Wednesday, July 30th, 2008...10:03 pm
Hierarchy of Alienness in Anime Fandom
Browsing through the internet’s many blogs and forums, it’s common to find “fans” of anime trying to separate the best anime from the worst, trying to decide whether or not it’s okay to enjoy moe anime; one side says it’s good fun, the other declares it’s sexist and disgusting. They might shout at each other for a few days, but the discussions will end when one brave soul inevitably intones “I like what I like”. The illusion of objectivity is shattered as it becomes clear that this person, regardless of what you might say, loves or loathes certain anime for his own, very personal, reasons. He doesn’t care that certain anime might be highly-rated or popular, well-animated or stylish, none of that is relevant to him and nothing you can say will change that opinion. After all, that’s the beauty of being an individual, we all like different things. Apparently some people don’t like Cowboy Bebop? Freaks!
These clashes of taste within the community seem so frequent because anime is, by its very nature, so diverse in content that it attracts such a varied audience. Yet many people seem to define themselves as fans of anime, but anime isn’t a genre, it’s a medium like music, a kaleidoscope of genres, art-styles and formats. So, if you’re just a lover of shonen series like Naruto, Bleach and One Piece, you’re not a fan of anime, and similarly, if you’re just a viewer of moe series like Air, Kanon and Clannad, you’re not a fan of anime. That requires an open-mind, being ready and willing to watch things that are different and not complain when the characters don’t look like Naruto, or not whine when there is no mecha porn, or whatever.
Quite clearly, anime fandom has been compartmentalized and, to borrow Orson Scott Card’s Hierarchy of Alienness, each compartment, from fans of shonen action to moe, could be classified as Främling; capable of communicating with each other, but ultimately, foreign in taste. Each compartment will never understand what another sees in that series, or worse, might presume it’s not for them on the basis that one other (almost Ramen) compartment has already embraced it. This brings us to the polarising 2008 anime series, Kaiba. Combine Total Recall with Kino’s Journey and you have Kaiba.
In so many words, OGT of Anime wa Bakuhatsu da! explains that he’s set against the series because it’s the kind of anime that the arrogant, pseudo-intellectual elitists will enjoy at the expense of other, dumber, anime fans. He might be right, but it’s still an issue outside of the actual anime in question; what we perceive something to be and what it actually is are two completely separate things. Is it right, or fair, to think that way? To complain about something because it adds weight to your own emotional baggage?
Knowing what you like is all well and good, but refusing to test yourself and your taste in anime is not only disappointing, it’s down right depressing. I’m guilty of it myself; I still haven’t seen much of any anime produced by Kyoto Animation, including their recent mega-hits like The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya and Lucky Star. Fandom killed them for me, but if I’d just joined the anime community a few months back and avoided all that hype, they would be on my watch list for sure. It’s all just needless baggage, really. Pointless, ignorant hang-ups, but we’re anime fans, it’s what we do. There’s no escaping it.
So then, I wonder, what better defines us as anime fans and, by extension, as people; what we choose to watch, or what we choose not to watch?
3 Comments
July 31st, 2008 at 6:38 pm
I’m naturally behind any suggestion that viewers should be looking to open their minds to new things, and too much of the online discourse is obsessed with genre. But at the same time, so often the process of coming to think of oneself as an anime fan tends to be tied to meeting and falling for genres and styles - more so than the possibilities of a medium.
Thing is, I don’t see anime as a medium itself but as an ambiguous category within animation. If treating it like a medium really will encourage people to try out the other compartments within anime, then I guess that’s worthwhile.
Thing is, if I try out the anime genre next door, and don’t like it, then there’s a problem. Because so much of anime is in complete thrall to its own compartment, rejecting whole swathes of shows can make a great deal of sense. People aren’t necessarily rejecting shows out of ignorance, but out of negative experiences.
It’s easier to defend a unique show like Kaiba against preconceptions than it is to defend a genre designed to pander to fans who only came to the party for one or two things. I just don’t think that anime as a whole is, to be frank, good enough to merit total open-mindedness.
August 2nd, 2008 at 12:32 pm
I don’t think that one should avoid watching or reading something simply because it’s become too popular but the hype and praise certainly has the potential to ruin one’s experience of it. Naturally I’ll have an opinion on something based on its premise but I’m willing to hold judgment until I have actually seen or read something and try not to let other opinions influence my view too much by keeping baseless assumptions from hindering your potential enjoyment of a work.
Of course there are genres that do not pique my interest such as yaoi, giant robots, and harem comedies as much as sci-fi and mystery do but once I hear positive things from a few people, I will put that series on a list and try to see it when I can. I guess I’ll have to look into Kaiba since it’s the flashpoint for this discussion.
August 2nd, 2008 at 1:35 pm
@coburn: But if people are rejecting anime out of those “negative experiences”, this rejection is still a result of baggage outside of the anime in-question and is, therefore, a little unfair. Anyway, it’s not that I’m especially against this way of thinking (after all, we can’t watch everything and this is the most efficient way of avoiding wasted time), but it can be frustrating when “genuinely good” anime (genuinely good meaning anime that transcends its genre) is avoided or dumped for those, decidedly superficial, reasons. It’s the dichotomy of an anime fan, I suppose.
Generally, my own feelings about anime as a medium arose from the constant clashes of opinion within the community; my own clashes in particular. Anime contains such diversity that it attracts all different kinds of people, from those who love romance and drama, to those who love violence and gore, yet because we define ourselves as fans of anime (rather than as fans of a genre within anime), none of us can agree on what’s objectively good because we’re all so divided by these compartments of taste, hence this reference to the Hierarchy of Alienness and the idea that each compartment is “Ramen” (i.e. “While ramen can share ideas with each other, they may not have common ground”).
@CalAggie: That’s a nice way of looking at things. And I hope you will look into Kaiba at some point too!
Leave a Reply