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OMG SHIPPUUDEN
Wow. I bet a lot of you have never been around while I'm in the middle of an anime obsession, have you? The thing is, anime was my High School Thing, and the reason I got onto LJ in the first place, and the reason I started writing fanfic, but once I'd spent some time in the Yami no Matsuei and X/1999 fandoms around the age of sixteen/seventeen...I didn't really watch it much. (With the notable exceptions of Ouran and -- recently -- Death Note.) I stopped going to conventions and cosplaying and reading manga.
But, apparently, I never quite managed to shake my inner anime fangirl. So now I'm watching Naruto and planning fic and cosplay (maaaaaaybe) and learning silly dances and it's pretty much entirely![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
ryokophoenix's fault, but I'm having a great time. I'd forgotten what it was like to be able to sing an entire song in Japanese despite not knowing more than five words in the language, and to share a fandomly enthusiasm with people that you know in real life.
And now I'm wondering what other series I've been missing out on. Because I really love this medium; it was such a huge part of my high school experience and it's still so, so different to anything the Western market produces (except Avatar! WHOO AVATAR!). Mel & I talked today about the fact that very few Western TV shows aimed at children have such epic scope and such hugely emotional, moral cores as most anime series. Most Western TV shows for kids have plots that are contained within a single episode, and most of them don't make many intellectual demands on the viewer or ask that they absorb more than a simple message. Granted, not all anime does this, but most of it does focus on a story arc that can take years to climax, because they're usually based on something that was a serialised graphic novel. It demands an attention span. And a willingness to pay attention to complex ideas. (And that's not even starting on the fact that in Western society, most animation is aimed only at children, and graphic novels are considered the provence of a subculture rather than a legitimate medium for any genre imaginable.)
I'm quite tipsy, so I could be talking out of my arse, but I am really glad that I got into anime before I started judging it based on its collective fans or its popularity or, god help me, American dubs.
But, apparently, I never quite managed to shake my inner anime fangirl. So now I'm watching Naruto and planning fic and cosplay (maaaaaaybe) and learning silly dances and it's pretty much entirely
ryokophoenix's fault, but I'm having a great time. I'd forgotten what it was like to be able to sing an entire song in Japanese despite not knowing more than five words in the language, and to share a fandomly enthusiasm with people that you know in real life.And now I'm wondering what other series I've been missing out on. Because I really love this medium; it was such a huge part of my high school experience and it's still so, so different to anything the Western market produces (except Avatar! WHOO AVATAR!). Mel & I talked today about the fact that very few Western TV shows aimed at children have such epic scope and such hugely emotional, moral cores as most anime series. Most Western TV shows for kids have plots that are contained within a single episode, and most of them don't make many intellectual demands on the viewer or ask that they absorb more than a simple message. Granted, not all anime does this, but most of it does focus on a story arc that can take years to climax, because they're usually based on something that was a serialised graphic novel. It demands an attention span. And a willingness to pay attention to complex ideas. (And that's not even starting on the fact that in Western society, most animation is aimed only at children, and graphic novels are considered the provence of a subculture rather than a legitimate medium for any genre imaginable.)
I'm quite tipsy, so I could be talking out of my arse, but I am really glad that I got into anime before I started judging it based on its collective fans or its popularity or, god help me, American dubs.