"Anime: The Unappreciated Hobby"
By Paul Vlosich II

"...once you're a fan, you're always a fan." -- Andrew Kent

The world and its people are divided into countless groups. Where a person is categorized in these groups depends on both their actions and interests. If someone does not fit into another person's view of what is "normal," that person is considered to be weird, different, or boring. A very common synonym for this kind of person is "geek." In this group, there are several different prejudices that determine what kind of geek he or she is. These prejudiced parties could label them as being a Trekkie, a bookworm, a prodigy, or anything else that seems out of this world to others. These examples each have their own community in which they can be together and talk about their various interests. Yet they all have a similar problem. That is the prejudice that they suffer from those who do not understand them. A perfect example of a group that suffers from prejudice is the community of the "anime fan."

Anime (ahnie-may) is the jargon term that is used when describing Japanese animation. The anime fan community (also referred to as "anime fanbase") was created because fans saw and enjoyed the complex storylines and character development that happens in the hundreds of stories that are found in anime. These kind of fictional elements are not usually found in American animation. Dying characters, dramatic romance, and the image of good vs. evil are just a few items of fiction that continue to pull people into this community (Krissah).

Just like many other communities in the world, the anime fanbase is divided into several different types of fans, including shoujo fans (fans of girls shows), shounen fans (fans of boys shows), yaoi/yuri fans (fans of shows with homosexual elements), and cosplayers (fans who dress up as their favorite characters), just to name a few (Holding).

Anime fans may be vastly different from each other, but they all love what they watch. Usually, some love a show because of its impact on them personally. Others love to analyze the philosophical nature of some shows, like Evangelion or Lain. Along with
loving their anime, most fans enjoy interacting with each other by commenting on their viewings and sharing ideas. Through this interaction, they meet new people and spread their joy of the shows they love, therefore raising the fanbase. Usually, some fans pur-
chase and view a series based on their friends' recommendations alone. The best way to meet anime fans is to attend an anime convention, where thousands gather to spend time exploring their passion and socializing. They all love to be at these conventions because doing so is a sure way to "get away from it all."

Now with a description like that and how much its grown in the past five years, one would think that the anime fanbase is mostly accepted around this country. Sadly, that is not the case. To others who have never seen nor heard of it, anime is regarded as either too childish or too adult-oriented. Since itís seen as either one of those two, there isn't really much of a happy medium to it. People who practice this stereotype believe that.

People here say that most of the shows are for kids. Well, the fact is, in Japan, those shows are for kids. However, Japanese culture is quite different from America's, and thus, Japanís kids shows are quite different as well. In Japanese culture, there is fewer censorship in the television programming. Thus, some Americans could see anime as adult-themed shows that could easily corrupt the viewers, while anime fans understand that itís just for kids. For example, in the hit series, Dragonball, the main character, a child named Goku, is a naive when it comes to body gender types. As a result, he feels menís chests and women's pelvises in confusion. This is supposed to pass off as comedy, but many Americans don't see it that way and have had those scenes removed from the domestic television release (Marsh).

Another reason that anime isn't well-known and accepted is the basic non-interest of it here in the United States. There have been attempts to introduce a few anime titles to American theatres, and they were met with poor ticket sales. The best example of this is the film, Princess Mononoke. This movie was released by Studio Ghibli in 1999 and became an international hit. Across the globe, it collected over $163 million. Anime fans couldn't wait for its US release, especially since celebrities like Billy Bob Thorton and Gillian Anderson agreed to do voices for the English dub (jargon term for "translation"). Even non-anime fans got interested, since Disney helped with the advertising. In the end, however, it only scored $2 million in the United States. That's all (Schwartz). Of course, one could argue that Disney didn't put enough effort into the advertising for the movie, but the sad truth is set in stone. Disney didn't have to spend too much money because they knew that Mononoke would only have an appeal to established anime fans, since no one else wanted to see a different style of "cartoon." (Macdonald).

Perhaps the main reason why anime suffers from prejudice is the fact that Japan accepts the notion of homosexuality more than America does. There's even a genre of anime for the lifestyle, the yaoi (gays) and yuri (lesbians) genre. Of course, most Americans have a huge problem with this, since they're still a little frightened of the idea of two women or two men being in love with each other. Surprisingly, many titles have become licensed and distributed here in America, such as Fake, Gravitation, and Kizuna (Josei Ni). This has affected me personally because I am open to accepting that lifestyle, as well as many others. I have even felt some empathy towards the romance that is featured in these anime. As stated by fellow community members, "[people] have the right to their own opinion, but they are more than often wrong in their assumption" (Robinson, Ziemba).

