Forum - View topicPeople's thoughts on your anime fandom 2008
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fighterholic
Posts: 9193 |
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I feel that now is the time. So, I am bringing back an old subject, hoping to get opinions, views, and experiences of newer members of ANN since the last time I did this. Basically, what do people (random or close to you) think of your anime fandom? Do you feel that you are treated unfairly at times, or even belittled by fans such as Star Wars people or Trekkies? Do you care what they might think? Or do you just shrug it off?
I live at home, and my anime watching definetly does not go unnoticed. For one, whenever I might make a big order from online that has a lot of anime in it, my parents will always have something to say about it. Such as my collection is taking too much space, or I'm wasting my money on this kind of stuff when I could be putting it to better usage. Their constant pestering of the way I select titles and buying habits do at times get on my nerves, which makes me think of the day that I will be finishing school and moving out of the house, with nobody to complain about what I want to buy or watch. Outside of the house, most of my friends are anime fans, so there is no problem talking about the subject with them. Another thing, nobody really bothers us, although at my first school we did have problems trying to make the now defunct anime club successful, as we did come under constant criticism from the student body that ran the school clubs. Occasionally, I am creeped out by some of the people I meet, and is mainly because they literally spend all of their time on anime. This would be because I am more of a casual viewer, but when something is interesting, I get hooked onto it, but not to the extent of what some people do. Edit: added year to the title Last edited by fighterholic on Thu Oct 09, 2008 2:37 am; edited 1 time in total |
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walw6pK4Alo
 Posts: 9322 |
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Well first, I don't run around wearing anime shirts, sucking on pocky, and yelling in bastardized Japanese. I simply act normal at all times unless I'm around friends who also watch anime. No reason to get vilified or odd stares. But sure, in my room I have a few figs and wallscrolls, but also tons of normal posters and other adornments. Just treat it like any other hobby and usually keep it to yourself. Unless you're the type of person who tries to make it more of a way of life.
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Elfen12
 Posts: 479 Location: Bay Area |
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I like this topic, it's always got a bundle to say you know?
There are a few outlets where anime is oriented socially in my life. For starters the home. At home i live with My brother (well i won't be living with him in about 10 hours, at which time he'll be heading off to college, U of O) and he... well all his friends watch anime except for him. So it's a bit unusual. He'll always make fun of me for it and belittle me a little bit about watching it saying such things as "i can't believe you of all people, i would have never expected you to watch anime" ... and he'll also do this thing where he'll just say "Animeeeee" with a really accented and long "e". Thing is. He watched Dragon Ball Z and GT and Dragon ball, yet refuses the believe that those shows are anime. I've proven it to him on a number of occasions giving a differnet proof each time that still prooves it, and he denies it. But as they say, Denial isn't just a river in Egypt. ... Moving on. But yeah so his group of friends all watch anime, so he's kinda forced into that world in some sense. He alwyas listens to his friend talk about shows and thus has some understnading of what it's all about (not just the normal cliches that people tend to give anime fans). So he knows that it isn't all fun and games, and that there are those serious anime... i've tried to show him a couple, but again, he woudln't budge more than a "maybe". My mother, that's a whole differnet set of forks and knives. She... well she, i can't say she's exaclty content wtih the whole idea of me being into anime and all. But thenagain, she doesn't really dislike it either. She does have feelings about it, just not those of like or dislike. It's more along the lines of "damn, anime and all your other 'fads' (she calls them that, thats such a 90s word) are soo expensive"... but she's never shown many other sentiments other then forms of that sentence, when it might be she's buying it for me, she's talking about how big my collection is (which fails in comparison to some on here, of which i've showed her), and all that. But so yeah it's interesting. Then theres the friend outlet. My friends, well two of them watch anime, and like 8 of them don't, but only 6 of the 8 that don't, know i even watch it. The two that do watch it aren't as serious as it (and don't have ANN accounts of which they're active on the forums). But yeah so the friends i do have i talk about anime a lot with, and we share our likes, dislikes, talk about shows, plots, character development, all that stuff that critics like to complain about these days. So yeah, we just watch it and it all goes well. With the people that don't watch it, it's hardly mentioned, and when it is, it's just like "oh colins watching anime today" or "hey colin what are you doing? ....... (me): watching an anime"... stuff like that, no feeilngs of like or dislike. Lastly theres a teacher outlet... coincidentally, about 5 of my teachers i've had in highschool watch anime, i don't know how it happened, but i seemed to get all of the ones who watch anime. So it's interesting, i befriend my teachers more, theres some under the table stuff goin' on, under the rug... Grab my A (JUST KIDDING!). But yeah, it's cool being able to relate to teachers on a social level like that. Being able to talk about all the differnet shows, and it acutally isn't awkward. It's cool, they actually watch it too, like they'll be like after class "oh dude, i finished watching... [this is just an example] Haibane Renmei, it was so philosphical, like the part blah blah blah blah blah blah blah meant and shows blah blah blah... ". It's cool, but yeah i really like bieng able to talk about people other then my friends about it (theres the forums, and now teachers). yup.
