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Loving Anime: Then Vs. Now

The Changing Perspective in the U.S. of Those Who Enjoy the Genre

By Ti AnaPublished 7 years ago 8 min read
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Ah yes, the fandom that impacts millions across the globe, the art that makes people dress up in cosplay, attend anime expos across the country, and create followings of "Otakus." By now, if you haven’t heard of anime and its print counterpart, manga, you’re probably living under a rock. Also, this rock may have been crushing you since anime first came on the scene in the 1980s with the U.S. invasion of Sailor Moon and Dragon Ball Z.

Nowadays, you can choose from a wide array of anime, from cult classics like Cowboy Bebop to 2010's sensations such as Attack on Titan and Yuri! On Ice. By now, many are familiar with Japan’s golden genre, even if they don’t necessarily prefer to watch it or never have.

Many also know about the religious following, even in the United States. A stereotype that people have held about those part of that following are 13 to 17-year-old girls and 60+-year-old men who identify themselves as “Otakus,” try to be somehow, offensively, “Japanese,” and buy thousands of dollars in anime merchandise. Granted, this is a stereotype and obviously not all who like or are obsessed with anime do or are these things. However, I am able to make fun of this stereotype, because I was this stereotype (minus the cultural appropriation part). In defense of those who scream at the sight of hot anime guys, I admit, they are not bad to look at and anime story lines tend to be better than blockbuster movies’ —the fandom and subculture are understandably present.

It’s difficult to find data on how many enjoy anime in the United States, but if we’re examining the Anime Expo, nearly 90,500 attendees were present in 2014, a 12% increase from the previous year. The top ten Anime Conventions, excluding the Anime Expo, held about 215,131 people in 2015. Of course, this isn’t counting those who enjoy the genre but didn’t attend.

Even regardless of how many Americans there are who like anime, what I’ve gathered from my very limited access to credible sources, liking or loving anime is becoming more acceptable in the United States as time goes on. The stereotype I mentioned earlier is also not being considered as widely as before.

With that, I wanted to give homage to the genre and to highlight the way in which I’ve noticed the public perspective on anime has changed in my personal life. The “public” is not everyone in the United States — I’m talking about the people I’ve come across in my personal life and those I’ve told that I enjoy watching anime. On social media, I’ve also been noticing a vibe of acceptability and an unspoken agreement that a person even emits “coolness” when expressing a positive regard for the genre. This is a large contrast to what I’ve witnessed during the time when I actually really, really liked anime.

I attended middle school from 2004 to 2007; why in God’s name would I bring back these horrific memories, I’m not quite certain right now. I’ve blocked out most experiences from middle school and every day I thank the almighty that I’ve come out a better and smarter 24-year-old than whatever I was in middle school. Looking back on it, I’m partly okay I went through it so that I can see how much more of a functioning human being I am now in comparison. I know I’m not the only one who looks back on their middle school selves and not think, “ouch—what function-less, naïve thing was I?”

One thing that added to my misery and inability to be seen as a proper social human, since the process of puberty had robbed me of most of it, was my intense love for anime and the judgments that came with it. I had it all: anime-themed key chains, backpacks, and dare I say it, a Naruto headband that I wore to my family’s vacation to San Antonio, Texas. I remember being 13 years old and running down the River Walk Walkway with that thing on my forehead, pretending I was the best ninja in all the land. I probably looked ridiculous and my awkward self probably did not care. Another thing that added to my inability to notice what others thought about me was the absence of a sibling to tell me to “stop making a fool out of yourself.” If I were to run around that River Walk today with a Leaf Village headband, I’d probably be considered a “hipster with a Naruto headband,” which would be a lot better than just “loser.”

