Category: Fandom

For the fans, involving the fans, and about the fans

Fandom

Certainly Not A Con Report Of Anime North 2010

I think I used this picture before. I’ll probably use it again. [vania600]

Late con posts aren’t all that bad, are they?

Anime North 2010 took place over the last weekend of May, and it happened to coincide with a few important real life events for me, like the end of my last year of high school. Suffice it to say that I had a great time and that it’s still one of my highlights of the year. Since the idea of writing a “real” con report puts me to sleep, this will pretty much just be a collection of my impressions of the various events I attended and on the con as a whole. The post is far longer than anyone should want to read, so the important names and events are bolded to make for easy skimming. There’s also a bit of meta at the end if you’re in the mood for it.

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Fandom

To OEL or not to OEL? Gems from the Gaijin of the Internet

[Katawa Shoujo]

This isn’t quite a serious response to a recent Sankaku Complex article (NSFW). Their jab at Western “dating sims” was obviously not intended for any kind of serious contemplation, despite the fact that they overlooked something crucial.

The punchline, however, felt disturbingly familiar. It isn’t all too uncommon in anime fandom to criticize Western media, much moreso when a person is creating something that “resembles” Japanese media like anime and manga. It’s the typical “stop trying to be Asian” argument, which appears to be worse for the YouTube stars (although that may only be because they have to deal with YouTube commenters).

Anyway, media is the issue here, not culture. Put simply, some fans have a bad habit of underestimating Japanese-style media that wasn’t made in Japan, and that can be as unhealthy for the community as it is harmful for your own media intake.

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Fandom

Living up to my name with the obligatory Mai Waifu post

If you’re reading this, you should already know that I’m a moe fan. As a proud newfag Not Oldfag, I don’t see anything wrong with fluffy VNs and pointless harems. However, as most moe fans know, it’s not quite as easy to create an appealing character as you might think. There are tons of characteristics to think about, almost like planning a storyline: which tropes to use and which to subvert? Should there be a major plot twist, or should the effect sneak up on you? Despite the fact that so many shows star characters that are meant to appeal to male viewers, very few make a genuine impression that lasts more than a few weeks. Thus, after being reminded by digitalboy’s post, I have decided to perform a rite that every self-proclaimed otaku ought to perform at some point: create a list of my 5 favourite anime girls and explain what sets them apart from the fields of osananajimi and the seas of tsundere.

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Fandom

If you don’t want to be protected, then I don’t want to be served

I like maids. You like maids too, right? We all like maids. Everyone likes maids. There’s nothing wrong with that, as far as anime fandom goes. But sometimes, the whole goshujin-sama concept can be a little…disconcerting. No, this isn’t about taking the concept too far and why moe is the cancer that’s killing anime; it isn’t a rant about sexism in Japan, or an elaborate way of saying that my fetish > your fetish. It’s simply a voicing of opinion: a short complaint on the ironic little subdivision of moe called maid moe.

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Fandom

Anime is Deep, Right? …Right?

If there’s one thing readers and writers alike quickly discover about the blogosphere, it’s that in a sea of casual reviewers and episodic summarizers, there are always a few people that feel the need to stand up and proclaim that anime is more than just ecchi and robots. For better or worse, this vocal minority – ranging in age, background, and upbringing, yet united under a single glorified goal – tends to force itself into the spotlight and steal the show using big words and plentiful paragraphs, fighting to the death for its belief that Japanese cartoons are not just Japanese cartoons.

But are they right? Are we right? Is the blogosphere truly fighting for a noble cause, to learn and to educate and to learn once more, or are we all simply delusional? We already know that anime isn’t creative, and TJ Han is always the voice of reason in the sphere, so what if this was all an elaborate lie? What if we’re all living in a dream world in which we’re the kings and queens of the universe, oblivious to the jeers of society?

Or worse yet, what if this is all part of The Internet‘s plan to seize control of the blogosphere using lolikitean cryptology?

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Fandom

Moé and the Land of Escapism: The Reality Factor

It’s very, very hard to get a good picture of Rika.

It all began while I was rewatching Honey and Clover. It’s a beautiful show, really, and I can guarantee that I’ll post on it at some point, but the painfully real relationships of the cast aren’t the focus of this post. Instead, I’m going to talk about a thought that crossed my mind with relation to one of the characters: Rika Harada.

What does this have to do with moe, you ask? You’ve probably already started drawing conclusions in your head, but I’ll spell it out for you – just as long as you click on that enticingly blue read more link below.

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Memories of Eternity