- How does one define “fanfiction?” Awesome podcast Fansplaining did an immersive survey of over 3,500 readers about how they would describe the genre.
- Remember yaoi paddles? A glimpse into fandom past that it’s probably for the best that we’ve forgotten.
- Dragons Are for White Kids with Money: On the Friction of Geekdom and Race. And why being a geeky person of color is in itself a positive, performative act.
- Do you listen to Translator Tea Time on Organization Anti-Social Geniuses yet? I am fascinated by the 3:00 mark in which the translators discuss not looking at anime subtitles—the better to not be influenced by the anime translator’s decisions.
- Dee wrote about ignoring social expectations and pursuing your own goals in Chihayafuru. I loved the anime and want to read the manga now.
- Thanks to a beloved Disney show, Japanese kids bought raccoons and learned the hard way they don’t make great pets. Now freed, they’re a nuisance that competes with the native tanuki and red fox, and attacks owls and herons. (HT Zoe).
- The Secret History of Gainax: 1981-1992. This article is two years old, but still the most fascinating thing I read this week.
Screenshot via Gainax’s Royal Space Force: Wings of Honneamise.
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Side note: “Honneamise” is on my list of things to discuss at Ganriki. It’s a rather daft project in many ways, but all the more fascinating for it. It’s also a great example of how a project that could have easily run into the hundreds of millions of dollars as a live-action production can be executed for a sliver of that much as an animated project — and maybe even be all the better for it.
“Chihayafuru” is also on the list, for a lot of the reasons discussed in the linked piece and many more. It’s one of those shows I was deeply uncertain would get a physical release Stateside, but I’m glad Sentai is rolling the dice on that one. (I originally speculated it would have been NIS, but they seem to have written off anime releases and focused on games, as I suspect that’s where the most reliable revenue is.)
@GenjiPress:disqus it amazed me that such an amazing film never made a profit, and it shows that as brilliant as Royal Space Force was (don’t make me try to spell the other half), it was never a smart business decision. Art isn’t always. I’m just so glad people still talk about and I finally got the chance to watch it this year.
I still see Free Hugs shirts at Cons – thankfully not that frequently, but they’re definitely still there. It’s a difficult one because you can never tell how serious the person wearing them is re. The intention, but the whole mentality behind them as a ‘thing’ in fandom – back then or now – has always kind of creeped me out
@lutga:disqus the first and last time I cosplayed, people would just reach out and hug me if they liked the character. I couldn’t handle it. This was about 8 years ago now. A lot of us considered ourselves outsiders for our interest, and the idealized version was less creepy than it sounds—that because you like anime, everyone here is instantly your friend. But anime is huge, it’s not something that gives you outsider status anymore by itself, and gradually we’ve been able to move past that unfortunate moment.
There’s also more of a sense now that cosplay ≠ consent — that if you are out there as a character, it’s not an invitation for people to take advantage of that. (I am not proud to say I was rather shutterbug-y once upon a time, and I got schooled pretty thoroughly in the importance of asking for permission when taking photos.)
I don’t know if I’d agree with the statement that liking anime doesn’t give you outsider status anymore. I think it’s actually grown more complex than that. Sure, a person could watch a popular anime series or the Ghibli movies and no one would bat an eyelash (much the way someone could watch Game of Thrones) However, for the people who actually turn it into a passion, there’s a lot more scrutiny that comes from both outside the anime fandom and from within.
I’ve been writing about this for my own blog, and thus don’t want to have to rewrite the things I’ll be writing there soon, but one thing you can consider is that while it’s good that a lot of people have moved away from this idea that anyone that likes anime is your friend (thus eliminating the sort of creepy stepping over boundaries) Its moved so far in the other direction that people are more disrespectful to people. Especially with people who don’t share the same feelings they do (about anime in general, series they like/dislike, whether its appropriate to wear anime apparel, etc etc)
I agree with this – it’s gone past simple insider/outsider status and become far more granular. Now it’s about, say, being a fan of moé or not (and if you’re not, does that mean you think people who like moé unironically are weirdoes, etc.)