Category: Fandom

It’s the end of the year, so that means it’s time to set New Year’s resolutions! In this post, I’ve done you a favor and thought them all up for you!

These resolutions aren’t the boring ones you say you’re going to do every year, like working out every day or eating more veggies. These are the ones that, if you do them, will make you a happier otaku. And why do we make New Year’s resolutions if not to make our lives better?

So check out my list:

Photo by Trey Ratcliff.

10. Visit Japan. Or, if that isn’t an option, start planning a trip to Japan for sometime in the next five years. Open a special savings account. Research the Japanese cities and attractions you’d like to visit. Start learning (or keep practicing) your Japanese. If you’re in the Washington D.C. area, you can sign up for the Global Language Network for a chance to get free Japanese lessons at GWU — it’s a randomized lottery.

Photo by bananagranola.

9. Bring Japan to you if a trip is completely out of the question. Visit a Japanese botanical garden — here’s a list of the top 25 in America and an exhaustive list of most of the Japanese gardens all over the world. Several US and Canadian cities also have Japanese tea houses and cultural centers; Google your city plus “Japanese tea house” to find out. Go to a Japanese restaurant that has traditional seating or food other than sushi. In DC, I suggest Hama Sushi, which has a tatami mat room, or Cafe Japone, which is the only restaurant I know of that serves onigiri! Another thing to visit in DC is the Japanese Embassy. For the low budget and/or middle of nowhere otaku, try cooking your own Japanese food or check out some books on Japan at the library. There are a lot of options!

Photo by Keitii Keitii.

8. Marathon an entire series in one night. Do it with a new series or one of your old favorites. By watching everything back to back, you’ll get a better understanding of the story as a whole. Stock up on Pocky and Ramune and turn the lights off for the best atmosphere. This can be done with likeminded friends or alone as a test of willpower. The Otaku Journalist does NOT recommend you try this with One Piece or Bleach!

Photo by Alex Leavitt.

7. Attend an anime or sci-fi convention. This should especially be on your list if you’ve never attended one before! It’s a great way to familiarize yourself with not just the topic but the fandom that surrounds it. Figure out all the inside jokes! If you’re still not sure why the #animeconprotip hashtag on Twitter is so funny, attending your first (or second, or fifteenth) convention should help.

Photo by Elliot Trinidad.

6. Make friends with like-minded otaku. This is easier than ever now. Have a specific fandom? Create a forum/Yahoo group/Facebook page and advertise it. Have a specific location in mind? Try Meetup and start planning IRL activities. Keep in mind that these groups might already exist, so all you have to do is join! If you’re in DC, chances are you’ll meet a slew of otaku at DC Anime Club meetups or anything on my Geek Event Guide.

5. Try a new genre. Maybe you’ve always sworn off moe anime/first-person-shooters/playing a Blue deck/playing an elf character because you had a bad experience or just never had the chance to try it yet. This year, end that! If you don’t like it, you never have to do it again. And if you do, well that’s something you would have never known until you tried.

4. Make a J-list or Amazon wishlist. (You can view mine here and here to get started.) It’ll help you decide what sort of things interest you and then, depending on your budget, hone them down to what you like the best. You’ll be introduced to new shows, books and games that you might not have considered. It’s a great way to expand your horizons under the guise of mindless window shopping. At the very least, it’s certainly relaxing.

3. Give back to the community. The best way I can think of doing this is volunteering at your nearest local anime convention. As a convention volunteer myself, I’m continually amazed by how much work goes into running a convention and how important every volunteer is to the whole. If you’re busy, you can limit your volunteer time to just during the event. Don’t like cons? You could try participating in Child’s Play or Cosplay for a Cure, two very nerdy (and very kind) charity groups.

The Seventh Doctor (aka the best doctor) fanart by Kevin Bolk.

2. Create something. Write some fanfiction, if you like to write. Sew a cosplay if you’re crafty. Try your hand at drawing your own manga if you’re so artistically inclined. Other ideas: Photoshop spoof Magic cards, edit an AMV, create your own 8-bit game, sculpt deco jewelry for Lolita clothes. Next, join DeviantART to show off your skills!

1. Start a blog. This year, I’ve found that this is the best way to explore and enjoy my interests and to meet tons of amazing and likeminded people. If you share your interests and you’re enthusiastic, people will notice. If you need help getting started, click here for Bluehost, which is what I use for this site. You can even email me if you want me to walk you through starting a blog — I think the world needs more otaku bloggers!

How many items on the list have you already done? Which ones do you plan to do this year?

After finishing Strike Witches, I was stuck on the way that, when performing magic, the girls developed cat ears and tails for no apparent reason. The Strike Witches producers knew what decades of anime has already confirmed: cat ears on women are cute.

For the past two weeks, I have been trying to dig a little deeper. We already know that catgirls (and catboys) are adorable, but why do we feel that way? And why are they so prevalent in anime? So far, I have three theories:

1) Cat ears appeal to our animal instincts. Sure, we’ve come out of our caves and we wear clothes now, but our brains still have their instinctual residues like the fight or flight response. Maybe we think catgirls are the manifestation of a woman who follows her animal brain, her immediate needs and desires. We find the idea of an impulsive woman unbarred by modern rules and morals attractive.

2) Cat ears resonate with ancient human mythologies. There were the cat gods, worshipped by the ancient Egyptians, including the fierce and beautiful Bastet. More closely tied to anime was the Japanese bakeneko, a cat demon who could disguise itself as an alluring woman. According to the Catgirl Research Foundation, there are also more catgirl myths from Britain, Ireland, and South Africa.

3) Catgirls can be guiltlessly objectified. This fits in with the moe anthropomorphism I discussed in my fan service articles. When we combine women and girls’ bodies with non-human elements, like computer or, in this case, animal parts, they appear less human to us. Therefore, we do not feel the obligation to treat them with the respect we’d offer other humans, and can lust after them without worry.

However, I haven’t yet been able to find much to support or disprove my claims. I’ve tried the forums of the Catgirl Research Foundation, contacted Kittenplay.org, posted a call for suggestions on the Livejournal kitty_ears community, even reached out to a few anime academics.

So far, only the fantastic aniblogger Scott of Anime Almanac has responded to my call. As a self professed “expert in catgirl appreciation,” he had a lot of insight on the subject.

Scott was quick to differentiate the catgirls we see in anime from the Western women who dress up as sexy cats for Halloween. “It’s not about animal lust,” he told me in an email. “It’s far more innocent than that.”

Instead, he tied it to the attitude of real-life cats toward their masters, in that anime cat girls are both independent and affectionate. Scott said this style, “Selfish and spoiled one minute, and then sweet and affectionate the next,” already meshes well with one of the most established female personality types in anime — the tsundere — who extremely appeals to otaku.

But in a nutshell, Scott said that he thinks otaku are fans of catgirls because they are so easy to please. While some female characters, whom he refers to as having dog or puppy personalities, need a man to protect and care for them always, catgirls are more hands off:

“The catgirl, on the other hand, doesn’t need a man to run her life for her. She can do just fine all by herself. But when she is ready for some love and attention, she’ll nuzzle up to that guy, sit on his lap, knead her paws all over him, and purr with a satisfied look on her face,” he said.

And now I open up the debate to readers. Whether or not you’re a fan of cat ears, what do you think is their appeal? And if you’ve heard of an academic study on the subject that you think I’ve missed in my research, please let me know!