What is a fan? A miserable pile of doujinshi!

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I was recently reading the Ogiue Maniax blog and he had brought up some fascinating points about what he thinks determines what a fan is. I brought the post to Narutaki’s attention mostly because it made me wonder what both of us thought makes an anime fan. What separates an anime fan from a person who just happens to just to watch anime? They might seem to be the same but I postulate that they can be very different.

We have definitely had numerous discussions, both heated and not, about fans in the anime community. It seems like one of those subjects that everyone has an opinion on, so why not think out-loud here with ours. I don’t know if we will actually come to some concrete definition, but hopefully we can clear our minds of it and maybe others will tell us what they think a fan is.

One of the greatest problems with any classification is that the extremes are easy to determine. People who are clearly not interested in anime are obviously not fans. Mega otaku are so deep in fandom that their love and devotion of anime is unmistakable. The problem is the people that are near the borders of what makes someone a fan. Where they fall, how you classify them, is strictly up to personal prejudice and taste.

No one is going to 100% agree on the definitions that get thrown out there, hell I don’t even agree with myself on where people fall. I continually ask these kinds of questions and go back and forth on my own definitions. I also think it is really easy to get a skewed opinion depending upon what parts of the anime community you frequent and what you read. It is easy to hate all of fandom if all you read is 4chan.

One of the main things we both got out of the Ogiue Maniax blog was that he postulates are two general types of people who watch anime. Anime fans and anime consumers. I don’t think the amount of anime you watch determines which category you are in. It’s not the simple divide between casual anime fan and hardcore. I think you could watch every anime show ever and still be an anime consumer and you could only watch a handful of shows and be an anime fan. What determines what category you fall into is mainly how emotionally invested you are in the medium.

I agree, but at the same time I think if you have delved deep and watched years and years worth of anime then you are most probably an anime fan, unless you’re in complete denial. And people who have just discovered the medium can be fans, just new ones. I guess it really comes down to the fact that I don’t feel you have to know everything about anime to call yourself a fan. In some instances, the pursuit of knowledge is just as important as actually learning it. It is when people claim to know it all, when they know zip, that’s when the annoyance starts. But this is where that whole gray area of fandom comes in.

An anime consumer enjoys anime. An anime fan cares about anime. There are many ways of expressing that you care about anime. I feel that supporting the industry is a big factor in showing that you care about anime. I also see an interest in learning about anime as a significant factor in being a fan. By looking into older shows, looking into who created the works you’ve seen, and researching references made in shows all support you having deep interest in what anime is all about. Participating in anime fandom can also show that you care. By doing any of these things or not doing any of these things does not necessarily make you an anime fan but I feel they are all good indicators.

I find those first two phrases to be very eloquent, simple but impactful and sensible. I have always felt a big part of fandom is caring beyond your own personal bubble of anime love. Seeking out other people is a good start because the exchange of information is ten-fold! The internet makes is easy to by knowledgeable so if someone doesn’t do any research its hard for me to see them as fan. And being involved in campaigns for shows to get licensed, have a TV run, or be shown in theaters is an excellent piece of fandom. And of course we are big on industry support, so I definitely see purchasing of legitimate DVDs and whatnot an important factor. But as we all l know a lot of young people don’t have that much income. I also feel that trying to spread the love of anime is a great part of being a fan! Sharing it with others, introducing them to it, and helping them out is a good indicator to me.

I think another problem with classify people is some people think they are anime fans when they are really only fans of a specific show or genre. You could be a Naruto or Dragonball Z fan but only a casual consumer of any other type of anime. This does not mean you are less devoted to your chosen show but it also does not automatically make you a fan of the rest of the medium. The problem comes when such a person goes around claiming they are an anime fan or expert when they are anything but.

People’s own classification of themselves makes everything all the more complicated. And the extremes of this are downright hilarious. You have people all over messageboards proclaiming they are not, absolutely not, anime fans. If you proceed to discuss anime on a daily basis. . . . I’m twice as amused by people who “hate” shows but proceed to watch the new fan-sub of them every week. What is with the self-loathing? And it is not like I have never been ridiculed about my hobbies, but seriously people. Though it is okay because I always get a good chuckle.