And boy, was I considered a loser in middle school, especially since I showed this intense love for a genre that was considered strange by most of my peers. The acne didn't help my life either. I kept on with the love — I think deep down I wanted to be able to like the genre without anyone caring what I was doing since I didn’t believe it affected them. However, if you’ve ever met 7th graders, there’s literally no reason or logical thinking on any type of matter anywhere in those B.O.-infested halls. I was not alone though — I believe that only a handful of kids were liked by the majority of their classmates in middle school; almost everyone I’ve met has been bullied in some way or another during these times.

Since I was not alone in this passion, in the 8th grade, I kid you not, I created an anime club as if I wasn’t sabotaging my pubescent life already. With this club, I felt I had a community with a few of my classmates — even if we were considered the lowest of lows in the entire small town of 20,000 people. I was creating agendas, meeting notes, and gathering members — as socially suicidal as it sounds, it’s probably something I could’ve put on a résumé. The genre gave me some sort of buzz and this time I was enjoying it with others.

It didn’t last long, however. There came a time when I reached a tipping point and became exhausted from being considered shit on a street by the small, but powerful society that lay before me.

I remember it vividly — I was a few weeks away from starting my freshman year of high school and frankly, I had enough. I knew I needed to purge myself of anime and the amount of manga that was sitting in my bedroom closet. Going into high school, I gave it all away or stored it away forever, knowing fully that this was necessary for a better social life. I was casting away a tainted part of my identity and I believed it was tainted, since I knew I wouldn’t be able to survive high school with it. For 8 years after that, I hardly looked at the sight of anime.

As dramatic as that sounded, it was an accurate account from my point-of-view. I can’t help but contrast it to what I witness in 2017 at 24 years old. Today, I see posts on my Facebook timeline with cosplayers getting 200+ likes on their cosplay by people who aren’t really into anime, but are still finding the cosplay “quite awesome.” I know stoners from college that religiously watched anime and the occasional athletes who got really into Attack on Titan; classmates from college had their minds blown away by Death Note.

When I was a freshman in high school, I had a crush on a senior who was obviously very much out of my league. Once I was in college, he messaged me on Facebook to say, “it was pretty awesome” that I like Dragon Ball and that we would’ve dated if only we were a few years closer together in age. What?

On my Twitter timeline, if I actively mention anything about anime, I’d receive a response of “Okay. That’s normal. And also funny/cool.” Anime memes are everywhere on social media. It was perfectly normal for my roommates to binge watch Ouran High School Host Club and yes, this was very acceptable by everyone else on campus. Another classmate in college would bring manga to read in class on her downtime — no one batted an eye.

From what I’ve gathered in my experiences and from those whom I’ve discussed this with, enjoying anime is much more acceptable now than it was in the early 2000s. Even if you’re outright obsessed with doing cosplay alongside watching anime, people are generally open-minded about a person’s decision to do this.

Or, to play devil’s advocate to myself, the early 2000s could have also had outsiders who had positive perspectives on those who enjoyed anime; it’s just that I was in middle school, a place where you were destroyed if you had any ounce of “difference” from the status quo. Additionally, nowadays changing your profile picture on Facebook to a photo of an anime character may not be “completely cool” by some. Also, if you’re insanely obsessed with anime to the point of binge watching it every day of your life, it may not be healthy or considered something to be proud of. But who can judge you — almost everyone binges when watching Netflix, regardless of what’s on the screen.

All I’m saying, though, is that the perspective in the United States on those who like anime or love anime is better than it was. My 13-year-old self is asking, “Why? Why did the ‘coolness’ factor of liking this genre not show up in my life until several years too late?” I don’t know, self. I don’t know. Perhaps it's the combination of factors of but not limited to: an audience who can more easily access it on the Internet, the ability for millennials to be more open-minded now that we’re older, and the resurgence of those who were closeted anime lovers in middle school. But these are all assumptions.

All I know is that I spent most of my Friday night writing about anime and this may likely be okay to whoever is now reading it.

pop culture
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About the Creator

Ti Ana

Writing: surreal poetry, random thoughts, and more.

Insta: tianaishere

Wanna tell me something? Email [email protected]

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