massive amount of works, so picking a theme was a good call. Some of the titles were the new installment in the Avatar franchise, Legend of Korra; Thundercats which people were excited about but I still maintain looks bad; Tin Tin with a lot of big names behind it; and a few different DC superhero titles. They also talked about Sym-Bionic Titan, which is not upcoming but absolutely deserved to be discussed. I was a bit sad that when I brought up Scooby Doo Mystery Incorporated, no one seemed interested. It also made me realize that the panel was really favoring action cartoons, rather than embracing the whole of American works, but that may be for the best at an anime convention.

Anime in the 90s seemed like revenge of the 2009 version of the As The Otaku Grows panel (which was also at this con and apparently is still horrible according to Ink). [updated 06/19/11] It was basically a panel about how 90s anime was the best anime ever which is always a claim that makes me roll my eyes. It is worth nothing that when they say 90s anime they really mean anime that was released in the US in the 90s as opposed to anime from the 90s. They pretty much wanted everything to be Cowboy Bebop. While we all wish everything could be that good it clearly ignores the classics before the 90s and the good shows that have come out since then (as well as all the garbage that came out in the 90s.) I think the most telling sign of why they thought as they did was no one on the panel was watching the Noitamina block. Also someone in the audience brought up MD Geist as an example of superbly crafted anime. Everyone in our little crew physically reacted to that amazingly insane statement. Speaking of insane the Tenshi ni Narumon: Anime Under the Radar was quite unexpected. I really enjoyed Tenshi ni Narumon but that show is hardly popular so I was curious to see where this panel was going. The panel was run by a professor whose daughter got him into anime. He decided to try to promote this cute little series at cons to raise awareness about it. Since he teaches about fables and mythology most of the panel was analysis of the story, themes, and symbolism. It could be a little dry at times and feel like a lecture but it was a distinctly unique approach to looking at the series. He did have a lot of clips to back up his points and throw some energy into the panel. I will say my biggest problem was the panel was filled with major spoilers. I think that an intro panels should avoid major spoilers when it can but to each their own. I also went to the Fandom Podcasting: An Overview panel because I always go to podcasting panels. It had Jefferson from the Otaku Generation podcast. Jefferson always strikes me as the most awkward member of the current cast of the podcast and since this was his first panel it started off  really slow. But eventually Matt from the podcast threw in a little help and Jefferson started to loosen up and the panel fell into place. Narutaki sort of threw off the panel by over-examining one slide with the various types of fandoms in podcasting but I think we all had to know that clickie podcast was. The most surprising fact we discovered was over half the audience was not just podcasters. Since most podcasting panels are made up solely of podcasters it was an interesting change of pace.

I was quite curious about Otaku on a Budget since I’ve oft thought of doing something similar myself. This panel run by Natsuki from NaruNatsu was fun, if a little scatterbrained, and her focus was mostly on how to save for conventions and at the convention itself. As a cosplayer she also had quite a few tips in that area which I know very little about. She also told a cute story about how she had only just met the two other girls on the panel with her. This panel was fun all three days of the con so I wonder how the other sessions went. The Anime Openings and Closings panel was a little less successful, but had some good elements. The big issue arose after he showed Astro Boy and Lupin openings, good start, but then jumped almost 30 years into the future for the rest of the panel. He had some other good pieces like talking about Ali-Project who does many openings and discussing dancing themes. Any of these subjects could have probably been their own panel honestly so he was only able to briefly touch upon them. I got the feelings he was just more familiar with modern anime, but it was a good attempt. There were two panels stressing opinions Fandom and Criticism and Anime Incorrect. Ani-Gamers Evan and Ink as well as Hisui sat down to have a rather philosophical discussion with each other and the audience in Fandom and Criticism. Everyone watches anime differently, but watching it thoughtful can create en enriching experience. Questions were posed about how many episodes you give a show to grab you; anti-intellectual fans; and about pinpointing what exactly you liked or didn’t about a show. There was a lot of audience discussion and I threw in my two cents now and again as well. A less academic session occurred Friday late night with Anime Incorrect, a rif on Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher. This panel too had some familiar faces like Greg from Reisen Goes to School by Bus, Scott V. from Anime Almanac, and Evan from Ani-Gamers. The folks on the panel took on such controversial subjects as the new live action Akira and Bill 156 (The Tokyo Youth Ordinance Bill). It took a little while to warm up but things started to get more lively as the audience and participants got comfortable with each other and debates started to heat up.

I think all our panels went well overall. They all experienced some technical difficulty but that is Reverse Thieves way. Some of our panels were in workshop 2 where there was no projector. This meant that our the Best Manga you Never Read panel was just us talking. We had run this panel before but because of recent events I decided to make the selections all under-appreciated or forgotten Tokyopop titles. I figured now was the best time to talk about them before they became near impossible to find. Despite the lack of graphics the panel went well and I think we got some good responses.  I finally got to test by infamous Type-Moon: Unlimited Panel Works panel. I got a projector for my panel but I started about 10 minutes late do to set up problems. This meant I cut a lot of the introduction to the plot, themes, and characters of the assorted works of Type-Moon as most of the audience knew the score. Plus I had an audience filled with some real wisenheimers so jumping to the obscure stuff was probably for the best. But while the audience may have been cracking wise but they were enthusiastic and supportive. It gave the panel a good flow back and forth as we celebrated the collected works of my favorite Japanese creators.  The Q&A at the end was sort of no holds barred discussion with a mixture of very silly question and some actual real deal questions as well. My general feeling was the panel was good but needs some work for bigger cons. I might run this panel again at small cons and run a more advanced Type-Moon: Mystic Eyes of Information Perception at bigger cons.

Our own panels had good turn outs and good feedback from the audience. It is always nice to talk with people after to gain even more tidbits of knowledge and maybe even make some friends. Our Investigating Detective Anime panel was more refined than the version we ran at Genericon. We added clips in, which cut down the number of shows we could discuss. I’m a little on the fence about how to get a good balance. Overall, it went well but we will still be doing some tweeking before presenting it at Otakon. Brand new to our panels list was Real Men Watch Shojo, another clips centered panel encouraging people to look beyond the genre classification “shojo” and hopefully show them the variety therein. I talked with a number of people after this panel and got even more suggestions for titles to use in the future. Thanks everyone for coming out!

I totally missed the WTF Moments in Anime & Manga, The Anime Geek Glossary, One Piece Podcast, and Totally Subversive Toons panels. Either I did not wake up in time, was eating dinner, or was shut out. If anyone attended those panels I am curious to know what their reaction was.  Also if anyone who attended our panels has any comments or criticism I am curious to hear that as well. My Type-Moon panel was completely new so I would love to know where to expand and where to cut for future versions. I had a great time with the panels at AnimeNEXT this year. We have a few panel ideas on the back burner that we might test out. I know we are thinking of trying out a Legend of the Galactic Heroes panel. That might just be divine.

AnimeNEXT’s main event for me is usually panels, it makes up the majority of what I do at the con. Luckily this year was another one of great variety and overall competence from a number of sources. While most panels didn’t start on time either due to previous panelists or technical difficulties, the actual knowledge presented was still entertaining.

More AnimeNEXT 2011 posts:

AnimeNEXT 2011: Tweets
AnimeNEXT 2011: General Impressions
AnimeNEXT 2011: Production I.G
AnimeNEXT 2011: Artist Alley

 In the last few years, many conventions’ fan artwork sections have become a little dull; there has been a sameness creeping into the works where I found myself wondering where the personality of the artist was in it. I wasn’t originally planning to do a special post on AnimeNEXT’s artist alley, but once I got to take a look around the quality and diversity made me need to do one. Artist Alley ended up being one of my favorite parts of this year’s convention and helped restore my desire to see what people were doing with fan-art again.

The first thing that struck me was the abundance of unique wares. Instead of mostly prints being sold, of which there were still many, you could find everything from bags to pillows, buttons to cellphone straps, clay figures to magnets, and even paper craft. Below you can see the Kenshin folded paper figure I picked up. I actually have a couple of these from Japan of generic girls in kimonos so it was a treat to find anime character ones. Upon speaking to the artists Lily and Alan they revealed they probably won’t be making anymore because a full day was spent crafting each one. I hope I was enthusiastic enough to change their minds with my urging. I also picked up a funny Zoro standee (and I know Evan at Ani-Gamers picked up a Vegeta one, too) by nakira which adds a little extra by bringing it into the 3D realm. Continuing my way around the alley there were some adorable and hilarious giant pillows like a penguin onigiri, but it was a little out of my price range at $50. Hand stitched bags and small purses jumped out at me as well.

There were still plenty of prints to be seen, but even within that there was more variation of styles displayed; cute or intense, traditional media or digital covered booths which was truly refreshing. And it was rare to walk by and not see many artists hard at work sketching. I picked up a couple of laminated bookmarks as I like a little more function in my prints. It was great to see Katizua displaying delightful Sailor Moon artwork rendering each senshi with an astrological sign (and no I’m not a Capricorn). project Icicle who I picked up the Howl’s Moving Castle piece from was a large team of 8 so they had many styles and seemed more business minded. While not the most unique items in tow, I’m pretty much a sucker for buttons, nothing makes me more happy than adding a few to my already unwieldy collection like a cute, little Prince from Katamari Damacy made by kristilyn. Yoon had some of my favorite stuff and she did a lot of non-anime related pieces. She said she’s been a big DC fan for a while hence my luck in picking up some Young Justice buttons! There were a number of people showing off other series too including a couple of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic artists (and cosplayers) about.

Attendees and artists alike seem to be divided on the move of Artist Alley from the Double Tree hotel to the convention center proper. At first, I found it generally pleasing and thought it gave the artists more traffic being near the dealers room. On the downside, since it stays open later, it also dealt with noise from late-night main events like concerts and the masquerade. Plus, throughout the day the line queue for major must-sees resides next to it. While none of this was a problem for me just walking through, I can imagine artists sitting there for hours were having their nerves fried. Wherever they decide to put it next year, I will be there!

More AnimeNEXT 2011 posts:

AnimeNEXT 2011: Tweets
AnimeNEXT 2011: General Impressions
AnimeNEXT 2011: Production I.G
AnimeNEXT 2011: Panels

AnimeNEXT has become something of a tradition at this point. Discussing it at the con I realized I’d been going since even before the move to Secaucus, let alone the move to Somerset. I haven’t been every year since my first one but nowadays it seems like I wouldn’t know it was summer until AnimeNEXT comes along. This year they celebrated their 10th anniversary and they’ve had many changes over that time. This year had some great moments but also some bumps as always.

When I went to Castle Point Anime Convention this year I stated I should put my money where my mouth is and do more panels. So at AnimeNEXT 2011 Narutaki and I did more panels than a busy Bob Vila. In fact we did a combined total of five panels this year. Four were Reverse Thieves originals and I also did a guest spot on an Ani-Gamers panel as well. I will go into that more when we talk about panels later in the week but it was unusual that Friday was my busy day  and Saturday was more of a casual day. I think that has a lot to do with the cosplay masquerade going on but it was mostly just a fluke of how the panels were divided up this year. Other than that the highlight of the convention was Satoru Nakamura who has some fairly impressive credentials as a key animator. This once again solidified AnimeNEXT 2011 as a strong midsized con that has many of the perks of the biggest cons in the US while having the more relaxed atmosphere of a local con. That always makes it a great con to attend and talk about.

When we arrived I was surprised to be told to wait in the registration line for a press badge, after a few texts and a few other conversations we made our way to the press room without needing to wait in the general line after all. That hump did not hamper our spirits though and we checked in to press and panels then quickly moved on to exploring the now familiar venue. Things were re-jigged a little though. The most notable change was the artist alley being placed across from the dealer’s room and next to the main events area which freed up a new and large panel room in the Double Tree. This worked well, though the new panel room was almost too big. Perhaps it could be split in half for better space; then it could be combined when necessary for late-night favorites such as Bad, Anime Bad! and Hentai Dubbing.

This year we knew right off the bat to ask what our privileges as press were. We were told what events we had priority seating in as press and the fact that fan panels were always first come first serve. This prevented any of the problems we had last year. There was some miscommunication about getting our press passes but that was quickly sorted out before we missed anything we wanted to see. I just wish that cons would give the volunteers a little run down on the rules about press. I know that the other things they teach staff about it a more important as press is the minority of the attendees but it would make things a bit smoother for the handful of us to cover the event.

It was as busy as ever this year, I could definitely tell there was more people in attendance; with a 1% increase from last year it was a healthy jump. Even Friday morning was hopping as was Sunday until the end of the convention. That being said, I never had that “I can’t breath I gotta get out of here” overwhelming feeling. But seeing the line for the Masquerade queue practically blew my mind as it filled up all the grassy areas outside the convention center. I always forget that at smaller cons this is the main thing to do on Saturday and literally it is a ghost town during that period. It did make going to dinner quite nice though! The dealer’s room, always the most busy part, was truly a bit of a mad house but I was able to take a quick look around in non-peak hours with plenty of space. Prices seemed high and only a couple of booths seemed very unique. Diversity of shopping was left to artist alley.

My major complaint was not as press but as a panelist. We were promised projectors in every room but workshop 2 had no projector so we had to go without slides for all of the Best Manga you Never Read panel. I think it went OK but being able to see the artwork really helps sell the manga we were pitching. Later on I got a projector for my Type-Moon panel in the same room but it was a major uphill battle. I had to stall as they set up the projector and then techs left half way through the setup. I really only got it working due to some timely and amazing assistance by the Digital Bug. I know they were overworked at the con but it was still upsetting that I needed audience assistance to get things going. The thing that made me angriest was that hardly anyone showed up to Satoru Nakamura & Production IG panel. I know everyone at the con can’t go to the panel and that people are more interested in the American voice actors but that type of turn out just breaks my heart.

Scheduling seemed better overall, but since there were many holes it would have been great to have 10 or 15 minutes between panels. Unfortunately with them abutting each other I can’t remember one that got to use their full hour. Panel attendance also seemed to be up happily. I also gotta applaud the con for smartly not scheduling any panels until 10AM or later. Line queuing for panels and events on the other hand had some major flub ups. For panels it was totally unclear there were lines for many of them, just put a sign or tape the floor for ease. The big queuing area for main events and autographs was a mess with tons of people in one line for multiple events. On Saturday morning there was no one manning that area until at least 11:45 leaving us to fend for ourselves.

As always I must talk about our wonderful meals at the con. The sit down meals at any convention are always a highlight. On Friday night we ate at 11PM as our day was just filled with things to do. Normally that is a bit to late to eat for anyone but college students but I think we were all staving and pretty much running on empty. The Somerset Diner was an excellent choice last year and this year did not disappoint.  Their late night hours were a godsend for us. I had a Mexicali Burger which was very good. I wish the Guacamole had been a little spicier but it was a good blend of toppings overall. Saturday night saw us eating at the Ichiban Japanese Restaurant. Normally eating at a Japanese restaurant is the silliest move you can make at an anime con as they are jam-packed due to otaku. The secret is to go during the cosplay masquerade. You can eat wherever you like as at least 70 percent of the convention is in one location. Narutaki and I both had katsudon. It was not listed on the dinner menu but you could get it if you asked. It was definitely worth it. As always even better than the food was the conversation among friends. Nothing ties together a great con like a great meal.

As usual AnimeNEXT is a more intimate event. Chatting, sharing a laugh, making a friend, and even impromptu music sessions are all part of the con experience. People watching has become a bit of a sport for me while at the convention, I just like to wander sometimes. For the most part fans seemed to be having a good time, I know I certainly did, but not acting like they had totally lost their minds (generally at least) during the weekend. I didn’t even encounter much meme shouting, shocking I know, although one panel I was in inspired a chorus of “SPAAAAACE.” But I have never experienced any of the horror stories told from other conventions at AnimeNEXT. I can tell AnimeNEXT is still growing but I love the more relaxed atmosphere and the closeness of fans.

Once again AnimeNEXT proved itself to be the king of midsized conventions. For everything they do wrong they do 20 things right. My only worry is where can the move to next when they get bigger. If their growth remains stable over the next few years they might not be able to stay where they are now but I am not sure where they would move to without changing states. I would hate to see such a great convention move out of reach. It blend of the best of both worlds truly make it one of kind.

More AnimeNEXT 2011 posts:

AnimeNEXT 2011: Tweets
AnimeNEXT 2011: Production I.G
AnimeNEXT 2011: Artist Alley
AnimeNEXT 2011: Panels

The Secret Santa Project has been an unexpected success each time we have run it with the number of participants doubling from 2009 to 2010. It helps bloggers spread the word about their favorite overlooked titles while broadening the horizons of all the participants. The thing is, every time the project is mentioned there is always one request we hear time and time again. People really want us to do a manga version as well. This call has not been ignored. It is just there are some logistical problem we that need to be overcome.

It might not be apparent but there were several problems with a Manga Secret Santa that do not come up with the anime version. The first being a maximum length of the series you could recommend. With the average anime series being 26 episodes or less it was easy to make that the upper bound. But there is no easy cap to use for manga. Also you can get a whole anime series for about 30 to 50 dollars with anime but even just 10 manga will cost you 100 bucks (not accounting for savvy shopping). Keeping this in mind, we can up with a plan.

Our solution was simple. Instead of trying to read an entire manga series, you would get three series you have never read before as part of the project and read the 1st book of all three series and then write-up at least one of them. It seemed like a good compromise. While you would not get the comprehensive look you would from the anime reviews, it would allow people to experiment a bit more with a reduced commitment required.

But another problem still loomed: how to get everyone to make a comprehensive list of what series they have already read. Every year when we do Anime Secret Santa we get several people whose lists of what anime they have watched is missing several vital titles they forgot. Invariably someone will then recommended them the title they forgot to list. Using My Anime List as an example, it has 322 pages of anime titles vs. 857 pages of manga titles (thanks to the inclusion of doujinshi). Even Anime Planet’s more streamlined list is still 150 pages of manga as compared to 105 of anime. Other book listing sites like Shelfari have inconsistencies in their manga collections such as missing author names or wrong numbers even in the same series.

Going along with this is the fact that most people are reading dozens of manga at one time. Unlike a lot of anime where you just watch through an entire series in a timely manner. But even if you are following a show weekly, it general doesn’t go over a dozen. But manga, we are constantly waiting for the next book in English to emerge. It can take years, even decades, for an entire series to see an English release so people have myriads of titles left only partially read. The chances of people handing in incomplete lists is so high that Narutaki weeps at the thought of having to coordinate such a project.

We don’t really have an answer to this problem therefore we have decided to try to crowdsource an answer. Is there a streamlined program that lets you record what manga you have read? It has to be able to make a simple but comprehensive list of titles. Does anyone even want to attempt to do such a thing with their manga reading now that we’ve explained the dilemma?

