Who are anime fans, really? Our ties to the alt-right.

Anime, Fandom

Last week, I had the dubious honor of getting quoted in the same news article as Nazi Richard Spencer. Here’s Why There’s Anime Fan Art Of President Trump All Over Your Facebook is Buzzfeed’s Ryan Broderick’s attempt to make sense of the undeniable ties between anime fandom and the alt right, and figure out why that might be.

As usual, the answer is a lot more complicated than anyone expected. My take boils down to this: long before they were hotbeds of politics, sites like 4chan were initially created for talking about anime. When alt right rhetoric began to pop up on the forums we used to talk about anime, we were already there, hence the cultural intermingling.

Only, I’m not sure that my viewpoint got expressed perfectly in the article:

Lauren Orsini, a journalist who has written for outlets like CNN, Kotaku, and Forbes and specializes in Western anime fandom, told BuzzFeed News anime is just a niche interest that bored young men who feel isolated from society happen to like. They go to places like 2channel and 4chan to socialize over it and get radicalized.

“There’s a massive overlap between anime fans and the kind of people who never leave their computers,” she said. “And there’s an almost as big overlap between anime fans and people who spend a lot of time on online forums.”

While I think the Buzzfeed article tells an important and interesting story, it is still trying to depict a particular narrative, one that isn’t mine. I stand by my quote, but I don’t feel that the lead-in of “bored young men” is accurate for a few reasons. So let’s talk about it.

Who are anime fans?

The alt right is overwhelmingly male, but are anime fans? “I’ve never met a female anime fan in real life,” reads an Anime News Network comment in 2007.

For me, this is a surprising statement, since my anime fan history is overwhelmingly female. In middle school, I watched Revolutionary Girl Utena and Serial Experiments Lain at slumber parties. When I attended the historically all-female University of Mary Washington, our anime club was majority women. My husband, John, became the first male anime club president in school history during our senior year in 2008. So whose experience is closer to reality, that forum commenter’s, or mine?

It’s difficult to find anime fandom demographics, so I had to conduct my own study. In 2015, I requested demographic data from North America’s 10 largest conventions, and six responded. At all of them, women made up about 50% of attendance.

On the other hand, here’s a survey of Reddit’s r/anime community conducted in 2014. Only 7% of anime fans on that forum are female. In other words, what the data I collected really tells us is that when it comes to in-person anime gatherings, women are better represented.

In any case, anime creators seem to be hyper-aware of the idea that many disparate audiences consume anime, and they separate these by demographics. The categories of anime we know best—shounen, shoujo, seinen, josei—all refer to a specific age and gender demographic: boys, girls, men, women. That’s not to say that people only watch anime that matches their demographic, only that this is the initial marketing attempt.

“Bored” or savvy?

In the lead-in to my quote, I take almost as much offense to the precursor “bored” as I do to “young men.” Who doesn’t hang out in online forums because they’re bored? Instead, I think the overlap between the alt right and anime comes from anime fans’ computer literacy.

Forums like 4chan and Reddit have their own rules and idiosyncrasies. They take some experience in order to get up to speed with. You know what else is similar to that, at least until recently? Finding and watching anime.

Today anyone with a credit card can watch anime easily and cheaply on a digital streaming service like Netflix, Crunchyroll, Funimation, or Daisuki. But in the old days, when I was in high school and college, it wasn’t so simple, or above board for that matter. I could either go to places like Sam Goody and pay $30 for three episodes of Evangelion on VHS, or I could start some Limewire downloads before I left for school, and if I was lucky, they’d finish by evening. Piracy was not glamorous! (But now I’m grateful that it was such a slow, irritating slog that didn’t allow me to pirate very much, because I now feel so guilty about it that I’ve legally purchased everything I ever pirated, even if it was kind of crap.)

In other words, watching anime has long required a higher computer literacy than most Internet use requires. And its pirate legacy means the fandom has somewhat seedy origins, too. So I think anime fans are more comfortable than most people about hanging out at forums others might consider an online underbelly. The kind of places that alt right recruiters might go to spread their messages on the down low.

Final caveat

The Buzzfeed article focuses on young radicals who also love anime. That’s one story about an undeniable and fascinating sub-group of the fandom. But of course, most of us anime fans don’t fit into that group. We can like One Piece and not become radical nationalists, too!

My anime fan sub-group is in fact much different than the one in the article. Our politics tend to be liberal and accepting. The anime conventions I attend have things like gender neutral restrooms and introvert quiet areas. I also am part of a group blog called Anime Feminist. And even today, my community consists of mostly female fans, not male.

I don’t think the idea of anime fans as majority alt-right radicals is an accurate one. But my community doesn’t make up the majority either, not even close. There are around 20 million anime fans in America alone, and it’s impossible to discuss such a massive number as one group with common views and beliefs, other than of course “liking anime.”

Anime fandom is made up of many, many smaller groups with many, many disparate views.  But it’s much easier to just attribute one set of characteristics to all of us. Ultimately, that’s why I thought it was vital to contribute to the Buzzfeed article. If we ignore the way we’re represented, then somebody else will gain control of the narrative.

Convention attendees at Anime Expo 2014, credit.

Otaku Links: Trash girls

Otaku Links

Screenshot via Gabriel Dropout on Crunchyroll

The evolution of an anime convention attendee

Fandom

I went to my first Katsucon eight years ago, in 2009.

I was 22, still in college. I had no idea that my boyfriend would one day be my husband. I was covering Katsucon for the school paper, and every single aspect of it felt newsworthy to me.

Fast forward to last year, when I didn’t even go. Last year I wrote about the range of emotions I felt when I sat out on Katsucon, an annual staple in my life for years and years.

