December 16th, 2008

The Genshiken dilemma: Clothes or Manga?

 Even manga and anime fans get credit crunched. I learnt this the hard way. Anyone who has watched the anime classic, Genshiken, will know the dilemma faced by an otaku when he walkes into a clothes shop, reluctantly, being forced to buy new clothes. I mean, seriously, being an anime and manga fan costs a heck of a lot of cash and a new cashmere sweater cannot… or should I say… will not win against the new volume of Fruits Basket. It’s an unwritten rule known by all manga fans. Okay, that’s a lie, but there should be one! This got me thinking about the peculiar realities about fan culture and how someone can go unknowingly from simply liking something to becoming a hardcore fan. So I compiled a light hearted list of the things that made me realise how I went from being a simple fan to an all out manga fangirl:

Strategically stacking your manga books on your book shelf to fit as many books as possible

It’s the kind of conversation you can only have with another manga fan. In the early days when I was new to the manga fandom, I went into a children’s book shop where the sales assistant was stacking manga. I asked for his recommendations and we ended up in a rather amusing conversation about Tokyo Mew Mew which went something like this: “How can you not like Tokyo Mew Mew? It’s so cute!”, “That’s the problem, it’s too cute.” “What do you mean it’s too cute?”, “……”

I lost that battle, but we then went on to talk about what to do when you have too many books and he suggested how to position books to get as many possible on a shelf. It was such a bizarre conversation, I even  laughed at him at one point, but when I left the bookshop he gave me a knowing smile, he just knew what was going to happen. Six months later I was surrounded by books and even though I had mocked him at the time, he had the kindness to help me even before I knew I would later have a manga storage problem.

Spending less on clothes to buy more manga…

I wasn’t even aware I was doing this until I watched Genshiken. Man, was that an eye opener! There’s another version of this that I’m embarrassed to admit. When I saw an expensive jumper, I automatically started calculating, “How many volumes of manga could I get instead?” Boys and girls don’t laugh, I’m sure this has happened to you. And if it hasn’t, just you wait, the next time you step into Gap, you will experience some manga arithmetic’s. No anime or manga fan is immune.

…But when you do buy clothes, it’s all things a manga character would wear

A friend dragged me out shopping a while back to look at clothes. Look being the key word here. Every so often I would see an item and go, “That’s what Yuki or Kyo would wear.” My friend, bless her patience, would smile and chuckle at me, she’s used to my manga-centric observations. But as I learnt to my peril, it soon gets addictive, from Kino’s military jacket to  Yuki’s Chinese style shirts, I woke up one morning to discover manga characters had suddenly invaded my wardrobe.

All your music is in Japanese

When people ask me who my favourite band is, I’m quite tempted to lie, to say some English or European band. Before I got into anime, my music taste was very alternative. Fast forward a couple of years later and let’s just say it’s even more obscure. I was used to people saying “Who?” when I name dropped my favourite bands, now that still happens but with even more blank expressions. Go on, let’s play name the celebrities below:

Keep making an excuse to eat Japanese food

I’m really, really, bad at this. Whenever I say, “Let’s go to restaurant,” my friends have now figured out what I really mean is, “Let’s go to a Japanese restaurant.” I blame those spinning carousel things, I could spend hours watching those plates go round and round.

Manga speech bubbles

By far, the most funniest moments have been when I’m having a conversation with someone and an imaginary manga speech bubble pops up beside their heads. The lady who ran the cake shop at the now closed Oriental City always looked at me with weird expressions when I walked in asking for random cakes I had read about in my manga comics. I still have yet to find warm bean jam cakes but my hunt continues.

Manga haircuts

This perhaps was the key give away that I am way into my manga. Two and a half years ago I walked into my hairdressers clutching the dvd cover to Last Exile and requested an anime haircut. This was perhaps the moment that set me on the road to becoming a manga fangirl. My hairdresser played along, as she had never had such a request before and since then I have had countless manga haircuts, everyone from Yuki, Akito, Kino, Light, Ritsuka and Yoite. If I ever walked in and asked for a normal haircut, she would be surprised, but with so many interesting hairstyles, I don’t think that will happen any time soon.

 

 

December 12th, 2008

Samurais

When people think of Japanese stereotypes, samurais and ninjas must be the most disseminated ones in pop culture. Ninjas were spies and assassins, warriors said to possess the powers of ninjutsu, the ninja techniques, and the image of the ninja dressed all in black is a powerful one.

Samurais in their full armour are also a very powerful image. But for aesthetic reasons, they usually appear in their kimonos in anime and manga.

There are no famous ninjas worth talking about, after all a known ninja is a ninja who blew his cover. But the same can’t be said for samurais. Many of them survived in history and legend and I dare say it’s impossible to like anime without meeting a character inspired by a samurai or even a romanticized version of one. Keep reading →

December 9th, 2008

Vacation away from anime

Sometimes you can just watch too much anime even if you don’t watch that much. The amount of new series being released can be overwhelming to the point where you just have to step back for a while because you can’t tell if a series is good or if a series is bad anymore, it just exists. Time for a holiday away from anime for a while.

Keep reading →

December 9th, 2008

Will Hollywood ever do a decent adaptation?

First off, apologies for the delay (and for the crooked images, wordpress is weird). I have exams this week and I was through in Glasgow watching The Kings of Leon rock the house at the S.E.C.C.

Anyway, earlier on during the week I had to endure one of the worst films I’ve seen in the last year or so. Speed Racer. I haven’t felt that my time has been wasted this bad since I reviewed Divergence Eve last year. (And no, I will never, ever get around to reviewing the third volume)

This two hour piece of crap prompted me to think about Hollywood and our favourite import from the east. Will they ever do a decent adaptation of anything to do with Anime or Manga?