Small cons are like small parties. You lose a good deal of grandeur but you potentially gain much more intimacy. But if you are at a big party if the people you are talking to are dull you have dozens of options. At a small party your options are limited. Castle Point Anime Convention is distinctly a small party. It is a one day convention on the campus of the Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, New Jersey. It is very definition of a local con. Castle Point is not a total relaxacon as it has American voice acting guests Michele Knotz, Bill Rogers, and Mike Pollock and a fair amount of panel, activities, and game rooms. It will probably not be Anime Next sized any time soon but it is a pleasant little getaway if you live in the Tri-State area.

Panels are the focus of any convention I go to so when the panels are lack luster my enjoyment is diminished. Right out of the gate the Otaku on a Budget panel was canceled. Thankfully a staffer was quickly in the room to tell us the panel was canceled. I adjusted my schedule went to the Lost in Adaptation panel. It was an examination of movie adaptations of games and what the panelist feels they did wrong with the adaptation. The panel wanted to be funny but I was not laughing. I think I would have been a little more forgiving if he had used anime examples as there are some perfect live action abominations to use for such a panel. The last straw for me was when he said that Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within was the first instance of the space marine. I half expected an undead Robert Heinlein to smash through the window and attack the man. Halfway thorough I fled to the Business of Webcomics panel. The speaker there was knowledgeable the subject but the problem was he ran a hub site for several webcomics. This was great if you wanted to know how to monetize a group of webcomic artists but there was less advice for the more common scenario of a single artist trying to make money off their comic which I think is far more common. I also stopped in for a bit at the Hetalia History panel. It was the same well run panel that Walter Amos usually does and it is a local con staple for a reason. The last of the morning panels I went to was Otaku Culture 101. It was mostly a look at the two big non-anime related trends in Japanese anime fandom which are  Touhou and Vocaloid. He also talked about 2channel, Nico Nico Douga, and Comic Market. He did not go in-depth on anything but as a small con that is probably for the best. My only question is why is it whenever anyone tells you about Touhou they insist on playing a level in front of you as if it were required by a draconian law.

The last two panels I was in the evening were long panels that ran over an hour. Out of Time Productions ran The List: The Panel, Part 2/1. The panelists would present a topic like worst anime to marathon or character you love to hate. Each of the panelist would give two suggestions to the topic and then a participant from the audience would also give a suggestion. They would then present a case for their choices. The audience was also encouraged to their own suggestions but with only quick explanation for their picks. I did notice some odd little quirks of the audience. People have a good deal of resentment for Evangelion. People hate Shinji which is understandable but I think they don’t understand how is character is supposed to work in the series so they hate him for all the wrong reasons. You can’t expect him to be Koji Kabuto in Evangelion. Watch Shin Mazinger Shougeki! Z Hen if you want a character like that. Also someone said Xellos was the worst villain ever which clearly show they don’t understand him either. I wish I had gotten to mention the entire cast of Legend of The Galactic Heroes in the gayest straight characters category for all the epic space bromance that show has. Also if anyone watches the video of the panel the mahjong anime I was trying to think of was Idol Fight Suchie Pai. I finished the night with Jawdropping Moments in Anime. It was basically a two-hour clip show or funny or shocking anime scenes. I can’t say there was anything too obscure in the clips but they were all pretty good. He had some I wish he did not play the ENTIRE Naruto sports festival and one or two of the clips could have been shorter but overall it entertained and was a nice note to end the convention on.

I had a bit of time between panels to look at the other attractions at the con. The dealer’s room was small but fairly well attended. They had your normal selection of swords, DVDs, manga, figures, and novelty shirts. Having no money on me I only glanced around but it seemed solid for a one day con. I did notice one table was selling premade Gundam models (that you would normally have to assemble yourself) which I had never seen before. The video game room was small but cram packed with people. I noticed there were sadly no import games and almost no games that were even slightly video game related. (For the record Halo Legends does not make Halo anime related.) The tabletop room was nicely stocked. They had the Throne of Swords board game which is out of print. If Narutaki was there I might have been tempted to try to play it. I peeked back in the room when they were running the Magic: The Gathering tournament and it was hopping with over 20 participants. I also visited the Karaoke room several times. The wait was always pretty long and they had a decent setup and choice of anime and j-pop songs. They also had a bizarre little concert by the Promise Sisters who are three young girls that apparently perform at various anime conventions. It was so odd.

Overall I had a pleasant if somewhat unexciting experience as Castle Point Anime Convention. Everything ran smoothly and the staff seemed on the ball. When panels and rooms were changed there was good signage on the area effected and at the info desk.  I will say that I enjoyed the overall experience of  Castle Point 2009 much more because the panels were just better that year. This year I actually watched videos in the video room which is always my choice of desperation. I think what really saved the con was talking to Greg aka The Digital Bug and Ink from Ani-Gamers. They really made the overall experience quite enjoyable. I had some great conversation over some tasty donburi at the Robongi restaurant which might have been the highlight of my experience. I guess the only solution is to go back next year and bring my own panels if I was not satisfied with the level of the panels this year. Maybe I will finally get to whip out the Type-Moon panel I keep threatening to use.

The Secret Santa Stats:

• 60 Participants
• 65 Reviews in total
• 5 Reviews still have not come in
• 56 Different shows reviewed

Dennou Coil – 4 reviews
Baccano! – 3 reviews
Ah! My Goddess TV – 2 reviews
Kino’s Journey – 2 reviews
Kurenai – 2 reviews
Tokyo Godfathers – 2 reviews
.hack//Sign, 5 Centimetres Per Second, Aoi Bungaku, Armor Hunter Mellowlink, Asatte no Houkou, Bakemonogatari, Bamboo Blade, Bartender, Birdy the Mighty: Decode, Black Lagoon, Bokurano: Ours, Bungaku Shoujo, Cowboy Bebop, Cromartie High School, Dead Leaves, Fate/Stay Night, Gakuen Utopia Manabi Straight, Haibane Renmei, Hatenkou Yugi, I My Me! Strawberry Eggs, Inukami!, Invincible Super Man Zambot 3, Kaiba, Last Exile, Le Chevalier d’Eon, Macross: Do You Remember Love?, Mobile Suit Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket, Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, Now and Then, Here and There, Pale Cocoon, Pani Poni Dash!, Paprika, Patlabor: The Movie, Perfect Blue, REC, Roujin Z, SaiKano, Saki, Seirei no Moribito, Seraphim Call, Seto no Hanayome, Shigofumi: Letters from the Departed, Shigurui: Death Frenzy, Simoun, Sketchbook: ~Full Color’s~, Sora wo Miageru Shoujo no Hitomi ni Utsuru Sekai, The Place Promised in Our Early Days, The Sea Prince and the Fire Child, Tokyo Marble Chocolate, Welcome to the NHK

As a bonus we also gathered together all entries we had for the 2010 Holiday Giveaway. To win our collection of fabulous prizes we asked readers to tell us what anime or manga license they are hoping to see in 2011. Hisui made an easy to read master list to see what titles were most popular and to look at any major trends in our little sampling of the desires of fandom. Notice that NisiOisiN was a bigger winner with overwhelming support for Bakemonogatari and Katanagatari. But the Noitamina block was the biggest winner of them all. While most unlicensed Noitamina shows only got one or two votes almost all the U.S. friendly titles were voted for by someone. 

Holiday Giveaway Stats:

Bakemonogatari 4 votes
Star Driver: Kagayaki no Takuto 3 votes
Time of Eve 3 votes
Dennou Coil 2 votes
Detroit Metal City 2 votes
Flying Trapeze 2 votes
Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kai 2 votes
Katanagatari 2 votes
Mononoke 2 votes
Moyasimon: Tales of Agriculture 2 votes
Natume Yuujinchou 2 votes
Nodame Cantabile 2 votes
Angel Beats!, Cross Game, Fate/Stay Night: Unlimited Blade Works, Kaguyahime, Katekyo Hitman Reborn!, Kaze to Ki no Uta, Kodomo no Jikan, Letter Bee, Mind Game, My Girl, Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt, Princess Knight, Sailor Fuku ni Onegai!, Saint Young Men, Sket Dance, Souten Kouro, The Story of Saiunkoku S2, Umineko no Naku Koro ni

• Shinmaru reviewed I My Me! Strawberry Eggs recommended by Crusader
• Eeeper reviewed Roujin Z recommended by Shinmaru
• Ryan reviewed Tokyo Godfathers recommended by Eeeper
• Gerjomarty reviewed Shigofumi recommended by Ryan
• Otou-san reviewed Dennou Coil recommended by Gerjomarty
• Emilio reviewed TBA recommended by Otou-san
• Stig reviewed Shigurui: Death Frenzy recommended by Emilio
• Emperor J reviewed Sketchbook: ~Full Color’s~ , Black Lagoon, and  Ah! My Goddess TV recommended by Stig
• Tom M. reviewed Gundam 0800: War in the Pocket, Gakuen Utopia Manabi Straight, and Aoi Bungaku recommended by Emperor J
• mDuo13 reviewed Dennou Coil recommended by Tom M.
• Digitalboy reviewed Bungaku Shoujo and Asatte no Houkou recommended by mDuo13
• lvll n reviewed Kurenai recommended by Digitalboy
• Opinion Prone reviewed The Place Promised in Our Early Days recommended by lvll n
• Schneider reviewed Dennou Coil recommended by Opinion Prone
• Link reviewed Armor Hunter Mellowlink recommended by Schneider
• Patz Prime reviewed Princess Tutu recommended by Link
• Tim reviewed Le Chevalier D’Eon recommended by Patz Prime
• Andy reviewed Pani Poni Dash! recommended by Tim
• Ghostlightning reviewed Baccano! recommended by Andy
• Animemiz reviewed Macross: Do You Remember Love? recommended by Ghostlightning
• Otaku no Podcast reviewed Ah! My Goddess recommended by Animemiz
• Ink reviewed Fate/Stay Night recommended by Otaku no Podcast
• Reverse Thieves reviewed Dead Leaves recommended by Ink
• Jasmine reviewed TBA recommended by Reverse Thieves
• Big N reviewed Bartender recommended by Jasmine
• Bradley reviewed .hack//Sign recommended by Big N
• James reviewed Haibane Renmei recommended by Bradley
• lwelyk reviewed TBA recommended by James
• Jaren reviewed Perfect Blue recommended by lwelyk
• Mikey reviewed Baccano! recommended by Jaren
• Calaggie reviewed Hatenkou Yugi recommended by Mikey
• Joel reviewed Paprika recommended by Calaggie
• Elliot reviewed Baccano! recommended by Joel
• warriorhope reviewed TBA recommended by Elliot
• Anthony reviewed Tokyo Godfathers recommended by warriorhope
• Zanaikin reviewed Seirei no Moribito recommended by Anthony
• Andika reviewed Seto no Hanayome, Inukami, and SaiKano recommended by Zanaikin
• Serdar reviewed Now and Then, Here and There recommended by Andika
• Scamp reviewed Legend of Sirius recommended by Serdar
• Scott F. reviewed Kino’s Journey recommended by Scamp
• SDShamshel reviewed Patlabor movie 1 recommended by Scott F.
• Greg reviewed Invincible Super Man Zambot 3 recommended by SDShamshel
• Spring reviewed Bokurano recommended by Greg
• Vamptvo reviewed Last Exile recommended by Spring
• Owen S. reviewed Whisper of the Heart, Millennium Actress, and Cowboy Bebop recommended by Vamptvo
• Landon reviewed Kaiba recommended by Owen S.
• Sanderz reviewed Cromartie High School recommended by Landon
• Travis reviewed Bamboo Blade recommended by Sanderz
• Hige reviewed Birdy the Mighty: Decode recommended by Travis
• Steve reviewed Tokyo Marble Chocolate and Dennou Coil recommended by Hige
• Executive Otaku reviewed Simoun Part 1 and Part 2 with spoilers recommended by Steve
• Shance reviewed Bakemonogatari recommended by Executive Otaku
• flak reviewed Saki recommended by Shance
• Baka Tanuki reviewed Umi Monogatari and Pale Cocoon recommended by flak
• Charles reviewed Kino’s Journey recommended by Baka Tanuki
• Drmchsr0 reviewed 5 Centimetres Per Second recommended by Charles
• Mercedes reviewed REC recommended by Drmchsr0
• mefloraine reviewed Kure-nai and Sora wo Miageru Shoujo no Hitomi ni Utsuru Sekai recommended by Mercedes
• Mike F. reviewed Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind recommended by mefloraine
• Janai reviewed Seraphim Call recommended by Mike F.
• Crusader reviewed Welcome to the NHK recommended by Janai

TOP SECRET – FOR GIN’S EYES ONLY

Subject: The Progress of the Detective Duo known as the Reverse Thieves in the Aniblog Tourney.

Briefing: It seems that despite the combined efforts of various low-level agents of the Organization, Hisui and Narutaki have progressed to the third round of the Aniblog Tourney. Our attempt to kidnap Kohaku in hopes of using her as leverage to force the Reverse Thieves out of the tournament merely lost us the lives and more importantly the resources of ten skilled agents. The three assassins we sent after Narutaki were equally ineffectual and have aroused his suspicions more than before.

My cover is still intact despite a close call in Berlin. I cannot observe them too closely or I will surely compromise my surveillance. I have filed the following information on their former cases in hopes that there is some clue to their weaknesses within: The Reverse Thieves Dossier for the Aniblog Tournament

Conclusion: I fear that every report puts them one step closer to uncovering the truth. It is my opinion that only you can dispatch these two meddlesome gumshoes. The longer they are in the tournament the greater the chance they will discover our involvement in the proceedings. We cannot assume that no matter how well camouflaged our involvement that detectives of their prowess will not discover something that would be detrimental to our overall goals.

Until your response I will send as many agents as possible to the Aniblog Tourney in order to thwart their efforts.

Here is the link to the voting for Round 3.

~Vermouth

We already did an overview podcast of Mechademia which included the third volume but we didn’t get to every little thing that we found interesting. Since this collection included the first Gundam essay so far, we thought we would pull it out for discussion (plus there is no way we couldn’t take a minute to say how creepy that sculpture is). It features a translated essay, Gundam and the Future of Japanoid Art by Takayuki Tatsumi, and then a response from the translator, Christopher Bolton.

When we were on the Manga Out Loud podcast Ed Sizmore discussed the idea that in academia the progress and exchange of ideas is facilitated by follow ups on establish papers. In the spirit of promoting an academic mindset  in the anime and manga communities we decided to take a stab at writing out own response to one of the articles instead of just doing a review of the third book. Gundam and the Future of Japanoid Art discusses how the novel Starship Troopers influenced Gundam and in turn influenced the way authors view the relationship between man and machine in fiction. The translator then wrote a response in which he talks about his recollection of the Gundam Generating Futures exhibit where Tatsumi’s article originally appeared in the catalog for.

As Tatsumi incorporates many ideas both politically and visually into his essay, Bolton’s response focuses on the “visual richness of Gundam.” He calls it ironic that Tatsumi sees Gundam’s stylistic origin in Starship Troopers since the book’s text is rather sparse on visual description. However, the crux of Tatsumi’s proposal of such had less to do with the text within Starship Troopers instead pointing to Studio Nue’s cover for the book in 1977 as a spring board for the Gundam franchise. And I can easily imagine that the image was enough of a spark for the already challenging ideas of Tomino’s robot work. I’m reminded of how Tezuka recalled merely seeing the poster for Metropolis (another work discussed at length in this volume of Mechademia) and being inspired by it. The ideas of Starship Troopers, still highly debated even today, surely had a profound impact on Japanese mecha genre and I don’t doubt that extends to Tomino. But the way robots appear in Gundam especially the mass-produced army of suits, I almost wonder if it didn’t need to be Starship Troopers. Had that image appeared somewhere else, I’d speculate that it would have had a great impact anyway. I’d like to read further essays comparing Starship Troopers and Gundam, and also I would love to hear what Tomino has said about the work in relation to his own body of creations.

I find it interesting that Tatsumi begins the article talking about the Turn A Gundam novel by Fukui Harutoshi then goes on to talk about original Gundam considering that while both are directed by Tomino as part of the franchise, they both look at war and the relationship between man and machine very differently. The original Gundam series was so revolutionary when it popularized the idea of mecha being mass-produced tools of war and not unique super weapons. There is also no specific judgment on their use in war. Tomino’s message was to highlight the pointlessness and tragedy of war itself. Turn A Gundam on the other hand can be seen more as a response to the original Gundam. Turn A deals heavily with the concept of how machines are neither good or evil but serve to further the goals of those who use them. Throughout the series there is deep introspection of mecha as tools of war. Also both protagonists have a very different view of war and ending the conflict. In the original, Amuro fights to survive and end the war for his side quickly by defeating the Zeon. In Turn A Gundam, it is Loran’s goal to find as peaceful a solution to the conflict between the Earth and the Moon as possible. Considering how famous Fukui Harutoshi is for his unique voice I wonder how his novel ties into the discussion. Sadly, I assume that we will not see a translation of that novel any time soon.

I hope we can expect to see further discussions and Gundam essays in the Mechademia books. Though I certainly don’t see myself as being able to add a great deal, I like to speculate on the pieces I have had a chance to read. You may have noticed we didn’t really comment on the art exhibit mentioned so prominently in the essay by Bolton. It should come as no surprise that we would find it rather difficult to discuss such an exhibit without ever having the pleasure of viewing it. And I’m sure it would be pleasurable, minus the giant Sayla that would give nightmares to those present. Forever.

In conclusion, if I ever have to see another picture of  “Crash Sayla Mass” again it will be too soon. Whenever anyone does anything involving Gundam Generating Futures they invariably prominently display pictures of that statute which has to be one of the ugliest things I have ever seen. It is especially jarring when I am looking for normal Sayla pictures. The horrific face and monster teeth combined with the HR Giger styled cockpit in her stomach is prime high octane nightmare fuel. I have a feeling it is supposed to provoke that reaction but it still makes me uneasy. Can’t anyone focus of the rest of the exhibit. Pretty Please.

Continuing our whirlwind of guest spots on podcasts we made an appearance on the Animeshon Podcast. We discuss one of the most personal and controversial topics you can talk about in anime (that is not fan-subs): which era of anime is the best. We proposed our known belief in the importance of all eras of animation, each having something amazing to offer and things best forgotten in equal measure. All though we do talk quite a bit, we barely scratch the surface of the questions that were asked of us despite everyone on the podcast making some really insightful points. As always these type of discussions are interesting because everyone seems to have their own take on everything.