With all the being said I feel that an anime consumer is anyone who watches anime but does not invest any of themselves into it. They watch anime and enjoy it but they do not love it. I don’t want to be an elitist about this but as soon as one says that you can be sure the next sentence is going to be elitist. No matter how much you tell yourself you’re a fan, a consumer is not. However, I don’t think that because you’re an anime consumer you are not worthy of watching anime or you don’t get anime. Heck, I’m pretty sure there are far more anime consumers than anime fans. Without anime consumers anime would be even more of a niche market than it currently is; anime conventions would be small time affairs; Best Buy or Barnes and Nobel wouldn’t carry anime and manga.

Thank you anime consumers! If it wasn’t for you we would never get our niche titles. No one is unworthy of watching anime, but you can be unworthy of the title “fan.”

If nothing else this article has given me an odd insight into myself. I have always wondered my I did not have the same anime awakening story that everyone else I know did. I did not have that one show that I watched that instantly made me anime fan, atleast not till many years later . I remember liking anime since junior high school. I saw Ninja Scroll, Ghost in the Shell, Akira, and Ranma 1/2. I would occasionally watch what tapes people gave me or I stumbled upon but I never went out of my way to hunt down more. I remember watching Robotech and Dragon Warrior but I never had the realization that they were Japanese until years later. I always said I liked anime and would have labeled myself an anime fan. Heck, I begged by girlfriend in college to drive me hours away to see Spirited Away in theaters. But it was no greater passion in my life than say video games, sci-fi, fantasy, or table top role playing games.

I think a lot of people start off as consumers, especially now with all the access to it, and then blossom into fandom. Years ago you practically had to be a fan because you would need to go so out of your way to get your hands on things. However, I know I jumped into fandom pretty quickly. I was introduced to Ninja Scroll at the age of 11, thanks Lothos! Soon followed up by Akira, Record of Lodoss War OVA, and Slayers. I sort of hit the ground running, though I think that is just my personality. It was crazy back then to find out so many of our favorite shows as kids were anime. Me and my friend used to exchange info and shows; share and share alike. Funnily enough we both bought Evangelion at almost the exact same time. It was just coming out on VHS in the states then. So I guess I did had that one show, it all came about because of Jubei Kibagami.

It was not until my last year in college that someone lent me the Ranma 1/2 OAVs and I truly became a fan. For some reason those OAVs awakened a desire to know more about this medium that I had once only had a surface interest in. I started to look into what else Rumiko Takahasi had written. I started going to Ranma fan sites. Then I started going to general anime fan sites. I looked into the various other genres of anime. I wanted to see more, know more, and do more. I now realize in retrospect that I had been transformed. From an anime consumer to an anime fan.

Narutaki Currently!
Watching Tower of Druaga
Reading Dororo
Listening to Gackt live

Hisui (Brainwasher Detective) Currently:
Watching Karin
Reading Dororo
Listening to Yuusha-oh Tanjou! (Mythology Version) by Masaaki Endou and the GGG Shoujo Vocal Team

Anime and Manga of the Month: June

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Manga of the Month
Dragon Eye by Kairi Fujiyama

Leila is a brand new recruit to VIUS, a large organization of people combating the mysterious D-Virus. Both the organization and the virus itself, which turns the infected into blood thirsty, destructive “Dracules,” we know little about. Through a series of events, some quite amusing, she ends up in the hands of Issa, Captain of Squad Zero. Issa is seemingly lackadaisical, which is probably why the squad only includes himself and now Leila. But he is probably brilliant and you soon learn that his past is filled with holes. The glimpses of his former life bring a lot of much needed tension to the story. This becomes of serious importance as the Dracules begin to move as an organized group rather than a bunch of unthinking monsters. His relationships with some characters are strained while others truly believe in him, as it becomes more clear that some know a bit more about him than others. The cast changes somewhat from story to story as Squad Zero is always borrowing help, this peppers the story with some fun team-ups. The art is well done and the weaponry and equipment is cool which adds to the well done fights. Dragon Eye is a shonen adventure series, but it uses its formula well and creates characters you wish to see through to the end.

