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.