Animeshon – S2 Ep8 – Nostalgia

Considering this is a lazy Saturday we assume that a majority of our traffic will be from the Aniblog Tournament with the rest being people looking for pornographic doujinshi and Berserk season 2. If you haven’t heard of the games, it is a little something being put on by Scamp, you can get full details here. It’s a gathering of all kinds of anime blogs, variety abound, and it’s a great way to find something new or different to read. For those kindly souls checking out Reverse Thieves for the first time, we give you this handy guide to this humble detective-themed blog.

• We like a variety of genres, decades, and series from Original Gundam to Aishiteruze Baby and everything in between, sample it in our IN THE YEAR 2000(…through 2009)! post.

• There are some meaty editorial articles like our bit about death in anime, the movement towards realism, and some posts on visual novel logos or more recently a little piece about Shinra in Durarara!!

• This is a tag-team blog, but we do go solo on occasion like Narutaki’s post about screentone use in OEL and Hisui’s thoughts on the popularity of childhood friends and incest in anime.

• We cover cons and special events like Otakon 2009 (be warned of its lengthy nature) and the New York International Children’s Film Festival’s theatrical screening of Summer Wars.

• Fandom experiments like the Otaku Diaries crop up in our pursuits to know our fellow fans better and we enjoy the random cross-blogging project like Secret Santa.

• We recently started a podcast, The Speakeasy, our first episode was about strong female characters.

• You shouldn’t be surprised to know that we like to check out detective related series, we have a listing of detective anime and manga, and a feed dedicated to all our detective related posts.

• If you are curious about anything else we have a meticulous filing cabinet in the sidebar plus archive and index pages for you to peruse.

Other than that we hope everyone involved with the tournament finds some great new blogs to read and maybe a new appreciation for the anime blogging community.

Cast your vote in the polls!

So now we have a few ideas about where we like to take our next project, but we’d love some input. Two big things that jumped out at us were women in fandom and anti-fandom. The women in fandom one seems rather obvious, but when we thought about how few women we really got to survey in our Otaku Diaries (only 11), we felt like there wasn’t enough information about them coming to the surface. Then there is anti-fandom, the act of being devoted to the hardcore hatred of a series. This phenomenon of actively disliking a show and/or its fans has been ever present especially in anime fandom. But if someone else has an even more spectacular idea, we are all ears!

Anime 3000 presents: The Speakeasy

The Speakeasy is an ongoing conversation between the two of us about themes, trends, and concepts present in anime and manga and along side that sometimes there will be a critical analysis of fandom. If you were ever curious about our conversations that are the genesis of our posts then this will be utterly enlightening. If you never wondered about that, hopefully you will still enjoy the show!

Drink #004: The Pink Lady, Invasion of the Beautiful Boys!

Various people start watching the latest show for manly men who live and fight for manly things. They notice the men in this show for guys are pretty handsome. Some of them are even gorgeous. Parts of audience cheers with delight,  most of them continue to watch without batting an eye, and the rest run to their computers to rant at the injustice perpetrated against them.

In this episode we begin to examine this phenomenon. Is there anything wrong with throwing some service to the females watching a show theoretically for guys? Also what makes the male fans go nuts over this phenomenon in the first place? This will surely only be part one in a ongoing dialog as we are sure everyone has more to say on this issue.

(Listen) (Show Notes)

And now your helpful bartenders at The Speakeasy present your drink:

The Pink Lady

*1 1/2 oz gin
*1 tsp grenadine syrup
*1 tsp light cream
*1 egg white

Shake ingredients with ice, strain into a cocktail glass, and serve.

#0091
Anime has been a part of my life for this long; I can’t imagine not being entranced by anime.

Speculating on the future can be very tricky and the more complex the system you are trying to predict the harder it becomes to be accurate as anyone who understands chaos theory and the butterfly effect will attest. But as anime fans we continually try to speculate on the future of our hobby. What shows will come out next season, what trends will become prominent, what fads will fade away, what will get licensed outside of Japan, who will be voice actors on what shows, and a multitude of other topics are constantly a part of otaku conversations. We may be wrong and we may be right in varying amounts but we are always trying to see if we can guess where this crazy train called anime and manga is going.

In an surprising turn of events everyone said they’d more than likely still be watching anime in 10 years.  . . . well, I should hope so! This is the OTAKU Dairies afterall. But beyond the initial response, I found something interesting and possibly (unintentionally) pessimistic. A number of fans responded in the conditional form of  “yes, . . . if there are still good shows.” or something similar to that effect. At first it seems like an obvious response, but at the same time it makes me think “what makes you unsure there will be good shows?” However, it must be said that many more people said plainly “yes,” “absolutely,” and “why wouldn’t I?” And then there were a few in the affirmative but with a theory that they would be a more casual fan in the distant future. So while the short answer was a resounding aye, the things ticking below the surface were still diverse.

#0094
Even if I get married, have kids, move, get a new job, or the such there will always be room in my life for anime.

I suppose that anyone willing to fill out a survey this long is in it to win it. Therefore everyone seeing themselves watching anime in the future should be unsurprising. I see this hesitancy to say anything without caveat being partially to do with the chicken little syndrome that tends to be a part of anime culture. There is always someone going around saying that anime as we know it is dying forever. Compounded with a weak economy and some turmoil in anime production companies in the present, it can be easy to make people wonder in 10 years down the line will they still be making shows that will interest them. F0r most people taking the survey there will always be something from them to watch but I understand where this fear comes from.

#0019
The people who are kids now don’t really seem to be growing up into fans like me over time. They seem to just grow out of it entirely, replaced by new kids just like they were.

#0034
Once the current recession passes and they figure out how to [make] money out of online distribution, I think the industry will stabilize at a level where there’s still plenty of good stuff being produced.

#0080
I think fandom will continue for all of eternity . . . there will always be a new generation to pick [up] where the last one left off. It may be possible that the “older” anime fans will dwindle but there will be people like me to pick up for them.

#0060
The advent of a generation that is internet savvy will only lead to more access to anime with less appreciation for it.

#0045
It will be a little less the “in thing to do” that it seems to be now, and fall back into the hands of the fans who loved and supported it from day one.

Asking what the future of anime fandom is is a very broad question to put to people because it partially depends on where you think anime fandom currently is; whether it is health or not or what that even means; and how you yourself fit into the whole scheme of things. I actually learned a lot from the answers in this section. One sentiment that really got me thinking was this theory that the gap between older fans and newer fans would continue go widen, age-wise. There was a prevalent idea that young fans are coming into anime fandom and then instead of becoming older fans they are becoming non-fans; they stick with it for a while but drop out soon after college. So while I didn’t myself think of this, I really found myself following the logic behind it and was able to apply it to what I’ve seen and experienced.

#0079
As long as acceptable strategies are found for legal distribution for new series shortly after their broadcast in Japan, fandom might contract for some time but never lose its appeal. Maybe.

#0029
. . . then in fifty years our fandom will die of old age like sci-fi fandom is about to do.

#0049
I think there’s going to be a point where things all balance out. The moe fans will have stuff to watch, and the not-moe fans will have plenty to chew on, too.

#0011
Some of the short term fans who liked it because it was trendy are starting to drop off from what I’ve seen, and the popularity is starting to diminish slightly.

#0021
. . . a majority of these young fans will eventually grow to become financially independent and upwardly mobile adults who will have children of their own creating a generation of people that are more receptive to anime and more likely to disseminate anime throughout the culture.

An important question is how long do most people stay in any hobby when push comes to shove.  All hobbies will have fans who come in and leave due to a wide variety of factors. Is the ebb and flow of anime fans any different than fans of stamp collection, basketball, or even American comics? I can’t say what if any the difference is but I would be curious to see the numbers. As long as there is a steady stream of new fans there will always be some people who stick around to mature and expand their tastes. Opinions on the future of anime fandom ranged in optimism. There were predictions of everything from growth to utter collapse. Most of the participants felt that the bubble of anime and manga had burst and that there was still some normalization in the market to take place. Everyone seem to agree that anime adapting to online distribution was the key. How effective that would be and how quickly and effectively it could be profitable was a major point of contention. Most participants agree that the casual viewers would ebb and flow but there would always be a dedicated fans base that always carry the torch.

#0040
If it’s an idiosyncratic ecchi harem show. I’m sure there’s a blueprint somewhere and they’re all using the same one.

So I gotta throw out a question that’s been nagging me, a good portion of anime fans denounce the harem genre. However, harem shows have proven time and again to be good sellers, they spawn tons of merchandise, and they make a ton of these stories! So who exactly is watching them? Are people just secretly doing so? Is there a large silent majority? I always wonder about this! Other than that it comes as no surprise that people are picky and have every right to be. This reared itself in the top 4 as fetish based things: harem, yaoi, moe, lolicon/shotacon. If anything divides people of course it is going to be these. Shonen fighting being high is both surprising and not, perhaps it shows up so high only because it is a very prevalent market. What was interesting to me was while reading through it seemed like for any person who said they watch everything, all the other people on the survey who had preferences made up for it three fold. Again in the genres that people will always give a chance, the numbers overall are lower because I think people don’t have a blind devotion to genres. Unless it is mecha apparently, this sentiment may be coming from the huge decline of mecha series in recent years. But really I see fans are being picky in what they exclude and include.

It seemed like no matter how beloved or hated any genre was there was someone else who had the exact opposite opinion. I have to wonder if the sales for harem and fan-service shows reflect the fact that while hardcore anime fans might by quick to dismiss those genres that casual fans are more willing to embrace them. The sheer number of mecha fans on the list clearly shows that our small sample size can lead to some misleading conclusions. I am certain that a large number of the participants coming from Anime World Order in part had to do with this unusually high mecha support. The high numbers for people always watching action shows and fantasy shows was unsurprising considering the best selling titles in the English speaking world. They seem to be the genres that comes as close to universally beloved as you can get. When people mentioned that they followed certain directors the three names that unsurprisingly came up consistently were Hayao Miyazaki, Satoshi Kon, Mamoru Oshii. If people followed one company it was almost invariably Studio Shaft. In fact almost no one else was even mentioned which I found most intriguing.

#0085
I’ll always give Gundam a chance, though in practice I come to like very few series. Any Nagai remake gets a chance automatically.

Of course there are no guarantees for anime’s future, but for the most part people believe the medium to be moving forward and still saw themselves as a part of the fandom for it. Whether or not everyone could agree on the future was impossible taking into account personalities and outlooks on the world. There was a little pessimism as I mentioned in an earlier paragraph, but really the fact that most people went out of their way to really deeply contemplate anime’s future position and its fandom says alot about how much they value it. So while few could agree on what genres should be ousted and what types of shows are always worth a look, it does go to show that anime includes something for just about everyone looking at the diverse collection of taste present in just these few fans.

I am always optimistic about the future of anime fandom myself. I know that due to a variety of factors people will drop out of fandom including some of the people who took this survey. Everything changes. Anime from every decade has a distinct look and feel as a whole; anime fans have changed in what they want, watch, and buy; and even how anime is distributed has changed radically over the decades. This will not stop. At the same time individual fans are changing as well. People grow older, their tastes change, the demands of their lifestyle are altered, and their experiences change how they interact with their hobbies as much as an external factors. But anime is vast and a varied enough adaptable beast that some fans will always stick with their love of Japanese cartoons. Individual otaku may come and go but the otaku spirit is here to stay.

#0099
I still have a few friends that I knew before I was heavily into anime, but they are few and far between. Most of the people I consider my friends I did meet, in one way or another, through this medium.

Thomas Wolfe said “The whole conviction of my life now rests upon the belief that loneliness, far from being a rare and curious phenomenon, peculiar to myself and to a few other solitary men, is the central and inevitable fact of human existence.” As an anime fan that is also a lonely person I think on that quote and wonder how alone am I in feeling alone? Is the otaku by nature a lonely beast? How much do anime fans have friends? How often do they watch anime with others? Do anime fans still go out there and try to recruit everyone they meet to get the word out about these amazing Japanese cartoons? Is there still reason to do that? I don’t think this will answer all of my questions but I do think we shed some much needed light onto how social the average otaku is.

#0019
Several days often go by wherein I don’t actually vocally speak at all. Before, back when I didn’t use instant messaging, I more or less had zero interaction with anyone.

#0042
I talk to my forum friends at least once a day. I feel that they are close acquaintances that I would get a long with if I met them in real life.

Ah, camaraderie. It was one of the first reasons I came to love the Internet in my youth. The ability to find like-minded individuals with your hobbies from all over the world and you didn’t even have to leave your room was a rather enticing prospect. And it certainly made many times less lonely or even expanded my knowledge. It also had the greater effect of making me appreciate when I could have those people or conversations face to face or watch that anime with another. Ideally you get to participate in both experiences because they both have positive attributes. I think anime fans want to be social for the most part, atleast social within a circle of people who they feel think like they do, and with the combination of technology and real life meetings, there is an outlet for it.

I found it fascinating that the answers were all over the board with the number of close friend people had. We had a good range of answers with unfortunate people who had no close friends to social butterflies with a vast pool of people they considered close. The largest group were people with only one or two very good friends. I myself can’t see having more than 3 or 4 close friends outside of college but that is a personal constraint of how I am. 48 percent of the survey had 5 or more close friends so I feel there is no sense that being an otaku doomed you to being friendless. When people did hang out with others in real life they would only do so a few times  a week at most. So while there might have been a few people who were in constant contact with their friends most people spend at least half there week or more alone. I do wonder how this relates to the average person. Do otaku go out more or less than the average. I don’t see anything to say that is would be radically different from anyone else as well.

#0030
It’s always changed the relationship in a good way. We talk more and get along better after meeting in person, and the friendship feels much less awkward.

#0009
Even with a real-time voice program like Ventrilo, it’s not the same as interacting in person because of the artificial constraints or voice-only or text-only communication.

#0016
I recently met one of my best online friends at a convention, and I can’t say anything has really changed — we were just very happy to finally be able to meet in person.

#0049
All the friends I make now, I make over the internet.

There is a desire that I saw throughout the survey of wanting to solidify an online bond by meeting, many times at gatherings like conventions, and talking face to face. It was great to see so many people that had gone out of their way to do this had a positive experience. Though it wasn’t without folly sometimes and some people even said that wouldn’t want to meet people. As an aside, I only really started meeting people online when we started the blog. But everyone’s comfort levels vary and so there is really no right or wrong when it comes to such preferences. But because there was an abundance of desire to seek people out, I felt it further went to show that otaku want other otaku around, even if they are complaining about them.

#0081
Knowing the person behind their Internet persona is always a nice thing to try and do, and most of the time, the people I’ve met haven’t been disagreeable with me, and I hope that I haven’t been disagreeable with them.

#0014
. . . I find I express myself more fluently and eloquently with written text than with the spoken word.

#0040
People AFK bore me more than people online. I just don’t feel like getting to know people anymore. I just know that there are people who are articulate and share my interests online so I don’t have much of a social drive anymore. I really don’t mind being alone.

#0065
Conversations can get pretty intimate online, but I’d say I have more close relationships in real life than I do online.

The most intriguing part to me was the divide on online friendships. Only 17 percent pretty much avoided the rest of anime fandom online. Most everyone else regularly talked to a few fans online and has a decent bond with people over the ether that is the Internet. But even more interesting was that when asked the younger the respondent was the more likely they were to regularly chat online and the more likely they were to consider their online friends just as good or better than their real life friends. As people grow up more and more with online communication being part of their lives I think people finding friends they really connect with being more and more natural. I think this goes doubly so for tech savvy people like anime fans tends to be.

#0096
I am always trying to get someone into anime. I prefer to watch with other people who enjoy it.

I wish I would have asked out right how many of the close friends people mentioned were also into anime, it would have been a further look into its significance to everyone’s lives. But the fact that so many people atleast attempt to share the joy of anime with those around them is quite nice actually. I think both of us here at Reverse Thieves heed such a call to arms, we even run a panel about bringing people into the fold! I don’t know how many other hobbies boast such a large amount of people spreading gospel. Even if there were not as many success stories as one might hope, there was still a feeling that they were able to show people exactly what their hobby was and making it less foreign to non-otaku.

#0027
I tried to get a friend into anime, but they were too entrenched into American culture to fully embrace otakudom.

#0015
I’ve been more successful with my aunt, though she is already a SF fan. Originally she was under the impression that most anime was pornographic (I’m sure her only previous exposure to it was some of Manga UK’s release in the mid 90′s, stuff like Overfiend).

3/4 of the participants had actively tried to get someone they knew be it a family member, friend, or coworker into anime this reinforces my conviction that as much as some anime fans might reject the fandom they want other anime fans to talk to. How easy this is can be very different from person to person. But while many people had tried to get people they knew into anime over half the participants still ended up watching anime by themselves most of the time. So while anime fans might want a constant viewing companion it is a task that is easier said than done.

#0063
More emotional anime, I want to be alone to watch since I tend to be much more of a joking and conversational person when I’m watching with others.

#0044
I consume anime at a rate that almost no one can complete with. So while I do often watch anime with other people, it makes up a small percentage of my anime viewing because I simply watch so much.

Personally, I can’t image being an otaku without the interaction between other fans, even in my earliest moments, I was right there on the Internet trying to find people and this has only expanded since my fandom has. And I have to agree with Hisui’s statement earlier, with newer and younger fans continually coming in with the Internet as a central part of their lives, there is only going to be more and more interaction without leaving your house. But as fans grow, so too has the convention scene, proving that just as much fans want to come to face to face and embrace their love of anime with like-minded individuals in toe.

I do feel a bit better about the situation of anime fandom in general. It seems that no matter what forums might have you believe being an otaku does not set you on the road to be a lonely hikikomori. You can make friends inside and outside of the fandom. Let us not forget that there were some people who were sadly lonely and isolated. I felt their pain and wish them well. But it was not anime that forced them into that lifestyle. It was always some other unfortunate factor that has kept them cut off. My real question is how will the Internet impact this. It seems to make it easier for people to find people with similar interests but can promote an odd sense of disconnect without direct physical interaction. We have already seen the Internet take the place of anime clubs for bringing fans together. Forums, image boards, blogs, and a million other places have formed for people to talk about anime and sometimes even meet up in real life. But is it a true substitute for the social bonds that were formed with an anime club? Only time will tell. But no matter what I hope anime fans use what ever means to continue to connect and spread the mutual love of animation.

#0047
Anime factors in because I would like to be able to share things I love with a person I’ll share my life with.