I think this is a problem every otaku runs into as they age. After a few years, the novelty starts to wear off. A convention feels less like one big party and more like a somewhat-functional machine, as you begin to notice the volunteers and organizational structure. And as I got older, I began to see myself more in the administrators than in the attendees.

Because the attendees look basically the same as when I starting going eight years ago; fresh-faced college kids for whom the novelty of Katsucon definitely hasn’t worn off.

So what do you do when the novelty is gone? Give yourself a reason to be there.

This year was one of my better Katsucon experiences, because I had a role to play. John and I submitted three Gundam-themed panels, and two were accepted. On Saturday and Sunday morning, we were on stage, giving a presentation to attendees.

It made me realize that what I’ve really wanted for years is a reason to be at Katsucon. In 2015 I filled it with spending—John and I bought so much pricey Gunpla in the dealer’s room that we probably set back our saving for our Japan trip by six months. Having a purpose was what compelled me to get to Katsucon even though I’d broken my foot the day before—I had promised to be there as a journalist, and luckily I had John to wheel me around.

Now, I think I’ve found a role that works for me. Eight years ago, everything was so new and strange that I never would have imagined being a panelist. But now I think this is what I’ll do from now on. It feels like giving back.

A month from now, I’ll be at Anime Boston, a con I’ve never second-guessed attending. You guessed it—it’s because I’ve attended as a volunteer ever since my very first visit. The cost of a plane ticket is nothing to the feeling of helping contribute to such a fantastic event. I’m glad that I can help contribute to the magic of the con for starry-eyed first-timers.

Last year I wrote that I was worried about changing, about what it meant for me as a fan if I no longer enjoyed cons. But this year I realized change isn’t necessarily bad. I’d simply grown into a different role.

Top photo by Pat. Photos of Katsucon scenery by me. 

Otaku Links: Katsucon Bound

Otaku Links

Will you be at Katsucon this weekend? In that case, it’s a rare moment to catch the Otaku Journalist in the wild! I’ll be giving two panels—37 years of Gundam (Saturday, 9:15 AM in Live 2) and He is a Char (Sunday, 10:30 AM in Live 7). I’ll be wearing my own t-shirt line designed by Ben Huber both days.

Anyway, onto the links!

Photo via CNN Travel

How I find new writing jobs

Careers, Writing

If you’ve been reading my monthly income reports, you know that I’ve seriously increased my writing output, and it’s been paying off.

Whenever I find an income stream that works, I want to share the wealth with my readers. The same way I did when I discovered the surprisingly un-scammy world of affiliate blogging. So today I’m sharing exactly how I get freelance writing work most often:

I ask former clients.

This is the number one most likely way to get new work. Former clients are people who’ve hired you before, so they know what you can do. If you did a good job before, it’s likely you will again.

If it’s been awhile since you worked with a former client, you can give them a reason, but you don’t have to. I do if it’s relevant. For example, when I wanted to start working again with a client who commissions me to write tech tutorials, I was sure to let them know I hadn’t been in touch lately because my job as a web developer, learning new tech skills, had been taking all my time! I definitely think that tidbit worked in my favor when they decided to hire me again.

I ask other freelancers.

In a lot of fields, you’ll find that freelancers are very territorial and won’t share gigs. Not so in online writing. News sites and blogs need such a massive amount of content in order to drive traffic, it’s more than one person could possibly do.

Take my work at Forbes. I am one of hundreds of bloggers there, and the company is always looking for new ones. So when fellow writers ask me how they can work at Forbes, and I think they do good work, I forward them to my editor. Asking nicely will get you far! Insulting your fellow writers, like this Tumblr anon did, will get you nowhere.

Facebook communities.

An aspiring writer who is just getting started in his career asked me where I find new writing work. I considered all my original leads, and it turned out that for all my current jobs except for anime sites, I found them through a woman-only Facebook community! It’s a community for women writers that’s invite-only, and because it’s exclusive the leads are great.

I definitely think invite-only Facebook communities are the way to go. They’re invite-only to keep people who aren’t very invested out, and if you’re serious about writing you’ll definitely pass the moderators’ vetting process. Here’s a great selection of exclusive groups for writers to start with.

Always check your LinkedIn.

When I tell people about this blunder, it sounds like I’m exaggerating. But I really missed out on a $4,000 reviewing job because I forgot to check my LinkedIn for an entire week.

I have “writing and editing” listed at the top of my LinkedIn bio. Because of that, people looking for writers sometimes send me in-mail, which I usually never check. A lot of the time it’s stuff I’m not interested in, or doesn’t pay well. This time it was the exact opposite! And by the time I checked a week later, the website had filled the position. Don’t be me. Get your in-mail forwarded to your email, or set up alerts.

Local meetups.

Sometimes I find jobs this way! But not through local meetups for writers. Writers can give you leads to jobs, but rarely are they looking to hire anybody themselves! So instead, I go to meetups in the field I want to find writing jobs in.

For me, that’s WordPress. I go to meetups for people interested in building WordPress sites, learning to manage business blogs, and stuff like that. A lot of the time, the organizers or people who are attending are looking to pay for content for their blogs. And sometimes, they’re looking for web design, which I also do, so these meetups are doubly useful for me!

But I avoid cold calls.

It’s been a long time since I’ve gotten a job from just calling or emailing a client outright. So I wouldn’t recommend this to anyone.

Instead, I’d suggest returning to my second step, asking other freelancers. If you know somebody, or know somebody through somebody, who works somewhere you’d like to work, ask them about the best way to contact a potential client. Some prefer, for example, that you provide three potential pitches for topics you could write about in the first email.

Have you ever gotten a writing job in one of these ways? Or perhaps a different way, even an unusual one? I’d love to hear about it in the comments.