Anime of the Month
Black Lagoon by Madhouse Studios

Normally we showcase less known series in the Anime and Manga of the Month but I decided to throw up a better know. title that is in an odd predicament. Geneon went under and so far no one has saved the license. The dub for both seasons is done because they played them both on Canadian Tech TV. I really want someone to pick up the second season there in the states. I think it’s a guaranteed seller with legs.

Black Lagoon is about being awesome and having Revy, the duel pistol wielding awesome goddess incarnate. Black Lagoon is essentially an animated action movie. The story revolves around Rokuro Okajima who gets kidnapped by the pirates of the Lagoon Company but ends up as part of the crew. The Lagoon Company crew is as follows. Rock whose role is to be the fish out of water who has some invaluable negation skill from his days as a salary man. Revy is the muscle. Dutch being the muscular African-American seems like he would be the tough of the group but he is the companies leader and tactician. Benny rounds out the group as the hacker.

The intensity of the series is always turned up to 11. Even in the quieter moments the show have an underlying ferocity. There is also a tendency to throw out realism in favor of style. Revy duel wields pistols not because it’s practical but because it looks awesome. PT boats take on helicopters with mini-guns. People fight with chainsaws, flamethrowers, or throwing knives on chains because it looks freaking awesome. Also the characters are almost always a mixture of fascinating and frightening. Roanapur is an amoral city in which only the crafty and strong make it through the day. Black Lagoon is a fun, gritty, action anime. Viz is going to start publishing the manga soon and I really hope someone will step up to the plate and re-license this series.

Special Screening: Death Note the Movie, I needs more L

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So, all around the country, for two special nights, Death Note the live-action movie was playing in theaters. I was not about to miss this as I quite enjoyed this movie and its sequel. I love the chance to see movies on the big screen, I always wish I could do it more often. But in NYC you pay 10-11 dollars to see a movie…I swear. So I only bust out that hard earned cash for special moments, this was one of them.

I too like to see anime movies in the theaters as well. I would really like to see a good comedy, as good comedies are only enhanced by an audience. Though I don’t know of any comedy anime that would be popular enough for their movies to be playing in American theaters. I suppose that I will take what I can get. I know they are going to be showing the Bleach movie soon as well. The dub alone will keep Narutaki away but I might just go out of random curiosity, since I’m one of the few people who has not seen it. No amount of loyalty to anime fandom will make me pay money to watch a Naruto movie though. I would not so secretly like to see the Kara no Kyoukai movies in theaters but there are going to seven of them and that it’s not popular in the U.S. so that makes it almost impossible. I am also sure that the Evangelion movies would be simply amazing on the big screen but someone has to shell out some serious cash before that will ever happen.

We saw the film, along with other friends, at the Regal Cinema at Union Square. We pre-ordered our tickets but I didn’t see any big line for the event. Also, I noted before we went up (maybe 15 minutes before show time) that the event had yet to sell out. The theater was pretty crowded though and our seats were forced to near the front. I have some friends in Indianapolis and they said their theater was pretty crowded, too. So I’ll assume it was pretty much the same all over.

It was crowded enough that they will hopefully do something like this again. It was not enough to have it to play for several weeks but I think it’s enough to get two showing for those who want them.

Unlike the manga and anime Death Note the movie starts slightly in medias res. The movie begins with criminals all over the word suddenly dying of heart attacks. Law enforcement agents around the world are baffled as to who is doing the killing and how exactly they are doing it. It turns out that they are being performed by Light Yagami a young college student you uses a Shinigami’s magical note book to kill people. When Light writes anyones’ name in the book, while think about their face, the person who’s name he writes dies. As the Japanese police force start their investigations, they are approached by L the world’s greatest detective who has some theories about these murders. The Japanese form a task force with L at the helm to try and solve the mystery of the deaths.

I quite liked the pacing of the movie. It kept the wonderful cat and mouse that drew me into the original manga. We got a lot of the defining moments from the beginning of the story, like: the L TV broadcast, the bus scene, all the Raye scenes really, and the chips. There were new additions as well, especially the twist at the end which is completely new and you really see the director moving things to his own needs at that point. But I liked that, I am happy with the way he is telling this lengthy story in a just a few short hours. Also the Death Note manga is extremely word heavy and I was glad to see they didn’t bring that to the movie, not tons of internal monologues or any such thing. You were really able to read the characters emotions form the actors.