We start off the new year with what everyone is really reading the otaku diaries for: dirty sex secrets.  Who is doing what to whom and if farm animals are involved. Well, actually, that is no where near what this part is about. This is mostly a look at the romantic relationships or lack thereof of the various participants. Like it or not there is a stereotype that otaku are mainly lonely, dateless losers who know more about how to win hearts in visual novels than they ever will about talking to a member of the opposite sex. But the survey found a wide variety of people answered from hardcore 2D girl proponents to those who were happily married to love em and leave em Lotharios. The only commonality most people had was that their stories were always extremely emotionally involving.

The answers in this section may be the most varied of them all. Our group of participants ran the gamut from new to the dating scene to downtrodden, rejection of dating to belief in true love, and still much more inbetween. And what resulted were answers that certainly are very personal but still they will resonate, some views more than others, but very much every type of person can be seen here. Heck, this may be the portion of the survey that goes to show most how much fandom is a mix of many different types of people.

#0015
Obviously an interest in anime would be a big plus, or even just someone who would be willing to be introduced to my interest, and in return I’d be interested in hers.

#0009
My ideal mate would be someone I would want to be friends with, not just lovers. Sexual compatibility would be necessary. I’d like a good sense of humor, too. Looks are not really important. God, that sounds so fake and self-effacing, the kind of thing you’d expect in a personal ad, but in all honesty I’d probably settle for anything with two X chromosomes and a heartbeat.

#0049
A young cute girl who’s totally accepting of all my flaws and willing to take care of me.

I was amused that no one said that they would not date another otaku. For all the posturing that some people put on their surveys I think everyone wanted someone to share their hobbies with. I think it is the clearest sign that the otaku who hate otaku idea is merely a defensive mechanism. 70 percent of the participants had a strong preference for dating someone who also liked anime and only 30 mentioned that it did not factor into who they would date but they always said that they would date another otaku if they liked other things about them. Other fans might occasionally annoy us but in the end we want to be with someone who understands that aspect of our lives.

#0079
In considering dating though I would give more weight to “long-term” versus “short-term”; perhaps I am merely naive on such matters, but I wouldn’t consider a “short-term” liaison a relationship in this sense. For various reasons, I’m far more interested in mutual respect than mutual lust.

#0014
I don’t consider “dating” at all. It is an entirely abhorrent concept and one that exists in American movies and TV shows. No one actually does that bullshit in real life, do they?

I would really have liked to see, concretely because we certainly had some more indepth answers, whether the people who listed anime fandom as unimportant had mostly dated non-fans. No one in this section seemed to be adverse to dating a fellow fan which is interesting because of some of the answers given in the section about the word “otaku.” Though there were no answers, or questions to answer, about how deep their mates love of anime should run. Perhaps some wouldn’t want to date another engrossed like themselves, just open to it. While others made it quite clear they wanted to share this passion, for good and ill, because it was such a huge part of their lives that there was no getting around it.

I was a little heartbroken by some of the stories in the dating section. There were several people who had truly been beaten down by the dating world. There were confessions of rejection, misery, and loneliness that would move even the most callous of hearts. There were some people who had basically just given up all together. But they were balanced out by people in happy ongoing relationships as well. New love, casual flings, and even a few mature relationships were present, too. We also had several people who were happy or positive about being single. They might be alone but they had great hope for the future. It is the best sign that otakudom is not this barrier to love as some might think. It is just another aspect of a person’s personality that may or may not draw the attention of the people they meet. That did not make the sad stories any less sorrowful and meaningful but I did take some comfort in the joyous stories.

#0069
I’ve never been rejected, but only because I’ve never gone out on a limb.

#0030
I’ve been rejected enough times that I’ve lost count, and have never rejected anyone since no one has ever asked.

#0019
I’ve never been on a date in my life. The average person my age has not only had several dates, but at least 3-5 significant long-term relationships and possibly gotten married. Even “The 40 Year Old Virgin” managed to get dates.

#0034
I’ve never been rejected in a relationship context, nor have I rejected anyone, which is probably a pretty good sign that I’m not putting myself out there enough.

I wonder if these results broken down between men and women could be any sort of leveler. True there are really too few women as a whole for our survey, but the percentages are still engaging. They are closer to their male counterparts in terms of number of relationships than I would have thought. There is certainly a lot of talk about women having an easier time when it comes to finding a relationship, and it still looks that way here but maybe not so vastly different than many believe. But then I will reiterate that there are so few women on here to make any of that solid. Both genders spoke similarly of their trials and triumphs in love. I often found myself smile, even if it was sometimes a bit melancholy, that I could interpret so many people’s desires down to basically seeking someone who just loves them for them.

#0080
I’ve technically dumped every boyfriend I’ve had. Somewhere I’m restless. I enjoy the feeling of wanting something else even though I already have what’s in front of me. At some point having a boyfriend becomes boring.

#0045
She’s pretty much all I could ask for in a woman. Understanding and kind, also very giving. She lets me have sex with other women and doesn’t ask for anything more than my love and dedication in return. She knows I’ll always come home to her.

#0094
Anytime I have ever dated it has been the girl who has initiated. So it has given me this weird sense that maybe I should just sit back and hope that people I like will ask me out instead of trying myself.

We were going to put up a chart about people’s virginity but that got scrapped because we never asked the question point blank. We has assumed people would go into detail when we asked about how many serious relationships but since we were vague so too were many answers. However, much like everything else even the the most pessimistic interpretation had almost the same percentage of virgins in both genders. This combined with other questions goes to show that dating is hard for everyone it is just a little harder for otaku guys but otaku gals are hardly getting a free pass to love.

When starting this portion of the Otaku Diaries, I was looking for patterns that hearkened back to other portions of our results, I was looking for correlations in other questions, and I was thinking that fandom would show me something just a little bit telling. However, that didn’t happen here which really threw me. I thought surely there would be some pattern for the people who found anime an unimportant factor, perhaps they hid their fandom or perhaps they had dated a lot as the result, but it was a mix without any clear signs. Other results and my subsequent look back at previous questions further eluded my grasp on any sort of pattern to be had. Of course this could all be chalked up to our small 40 people, but with those 40 people other sections showed pattern and equality in certain issues. Perhaps dating is just that personal and different between each person.

#0021
Being 32, it is rather difficult to meet women who are of at least legal age at anime conventions . . .

I hope if nothing else that people who read this section take away a little hope if they need it. It is easy to fall into depression when you are a lonely anime fan assuming you are doomed to be alone. But this does not have to be the case. Hardcore anime fans were able often able to find some companionship with either their fellow nerds or people who were sympathetic to their interests. Also most of the people who responded to the survey were young so they still were finding their way in the world of romance. I assume that a good deal of the young and inexperienced participants will eventually make their way into the world of dating. This does not mean you ever have to stop trying to improve yourself or connect to other people. It is just a reminder that finding someone who you can find love with is still possible.

There were so many questions I wish we had asked in this section! It is as if when I saw people’s answers, I know exactly how to follow them up. For example, after seeing how much of an essential quality liking anime was, it would be wonderful to know how many people had/were dating other otaku and vise versa. This was answered by some people in their paragraphs, but obviously not as a whole by the participants. If ever there was a part of this survey I would like to dig deeper into, it is this.

Would also love to hear other people’s picks for some of these categories as well! By the way, some of this stuff happens to have come out in years gone by but we first watched/read/whatnot this year so that’s why they’re here, I’ll hear no guff about it! I really enjoy this part of the year, all the posts seem to be more fun and this one is no exception.

Best Anime of 2009 or Show that Infuriates You to No End When Someone on MAL says “If you like this show you will love Dance in the Vampire Bund.”

Tokyo Magnitude 8.0
The noitaminA is your go to animation slot when you are looking for something that is simultaneously different, mature, well produced, and smart. Tokyo Magnitude 8.0 is no exception to this rule. An exceptional look at ordinary people involved in an extraordinary but still extremely feasible situation. It is a superb mixture of intense character study and survival drama. I know some people feel the end is weak but I thought it did well in capping off this  powerful and thought provoking show.

Eden of the East
It is a little bit mystery, a little bit drama, and a little bit suspense wrapped around an intriguing concept. It’s a wonderful series to watch unfold and since Takizawa doesn’t remember what has happened there is a wonderful element of discovery that comes. Takizawa himself is a refreshing and mysterious guy but you always get the feeling, or I did, that he was a good guy even when things looked dubious. Also he loved dogs, can’t be bad. The game was able to engross and impress me from episode one and continued to do so throughout its broadcast.

Anime Man of the Year or You Must be Swift
as a Coursing River

Battler Ushiromiya
Have you ever wished Phoenix Wright could be the star of his own supernatural murder mystery anime? Well if so then someone heard your prayers. In Umineko no Naku Koro ni we have Battler Ushiromiya who is a clear homage to Phoenix Wright with dramatic finger pointing, manly crying, and split between having to do detective work and acting like a lawyer. He may have his flaws but no matter what he keeps marching forward despite numerous set backs and tragedies. Plus he is just plain cool whenever he is on the counterattack. His casual charm and iron clad will set the tone for the anime as much as they do the games it was based on.

Guin
After thinking this over way too much, I finally decided on Guin for a few reasons. First being that after more than 100 books about his quest on the bestseller list, Guin finally got an anime. Adding to that is that Guin may arguably be the most manly character animated in 2009. If you watch just the first episode, this will become obvious. I also read about Guin in novel formthe first time this year myself. And finally, and sadly, Guin’s creator Kaoru Kurimoto passed away in 2009, a woman who was still writing about her most popular creation.

Anime Woman of the Year or I am Woman Hear Me Roar

Canaan
Canaan is a competent kick arse girl with a gun. That is usually all that you need to sell me on a character. The fact that Canaan has her rather slick synesthesia ability which I thought was a very original superpower. She has a stoic and cool feel to her but it she still cares for the people she wishes to protect and gives her all to do so. I also think that her competence on the battlefield but her awkwardness in personal relationships gives her a good mixture of strength and weakness that make her a serious version of Sousuke Sagara. I also think makes her an interesting character to me.

Sawako
Picking a woman of the year became a lot easier the more I watched Kimi ni Todoke. Sawako has a special strength of character that uplifts you, just as she does to the many characters around her. She is humorous and endearing and you never doubt that she will succeed and grow in each new scenario she encounters. Sawako’s positive attitude, even after endearing so much isolation is a true testament to the human spirit and the ability to change.

Favorite Classic Manga Release or Get Off My Lawn and
Read This Manga Instead You Whippersnappers

Astroboy
I bring up Astroboy for several reasons. The first is the releaseof the critically acclaimed manga Pluto in the U.S. which is based on one of the most famous Astroboy stories. While Naoki Urasawa makes the story his own, there is much to be gained from reading the original story. The second is the release of the Astoboy CG movie. It might be weak but it shows the lasting legacy of the Mighty Atom. The third is the fact that premier Tezuka scholar and Astroboy fan Frederik L. Schodt was an excellent guest at Otakon 2009. If any of these things interest you I suggest you pick up Astroboy and see where it all began.

Swan
Okay, so this didn’t just start in 2009 but the fact that it is still being released is something to celebrate. Swan continually wows me with its style, layout, and melodramatic storytelling exemplary of 70′s shojo.

Worst Thing I Watched or My Eyes! The Goggles Do Nothing!

Queen’s Blade
Oh Queen’s Blade you are so bad that you are not even good at accomplishing the simple goal you set out to do. You want to be a dumb little fantasy adventure series with enough titillation to captivate an audience. You go far enough to be grossly excessive in your fan-service but pull back from being porn almost in a chicken sort of way. Also all the humor is rather misogynistic or bizarre. In fact much of the series is just utterly misogynistic. They decided to try to turn everything up to 11 including the breast size but they forgot not to turn the knob for bad up to 11 as well.

Akikan!
Akikan! has a lot more wrong with it than its stupid premise of soda drinks transforming into girls. All the characters are either annoying, creepy, losers, or all of these things in combination. The character designs are awful and the animation quality is way below sub-par. Akikan! is the type of show that makes you say “I didn’t know they made anime this bad anymore!”

Best Convention Guest or I Need to Get an Autograph
with a Haro On It.

The Tomino
As anyone who has read the blog for any amount of time has seen Narutaki and I have very similar tastes. But when it comes to what we are the most passionate about we tend to be very different. But there is one place where both of our passions are about equal and that is for mecha. And one of our favorite mecha directors is Yoshiyuki Tomino. It was amazing to be able to meet the man behind the real robot genre. He was as blunt and cranky as you expected him to be but he seemed to be genuinely appreciative of his fans which was nice to see. Seeing him was the highlight of the year.

Tomino
Tomino Con 2009 was the highlight of many a fan’s year! Obviously we are no exception. What more is there to say other than there is a reason we both put him!

Thing I Wish People Would Stop Talking About
or SHUT UP! SHUT UP! SHUT UP!

Kyoto Animation
I wish people would stop talking about Kyoto Animation fro two reasons. The first is the second season of Haruhi. Yes Endless Eight was a very silly idea that might have been one of the biggest missteps with an anime franchise we will ever see. If they stopped watching Kyoto Animation might have learned some sort of lesson. But it seemed like after a point people just started watching episodes just so they complain about it the day after. The second is K-On!. I wish people would just stop talking about K-On! because I did not think it was that good. Also because if I bring up K-On! we won’t hear Narutaki’s thoughts on K-On! and that would be less than pleasant believe me.

Studio Shaft
I am just tired of hearing the constant internet love letter to Studio Shaft. What little interest I had in them thanks to Sayonara Zetsubo Sensei has promptly been washed away by masses of people decreeing they can do no wrong. The fact that Dance of the Vampire Bund is coming out next month just compounds my disinterest.

Series I Unexpectedly Liked or Chili and Chocolate

Mirai Nikki
Mirai Nikki is a much smarter and more entertaining manga than I first thought it would be. Mirai Nikki turns out to be the smart little thriller with a good mixture of action and psychological horror. The different diaries each had interesting powers and seeing how Yukiteru has to overcome them is fun an interesting because he has to out think his opponents and find the weakness in their diaries. Plus when the manga needs to turn the creepy factor on it does it quite well. It is a fast moving series I am am pretty sure the end is coming soon. I hope it ends as well as it has started and I look forward to Sakae Esuno’s next work. I will say that I am still a little scared by the huge Yuno Gasai fan-base who sort of scare me.

Taisho Baseball Girls
While I was saddened there were no more musical numbers after episode one, it was a wonderful little story of baseball and friendship with just a touch of romance in the mix. Koume is a great lead who is a warm girl on the edge of a modern age. And while Baseball Girls does explore some feminist themes, it does so with the right amount of force for these characters. This is a show I was happy to say was one of the best of 2009.

Favorite Opening or Last Night a DJ Saved My Life

Umineko no Naku Koro ni – Katayoku no Tori
The opening to Umineko no Naku Koro ni is just as epic as the opening to the game and that is no small feat. It has some great vocals with a mixture of Italian and Japanese by Akiko Shikata. The lyrics are a delightful insight into the story if you are paying attention. Also I love that after every arc you will notice that they have added something new to the opening. It keeps the introductions interesting without raising the budget significantly. I can’t wait to see the opening for whenever they make a Umineko no Naku Koro ni Chiru anime.

Eden of the East - Falling Down
Best opening has to go to Eden of the East for me because of its great combination of design and sound. What I loved most was the use of graphics more than animated sequences. And Oasis just rocks.

Best License Announcement or Time to Sell Some Blood

Fist of the North Star
It has been the common sentiment that Fist of the North Star is just one of those titles that would never sell in the U.S. after its previous failure and therefore would never be completed. Then it started streaming online which was mind blowing. Then Discotek Media picked it the DVD rights. For the longest time Fist of the North Star has been one of those series that is popular elsewhere in the world but not in the U.S. Now hopefully the small but dedicated fanbase will get what they have always hoped for.

Sengoku Basara
Not only was I personally super excited that this series got licensed, but it is also a smart choice by Funimation. Crazy fighters and over-the-top characters in an insane interpretation of feudal Japan animated by Production I.G. That is basically a winning combination for me right there. Did I mentioned choreographed dancing samurai in the opening? Fun times all around!

Best Short Manga or Sometimes I Would Like to Read a Manga Series Under 30 Books Long

Tanpenshu
Tanpenshu is a short story collection in two books by Hiroki Endo the author of Eden: It’s an Endless World! The stories are often self-indulgent as Subatomic Brainfreeze said when he commented on the blog but I feel if you are going to be self-indulgent do it in short story form. It is a great collection that shows Endo’s range as an artist and storyteller. It is a good mixture of funny stories with dark stories but all of them are mature tales. It is a great read if you are looking for something a bit out of the ordinary.

Palette of 12 Secret Colors
I have basically spent all year praising Nari Kusakawa up and down to anyone who would listen, this I will continue now. Palette of 12 Secret Colors features an exotic island where the birds and their “palette’s” (human partners) provide the colors of the world. Cello is training to be just that but with only middling success and a string of clumsy color accidents under her belt. As such see often talks with Dr. Guell and things go forward from there. These two have such a hilarious chemistry that it is infectious. It is lovely the way that romance and choosing a future are combined here with an emphasis on what loving someone means. With all of Nari Kurakawa’s series there are elements of magic combined with romance and humor topped with heaps of charm.

Most Horrible Piece of Merchandise or Things Too Tacky to Place Next to Your Big Mouth Billy Bass

1/8 Sheryl Nome NA Ver PVC Figure
I realize that one of Sheryl’s biggest appeals is that she has a smoking hot body. I don’t think anyone is going to disagree with that. So as expected you are going to get some rather risque figures of her. But this figure crosses the line from sexy to downright vulgar. Her outfit is a bit gratuitous but it’s nothing that is inappropriate for a sexy figure. The thing that makes this figure utterly reprehensible is Sheryl’s pose above that huge shell with the phrase Rise Up !! on the base of the figure. It is about as unsubtle as you can get. It just makes the figure so crass that I can’t see anyone but people who buy the figures with the clothing you can take off or the figures with the “real” breasts to buy one.

Char figures that you can put your own face on
I wish I was making this up. To be blunt, no one should want to see their own face in place of Char’s. NO ONE.

Funniest Series or The Best Medicine

Hyakko
I said it once and I will say it again. I really feel that Hyakko is an unappreciated series. It is an excellent school based comedy with wonderful characters, good comedic timing, and a lively sense of energy that can be all too lacking in slice of life series. Torako is a great energetic and spunky girl to interacts off the rest of the class quite well. These is also a good amount of male characters who get face time which are easily forgotten in certain shonen school comedies. Although the manga has not been licensed the anime is streaming for free.

Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D’s
Yes, it is unintentionally funny but funny nonetheless. They have card duels (which is pretty funny itself) on motorcycles! Everyone in prison (there is a prison arc) has decks of cards which are used to decide who is boss! I am ready to marathon this show!