The biggest problem that I have with this whole scenario is that we, as the regular punters, know that Tinsel Town can chuck out a decent adaptation of something. Insert Spiderman and Batman here. But when it comes to using source material from Asia, everything turns out to be like Daredevil, and the first Hulk, and the Fantastic Four. These three films on their own almost put the last nail in the coffin for comic related films until X-Men and Spiderman came along to save the day.

Keep reading →

December 4th, 2008

(Not enough) Quality anime and the industry

[This article is my reply to Alex's excellent 'For the anime fan in 2008, is it essential to watch online anime?']

I came across this recent news article at ANN, ‘Dennou Coil Wins Award from Japanese Sci-Fi Writers‘ and more than anything else, it annoyed me. Here’s why.

Dennou Coil‘ was amongst the most acclaimed anime TV series of 2007, a beautifully animated, whimsical science fiction story with broad appeal and notable production values, often likened to the adventurous mainstream story-telling of ‘Studio Ghibli’. Naturally, it wasn’t a particularly big hit with the hardcore anime fans, or at least, not on the same level as something like ‘Haruhi’, but it is capable of capturing of the imagination of someone (or some kid) not usually swept away by the conventional tropes of Japanese animation.

Keep reading →

November 30th, 2008

A Christmas Wish-list for Anime Santa

As the year draws to a close, I’ve been scanning the lists of anime to be released in the UK on DVD at Christmas with a slightly jaundiced eye. Don’t get me wrong – I’m more than grateful for what we have available now on R2, especially when I think back to the turn of the century(!) when all I could find in our local HMV was, well, next to nothing, and certainly nothing that I wanted to buy…)
Keep reading →

November 23rd, 2008

For the anime fan in 2008, is it essential to watch online anime?

I’ll say at the start of this blog that I’m not the most knowledgeable anime fan around.  I like what I like, but I don’t have an exhaustive knowledge of series, directors, studios, voice actors, and the industry as a whole.  Nor am I the sort of person who has to watch things as soon as they come out – I’m happy to wait a while, and if there’s something I want, I know I’ll get it eventually.  The good stuff will always filter through, given time.  So this isn’t going to be an in-depth analysis of the anime industry - that’s beyond my knowledge at this stage.

I like buying anime and manga.  I like the feeling of ‘owning’ something, of building up a little library of releases, however modest mine may be compared to others.  I’m also in the lucky and privileged position of being a reviewer for AUKN, meaning I get review copies of DVDs and manga volumes.  Aside from that, I always try to watch anime when it’s on television.  I saw Cowboy Bebop for the first time on the ill-fated Anime Central channel.  And this winter period, I’m looking forward to Channel 4/Film 4 hopefully showing some Studio Ghibli films, as they often do.

Browsing.

But there’s one medium that’s always escaped me.  I have never got into watching anime online.  I’ve been thinking about this lately.  I think there’s a few reasons why this is.

Keep reading →

November 19th, 2008

On genre, gender and fan demographics

One thing that’s caught my attention lately is how, in terms of genre and target audience, categorising an anime or manga series is surprisingly complicated. Many titles are marketed along the lines of age and gender of the target audience or readership: namely shounen (young, male), shoujo (young, female), seinen (older, male) and josei (older, female). In fairness, it makes a lot of sense to divide things up like this when looking for a recommendation that is in line with you and your time of life. It goes without saying that Japanese writers don’t usually have overseas audiences and their differing expectations in mind so it’s possible that a title finds favour abroad in a completely different demographic to that was intended which leads to some interesting and unexpected results.

Suitable for all

Bear in mind that for the sake of clarity I’m making some generalisations of my own here. I’m not knocking shounen shows by calling them unsophisticated and generic, nor am I implying that you should be put off by a title that “isn’t aimed at people like me.” There seem to be some differences in culture that dictate target audience between fans in different countries and because of these cultural differences, not to mention preconceptions among international fans and the differing ways in marketing, the genre boundaries seem to be all over the place. It’s a confusing issue but I think it’s worth thinking over because I honestly believe that trying to be aware of it helps in your appreciation of the medium.

Keep reading →

November 15th, 2008

‘Ghost in the Shell’: What’s inside the Shell? Part 6.

Welcome to final ‘Ghost in the Shell’: What’s inside the Shell? This time we skip three scenes which were not suitable for analysis, if you wish to though you could analyse these yourself and post them on here, and go stright to one of ‘Ghost in the Shell’s’ signature scenes: scene 13.  Oshii’s pretentiousness seeps through into most of work, tainting it and asphyxiating any attempt to make it watchable. Conversely, the Floating Museum cuts off that seeping ooze and rather allows Oshii to realise his perfect scene. This scene is the synthesis of complex animation and story line complimented by a stunning score and a truly perplexing ending. This last ‘Ghost in the Shell’: What’s inside the Shell? Will attempt to reconcile this synthesis in what is truly Oshii’s defining piece. ‘Patlabor’, and most of Oshii’s other work, cannot even attempt to reach the heights of what ‘Ghost in the Shell’ does! This scene is one of the reasons why.

Keep reading →

November 12th, 2008

Lasting Fandom

Albeit that when I had the epiphany, I didn’t actually intend it to be in anyway sequential, I realise now that one of the notes I most wanted to convey in my last article (that anime characters are strangely diverse, likeable and unique), must inevitably occupy the same territory as those at the heart of this one.

I’ve often worried, especially while watching one of my friends get overly excited about anime conventions and cosplaying Naruto characters, whether the people who passionately and proudly bring characters to life today - creating AMVs, drawing fanart and generally giving their favourites creative treatment - might not be doing the same for another series in a few years time. Essentially, whether my friend might be garbed in the clothes of the next big shounen series, and forget all about Naruto, or at least the emotional fancies that she currently lives jubilantly in.

Keep reading →