 ... I like that phrase, "i live at home" ... i think most people do live at home, most.
but to be seirous here...
Samezeez... yeah whenever i get a package, soemhow my mom always gets to it first. She alllways reads the back of the anime sets and knows what they're about now. So if it's a show like... lets say "Najica" and she reads about it, it's a bit awkward ( i actually really didn't like that show), but if it's a show like Speed Grapher or Kino's Journey, she finds it a tiny tiny tiny tiny teennseeeweency bit intriguing. -Elfen12- |
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doctordoom85
 Posts: 2094 |
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Home: Dad thinks it's weird, but thanks to watching a random Samurai Champloo episode, no lnoger thinks I'm into kid stuff. Mom has no problem with it, in fact she likes listening to OSTs when we drive together. Sister doesn't really care what I'm into.
Work: At Toys R Us, practically 1/4th of the employees (not counting managers) are into anime (I kid you not). So it's great to always have people to talk about anime with. At UPS, only one anime friend, but he's the only one I talk to that much anyway over there. Friends: Well, almost all my friends are my work buddies, or buddies through those work buddies, so they're all into anime. I do hang with a few of my old high school friends, but only one of them is into anime, but we share other common interests. Sidenote: walw6pK4Alo, how would eating pocky or wearing an anime shirt (unless we're talking the kind you get in the Lucky Star DVDs, yeah, those would deserve some eyebrow-raising) get you odd stares? The former is merely eating something, the latter is kinda normal given that plenty of people wear shirts with cartoons, video game characters, etc. on them. |
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walw6pK4Alo
Posts: 9322 |
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Because they usually don't also coincide with a connotation of shows that are strictly for children or involve girls getting raped by tentacles no matter what the actual subject matter of the show itself is. And either way, yes, you will get odd stares and it does affect how people react to you. Sure you can be confident and proud, but that won't change someone's opinion, and dealing with people who can do actions based on opinions is an important issue. Also, it'd get annoying if people were you ask you questions, whether mockingly or curious.
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Elfen12
Posts: 479 Location: Bay Area |
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Now there's a sentence i just cannot ignore. That's a buncha bogus. Theres two sides ot this problem. Theres the side that yes, some people will find anime veiwers funky, or off, or what ever. Then theres the side of anime viewers constantly bickering that everyone thinks anime is "stupid and nerdish". This problem is a doublesided one, and indireclty, each side can fuel the other. If you wore say a FLCL shirt, i can gaurentee you that people will have no idea what it means or is. A pal of mine has one, and people are like "oh what's that" becuase it's hardly legible. So no, it ain't like that. You make it sound as though it's inevitable to happen, however it's less than likely... or at least around where i'm from it is. not to start a debate thread though -Elfen12- Last edited by Elfen12 on Thu Dec 04, 2008 10:51 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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jetz
 Posts: 2148 Location: Manila, Philippines |
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I am pretty much under the same circumstances as fighterholic. My parents (in fact, my whole family minus the small children) are against anime. Whenever I watch anime in my room, my mom goes "anime na naman" (or "anime again?" in English)? whenever she passes by, even if I'm not watching anime (she did that when she caught me watching the live-action drama version of Honey and Clover). My dad tells me I'm spending too much money on anime stuff (including my costumes for cosplay) and anime cons. Even my aunts and uncles have something against to say it.