Favorite Mecha Anime or The Char Aznable Award for Excellence

Shin Mazinger Shogeki! Z-Hen
As Narutaki joked if we did not include this series in the list several people we know would probably jump us and then force us to edit this list so it was included. Possibly multiple times and even in categories where it did not belong. But this is for a very good reason. This is Yasuhiro Imagawa firing on all cylinders. It is not just an excellent giant robot show it is an excellent show all together. It has great characters, a full structured plot that was mostly written out from the start with amazing twists and turns, more Go Nagai references than you can shake a stick at, and of course blood pumping robot fights. If you watch one hardcore mecha series this year it should be this one. I mean it has Rocket Punch! 100 Rapid Shots! and what more could you ask for?

Eureka Seven
Okay, yeah I am way behind on the Eureka Seven fan train, okay? I just watched it this year and it makes me wish I had done so much sooner! It was a wonderful combination of characters and their growing, changing relationships. Both the looks at love seen through Eureka and Renton plus Holland and Talho captured me almost instantly. And equally thrilling is the shows combination of mecha and surf culture, very fun and unique. To round it all out is a world of mysteries that are slowly, but surely, revealed. Eureka Seven had everything I wanted in spades.

If I Never See This Type of Character Again or Characters Who Will Be the First Against the Wall
When the Revolution Comes

Fake strong female characters
I am just sick in tired of female characters that are supposed to be strong but are anything but. I don’t need every female character to be strong but don’t sell me a false bill of goods. Don’t give me the strong swordsman who is just a princess waiting to be kidnapped with and armor and a sword instead of a dress. Also don’t give me weak women who pretend to be strong by being total monsters and they try to sell me on the being fine either. Made real strong female charaters or don’t make them all.

Teenage girl who has the brain capacity of an 6-year-old
I think that pretty much sums it up, but if I have to elaborate I will. I’m not saying every girl needs to be genius level intelligence or anything, but really could they atleast go an entire episode without falling down for no reason or perhaps talk at a level someone their age should? I see this more than should happen and really it leaves the worst taste in my mouth.

• Ani-Gamers reviewed Kannagi recommended by Thinking Thoughts
• The Anime Chop Shop reviewed Haibane Renmei recommended by Stig of T.H.E.M. Anime Reviews
• The Anime Life reviewed Dennou Coil recommended by Otaku no Podcast
• Anime Loveu reviewed Hidamari Sketch recommended by Ogiue Maniax
• Anime wa Bakuhatsu da! reviewed Soul Taker recommended by Patz of Insert-Disc
• Colony Drop reviewed Only Yesterday recommended by Anime Loveu
• Drastic My Anime Blog reviewed Princess Tutu recommended by Powered by Sugar
• Insert-Disc Patz reviewed Irresponsible Captain Tylor recommended by Reverse Thieves and lwelyk reviewed The Big O recommended by Colony Drop
• Insane Journal reviewed Bartender recommended by One Piece at a Time
• Memories of Eternity reviewed Kamichu! recommended by Reverse Thieves
• Nigorimasen! reviewed Texhnolyze recommended by Memories of Eternity
• Ogiue Maniax reviewed Lovely Complex recommended by Nigorimasen!
• One Piece at a Time reviewed Hatenkou Yuugi recommended by Drastic My Anime Blog
• Orz reviewed Martian Successor Nadesico recommended by Insane Journal
• Otaku no Podcast reviewed Twin Spica recommended by Anime wa Bakuhatsu da!
• Powered by Sugar reviewed Le Chevalier d’Eon recommended by Ani-Gamers
• Reverse Thieves reviewed Texhnolyze recommended by lwelyk of Insert-Disc
• Shameful Otaku Secret reviewed Iriya No Sora recommended by Orz
• T.H.E.M. Anime Reviews’ Brad reviewed Daughter of Twenty Faces recommended by Reverse Thieves and Stig reviewed Natsume Yuujinchou recommended by Reverse Thieves
• Thinking Thoughts reviewed Asatte no Houkou recommended by Brad of T.H.E.M. Anime Reviews

I’m really surprised by the turn out and overall positive reception for the Secret Santa Project. Most everyone picked innovative shows for the people they got. I was impressed by the shows most people selected for the project. They were almost all shows I enjoyed. I hope that people enjoyed the shows they watched and maybe will try something new again after their eyes have been opened by this project. I was only expecting to see half the reviews to be completed by the 25th but I have received all but 5 by the time this was initially posted. That fills my heart with goodness and hope. Also I’d love for someone to figure out a way to do this type of project with manga. I think it would go over well.  If they do you know you can count Narutaki and I in as participants. And finally, if nothing else the project got me interested in Vertical’s release of Twin Spica and made we want to go back and finish Bartender.

I was more than happy by the response we had for this fun little project. We could also do this project evil style in which everyone tries to pick a show the other person would completely hate just to fulfill any latent (or active) sadistic desires of people. But that is for another time. As for this project, I had a good time with it, even if we were less than thrilled with our show. It really seemed to get people chatting and I even had a few people lamenting that they didn’t find out about it in time. Don’t worry folks, this will certainly be brought back for 2010! Good thinkin’ Hisui!

#0096
You cannot set foot in a convention without being ashamed of fandom.

This is sort of a follow up post to the Otaku! Threat or Menace? article. However, this time around we delve a little deeper into those little pieces of fandom make you just that much more otaku. And still another post will follow this one soon about that question of just what do otaku think of fandom past and present and where is it all headed. But here you will see that anime is this creature that affects people in different ways and has a draw for people that runs both shallow and deep. And amidst all that is the wonder how the community gets along at all!

I see more and more a very disturbing attitude among anime and manga fans. This idea that they are “too good to be anime and manga fans.” The idea that them and maybe a few other people are above the hoi polloi with their horrible taste, bad manners, and overall immaturity that makes people have a bad impression of the fandom. The problem is that so many fans now a days have this feeling it means at least some of them are wrong. Either the majority of anime fans are not as bad as they think or some of the people are that part of the problem see themselves above. We are going to try to see how prevalent and pervasive this feeling is in our participants.

#0039
I don’t really feel disgust towards fellow fans because I did the same things they’re doing. I can just hope that they try to turn themselves around as I’m slowly doing.

#0016
It generally goes along with adding ‘-chan’ to everyone’s name and asking boys to kiss each other.

#0094
Sports fans can be just as sad as anime fans. I just happen to be an anime fan so shitty anime fans piss me off more. I mean there are a laundry list of reasons to be proud of anime fandom and to be ashamed.

So, the sexy statistics. You might assume that anime fandom is made up of horrible people with sickly fetishes seeing how some people talk on the Internet. But overall most people had rather mundane tastes. Guys were unsurprisingly into large breasts and oral sex. In fact that was so mundane and ubiquitous we did not bother tracking it. The most common fetishes were uniforms and glasses which were popular with both sexes. We did have 4 self confessed lolicons, 2 people into futanari, and 2 people who said they preferred 2-D girls to real ones. But they were mostly the same people. So while there were people that get much negative attention they were in the minority. I was surprised that women went into very little detail about their fetishes in anime. Also there were only 2 women who said that she was into yaoi in the fetishes question despite the fact that several women said they were fujoshi. I had always assumed that we reached the point were women were just as comfortable talking about what turns them on as much as men but that might not be as true as I thought.

Okay, can I just say that large chests and oral sex are not fetishes. They mean you are a dude. It would be a fetish if you DIDN’T like those things, thus why we listed flat chests. The only real knowledge gained from this question was that most people are still run of the mill when it comes to their fetishes. Anime otaku aren’t just made up of a bunch of sexual deviants. But just the same with only a sampling for 40 people, prominent tastes like lolicon stand out with about a 10% cut. I, too, was blown away by the lack of yaoi mentions. I am not even sure why it happened because plenty of people mentioned yuri, so it’s not as if people just overlooked these things. However, with our sample of females being very low (only 11 participants) perhaps it just wasn’t large enough to show a more open manner with regards to sexual proclivities.

#0015
. . . being a yaoi fan I often feel quite ashamed of my fandom. I know that yaoi isn’t exactly high art, it’s a pandering genre meant to be instantly gratifying, and so it’s not surprising that it doesn’t attract the most intelligent people. Still, I wish that most young yaoi fans weren’t quite so loud and obnoxious, it really makes the rest of us look bad.

#0079
If I’m ashamed of any sort of fan, it’s the fans who hate what they don’t like with a passion equal to how they like what they like.

#0019
The behavior of other fans tends to irritate me . . . and it’s only recently that I realized that the “at least I’m not a fucking loser like THOSE PEOPLE!” defense is just a defense mechanism that redraws the line a lot. I’m so far over the line of normalcy without ever having crossed the line and become “one of those people” that the line I drew may as well have been meaningless.

Almost everyone who took the survey felt that other people in fandom disgusted them at some point but only a third of the people surveyed ever felt any disgust with themselves. These results can be used to paint two different pictures. The first is there is this small group of anime fandom that gives everyone else a bad name. The second is that there is circular finger pointing at everyone else who they think is the problem. The fact of the matter is both are true. There are people who are just outright embarrassing fans. Only the most lenient in the survey did not bring up people behaving badly at cons. The other problem is best summed up with “Why do you notice the splinter in your brother’s eye, but do not perceive the wooden beam in your own eye?” There are lots of fans who are overall good fans but have distinctly nasty habits. They see the bad habits of their peers but gloss over or ignore their own faults.

#0040
I’m a crusader against 4-chan culture. It’s disgustingly base and I’m a slave to the good and beautiful.

Most telling is that almost all fans were ashamed of other fans, but most not of themselves. So either most participants were upholding their high ideals of fandom or people don’t always see themselves as they actually are. The “it’s not me, it’s them” defense is what us and most other people probably think off the bat. However, that idea contrasts with much of the other answers we’ve gotten for other questions in the survey. People have been rather open about a myriad of personal things. Is it possible there is a disconnect when it comes to their fandom? Are people so caught up in it (otaku afterall) that they can’t really take a step back to evaluate that part of their lives? Or is it that other common happening of a few ruining this for the many?

#0014
Helped me be a better person? Find solace in a shared experience? Provided a comforting, reassuring presence when all around is chaos? . . . Been an inspiration helping me to discover new ways of seeing and thinking? Absolutely.

#0060
I don’t think there are too many good life lessons in anime. Sure, shooting a woman after sleeping with her may work for Golgo 13 but I’m thinking I just can’t pull it off in quite the same way.

Both the internet and cons have similar situations that become out of hand and can cast a shadow on anime fandom as a whole, and have cast a shadow as the opinions here express, which has many people fed-up. Biggest problem, as I see it, it too much information syndrome. And screaming it at the top of your lungs to anyone and everyone who is even remotely involved in your hobby. In a day and age where everyone is comfortable talking about anything, people just wish you wouldn’t. This coupled with, how many participants put it, the younger fans running wild in any anime meet up setting is making fellow fans cringe. But at the very same time, the internet and conventions is what has brought so many fans together. It even made doing this survey possible and as many people mentioned it allowed them to finally connect with others. More than a few people met friends and significant others through this very hobby. And as much as everyone complained about the anime community, almost everyone on the survey wants to continue to be apart of it. Just look at how many fans go one step further and create fan works or write about anime.

Overall I think this trend of anime and manga fans who hate anime and manga partially comes from this idea that people are surrounded by nothing but vile idiots. They enjoy anime and manga but see it as a fandom filled with people everyone should avoid. They get this attitude that they are above such things so they are thereby separated from what they dislike in fandom. But the answer is not to separate yourself from the community. It is to see the value it what makes anime and manga fandom great and and trying to encourage what is wonderful and productive anime being an otaku.

#0029
. . . it has provided a way for people in high school to stereotype me, which makes it hard for me to break through barriers and befriend new people. Pretty much I am know as the “anime kid,” so it takes some effort to convince other kids that I’m a normal, rather friendly person, and not some sort of bumbling social reject.

#0030
I wouldn’t be friends with nearly as many people and it kind of gives me a sense of belonging.

Despite what people said about hating their fellow fans I think the evidence points to people not being a hostile as they might let on at times. 80% of the participants had tried to learn Japanese at some point. There seemed to be a genuine interest in learning about Japanese culture and the Japanese language. A good deal of the people had contributed to some sort of activity for the anime community to enjoy be it a blog, podcast, fanzine, AMV, fan fiction, or fan art. And most everyone else who did not do one of those at least partook in the efforts of someone else who did.

What I really took away from this part of the survey is a desire that everyone wants to be a better fan. Everyone recognizes bad behavior so it is only another step to seeing it, and correcting it, within ourselves. And more positively is that people want to be apart of their hobby, anime fans maybe more than others. With few means to actually communicate with or becoming involves in the creative process of anime, fans are looking to connect themselves in different ways, some fun and some thoughtful (some a little of both). Anime fandom has a huge, and vocal, community and people want to be apart of it even if there are deterrents to it.

As much as they complained about hating other fans they usually had kind words about the people they had connected to. Anime fans want to make connections to their fellow fans and often do. There was rumbling of displeasure with their fellows in most peoples surveys but they were also able to talk about what they liked and who they felt exemplify what had drawn them and kept them in the fandom. The people who took the time to fill out this massive survey obviously cared enough about anime fandom to make their voices heard and that if nothing else is a good sign of people who still care.

The further we dig into these surveys the more obvious it becomes that our sample group is a diverse bunch that surprises me more and more. As we say in the previous post about attractiveness, you might have gotten the same results by polling random passersby on the street. I think the same could be said for many of the answers in this section as well. Okay, so maybe the majority of respondents being students isn’t surprising. But as you’ll see there seems to be specific areas that really define the otaku group.

What are little otaku made of?
Action and mecha
And cat girl tails,
That’s what little otaku are made of.

What are little fujoshi made of?
Doujinshi and fanfiction
And everything BL,
That’s what little fujoshi are made of.

-The Great Poet, Hisui

That silliness aside what does go into making an otaku? What factors say that someone becomes an otaku rather than a video game player or a sport fanatic? Are these mutually exclusive? Do any any hobbies or interests foster otakudom or hamper it? Our recent review of the second Mechademia reminds of an article in the first by Susan Napier. She states that early anime fandom was made up of mostly of Asian male Computer Science students. If that was ever true this is clearly not the case anymore? But is there a dominant theme in what sets one down the path of hardcore anime fandom? Lets try and find out.

Once again esteem seemed to be a pretty good affair in these questions with many people linking what sets them apart to their intelligence. This has plenty of cross-over from our last look at attractiveness versus smarts. However, most people didn’t consider themselves overachievers in school. In fact, a few even mentioned being lazy but intelligent which allowed them to stay in the average zone without much work. Also, more than a few people mentioned writing as a special ability, in fact it was the only answer that stood out as being often said.

In school a majority of the applicants stated that they were average students. We had a good bell curve if a bit skewed toward being academic. Almost everyone said they had participated in some type of club or school activity. Also almost everyone claimed to have some sort of skill that made them standout. The participant’s school life tended toward normal if a bit nerdy. On the career path we saw that there was no clear dominant answer. A majority of the participants were students but this is unsurprising considering that anime fandom has started to skew younger than it used to. Although computer related jobs were the most common after the overwhelming number of students there were almost as many librarians and graphic designers are there were computer scientists. We had everything from acupuncturists to financial experts. While CS majors are hardly adverse to watching anime and reading manga they are also not pushing out people from all other professions as well.

#0015
. . . in fact people seem to say I don’t stand up for myself very often. . . . I’m always avoiding conflict.

#0079
I’m probably too forgiving actually – it tends to be a long time until I’m able to extricate myself out of a bad situation . . .

#0060
I’m a terrible procrastinator. . . . I really can’t work without the pressure of imminent deadlines.

With so many results in this survey likening the otaku crowd to the average joe, the pieces that pull them away are these ones about their temperaments. I found it especially true in the question about forgiveness. Many participants frequently used the phrase “too forgiving” within their answers. This may have a lot to do with a desire for acceptance among other things. This is also reflected by so few stepping up to be leaders, having doubt that anyone would follow them or believing they have the ability to move people as a whole.

From our results I would would gather that the average otaku tend towards being introverted and passive but not to an extreme. With 3/4 of the participants not having a temper and 78 percent being forgiving it seems that otkau tends words more mild mannered. We also see that 88 percent of the participants were prone to procrastination and only 38 percent considered themselves leaders. This further reinforces a feeling that otaku tend to be on the passive side. While there are always gregarious members of any group I think the result confirm the stereotype of the shy and quiet otaku being the majority. On the other hand 73 percent of the participants did not watch anime to escape reality. Then might be quieter people but they mostly do not run from their life. Or atleast that is how they perceive themselves.

#0063
Next to none intentionally. Although, sometimes, I do change what anime I watch depending on the mood . . .

#0019
People like me all too often gladly turn to moe or harem shows to provide a respite from the grim nature of existence, but I can’t believe the illusion.

#0094
I mostly watch it to have a good time and to talk about it with fellow fans.

One of the great things about the escapism question was the variety and thought so many people seemed to put into it. More often than not people came to the conclusion that they don’t use it in that manner. However, quite a few went on to talk about how all entertainment contains some level of escapism. This I find to be quite true, though the whole debate people have about realism in entertainment sort of throws a wench into such things. How often have the words “that is so unrealistic” been hurled at a show to which one might reply “who wants it to be realistic?” Different people like different levels of true to life in their fiction. And still many more participants expressed an old desire to escape but having since moved past that part of their life.

Unsurprisingly we did not get a huge punch of athletic fitness fanatics answering the survey. Most people talking the survey did not regularly exercise or watch what they ate. We had one or two participants they played sports or did some amount of light exercise but for the most part most participants did not seem overly concerned with fitness. Most people ate what they wanted when they wanted. They might do a little towards eating better by buying slightly healthier food when they could but it was hardly a lifestyle decision. I do wonder how much this has to do with the fact that they are otaku or the overall more sedentary lifestyle of people in modern times.

On the physical side of things, it comes off as a fairly standard affair in my eyes. Though there were more people than I expected who said they exercise regularly but still wasn’t so overwhelming to seem like anything but the average group of people. As for the medical conditions question, I don’t think it reflects much. Plenty of people have at least some small problem such as allergies which which we saw here all the way up to major medical concerns.

Hobbies on the other hand were just as varied as careers but we saw some distinct stand outs. Without a doubt the most common past time of anime fans was playing video games. There were almost twice as many people who played video games as participating as any other type of hobby. The next most common hobby was music. I think these reason for these two hobbies is two fold. The first is they both intersect with anime repeatedly. You can listen to anime music and play anime based video games as well as listen and play non anime related works. Also both hobbies are just extremely mainstream and enjoyed by most everyone now a days. We do see the more academic/geeky hobbies in the survey as well with good numbers of otaku into reading, writing, computers, and art. I also left dozen of hobbies including puzzles, motorcycles, and cooking as well as many others because they only had 1 participant who was active in that hobby. There was no one who participated in the survey who have at least two other hobbies other than anime and manga.