I think you just like the fact that Misa Misa was kept to a minimum in this movie. When you only have two movies to adapt a 12 book series, I suppose it helps that several arcs in the manga are weaker than others and can mostly be axed out with no problem. The director certainly knew how to show and not tell which helped cut down on the need for lengthy mental dialogues, while still showing the back and forth between people trying to outwit each other. I also like that Naomi Misora was given a little more time in the movie. I had always wished she stuck around longer in the manga.

Fujiwara Tatsuya comes out of the gate being the charming and intelligent, young man with a god complex, Light Yagami. It is always engrossing to know what Light is up to unbeknownst to the rest of the characters (except possibly L) and realize how cunning his interactions with them are. After Light falls into L’s first trap, he wises up and starts to push the envelope of how far one can think ahead. Fujiwara takes acting with his CG partner, Ryuk, in stride and never over acts to compensate. However, Ryuk comes off as much more comic like than I felt in the original story. Which added some downright laugh out loud audience moments.

I think everyone noticed that really odd scene where they used a cardboard cutout instead of CG to make Ryuk’s shadow. It was an interesting bit on unintentional comedy. I don’t think they played up Ryuk’s comedic aspects as much as minimized the creepy/scary moments. Oh and I think you have forgotten a most important fact: Light’s father is played by none of than Chairman Kaga from Iron Chef. I admit it’s not easy to see, especially when at no point in the movie does he dramatically bite into a pepper or wear a flashy suit.

I was quite amused and couldn’t help getting caught up with the crowd when L appeared on the screen; the theater went into applause. Kenichi Matsuyama really looks the part of L and once he opens his mouth he solidifies his rendition of the eccentric, but brilliant, detective. L’s character is very much in tune with his manga counter-part, he thinks like no one else and is able to get results, albeit not always by ethical means. And as he sat on the couch making pastry-kebabs I knew the character was spot on.

From what I can tell, L seems to be the most popular character in Death Note so they better have picked a good actor for him. I was happy with L as well. I think Kenichi put in the right combination of playful, creepy, eccentric, and amazingly brilliant to his portrayal of the world famous detective.

I was really surprised it was dubbed, really wasn’t expecting that. Because as most people can attest, possibly from watching some swanky kung-fu movies, dubbing real people is a whole different ball game than dubbing animation. It is just plain more difficult. This was probably done due to its popularity on Adult Swim. However, the most important ones were decently done. Though I’d be lying by saying it was great and preferable. Light and L’s voicing was close to their characters’ original sound at least and most of the time they didn’t speak like William Shatner. I can’t say the same for the rest of the cast. I can also blame the major amount of chuckling to the dub, too. I am glad to have seen it fan-subbed first. And what I couldn’t understand was the lack of subtitles for cell phone messages, newspapers, etc it was just plain lazy.

Odd that you mention swanky kung-fu movies because the dub really does come off as an old Shaw Brothers movie dub at times. I half expected Light to comment on the weakness of L’s crane style investigation-fu at the end of the movie. All the live action Japanese movies and TV dramas we have watched together have been subbed so I wonder if it’s just the way most live action movies come off or is this movie weaker than others? I have noticed for some reason when they play Japanese movies, be it live action or anime, they tend to play them without the option for subtitled signs in theaters. Most of the time you can get away with it but there are far too many scenes where plot was being conveyed by text for it to be anything less than very silly.

The bonus, a making-of featurette after the movie, was mundane at best. There were no real insights, a very brief interview with the director, and mostly us seeing scenes from the movie but with all the equipment in the shots. The only nice thing was the preview for Death Note: The Last Name. I would guess that Viz plans to release that theatrically in a similar manner. When is yet to be determined.

Other than getting a laugh out of a few of the directors odd comments I don’t think we got any grand insight into the movies though the featurette. It was nice to have a little extra that you did not get with the fan-sub but I’m sure Narutaki just wanted more Kenichi Matsuyama running around as L. I suppose that explains why L: Change the WorLd and Death Note: Another Note got made in the first place. The world just needs more L.