Of course, as stated earlier, the anime fanbase is not alone in suffering from basic prejudice. Just about all communities have their oppressors. People with Gothic oriented lifestyles are hated and misinterpreted because of their appearance. The same goes for people of other nationalities, different professions, and even those who contradict regular fashion trends. Basic, human prejudice is still and forever will be alive. For every pride parade, thereís a horrible synonym for the word "gay." For every proud African-American statement, there is still a segregated bar in the South. For every man who is called a "chauvinist," there's a women being called a "femi-nazi." Basically, anime fans suffer the sin of being different. People donít like differences and thus, they criticize them. It is human nature.

The anime fanbase has lived a long time with this problem, and they continue to hold up against it. However, if the problem isn't handled soon, censorship and prejudice could eventually prevail.

Anime and the Media: The Glass is Half-Empty

Everybody has their opinions about the nature and meaning of the anime fan community. They either keep it to themselves or make those opinions be heard. However, no matter what, one thing will still be the primary source of new opinions, and that source is the media. Easily one of the most influential aspects of people's lives, the news media, on print and on the Internet, serves as the best way for a regular person to obtain information on anime and its fanbase. However, media do not understand anime, and through that misunderstanding, the general public receives a negative image about what anime truly is.

More often than thought, anime is represented in newspapers, such as the Washington Times and the New York Post. Articles on them mostly appear when the nearby city has recently hosted an anime convention. For example, the Columbus Dispatch commented on January's Ohayocon ("ohayo" sounds like "Ohio" and is the Japanese word for "good morning"), which was hosted in Columbus, Ohio. In particular, it discussed two teenage attendees on how they became fans of anime, and why they attend conventions, which is to meet new people. More or less, the city was proud to have them for the weekend (Dempsey).

Of course, in explanation of what anime is, that article, as well as many others, gave less than acceptable examples. They mentioned the anime that has been "American-ized" for television, like Dragonball Z, Pokemon, or Yu-Gi-Oh. "Americanized" anime are those that are licensed by American companies and franchised out as a new fad amongst younger people. Itís understandable that Dempsey wants to make the article seem more interesting to those who aren't familiar with anime, but in doing so, she leaves more experienced anime fans out of her audience.

Another kind of bias was found in the New York Post article, which is a movie review for an anime movie that just got a domestic release, named Tokyo Godfathers. In this article, the author, V.A. Musetto, presented a good but satirical review by also commentating on:

"This isn't your usual anime. For one thing, there are no panty shots, an anime staple."

Now this is a clear example of bias-based critique. Sure, panties are a common thing in anime, but there is no clear research that proclaims that they are required to appear in every anime. The author just said that so he could sound more informative on anime than he really is. Either that or he wanted to connect with the readers who don't know anime all that well. Of course, once they have read that quote, I doubt they would feel more
comfortable with the notion of anime in America.

Despite the negative bias, there are some articles that support the anime fanbase and even calls it a cool, new trend. The article used to supplement this point is the one in the Washington Times. Here, the author proclaims Japan as the new "empire of cool," with anime and other imports exciting the rest of the world. The most notable bias in this article was that the common fan wasn't quoted enough. Another thing was that examples were mostly given from American society, instead of Japanese society. Again, this is understandable, because of the article's target audience (Faiola A1). Most recently, Time has published a positive article, but it mainly focused on Japanese manga (comics). It tells how manga is for teens and not children. It also mentions the same for anime (JackofTrades, et al).

Now imagine that someone has read through these articles and eventually becomes an anime fan. Where would he or she go next, to dive further into the methodologies of anime? He or she would go to other, more experienced fans. This is where the Internet comes in.

The Internet is the one place anyone can go to and publish their writing for others to read. Thus, countless third party essays and reports are found in several search engines. If there is a question that needs answered, it can found as long as someone wrote about it.

In the anime fan community, there are many different kinds of people. There are fans who love a certain anime, and there are even those who love anime, but hate how others love it. The next article chosen shows this, when the author talks about how some fans take their love for anime too far and as a result, embarrass other fans. He obviously has a bias against that sort of behavior. He has the right to that opinion, as do we all to our own. The author must have gotten feedback on the essay, since it was hosted on an easy to find website. That's because anime fans read it and responded to it (Forrester).

In all media everywhere, there is always a response to an article. For this particular subject, anime fans were the ones to respond. Generally, fans believe that the media is out to hurt the image of anime. To point this out, I created an interview topic on the Gaia message boards (http://www.go-gaia.com), under my own screen name, JackofTrades. There, other fans proclaimed their take on the media. "Not...well-researched enough...nor even a well-educated guess..." and "[t]hey're all morons..." are opinions of the media that weren't hard to find (JackofTrades, et al). Fans believe that the media can't fully understand, because anime is still new to the general public.