Some people have one hobby they subscribe to, but I’ve always found more often than not many hobbyists get embroiled in many different ones possibly due to the obsessive nature of it all. If we didn’t already know anime and video games had huge crossover audiences, we would now. But we did already know that so this just goes to confirm it. And a look at further results proves geeks are geeks in more ways than one.

The results of this section mostly reinforce the idea that it is nerds tend towards being otaku but that it is not a hard and fast rule. Even the the more introverted of the otaku tended to have outside interest and lives beyond the scope of their devotion to Japanese animation. I do wonder how different the answers would be if we took the same poll at a con. Is the number of introverts to extroverts in anime fandom a good representation or did the Internet nature of the project skew towards the introverted? No matter what I think we can conclude while there are certain types that are drawn to being an otaku but it is a lifestyle that draws people from all walks of life. Anime and manga may be more seductive to the geeky and the shy but they are not the only people who answer the call.

There is no straight road to becoming an otaku but there are certainly some lines that can be drawn to correlate the two. There are exceptions to every rule but it’s hard to deny there are some big similarities between many anime fans seen here and I think it would be further seen with a larger group. But really draw your own conclusions. This is all about realizing how much we fans differ and how much we are clearly joined by other than our fandom.

We continue our scholarly pursuits by reading book two of the Mechademia series entitled Networks of Desire. I am personally glad to see that the University of Minnesota Press is still able to put of these books with a 4th coming soon. It’s gratifying to see a healthy forum for academic anime publications. This volume was printed a year after the first Mechademia so we are examining not only the essays within book but what changes and improvements have been made since their freshman effort.

We are always trying to broaden our horizons here on Reverse Thieves. One of the quickest ways is to really sit down and read a bunch of essays that you only half understand! Okay, so Mechademia isn’t that impossible to understand, but it certainly makes you take a closer examination of series or parts of fandom that you might not have before. There is a wealth of knowledge in this new volume!

The Shojo section is papers based around female-targeted manga and female otaku related issues. None of the essays had too high a level of prerequisite amount of knowledge needed to understand any of the articles. My favorite essay in the section was the article of the Rose of Versailles and it’s impact on shojo manga. As a huge fan of Rose of Versailles I enjoyed learning of it’s historical impact, back story, and behinds the scenes information on the manga. There is also a fascinating piece in the section about Mori Mari one of the founders of yaoi. The article looks at how yaoi works relate to both it’s primary female audience and the gay community in Japan. I am always interested in the gay community’s reaction to yaoi in any country. There was a solid article on Ranma 1/2 fan-fiction but I felt it was out of place in the section. While I admit the common perception is that most fan-fiction authors are girls this is hardly a hard and fast rule. Still the article was a interesting look at how fan-fiction has grown out of and changed anime fandom and fandom in general.

I was happy to see a paper about the influence of Rose of Versailles for multiple reasons beyond my fervent love for the series. The essay balances what was new and impactful about the story while weaving in the historical aspects of the famous manga. I learned a bit myself and the essay gives access for people to learn and understand a genre that, while not invented by her, was certainly taken by the reins and changed significantly by Riyoko Ikeda. The Doll Beauties essay was not about anime or manga, heck it wasn’t even about cosplay of characters from anime or manga, it was about the gothic lolita trends making it seem out of place while being well thought out. And while I thought the Mori Mari essay was a smart analysis, it was really more about the author and her relation to her father rather than being tied to yaoi’s rise and popularity. I’ll agree that this area of of the anthology is the most accessible, it’s all uphill from here.

The Powers of Time shows how the politics of the time have effected anime. The first essay looks at how the Japanese look the film The Thief of Bagdad and transformed it into The Thief of Baguda Castle a remake of  with a distinctly Japanese feel. It uses the differences in the film to gain an insight into pre-WWII Japan. The rest of the articles in the section use various anime such as Blood: The Last Vampire, Space Battleship Yamato, and Silent Service to examine the complicated relationship between Japan and the U.S. The U.S. occupation and Article 9 come up in all the articles and how the various anime anime reflect Japan’s love/hate relationship with America. I was slightly surprised by one of the author’s analysis of Yamato not being anti-American which is not something I usually hear. I have always found the relationship between Japan and the U.S. after World War II complex and at times contradictory so reading some essays on the issues were quite interesting. I can’t say that I agree with all the points made I did find the essay well thought out.

Racial relations and military politics are complicated, sticky subjects but all of the essays in this section take them on rather well. Both the essays involving Silent Service succeed twofold, one in making me think more about the politics at the end of WWII between Japan and America and two in instilling in me with the need to watch the show. I too was surprised but also incredibly impressed with the analysis of Space Battleship Yamato and how it could be interpreted to reflect a Japanese wish to have been a hero in the war against the Nazis in hindsight. The piece on Blood The Last Vampire was well throughout but also came off as a more abstract look at these complicated political ties.

We are then subjected to a very self indulgent piece with pictures from an anime convention with the photographers philosophy called Bridges of the Unknown: Visual Desires and Small Apocalypses. He examines fandom and the role of the observer in its analysis. For some reason more than anything else this just ticked me off. It seemed self obsessed mixture of navel gazing and congratulatory masturbation while not really saying anything that interesting or profound. Following this is the Animalization section about fetishes and sexuality in anime and manga.  The Animalization of Otaku Culture is a dense look at the growth and effect of moe on modern anime. There is an excellent translated piece by the cultural critic Azuma Hiroki on moe. Although it it was one of the densest articles in the book I think it would be an enlightening read to anyone who is interested in moe regardless if they like it or not. My favorite article in the book was one that examined Porco Rosso. It shows while hardly being dirty Porco Rosso is the most mature of Hayao Miyazaki works with definite sexual themes. We also have different looks at Japanese sexuality using Malice@Doll and Futari Ecchi. The Futrai Ecchi essay was an interesting introduction to the title and what it says about how the Japanese learn about sexuality. The Malice@Doll I feel reads quite a bit more into a title that might not warrant it.

While the first essay in this section, Malice@Doll: Konaka, Specularization, and the Virtual Feminine seemed atleast partially grounded, I couldn’t shake the feeling of someone just trying to justify a piece of pornography that they thoroughly enjoyed by assigning meaning and depth to everything found in the show. But on the other hand I have not seen Malice@Doll however this essay didn’t make me watch to rectify that. On a similar note, the Futari Ecchi essay I also felt sometimes reached too far with its praise. This work I did go take a look at after my reading. While the series is certainly educational, there is little doubt that it is also meant to stimulate its reader. This is easily seen in its choice of character design as well as camera angles among other things. However, it’s a pretty brilliant way to try to teach young males about sexual relationships. Not straying from the sex themes but decidedly more tame is the Porco Rosso essay which I too found very sharp in its analysis of the underlying meanings and hints given in the story. This felt especially intelligent because of Miyazaki’s somewhat wholesome image from his films. On the tail end was a look at Evangelion which I can with certainty I barely understood at all.

Horizons his three essays on the analysis of four different anime and how they deal with human relations. The is a solid and through provoking article on Haibane-Renmei which attempts to find meaning in a show that is meant to have multiple interpretations. The next article deals with Voices of a Distant Star and the Wings of Honneamise. It examines how both anime series look at relationships over a distance. Both are excellent picks for the discussion and work well even though I am hardly a fan of The Wings of Honneamise (which of course makes me a bad person). There were also two very high level articles on various themes Evangelion and RahXephon respectively. While I generally understood the overall message of both articles I feel much of the nuances were lost on me seeing as I don’t have a degree in psychology.

This section had some solidly written pieces. The essay looking at Haibane-Renmei was provocatively beautiful despite my never having seen the series. The author really captured and created the world in the essay which is so helpful (and probably was to whoever else was reading it and not a fan of anime). As I said, I have not seen it, but this essay had me fully convinced of its meanings. While not having much love for Wings of Honneamise, I make up for it with my intense feelings for Voices of a Distant Star. This was an essay that I felt close to especially since we recently talked about the film as well. I am not sure how solid the RahXephon essay was in comparison because it was way above my knowledge. 

Like the first Mechademia the reviews and commentary section holds a collection of shorter essays and reviews. My favorite piece was, Crazy Rabbit Man: Why I Rewrite Manga, the little essay on the art of rewriting manga. I always like a look behind the scenes of manga translation. The essay very effectively conveys the importance of rewriting the possibly dry and sometimes neigh incomprehensible literal translated script into something entertaining to read.

The reviews and commentary section was good but not incredibly striking. Though once again we see a dissenter of Takashi Murakami’s philosophy behind his work. You may remember there was a large essay about him in the previous volume of Mechademia. I also found the Crazy Rabbit Man piece fascinating but also it was quite bitter at the end when she basically states that companies are opting for people who can both translate and do the rewrite, which she can’t. Having met quite a few of these dual types, I can say the companies aren’t losing a great rewrite ability. These short pieces peppered in help to break up the more length and deep discussions posed.

With a year of experience and a wider range of number of contributors I have noticed some changes in Mechademia. For one thing, there are less “what is anime?” type papers. While it means you get more meaty papers it also means more papers that are meant for high level academics. I am curious if it was just I was not well read enough to fully digest those papers or if that is a more common sentiment. They shouldn’t reject those types of papers because they are the type that the journal is trying to promote. I liked the fact that they had themed sections in the book as it gave the papers a much more unified feel. I do feel that some of the papers were shoehorned though. But overall the articles challenged me and most of them taught me something. I look forward to reading the next book soon.

There certainly was a lot less of the introduction to the medium/idea of anime seen here for which I am grateful. Honestly, anyone who is going to pick up this book knows atleast that much about anime. As for the level of required reading before this book, in some instances it was enormously high but for the most part the collection remains accessible. This is one of the most important factors to me. New, difficult, or complex theories can be explored without alienating those who have not done intense research on the subject. The best academic essays enrich the reader, not shut them out if they haven’t gone to grad school. And for the most part, I found Mechademia 2: Networks of Desire to do just that.

Top 5 anime and manga papers I would like to read
5. Eastern Dragon and Western Tiger: A Comparison of Modern Japanese and US Anime Fandom
4. Art inspiring Art: The History of the Doujinshi Movement
3. The Manga Demographic That Leapt Through Time: How Social Issues Have Influenced Shojo Manga
2. Like Master like Student: An Examination of the Influences of Manga-ka on their Proteges
1. Old School Vs. New School: An Analysis of the Ever Shifting Fan Culture of US Anime Fandom

#0094
People never seem to pay attention to me so I take that as a sign that I am average looking.

This part of the survey is really about how otaku see themselves, not how the outside world sees them. Though of course our own opinions, whether we like it or not, are largely based on what we have experienced in the world around us. Here, more than ever, honesty is about taking away any facade you may have in the presence of others and telling it how you really see it. And in this way the results may not be the “truth” but they are a way to gauge confidence, self-esteem, and to understand how we measure up to our fellow otaku.

Over the years I have learned one simple fact: Everyone views events through their own unique filter. You can have 100 different people experience the same event and get 100 different interpretations. The simplest example is asking someone if a glass is half-empty or half-full. But each person paints their view of the world from their own individual paint set. Some colors come from birth and upbringing and some colors come from experiences in life. But the pictures each person creates have a style that come from our interpenetration of events as well. This goes for internal perception as well as external. The next few Otaku Diary posts will look at the self portraits that a participants drew of themselves. How does the otaku surveyed view themselves? Do otaku see themselves as half empty or half full?

#0069
I know I have the potential to fit my own views, but unfortunately I got dealt a hand that hasn’t made my appearance easy.

I don’t think it would surprise anyone to hear that many otaku don’t have much confidence when it comes to themselves, in this case their outward appearance. This is a long discussed issue for many adolescents but it can come down harder on the geek/nerd/dork variety leading into an adulthood plagued by putting no stock in their appearance. Looks can be a major factor in bullying or isolation as well, two things that in our previous survey showed to be very prevalent in the group. This can have varying results between being able to value others beyond them not being (or being) conventionally good looking or becoming bitter to the point of rejecting anything that has to do with outward looks. However, those resulting characteristics weren’t apparent. But looking at the overall reaction to this question, I have to say I’m rather impressed with the positive results. It seems quite natural and possibly the reaction you would get should you ask 40 random people on the street the same thing.

#0045
I wouldn’t, but I must be with all the girls that I attract. Somedays I see it, others I don’t.

#0036
No, something is always out of place. Either my skin, or I have put on some weight and have a disproportional gut, or my hair looks awful-even if it all was fine, I’ m not really a looker.

Simply put the pretty people of the world as less inclined to get into geeky hobbies. That does not mean that everyone who is a geek is average looking or unattractive. Especially after more women have entered into anime and manga fandom, the overall attractiveness of the average con goer and anime club member has slightly increased. But our results seem to indicate overall otakudom is filled with those people who are not so good-looking that everyone gathers around them. But they also indicate it is not just made up of the dregs. We see a decent bell curve of attractiveness in our participants. This more honest self-evaluation of appearance is what I expected. I think people are better able to judge how attractive they are because it is easy to gauge other people’s reactions to them. Individual prejudices will cause some people to be overly harsh on themselves and others overly generous but overall it is easier to see if people think your are appealing than if they think you are smart.

#0030
In short, yes. I’ve seen such insane amounts of stupidity both in person and via news sources and such that the average person is clearly not very intelligent.

On the other hand, if there is one thing that a majority of otaku seem to agree on, it’s that they have a higher intelligence level than the everyday person. This isn’t surprising, but setting the results of perceived intelligence against perceived attractiveness shows where and what the confidence levels are. Being smart sets them apart, this explains why other people don’t understand them, and this can be how they take pride. For a lot of people, being smart was who they are, it came somewhat naturally to them from an early age. In an extreme case it could be even used as something to hold over people, to exert strength in lieu of say popularity or charisma. It’s almost as if aren’t good-looking you have to be smart, or atleast you have to think you are. Being a fan of anime and manga may not make you automatically smarter, obviously we have all seen conversations that would blow that theory out of the water, however geeky hobbies to tend lead its participants to theorize, debate, and converse on a different level.

#0044
I consider myself worlds beyond the average person.

#0009
Work in any job that interacts with the general public on a daily basis and you’ll soon discover that the average human being is pretty damn dumb.

#0039
Yes, and I have the IQ scores to prove it.

#0034
I’d usually prefer not to come out and say it directly like that, but at least if you’re talking about “book smarts” the answer would probably have to be yes.

Where as the we had a nice bell curve with attractiveness we had no such phenomenon with intelligence. People were much more willing to brag how much smarter they were than the average person. I think that comes from two major factors. The first being that like many geeky hobbies, it draws people who tend to be smarter. Clearly not everyone who is intelligent is drawn to doing geeky things and not everyone doing geeky things will be smart. But I want to believe that anime  attracts a more intelligent crowd than more mass media materials. The other reason for the higher numbers is your evaluation of your intelligence is so much more internal therefore easier to paint yourself as smart. Unless your self-esteem is broken or experience has shown you be to utterly outclassed by your peers, you tend to think of yourself as intelligent because intelligence is all in your head. It is much easier to assume everyone is wrong about you not be so smart than it is to assume that everyone is wrong about you actually being hot.

One word questions are difficult but also telling. What is the word that people would walk away with after meeting you for the first time? Some people cheated and gave more than one word, so for them I had to just pick from the list of options. Only one person flat out refused to answer it. We had a couple of overlaps, but for the most part everyone came up with something all their own. While I think this type of question is very difficult, it is also very telling. Some said things along the lines of “I hope it would be . . .” or others answered with just the word, as if they knew it without any doubt.

Creative, Arrogant, Grumpy, Insane, Otaku, Strange, Eccentric, Intellectual, Enigma, Anxious, Interesting, Unique, Pragmatic, Funny, Energetic, Nice, There, Unpredictable, Villain, Lazy, Hidden, Awesome, Asshole, Sincere, Thoughtful, Roadrunner, Social, Unforgettable, Excited, Shy, Even-keel, Quiet, Opinionated, Verbose, Passionate, Nice, Inward, Eccentric, Weird

I was impressed that we had few overlaps in the words. The question seems to ask what other people think of you. But in all actuality it mostly shows what you think your most prominent feature is. Everything from extremely positive to extremely negative. There was a tendency to go for the more unusual, off kilter, or inwards words but I think that is the tenancy of most nerds. Please note that even words that seem similar have very important distinctions. “Shy,” “quiet,” and “there” might all seem the same but they imply very different things. In my opinion shy implies a positive connotation. Someone who has a lot to offer but is not able to easily show that to others. Quiet is much more neutral. It implies nothing other than the person is not quick to open up to others. The word there on the other hand is quite negative. It implies people have gone out of their way not to connect to the person and perhaps have reason to. It is amazing to me how much of a person you can get from a single word. Also people tend to be slightly more unguarded with such questions.

#0099
I don’t have much of a presence or personality, so I’m not that memorable. The best one could probably say years later was that I was just there.

An interesting question that arises in my mind is whether or not looks has anything to do with people becoming engrossed in their chosen hobbies. Does one influence the other? Obviously not everyone who is attractive avoids geeky hobbies like the plague and likewise not every intelligent person has participated in a game of “Who would win in a fight?” I also find it telling that almost everyone found themselves to be smarter than the average person, I wonder how that would stack up if we changed to the question to “Are you smarter than the average anime fan?” In any case, people seem to take much pride and perhaps just a little bit of devilish joy in saying they are brighter than most bulbs.

If it is a a school, a job, a hobby, or anything else there is a certain type of person that is more likely to be drawn to it. How much attractiveness has to do with this is a good question. Another question that pops into my head due to our results is if otakudom and the world in general is mostly made of average looking people who just think they are much smarter than they actually are? I mean I think we have all had conversations with membesr of anime community that have proven 75% of anime fandom is not made of the world’s greatest think tanks. On the other hand, I have had conversations with people in fandom that have proven to me that some very intelligent people are members of the community who can dissect trends, analyze information, and create works of amazing genius. This leads me to think that while there is some delusion of the overall intelligence of anime fans it is not without a grain of truth.

Everyone’s question was would NYAF live up to, exceed, or fail compared to the two previous conventions? There was quite a bit of talking with the announcement that NYAF would join with NYCC for 2010 so there was also the question of what would NYAF do as its last year as an independent convention? Although those are all pressing questions my main question was if I was going to have fun? Was I going to be able to do as much as I wanted to? We were also running two panels one of which had a lot of people looking forward to it. The Bloggers Roundtable had some big names on the marquee but it was a the first time we ever ran the panel. I had the most expectations for the panel because I felt it could succeed or fail so much more than any of our previous panels. On top of all that I had two guests staying at my humble abode during the convention so I had to play host as well as press.