Basically they think anime is bad for me. I recall this one time when I called my mom and told her I was going to a con. She said that going to cons will affect my life in a bad way, that I'll get hurt because it's dangerous and one day I will regret going to such cons. At that point I couldn't believe what I was hearing There are more things I can do that will probably wreck my life, but at least I'm not doing any of that. She's also blaming me for "brainwashing" my brother. She said that "He [my brother] doesn't even like anime and I'm just forcing him to like it" Seriously, why would I do that? My brother might be more of a fan than I am. He's been reading manga for most of his life, and he's probably seen most of the anime shown on local TV. It does bug me sometimes, but I usually just ignore them. I did try to change their opinion of anime a few times before. I once watched anime (Kyo Kara Maoh  ) with my mom, but I ended up making her dislike it even more. I also invited her to an anime event before, but she said that only little kids go there so she didn't want to be seen in a place like that >_> Since she's unwilling to change her opinions, I had no choice but to give up.
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DieHardBleachFan
Posts: 277 |
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My parents go both ways on this issue. My mom thinks it's weird and doesn't really understand what it is or why I like it. My dad is indifferent to it. He really has no problem with it at all. He'll occasionally catch a random episode of whatever I'm watching at the time and watch with me. My brother likes it thanks to me. I introduced him to it when he was younger and now he loves it. A few of my cousins are into anime as well, so we'll (when we see each other) usually talk about what series we're watching or which series we like or dislike. We also reccommend series to each other when we can.
All (well, most of) my friends are into anime so we'll talk about it almost every day. We talk about our favorite series, series we liked, series we hated, series we've seen, or sometimes we'll just make random comments about a particular series. There are a couple of my friends that just don't get why I like anime at all. Their response to me when I tell them I like anime is generally "You like anime?!" So I don't talk about it around them because it just turns into a senseless arguement. It doesn't really bother me all that much, although the endless ragging from a couple of my friends gets on my nerves sometimes, but I do my best to ignore it. Not everybody is going to like it so I just try to stay away from the subject of anime when we're talking. |
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auberginedreams
Posts: 29 |
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I don't go around announcing that I am into anime. The only way somebody would know is if they asked or if I told them because it was relevant to what we were talking about. About half my friends are into anime, but I don't even know if the rest of my friends know what the word "anime" means. One of my good friends is pretty much an otaku (wears Naruto headbands, eats everything with chopsticks, likes things simply because they are from Japan, etc.), some are casual fans, some are non-fans, and some actively dislike it. I actually used to hate anime and thought it was nerdy because I incorrectly believed that "that guy" (you know, the 30-year old dude who lays in the middle of the aisle at borders reading shonen manga for hours at a time, completely unaware that other life forms exist around him and may want to pass through) accurately represented the average anime fan. Once I realized that anime is a hobby just like any other, I opened myself up to it and became a fan. It's not like anime fandom is a culture or something, it's just an interest. Honestly I couldn't care less what some random guy thinks about my anime fandom; I choose to be around people that see me as more than just some guy who watches Japanese cartoons.
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Maryohki
 Posts: 526 |
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I'm pretty lucky in that no one that matters to me has a problem with my fandom. My parents are alright with it, my mother actually likes it, and my dad will watch certain shows; he really likes FMA, for example, since he's a science teacher and finds it fun to see where they're not just BSing and are taking real concepts of alchemy and such. And he likes Al a lot x3.