That is why the problem of anime being accepted is being discussed here. If there are to be better times for anime and its fanbase, this must change. Anime is more than just panty shots or violent aggression. Why the media sees it as such is quite understandable, but until they attempt to be optimistic, anime will always be viewed as a bad apple in American society.

Anime's Possible Solutions In Dealing With Prejudice

Just like many various minority groups, anime started out small and outside the public eye. With the release of 1988's "Akira," anime found its stride in the Western world. Since then, dozens of anime conventions are held every year throughout the country, and anime is represented in various ways, whether it be from movies (Kill Bill) or television (Marin).

That is why it is difficult to find detailed solution possibilities to this prejudice problem. It even looks as though the problem isn't that harmful to the community. Despite that, without social acceptance, anime will continue to be "just a hobby" and not the passionate art form it truly is.

One way to slowly and surely get people interested in anime is to advocate and promote it. Hundreds of fans have been made every year, just from hearing what their friends say about a specific show or genre of anime. Through personal experience, I have shown Neon Genesis Evangelion to two psychology faculty at my resident university, and they both enjoyed it. One even bought a VHS copy, to use for an upcoming project. Another success story of avocation is the Anime Crash store that made its way to Manhattan, NY in 1995. Without the promotion of anime from various people, this store would not exist (Bessman). Now this seems like a fine way to spread the knowledge of anime, but it does have its flaws.

Another solution to the prejudice problem could be to ignore its oppressors. This is the process that is most used amongst fans. These fans just do not react to any teasing or even hazing that they may receive because of their love for anime. This is good in the way that fans just do their thing and be content with their anime. No one can forcibly stop them from doing that. On the other side of the fence, though, this could be showing the "predator," so to speak, that his "prey" will not defend itself. Knowing this, the "predator" could attack the "prey" continuously, without fail.

Of course, it sounds quite difficult to both find a clear solution and to completely solve the problem with it. Being an anime fan is not exactly the same as a minority, such as a Jewish or black person. Those people were born into their minority; becoming an anime fan is a choice. More or less, fans know what they are getting into when they fall into the world of anime (Bell).

There could be no solution to this problem at all, quite frankly. Prejudice, or rather bias, is one of our basic emotions. It cannot go away too easily. With that in mind, having no solution to this problem is a definite possibility for this situation as well (Farrar). However, if there is a solution, then the prospect of advocation sounds to be the best one to use.

Spreading the Word: The Advocation of Anime

Advocates have always been important in history. Figures such as Benjamin Franklin, Martin Luther King, and Susan B. Anthony have advocated for their specific cause and virtually changed society as a whole. That's just how powerful advocation can be, when done correctly. Perhaps, the same can be done for anime's benefit.

Not just any fan can advocate anime. He or she should have grand experience in doing and also be confident in presenting in front of crowds. Anime is so misunderstood by people that advocates must ensure his or her listeners know are presented with correct
information and can comprehend it as well.

Because the advocate would be experienced in anime, they would know what to say about people's objections to the quirks they find with anime. Examples of this would be: homosexuality, because it's more accepted in Japan; the more perverse nature of comedy, because it's seen in Japan as such and not offensive; or the complex storylines that are found in anime, because the serial nature of some series calls for a less episodic feel to it. By seeing an advocate, interested people can be told just what anime intends to do for its audience. It's an art form and one that is currently lacking acceptance in the general public.

Of course, there's always a bad side of doing things. Along with finding the rare fan who can advocate anime, it's hard to get others to continue the "grapevine" of sorts. Imagine that after speaking with an advocate, an interested boy tells his friends and then they all start to like anime. This is good for the anime fan community but can only be regarded as a special case (Chip). Also, advocating anime towards an audience of the older generation is extremely difficult. Most senior citizens still dislike the old Warner Bros. Cartoons, much less anime. Anime isn't domestic, and that's how it frightens most people. They find it weird and abnormal, because they've never seen it before in their lives.

So a fan decides to start advocating their love for anime. What will be in their way?

Most objections to this solution would come from people who will see it as a forceful tactic. To some, the advocation of anime looks like a religious style of persuasion. These people feel that anime fans and their advocates just will not go away until they get their way. The anime fan community never wants to be seen as such. They are often open-minded and will listen to what people say. If their advocacy is seen as forceful, it will be discontinued, and they can move on. Fans do not wish to be opinionated. They only want anime to be held in higher regard than it currently does.