It was no secret that we were looking forward to New York Anime Festival, probably more than any other con previously thanks to a killer guest, director Yoshiyuki Tomino. This sent NYAF which I always enjoy but never as much as say Otakon right to the front of the line this year. That being said, the rest of the con experience remained the same though I was happy to see quite a few license announcements this year. Since NYAF’s space has basically stayed the same from its first year, there weren’t too many surprises but that also means it still has some of the same problems. Javits, is Javits, its a bit of a walk from the train, the hotels, and most food. Though it also means that for the most part events went off without a hitch and things seemed to be well in hand with the staff.

The convention for me started on Thursday night since most of my main convention group went to see the Eureka Seven movie. Although not officially a part of the convention experience it felt like a great way to spend an evening before the big show. The movie itself was bizarre. I will never forget the line, “I am an enemy alien spy robot” as long as I live. It was a visually appealing movie but otherwise a utter train wreck. I appreciated their attempt to do something new with the original story but their execution left something to be desired. Though I was happy to watch a film with my friends and be able to talk about it afterward because I often feel like I hardly watch any anime at anime conventions. On Friday morning my two guests the spectacular OGT, the amazing PatzPrime, plus the remarkable SDShamshel all met up and went to the Javits center early to get Tomino autograph tickets. We were all a little worried when we heard that people were already starting to line up at 7am. We finally arrived at 10 and got progressively worried when we saw how the VIP line was growing but we were able to get our autograph tickets. Since we got there before the con officially started getting our press badges was a snap. We all went for some delicious Go Go Curry before starting the convention. Starting the con with curry is a tradition I could get behind.

Once again, the staff of NYAF as far as tickets goes were on top of it. Not a moment more than one was I in line for my press badge, which incidentally looks very different this year. This goes for the weekend con badges and VIP ones as well and only half for individual day passes. I’m not sure what to make of them, on the one hand I really like the hard plastic but on the other hand the badges aren’t very fun. Maybe that sounds like a stupid complaint, but too bad, many of us have a grand time trying to guess what show or characters will appear on the badges before going to a con. The speculations can even spawn forum threads, so it has become a popular and expected part of anime conventions. And I was surprised to not at the very least see the badges sporting the logo from this year’s contest winner. Since I never made it to the convention center before opening time, I have no idea what the lines looked like but from the massive crowds on Saturday I can imagine there was a pretty good wait in the morning. However, panels seemed to be well organized in this regard though having a press badge prevented any problems for me. The Javits space allotted for NYAF was insufficient for Saturday but was tolerable on Friday and Sunday. Happily this mean the Tomino panel was rightfully full.

I had heard so many stories about Yoshiyuki Tomino but it is still hard to say what I was expecting. To be very brief, Tomino was quite chill from the moment he cut the Opening Ceremonies ribbon to the insistence that he finish answering all the fans who lined up to ask him a question at his Saturday panel. To expand more thoughtfully, Tomino in the past has made some pretty harsh remarks about all his works and most notably about Gundam but at this convention (and quite possibly because this year also marks the 30th anniversary) he seems to have accepted its value, its popularity, and become more content because of it. During his keynote, he remarked that he wanted Gundam to be remembered even more fondly than Star Wars. Tomino also gave the impression of being proud that he created something that is still watchable and relevant thirty years later then going on to discuss his use and philosophy of cinema which made Gundam the show it was. Though the audience may have been missing out on more wisdom from Tomino due to a poor translation at the Keynote, but thankfully at his Q&A this was corrected. The Q&A started off very lively as they showed a reel of Tomino’s work, many members of the audience sang along to the theme songs and of course there was mass cheering for many pieces on the screen (surprisingly Gundam ZZ had a rousing reception). Tomino then finally took center stage and got down to the nitty gritty of tackling fan questions. It was pleasing to see, after a couple of questions submitted online were answered, Tomino signaled that he would much prefer to answer those standing before him. He clearly understands how many people came from varying distances just to see him in the flesh, and frankly they should get the priority. The people helping to the run the Q&A went down the line hearing everyone’s question first, and making sure it was actually Tomino related. One could have probably heard the collected booing a mile away from the Keynote when a con-goer stood up and began to ask a question about Gundam 00. Tomino’s visit ended (not counting a final autograph session) with a showing of Ring of Gundam, his short 30th anniversary film. Tomino left the room with a standing ovation and there was little doubt that he made many a fan happy this past weekend.

I was expecting Tomino to be a man of very little words but for those few words to be extremely cranky and point blank. However, he  seemed genuinely happy and upbeat at the convention but you could tell that the cranky old man Tomino we all knew and loved was there. While his answers were always pleasant, he never seemed to be holding back. As expected there were a few lame question, a few rephrased and then repeated questions, and a few super egotistical questions from the attendees but overall selection was very good. Tomino mentioned that he always had regrets on all his series because he always felt they could be majorly improved in retrospect. But he also felt that feeling makes him always strive to do better in every project he works on. He said that one of the major themes of Gundam was that adults who were rigid in their mindsets were the enemy so therefore since he was super old that made him the super enemy now which got a good laugh out of the audience. Tomino seemed to have a fuzzy memory on any sort of details of the projects he had worked on. He thankfully remembered a little something about Sayla so I did get a partial answer to my question about what her role would be if she was in Zeta Gundam, he seemed to think he would have left things as is. I was also thrilled we got a good answer to the one Turn A Gundam question about why no newtypes appeared in the series. Tomino clarified the confusion by saying the people in Turn A would later become newtypes but the story couldn’t have been told as it was had they already evolved so. The way he dodged questions about Gunpla and his time at Mushi Productions told volumes but his actual feelings. When someone asked him about the possibility of Double Zeta Gundam compilation movies he stated that he was ignoring the fact that he was asked that question. Thankfully no one brought up Victory Gundam or Brain Powered. On a side note, during a reel of Tomino’s work they played almost every one except for Garzey’s Wing. I wonder if that was an accidental or deliberate oversight. Everyone who went to the Tomino panels and autographs sessions got a unforgettable experience out of it. Just look at that man’s face on the picture above. He seems down right giddy and it’s not just because he is holding a book with a page turned to Sochie although that is a good reason to be giddy.

So NYAF marked the first Bloggers Roundtable, it was an interesting experience, a learning experience if you will. You always have to have the first of these things and often times it has many flaws. Biggest being, there were just too many people but it’s such a difficulty because you want to get as many great people as you can! Also this panel was our first technical difficult in a while, and it was never actually corrected. We just did the best we could, and since the panel mainly involved talking it wasn’t a major issue. It started to get more lively as the panel continued, people got comfortable, and the discussions became more interactive. When first deciding what this panel was about, we thought asking only blogging questions might seem too blah (perhaps people wanted to know these bloggers on a more personal level), but they really engaged the audience so that would be the majority another time around I would think. In any case, it was fun and we did end up with plenty to talk about (even spilling over a bit since we were the last panel of the night).

Overall I think the Bloggers Roundtable went well despite the fact that it had major flaws. Several things will have to be changed if we ever run the panel again such as a maximum of five participants. I was a little worried that people would not have enough to say on certain questions but everyone had a good deal to share. In fact they often held back because of the size of the panel. We should also try to go to audience questions quicker, I was impressed by the number and quality of the questions from them. After this first round, we got a better understanding of what questions worked and what questions fell flat. Despite all the flaws I know I personally had a good time on the panel. I had fun hearing everyone’s answers and the playful banter of the panelists when things got rolling. I hope the audience had a good time, too. We even got a question from Zac “Answerman” Bertschy over the internet. I would definitely run this panel again if I could get people to do it. We will take what we learned from this attempt and make the panel even better.

We once again presented our Anime Recruitment panel with a good 30 or so people in the audience. This was a pleasant surprise considering the time slot of 4PM on Sunday, essentially the last panel slot for the convention, but hey someone has to go last. As always the Q&A portion where we answer any and all recommendation questions to the best of our abilities is the most fun and interesting part of the panel. This time around we were hit with some difficult requests like something gothic in style but with robots or a gore comedy. We were also called experts which was a little unnerving but kind of cool at the same time. Each time we do this panel we hone it just a little better and our ability to come up with a show for anyone increases. This is a panel that will be around for a long time with us because it goes over well and it is a lot of fun!

It is always fun to see a premiere at a convention. The ability to go a screening of something you will before everyone else is exciting. Much like Voices of a Distant Star it turns out that Cencoroll is the almost entirely a one man project done by Atsuya Uki. Cencoroll is the story on a bored teenager named Tetsu who has a shape shifting monster that is forced to do battle with another boy with a similar creature. Tetsu’s female classmate Yuki gets drawn into this conflict  when she discovers Tetsu’s secret. It was an amazing little piece especially since it was done by one person and used no CG. I had a very good look and feel. I am curious to see more work like Atsuya Uki. I would like to see him as the next Makoto Shinkai.

I didn’t really know much about Cencoroll till it was announced as a premiere title for NYAF. Then I began to hear things about it, most prominently that it was another one man show and put together without the use of CG. A fascinating part of this short was the discussion of what is acceptable in a short film verses a series. Cencoroll tells you virtually nothing about the why of its world or its premise but that was fine for a half hour jaunt. Beyond that, the relationship between boy, girl, and Cenco was well formed with some humor and moments of surprise. This 30-minute short ended up being a highlight of the convention.

There was a good amount of manga news and manga licenses at NYAF. While the manga market might not being growing anywhere as quickly as it used to it is not sickly from what I can see. I missed out on the Vertical panel because it was against Tomino but they announced four new manga titles, including Chi’s Sweet Home. More obscure titles were Peepo Choo from Felipe Smith that did the comic MBQ for Tokyopop before he started doing manga from Morning 2 in Japan; and Twin Spica and Needle which are two very different sci-fi manga. Tokyopop still seemed to be alive despite what everyone fears, for how long is another question. They admitted to switching to a cheaper paper company but had to switch back after a huge number of customer and retailer complaints. They had some new title announcements, including the next installment in the .hack line .hack//Link, so they still are in the game enough to get new manga. VIZ seemed to be doing extremely well as they announced not only some new manga but also anime and sci-fi novels. The most interesting announcement was that they will be streaming Inuyasha: The Final Act. I had a feeling that this was going to happen but it was never definite. I am curious how well this new fiction line is going for VIZ. All the other manga companies have been delaying or seemingly canceling their novel lines. Del Rey did not have a lot to say but they did pick up Rave Master. If there was any sure sign that Kodansha has cut off its ties to Tokopop it was the fact that they gave Samurai Deeper Kyo and now Rave Master to Del Rey despite the fact that both series had almost finished under Tokyopop.

The majority of the panels that I attended were industry related which in recent years have become fairly entertaining rather than tedious. Funimation always puts on a good show but I was shocked to find them making an announcement at NYAF. An announcement that personally made my draw drop, Initial D Fourth Stage. Actually, they have acquired all of Initial D and will be repackaging it. I nearly wept with joy. They also made mention of their upcoming ShoDojo site which is going to be a sort of social networking tool. The piece of the site that sounds fun is the ability to chat while watching streaming video. The launch of the site has been delayed but it could be another thing Funi does right for fans. Bandai didn’t have too much new stuff to say though they did have dates for things like the Eureka Seven movie on DVD (January 2010) and mentioning of things making the move to Blu-Ray such as the Escaflowne movie. These companies and others sat down on Sunday for, what has become a standard, State of the Industry panel moderated by Chris MacDonald of Anime News Network. There was not much new ground covered at this one, topics like watching digital media and reading digital media differing greatly as well as the difficulties in simulcasting (seemingly ignoring all the successful ones currently going on) were well discussed. One thing that leapt out thanks to so many anime companies finally doing streaming video is the inability to monetize such ventures, yet. It was pointed out that most likely their day will come but DVD/Blu-Ray is and will remain king for quite sometime.

I went to the How to Become Famous on the Internet panel which was an informative presentation on how to promote your work on the Net be it a blog, podcast, webcomic, or anything else that shows your skills as a artist or writer. It was pretty solid advice from panelists who knew their stuff. As always the most important thing is to go out there and honestly connect to other people. The How I Broke into the Anime and Manga Industries panel was nothing I did not know but I think it was a good wake up call for anyone who did not realize how hard it is. Kevin McKeever made it clear that it was extremely difficult to make your way into any entertainment industry because everyone else wants in as well. Sacrifice and the ability to deal with repeated failure is essential. The CPM Retrospective was a nostalgic look back on working at Central Park Media. I had heard quite a few stories from various people on how crazy Central Park Media and John O’Donnell could be for better and for worse. Although everyone spoke glowingly about their times at CPM is was obvious they took their fare share of lumps as often as had great times. It was a fitting tribute for a former major player in the anime industry.

The artist alley was located in a much better spot this year, and it was really hopping! And most importantly, it was open until the convention closed up at 10PM. I saw some familiar faces among the artists but plenty of new people to go around. In fact, while I had set a strict no buying policy for myself at this con, I broke it in artist alley for a piece of Cloud fan-art by a very talented fellow, ningyee7. I was much better at resisting in the dealer’s room. There were visibly more booths but the merchandise itself didn’t seem to be too special or rare for the most part. I was also sad to not see Ultimate Doujinshi. While I avoided this section for most of Saturday, I did move through it a little and found it cramped but not wholly deadly. Still is there ever enough room in the dealers room anywhere?

One of the biggest draws of any convention has nothing to do directly with the convention itself and that is meeting with your friends who you do not normally get to see and to hang out with your regular friends in a dynamic setting. I think that meeting One Great Turtle in real life was almost as awesome as meeting Tomino and that is saying a lot. I also got to meet the infamous Wild Arms Heero. He was unsurprisingly normal and quite amusing in real life. It was extremely fun going out to karaoke, stores, arcades, and meals with people you have only met online. Hey, I even got to play Melty Blood: Actress Again on an arcade machine. Speaking of karaoke, I am always fascinated by other people’s song choices. I wish I had enough Japanese knowledge to sing the Japanese songs like many others but people had to settle for my lame renditions of Queen and the Police instead.

New York Anime Fest brought many familiar faces to NYC this time around, some of which I already knew and some I would meet for the very first time during this event. So instead of having a big dinner at this convention, the theme was karaoke with many bloggers in tow (and friends) on Friday night. My Japanese is about pre-school level but others among me belted out all kinds of fierce Japanese tunes including Holy Lonely Night from Macross 7! If I practice really hard maybe I can pull some opening off in the near future. But there was also plenty of English songs being sung,  most memorable being On A Boat from SNL. This was the latest night of con and really wrecked me for the rest of convention. There were also various dining and chatting experience a plenty during the con and after hours. NYAF overall became a rather large hang out and meeting convention.

I am always most interested in the Japanese guests and the panels at any anime convention. They tend to be my meter stick of how much fun. Tomino pretty much assured that NYAF won completely and utterly in the guest department. My now signed Turn A Artbook was worth the time and money I spent on the convention alone. I would have liked to have seen one other big named Japanese guest but that was hardly a requirement. I did enjoy several of the panels but for some reason I felt this years panels were lacking. The ones I went to were excellent but there was a good deal of dead space for me on each day. It did give me time to hang out with people and have leisurely meals but I would have rather had to decide to either have a leisurely meal or a quick bite to eat like at Otakon. I am also a little bummed out that next year there will not be a single solitary NYAF but instead it will be combined with NYCC. I liked having a anime convention and a comic convention in Manhattan. I could do my anime events at NYAF and my comics events at NYCC. Hopefully NYAF will not just be a name tacked on the NYCC but only time will tell. Still I will remember New York Anime Festival with fond memories.

While I don’t want to be running without a moment to spare at a convention, I found myself too often with time on my hands. If there was one of two more rooms for panels or workshops this problem would be solved. Also the lack of fan run panels is certainly getting better but still wish to see more of a fan presence in the presentations. It will be interesting to see how it combines with New York Comic Con in the coming year. So really the highlight and reason for NYAF 2009 for me was Tomino and everything else was just something I went to in between. It can’t be said enough that having a chance to see and hear speak a director of such importance is a rare chance which makes NYAF one of the most memorable anime events I may ever attend. As Dave said during the Bloggers Roundtable, “Tomino Con 2009 was great!”

Top 5 Tomino shows I want to watch that are not Gundam
5. Aura Battler Dunbine
4. Invincible Super Man Zambot 3
3. Invincible Steel Man Daitarn 3
2. Space Runaway Ideon
1. Combat Mecha Xabungle

#0009
I was bullied in school, sometimes worse than others. It’s another thing I don’t like to revisit.

While bullying is never quite how it is in fiction it is all too real for most nerds, geeks, and otaku. Almost everyone in the survey has been bullied at some point. I am sure if we all look back over our lives we will notice that sometime someone has tried to hold dominion over us physically or mentally to the point that it could only be called bullying. Sometimes it’s a family member, sometimes it’s someone at school, sometimes it’s someone at work, sometimes it’s long term, and sometimes it’s a few isolated incidents. For most people, it is a trial you must face in their life at least once. But over all the weaker people perceive you the more people with predatory natures will be attracted to you. People who have geeky hobbies tend to be people who give off an aura of vulnerability and therefore they will get harassed more than other people.

This particular article in the series probably isn’t too surprising to anyone. If there is one thing that has been played to death on television and movies it is that nerds/dorks/geeks/what have you are notorious for being picked on. Though those instances are usually pretty exaggerated, the underlying idea that this happens a lot is still relevant. And while many of us think of bullying to be a thing sectioned off for childhood, there is plenty of it going on in workplaces. Bullying can take many forms from physical to verbal to isolation and it is always a coin toss to say which is more detrimental to a person. In this survey it became clear, for the most part, that almost everyone had suffered (or is still under such strain) under someone’s hand and it is not something easily forgotten.

#0055
I was a standard victim in junior high, but I was sensitive and took it very personally which caused problems later on.

#0030
I was picked on quite a bit from when I first started school on, and am still picked on now.

#0094
I was mostly ignored and excluded in school more than bullied.

People who were willing to share their kinkiest fantasies, their shocking misdeeds, their heartbreaking sorrows, and their darkest fears in great detail but would give one line answers when it came to being bullied. Even the safety of anonymity prevented many people from sharing their experiences which shows how powerfully it effects some. When people did bring up their stories they were usually painful and almost everyone who was bullied had a sense of shame about telling the story. This coupled with the number of people shows there is an extreme stigma not only about being bullied but even talking about it. This victim’s shame keeps things instead bottle up inside them. While bullying leads to anger management problems, low self esteem, depression, isolation, and all other sorts of physiological damage, keeping such feelings bottled up inside surely aggravates them. Also the few people who admitted to bullying others were just as silent on the whole matter. They would off handily mention that they did it and then say no more. But that sort of guilt is much more understandable.