Outside of the house, the only person close to me that cares is my grandmother on my dad's side, and even then she's mostly gotten over it. She was only really obnoxious back when my cousins and I were all obsessed with Pokemon. She thankfully knows nothing of my subfandom, BL, or else I'd never hear the end of how I'm serving Satan or whatever. As for my friends, a large portion of them like anime. The ones that don't just accept that I have a different hobby from theirs. The people that made fun of me for liking anime and such are mostly just the redneck idiots that I'm forced to inhabit a school with due to my living in a small town. Granted, one of my guy friends teases me about anime, but he teases everyone about something, and we both know he's joking. |
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LuckySeven
 Posts: 587 Location: Georgia, USA |
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There was the time I rented Ninja Scroll while my cousin and a few of his friends were in Atlanta for Freaknik. The reaction I got from my cousin and his friends when we were all out a video store and I picked it up was pretty bad. Not because it was anime though, it was just the usual "Dude, why are you renting a cartoon?" kind of crap. Honestly though, after those same people watched Ninja Scroll with me, they were in such awe of it that they eagerly wanted to know what I was gonna rent next. But this was among a peer group of guys who were at the time all in their late teens to early 20s. On the other hand, when we viewed Ninja Scroll we were at my aunt's apartment,. Of course while we were watching it, my aunt walked in on us three times, and these were the three worst possible times as well. So ever since then she associates me watching anime as something akin to watching "chinese porn cartoons" as she put it. At the time my aunt was in her late 30s or early 40s and she had a young daughter there too. So that might have factored into her reaction.
Other than that one time, I haven't met much in the way of negative attitudes about anime. My mom isn't too keen on it, but then again to her I'm wasting my money if I do anything with it that isn't putting it all away in the bank or helping her pay the bills. Which I find funny since she had a job that was earning her nearly $20 an hour. 
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Zin5ki
 Posts: 6680 Location: London, UK |
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That day'll come. Just hope that you'll still be able to live around fellow Otaku. I have a housemate who's quite a theatre and film buff; she's seen loads of films, studies acting, has an unlimited cinema ticket etc. Resultantly, our opinions on anime as a medium differ somewhat. Other than that, there's little confrontation I get on day-to-day basis. |
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gasteropod
 Posts: 16 Location: England |
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My mum just thinks it's funny when she hears loads of Japanese dialogue emanating from my room, and my best mate isn't into anime so he sometimes refers to my anime consumption as 'geeking it up'. That's about it
P.S. I get him back because he's well into Star Wars 
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Ligene
 Posts: 137 Location: Mary-land! |
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My mom's not really keen on it - although she did enjoy Someday's Dreamers, watched the whole series on DVD with subtitles, no less - and everyone else in my family is simply indifferent to it. They made the jokes, they got over it, happy ending for everyone. As long as it doesn't effect me in a bad way (bastardizing the Japanese language for instance; my family's big on studying languages - almost everyone has a second, sometimes third - "If you're going to study it, study it properly!") they could careless what I do with my time. My uncle does movies, my mom does antiques, my aunt does frogs (not real ones!), my grandma does paintings, so just add my sister and I with anime.
Friends don't really care either way, since they're casual themselves. |
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Keonyn
 Subscriber Posts: 5567 Location: Coon Rapids, MN |
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My dad is indifferent, and while my mom doesn't really like anime, she could care less that I watch it. My sister is the only one with a negative view of it, and I often wonder if that's because I got her husband in to it.
My brother entertains the idea of watching shows or movies, and he does at times, but I often get the impression he's just humoring me. I don't know many people who care much for anime anymore, which is fine, because when I did most of them really go in to the kind of shows I didn't/don't. On the other hand, no one I know really has anything against my watching anime, or even makes any jokes about it. I've never encountered much criticism from the general public either, and I have a few anime shirts and am not afraid to tell people I watch it if it should ever come up, although I'm not a super fanboy so I don't yell it from the rooftops either or try to "convert" people; I hate those kinds of fans. In fact, the most criticism I've ever received for being an anime fan was from other anime fans for reasons like the fact I watch dubs, or because I don't watch shows like Naruto or Bleach, and so on. Sometimes I dread talking to other anime fans about anime more than just random strangers on the street. Last edited by Keonyn on Thu Sep 25, 2008 3:03 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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