You, the reader, can take part in this by seeking out anime fans. Even if the person you find is not a complete advocate, he or she can talk to you about it. Just ask them anything and they should be able to help you. If you don't like what you hear, that's just fine. Your opinion belongs to you, and anime fans respect that opinion.

Besides, prejudice is found everywhere. It's lived through history eternally, like a "necessary evil" that cannot be extinguished. Despite its harm, it also helps mold our society. This is shown by referring to the examples stated. Because of Ben Franklin, the Americans' hate toward Great Britain led to the birth of the United States. Because of King and Anthony, minorities of both color and gender have received their civil rights and are still protected by them to this day. However, since then, some people still hate those minorities, and that is because of prejudice. Itís understandable that racism and sexism are entirely different forms of prejudice than what anime fans go through. As stated before, loving anime is a choice; who you are is not. Yet it does not matter who or what you are; a prejudice or stereotype will always be found for it.

Prejudice is something that can't go away, but there can be found a solution that could deal with or even suppress it. Maybe this solution of advocation could help anime and its public image. If it cannot, then it does not. Anime fans will still continue on with their passion. Anime is something that fuels their soul and their imagination. As long as they have that, prejudice will never completely defeat anime. Because of its fans'support, anime will not disappear, just like that. Prejudice will not go away either, but that's just the way things are (Sora).

Works Cited

Bell, Graham. "Response." Science. 8 March. 2002: 1836-1937. EBSCOhost, Item 6392605. <http://search.epnet.com/direct.asp?an=6392605&db=aph >.

Bessman, Jim. "Anime Crash Splashes Down In Manhattan." Billboard. 29 April. 1995: 75-77. EBSCOhost, Item 9505111404. <http://search.epnet.com/direct.asp?-an=9505111404&db=aph>.

Chip."Anime...in college?" Online posting. 4 Sept. 2003. Tenchi in Tokyo Message Board. 18 April. 2004. <http://www.tenchiintokyo.org/forum/viewtopic.php-?t=1473&view=next >.

Dempsey, Eileen. "Anime-niacs; Fans of art form from Japan flock to conventions near and nationwide." The Columbus Dispatch 29 Jan. 2004, home final edition.: pg. 01E

Faiola, Anthony. "Japan's Empire of Cool." The Washington Post 27 Jan. 2003, daily edition.: A1+

Farrar, Max. "Prospects and Retrospects: The struggle for paradise." City 6.3 (2002): 383-390.

Forrester, Andrew. "Otaku Suck!, or An Angry Anime Fan And His View On The Fandom." http://www.angelfire.com/anime/otakusuck (17 Feb. 2004.)

Holding, Sarah. Just What Is An "Otaku" Anyway? A Guide To Useful Japanese Terms Found In Anime. 1999. 4 Feb. 2004. <http://celesstar.osiriscomm.com-/anime/otaku.html>

JackofTrades, Lirrin, et al."I must interview some anime community members!..." http:-//rufus.go-gaia.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=965503&highlight= (21 Feb. 2004.)

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Krissah, Williams."ìHouston-Based Animation Company Thrives on Anime Phenomenon." Houston Chronicle. 2 Feb. 2004. EBSCOhost. <http://search.epnet.com/direct.asp?an=2W62070707377&db=nfh>

Macdonald, Christopher. Silly Otaku, Cartoons are for Kids. 30 Oct. 2001.24 Jan. 2004. <"http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/editorial.php?id=29" http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/editorial.php?id=29 >

Marin, Rick, and T. Trent Gegax. "Holy Akira! It's Aeon-Flux." Newsweek. 14 Aug. 1995: 68-70. EBSCOhost, Item 9508167591. <http://search.epnet.com/direct.asp-?an=9508167591&db=aph>.

Marsh, James. Personal interview. 3 Feb 2004.

Musetto, V.A. "Three Likable Souls and A Baby." New York Post 16 Jan. 2004, online edition.: 2

Robinson, Whitey. Personal interview. 3 Feb. 2004.

Schwartz, Charles. Movie Reviews: Princess Mononoke. 1999. 5 Feb. 2004. <http://www.crankycritic.com/archive99/princessmononoke.html>

Sora Takanouchi."Should Anime Be Off Adult Swim?" Online posting. 24 Mar. 2003. [adult swim] INFOcentral Forum. 18 April. 2004. < http://forums.toonzone.net/-showthread.php?t=71587 >.

Ziemba, Matthew. Personal interview. 3 Feb. 2004.

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