#0019
I was picked on for being a nerd. . . . Frequently, groups of girls I’d never met would walk up to me, say “see that girl? SHE LIKES YOU!” before indicating a friend of theirs whom they were teasing and then bursting into laughter like the notion of a girl liking me was the funniest goddamn thing in the world . . . .

#0016
I was teased pretty much throughout my entire school career. . . . Starting in middle school I was sexually harassed by a group of boys who were spreading rumors that my best friend and I were lesbians . . . and the principals we complained to didn’t do anything about it.

#0045
I was smaller than most and kind of scrawny growing up, so I got bullied a bit until the late years of high school when I started getting bigger. I also was a bit of an outcast when it came to social standing, so that didn’t help any.

While many people listed varying degrees of being bullied ranging from quite severe to only minor isolated instances, the thoroughness of their accounts was given sparingly. For the most part people were reluctant to go into details about their experiences in this instance, sometimes in lieu of the fact they elaborated extensively in other parts of the survey. Many answered with a simple “Yes.” Perhaps the other things we may not tell the whole world about don’t sit on the same level of humiliation, helplessness, or erosion of confidence as bullying does for many people. There are multiple ways people are bullied so it is unclear what kind was most prevalent. Though many of the group mentioned their “looks” to be a factor. And while slowly over the course of reading through our participants survey’s we came to understand their personalities, it doesn’t really give you a direct line in many cases as to why people become victims. Or perhaps it didn’t give us a direct link to who they became later on.

#0099
It did a lot for my confidence I’ll tell you because I have absolutely none.

#0065
I had a bad temper, so kids found me to be a wonderful target, but I always got the feeling that even if it didn’t bother me they’d still do it.

#0011
I was picked on for much of elementary and middle school to the point of being beaten up fairly regularly. I wound up learning some martial arts to defend myself.

I am very surprised that whenever someone mentioned bullying they mentioned being bullied at school. I am sure that people who took the survey also got bullied by siblings, coworkers, customers, and a variety of other people but for one reason or another people, including myself, associate school with bulling more than anywhere else. I suppose that when siblings bully us it is seen as part of life unless they are particularly horrific about it. When you are at work it is seen as more of being lower on the food chain. But cruelty by follow students at school sticks out in our memories more than any other type of bullying. We are at our most emotionally and mentally vulnerable so any and all traumas are more severe because we have not yet developed all the tools to deal with such abuse.

Being bullied can taint your views of school and for some, maybe for many, it doesn’t make you long for childhood days gone by. But that doesn’t mean that everyone handled their situations the same. For some being bullied caused them to get angry, for others it sent them into depression, some in turn bullied others, and still others said they learned to turn the other cheek to such things. With all of these varying reactions it becomes clearer that being bullied doesn’t take its lead from your personality. For some it made them work harder to achieve, to prove themselves, and for others it left them feeling hurt and reduced their confidence to nil. Even the people that bullied, expressed remorse and guilt for their actions. Looking years after, you can see how it shaped each individual.

#0036
I became quite vindictive towards my tormentors and bystanders eventually.

#0073
At the time, I thought of it as friendly gestures, but now I’m very sure I bullied him.

I think this question more than many others showed a limitation to this form of doing the Otaku Diaries. While the email gave the participants both anonymity and good deal of time to answer lots of questions it also meant we were not able to ask follow up questions. Had we been face to face with many of the participants we would have asked for more detail about being bullied. I would have liked to hear a little more from the people who bullied other people, too. One or two people mentioned that since they were bullied they would never bully anyone else but almost anyone who was a bully had been bullied as well. But the information we got was quite illuminating on its own. It show us an ugly and tragic fact of most of our participants lives. But it was a universal hurdle that the majority had to face at one point of another.

Some take bullying very seriously, and some shrug it off as a the way of the world. Everyone in the survey had their own ideas about what it meant to them. What happens to us is just as important as how we move on from it (or if we ever do). This is certainly a fascinating topic that could have a survey all its own. More importantly, in connection with this survey is that the geek being bullied factor is a very real piece of growing up. Even if you weren’t bullied or did any bullying, you probably saw it happen. This is just one more important connection found between so many people sharing common hobbies.

Look for a new Otaku Diaries Post
the first Monday of every month!

Talking about moe was the third article we ever did for the blog. Moe is, for a wide variety of reasons, a topic that Narutaki is forced to discuss and debate with me on a regular basis. So this is an article that has been fermenting in our minds for quite awhile. A small discussion about the nature of moe and sexuality broke out on twitter. Scott VonSchilling was arguing that moe and sexuality are separate traits and should not be considered connected. I then used one example that turned the whole conversation into a fire storm of debate, Mikuru Asahina. She is a character who is famous for being extremely moe and extremely sexualized but more importantly sexualized for and by her moe. The conversation quickly spiraled out of anyone’s control.

It has been many moons since we last discussed this growing term and I don’t even remember what spurned on our first article. I honestly try to avoid such discussions when I can, it’s true but it still comes up pretty often whether I see it on Twitter or on a bus ride to Otakon. Sometimes I participate and sometimes I just take in the discussion going on around me. Moe, everyone’s got an opinion about it so what we are adding here is not just our overall perspective on the genre/term/thing, but rather a specific instance of it.

As I mentioned in our Otakon 2009 report I am still not sure people in the anime business in Japan comprehend the full meaning of moe let alone anyone else. I am better at defining what moe is and detecting it when it exists in a show but on the other hand I am still light years away from a perfect understanding or acceptance of the term. As far as I can tell moe has maintained its bizarre dual meaning. In a general sense it means an attraction and devotion to any trait. You can be moe for maids with glasses, blond boys who are in gangs, or curry joints that serve their dishes on trains. In a more specific, pure, and otaku sense it means the desire to protect weak characters that cannot protect themselves. In its ideal and stated definition there is no sexuality in moe. You want to protect the moe character and have a chaste love for them. Some describe it as a fatherly need to protect and nurture someone weaker. This more specific definition is the one that causes the most problems and is the focus of the discussion.

Up until a couple of years ago I had no idea this word even existed or held a place in fandom. Obviously, since then a lot of anime watching has happened, a lot of reading has gone on, and numerous discussion have taken place and still there is no consensus on what exactly moe is. Luckily, we are telling you which popular theory of the word is up for debate. Moe is about security and affection given through supporting and protecting a character who for some reason can’t do so on their own. There are a myriad of reasons why characters exude this need. Despite the many things I could say about this scenario (and the many problems that arise), they aren’t all relevant to this particular discussion. It’s worth noting that while some moe characters are very young, many fall into the high school age so always equating moe and lolicon is a stretch even though that is a popular assumption. And by extension moe does appeal to the lolicon crowd. However, what is important for the current theory we are undertaking is that the characters aren’t supposed to elicit eroticism but rather endearment.

Let’s set up my chessboard for a little Socratic dialogue about moe. The starting move is the following statement: Moe is a pure love; it is the desire to protect and nurture the helpless without any sexual motive. The simple counter to that argument is that moe characters can be found in sexual visual novels, harem anime, sexually-themed comedies, and romantic dramas. All of these shows have moe characters either in sexual or romantic roles. And what of the large merchandise market that provides plenty of service of these moe characters. However, it can easily be argued that merchandise is a totally separate thing entirely outside the intention of a work. But doesn’t fan made materials such as doujinshi reflect the wants and desires of fans? They say that their love of these characters is pure but their actions show otherwise. If moe characters were all in chaste scenarios a convincing argument could be made for moe always being pure in intent but that is clearly not the case. That is a definite sexual component to moe. What ever the intent is said to be it, many of the people enjoying these characters are sexually attracted to them because they are moe. I find this fact avoidably true. No matter what the stated intent of moe it seems to build an empire of sexuality around itself.

When a character is both moe and sexualized, are the two things coexisting but not overlapping? There are many hurdles to either side of this argument but let’s approach that moe is indeed related to sexual enticement. All of these words that come up such as purity, innocence, and virginity have been fetishized throughout history itself. It can’t be denied that their places in anime have been exploited as well. And all of those words are thrown around constantly when talking about the moe genre. It is pretty easy to see how those ideas become sexual in any context. Or take an example of backlash against a moe character that is implied is not pure, Nagi from Kannagi. In this instance, a character has seen a little more of the world so she loses her moe appeal. Why would this occur if not for a sexual desire for them and a want to be their first and only. This also leads into an issue of control. Dominance while it can manifest itself outside of a sexual relationships, it is once again some thing that is surrounded by erotic fantasies. And it fits right in with moe and it’s sheltered connotations. But just because these desires are a truth for some individuals, it doesn’t mean that every instances of moe is trying to be pillar of sex nor does it mean that everyone enjoying moe is watching for these reasons.

In the defense of the moe fan, much of the opposition is just as narrow-minded in their arguments. Moe can just as often not be sexual. Take series like the Kamichu! anime, GA: Geijutsuka Art Design Class, Yotsuba&!, Taisho Baseball Girls, plus many others can be categorized as moe but are not sexualized in the text they are presented in. People who dislike the moe trend will over analyze and pick apart these shows to show how it is sexual when it takes a bit of mental acrobatics to see it. The problem comes from the difference between statements, implications, and projection. A sexual visual novel with moe characters makes the clear statement that the moe characters within are sexual. Some shows don’t blatantly make the characters sexual but there is much implied just looking at the camera angles used on certain shots. This leads to the third most important part, projected sexuality. Certain shows that are not sexual have sexuality projected on them by people who for one reason or another want the show to be sexual. This does not make the show sexual. What you project on a show does not change what the show is. If you use a keyboard as a hammer in does not inherently make keyboards into hammers.

Just about anything on Earth can be seen as sexual by someone. People can be attracted to scarves, knife-wielding muscle men, or girls who work at okonomiyaki restaurants but every instances of these things is not there as a fetish element (or is it!?). Everyone is seemingly aware of this, but when it comes to moe (and certainly other things, magical girl shows anyone?) that message and knowledge can get lost. In addition to that, there are lots of different degrees of moe shows. Some shows wear it like a badge of honor and every moment has moe written all over it where as in others series it is subtle and has other components besides a moe character. Just think about the different tones of moe shows out there, they range from sad or sappy romances to light-hearted slice-of-life stories. The depiction of characters is different each place you look. But there is another important to piece to this puzzle. Some people cherry pick what they like about characters or series for that matter, they compartmentalize. While I don’t wholly believe you can take a sexual element out of a character that is clearly exuding it, there is an argument for it.

In conclusion, like most everything else it is absolute statements that are extremely captivating and pithy but almost always incorrect and overgeneralizing. They are also almost always argumentative statements made to push an agenda or provoke a reaction but not to come to any sort of understanding. Moe can easily be sexual in nature but that does not mean that all moe characters are sexual. If people find them sexual that is in their own heads. Moe can be synergistic to sexuality but they are not synonyms or subcategories they are merely traits they can and often have influence on each other. To say that moe must or must not be sexual is to ignore whole shows and characters to push a certain agenda forward in the defense or rejection of moe. The truth almost always lies in the middle if you are willing to open your eyes. In that middle path there is a greater understanding of moe and a greater understanding of anime itself.

Everyone has a line, a limit, when it comes to sexual connotation and certainly everyone has things they find unseemly. When it comes to moe this seems to come up tenfold and the divide becomes a deep chasm of people unwilling to yield to a middle ground. I admittedly have a lot of problems with moe in general but I have to defend the ability to enjoy a show or character without an underlying sexual motive. At the same time, it is ludicrous to say all moe has no erotic intent. Certain watchers get different things out of a show is what this all comes down to. My brief mention of dominance and my non-mention of growth is a whole other can of worms that will certainly see itself made into an article further down the road. As always, this conversation never seems to have an ending.

Top 5 Moe shows that I actually like
5. Taisho Baseball Girls
4. The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya
3. Risky Safety
2. Kamichu!
1. Azumanga Daioh

 #0044
Otakudom is all that I am.

The story in this portion of the Otaku Diaries starts almost at the very genesis of the project itself. When we sent out an initial call for people to participate in the Otaku Dairies, one of the first places we put up a request was in the forums at MyAnimeList. Several people spoke up saying that while they were interested in the project they felt that is was detrimental to call the project the “Otaku Diaries” because of the negativity surrounding the word “otaku.” This negative reaction threw me off guard. I was aware that there was a growing backlash against the English definition of otaku but I never realized it was that strong on the Internet. This incident along with several other conversations encouraged us to add a few question about how the participants of the survey view the word “otaku.” We asked the participants what their thoughts were on the word, if they considered themselves otaku, would they admit to being otaku to others, and would they be more or less willing to date or be friends with people who called themselves otaku.

#0034
. . . I tend to be sympathetic to the otaku personality traits that are often thought of as negative, and of course while “otaku” covers a wide range of interests, it probably means there are more things the potential friend/date and I could enjoy doing together.

#0016
I think of it as a word that Japanophiles apply to themselves to sound even more “different.”

Even though we called this the Otaku Diaries, it was interesting to see how everyone reacted to the word “otaku.” As you can see, 1/4 of the people who answered our call proclaimed themselves not otaku even with us leading the charge of calling the participants in our survey just that. I, too, was thrown by many complaints early on in the titling of this experiment but some of that can be chalked up to the Internet being a place where people love to argue. Some but not all. From many answers, we can tell that people are becoming more aware of the history of the word “otaku” in Japan. However, be that as it may the majority of people still found the word positive in their current state or were atleast middling. Afterall, “otaku” is used quite frequently in American anime fandom, just look around, we just got back from Otakon, many of us read OtakuUSA, and you can even find a date on OtakuBooty. I think you’d be hard pressed to say that the use of “otaku” in these instances is being bandied about in a negative manner.

#0009
I used to think it was a positive label, now I’m convinced otherwise. I’ve yet to see a convincing argument that would make me change my mind. Otakudom is often synonymous with social ineptitude and derangement.

#0080
It shows how dedicated you are to what you love. Although there are some who have made the term less than desirable, I think the term should be associated with good.

Loanwords are an interesting thing. Usually a language utilizes a foreign word because the word fills a niche in the language adopting the word but on occasion when a word is taken up by another language the meaning changes. Some times this shift in definition is subtle and other times it is a complete reinvention of the word. “Otaku” is is a clear example of a subtle but profound shift in the meaning. To make a very long story short, “otaku” usually means hardcore anime fan in specific and dedicated fan in general. The main difference between its meaning in America and Japan is that the Japanese see it more as a mark of shame with a distinctly negative connotation and Americans generally see it as a badge of honor with a distinctly positive connotation. The majority in this instance still considers “otaku” to be a positive word. Though several people did mention that at one time or another they had had only a rose-colored view of the word but have since stricken the word from their vocabulary when talking about themselves.

#0079
. . . I’ve never felt the Americanized version of the term applied to me . . . but the label itself fits me fairly well.

#0081
When I think of otaku, I think of the definition that seems to be focused here: a strong anime fan. I feel like there’s already a connection made by sharing the same interests, so it would be easier to relate to someone who calls themselves an otaku by that meaning.

#0069
I don’t describe myself as an otaku anymore. Am I a fan, yes. Am I a big fan, yes. Am I obsessed, no.

“Otaku” is a rare word that has become defined by the person saying it in this survey. Some people even mentioned that based on who was using the word “otaku” and the way in which it was said can make it an insult. But at the same time there is a very real chasm dividing people about it. Many said with 100% certainly that it was a badge of honor, proof that you were a proud and knowledgeable fan. And then some participants insisted that they are just a “fan” and the word “otaku” holds no place in themselves. But is fan not short for fanatic, a word synonymous with extreme devotion and obsession? Just as that word has taken on a more broad appeal (though we certainly see news reports of “crazed fans”), maybe the word “otaku” in the anime community will continue to diversify itself.

#0019
Being called an otaku is an insult. It’s not something you want to be. At the same time, I am one. I wish I wasn’t, but I am.

#0067
I don’t ever use the word otaku to describe myself and rarely use it to describe others—to me it is derogatory, as it is in Japan.

#0045
There’s no shame to me in using it as a badge of honor to explain what and who you are. So using it in a description might even make me more inclined to meet or date them because it means at least a shared interest in that sort of thing.

Of note is that several people mentioned they found the word “otaku” negative but would still attribute it to themselves and even mention it in casual conversation. Essentially they are in so deep that they could not hide it. Contributors to the survey listed co-workers as the most common group of people they were reluctant to mention their anime hobby to. There were a wide variety of reasons from shame to not talking about their personal lives at work. Most people either assumed the people they would not tell about their anime fandom either did not care, would not get it, or would look down on them. This is hardly limited to anime and manga, in general people are more likely to hide their hobbies if society in general labels those activities as nerdy. Everyone on the survey would tell someone else they knew who was into anime though. This goes to show why anime conventions and Internet sites about anime are so popular. Once people feel they are safe, they are willing open up. I think people want to share their fandom with others but have been burnt in the past and therefore guard what they see as vulnerabilities.

#0063
I do identify myself as an anime fan . . . online fairly readily . . . and in real life it’s fairly obvious, too. . . . Basically if you’ve met me for more than 30-minutes, I’ve probably made myself clear.

#0094
I don’t really like to share much about myself in general let alone what nerdy hobbies I am into.

It’s also important to mention that the age range of people who kept their fandom private varied greatly. Many people have attributed an overzealous nature to younger fans, but here we saw that even those still in high school or recently graduated had just as many qualms with the word “otaku” and/or sharing that they were indeed anime fans with the rest of their social circle. Equally telling were people saying they would befriend someone calling themselves “otaku” and also many inferring that they would know from the start they would have something in common with the person. This was rather refreshing to me as I’ve mentioned I see a splintering in fandom. In earlier days if you met someone who liked anime you would more than likely have some common ground, but now with so many choices out there many feel liking anime is not enough to build on. Here we found the inclination to be very much alive.

#0015
I haven’t told my friends, I’m worried they either wouldn’t know what it is or just judge me. . . .

#0096
I have used the word “otaku” to describe myself. I usually have to explain what that is to my family and friends. . . . Despite its offenses in Japan, the word “otaku” has come to represent a group that I identify with in America.

I still think that a majority of anime fandom still has a decent self image. Most people who answered the survey saw at least some benefit of being an anime fan. They had some amount of pride in enjoying what they liked. Yes, there were some people who saw their fandom as an albatross a