I don’t usually reflect on my own history as an anime fan, but something occurred to me the other day. What is the significance of a gateway anime? What kind of impact does a person’s first experience with a medium have on their enjoyment and preferences of that medium? Most fans who choose to pursue anime seriously become more well-rounded over time, but I think that the early experiences are given less credit than they deserve.
The idea for this post came to mind when I was reading one of mefloraine‘s tweets on Fate/stay night. It reminded me of something that had always bugged me about Type-Moon: why are their games always used as gateway visual novels for English speakers? F/SN is definitely a spectacular story, and I would recommend it to every anime fan, including the type who would never dare to play an eroge. From that perspective, it’s only natural that many fans’ experience with visual novels is limited to the Type-Moon games, and maybe a Saya no Uta or an Ever 17.
This trend is not necessarily a bad thing, and it’s good to know that even the non-moe fans among us are willing to enjoy some of the great stories that are only available in the VN format, but it has its downsides. Have you ever seen a thread on a typical forum in which the poster asks for games that are similar to Type-Moon and the other story-heavy producers? The answer should be yes. People always want more of the above-average stories that they start with, without realizing that their starting point is an exception, not the norm.
I think this phenomenon is more present with visual novels than with anime because of the lack of translations. People can’t play the latest eroge from Japan or pick up a random title from a local gaming store, so it’s more likely that their “first” will be a popular story-heavy game that everyone knows through word of mouth. There’s no equivalent to the TV channels and R1 DVDs to give people a random sampling. The end result can be a completely skewed expectation of the entire medium.
(Take a break, have an old DBZ 4koma)
Anyway, I started this post by talking about anime, and anime is what I intend on talking about. I do think that the lack of visual novel translations gives many new fans a skewed perspective of the medium, but that isn’t the only impact that gateway fiction can have.
If I mention the term “oldfag”, you’ll probably know where I’m headed with this. Many of the older anime fans who went to high school in the 90s have a completely different perspective of anime than the younger fans do, and a lot of this is due to the early experiences of both parties. For the people who started watching anime when super robot shows were the norm and random OVAs were coming out every year (or probably every month), anime has a very different meaning. Compare that to the kids of the early Naughties, as they call it, who grew up on shounen anime. Dragon Ball Z has always been around, but I don’t think shows like Naruto and One Piece were a part of the 90s kids’ vocabulary. It gets even more confusing when the kids of today start off with moe anime and harem comedy on Crunchyroll and YouTube.
As I said in the beginning, it isn’t too difficult to outgrow your roots and explore unfamiliar terrain, but I think that everyone is affected by their gateway anime in some way. Even though I’m not a shounen fan, I still feel a strange sense of excitement when I witness a dramatic, over-the-top battle. Shounen battle anime has to be like Rurouni Kenshin, or I’ll probably be disappointed. Similarly, my early experiences with Key made the nakige my standard expectation for visual novels, causing me to unconsciously doubt games like Muv-luv until I eventually play them.
What does this mean for the other generations? This is only speculation, but I can understand why the old-school super robot fans want more mecha shows out of each new season, even if they enjoy what they’re currently watching. You don’t have to be cynical to want the industry to make more of what you like.
This might not be a revolutionary idea, but when we get caught up in the sea of media in the subculture that we thrive in, it’s easy to forget that we all found our way into this world through different means. Even though opinions change over time, everyone is at least slightly affected by their roots. The news of the new Soukyuu no Fafner project got me far more excited than I expected because I watched the original series before Evangelion; I still feel as if every shoujo manga should be like Fruits Basket. I know I’ve changed a lot since I first started watching anime, but it’s interesting to take note of the little expectations and preferences that linger on. Try it some time.
~ ETERNAL
つづく
