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Nothing of Consequence

Posted: Fri Jun 08, 2018 1:50 pm
by runesaint
Just felt like posting. I am in an odd mood. Was listening to 'Wounded Wings" from the Please Save My Earth sound track, now listening to Mayu's theme from the original Harlock show.

Anyone else in an odd mood?

Re: Nothing of Consequence

Posted: Sat Jun 09, 2018 6:07 pm
by TheMidnightSnack
What do you mean by "odd"?
Do you feel listless, random?
Please elaborate, I want to know how you're feeling.

Re: Nothing of Consequence

Posted: Mon Jun 11, 2018 4:35 am
by runesaint
It was a bit of melancholy I suppose. I tend to 'gatekeep' myself at times, feeling that I am not "good enough" to be a fan of something. Intrinsically nonsensical, I know. I dislike when people try to gatekeep, yet I gatekeep myself regularly. For a "not-quite anime" example, a dozen years or so ago I got the limited edition collectors set of Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children. I keep it on a top shelf in my closet. Despite having it for a dozen years or so I have never sat down and watched it. I have read about it, read wikipedia on it, tvtropes, etc... but I have never actually sat down and watched it. Even now, I tell myself that it somehow deserves a more special time to be watched or some such nonsense.
I do not claim to make sense. Thank you for responding.

Re: Nothing of Consequence

Posted: Wed Jun 13, 2018 1:53 pm
by davemerrill
I have some DVDs like that too, they're right there on the shelf waiting for me to watch them, still waiting for the right time to sit down and give them the attention they deserve. There's always something else newer or more time-sensitive ("gotta watch this before everyone spoils it for me" or "this just came out and I HAVE to watch it RIGHT NOW") and it's hard to carve out the time.

Re: Nothing of Consequence

Posted: Wed Jun 13, 2018 8:12 pm
by TheMidnightSnack
runesaint wrote: Mon Jun 11, 2018 4:35 am feeling that I am not "good enough" to be a fan of something.
I've had that feeling too, ever since getting into anime. I've seen other anime fans with huge collections, online blogs, etc, and i feel like, Am I as good of a fan as that guy?
It's not only certain series, I feel like I don't pay enough attention to anime in general.
You can't let bother you. No matter what.

Also, if you want to give this film more attention, why is it in your closet?
You could show it love by just letting it see the light of day. :D

Re: Nothing of Consequence

Posted: Sun Jun 17, 2018 10:15 am
by NorthernKaleCity
runesaint wrote: Mon Jun 11, 2018 4:35 am It was a bit of melancholy I suppose. I tend to 'gatekeep' myself at times, feeling that I am not "good enough" to be a fan of something. Intrinsically nonsensical, I know. I dislike when people try to gatekeep, yet I gatekeep myself regularly. For a "not-quite anime" example, a dozen years or so ago I got the limited edition collectors set of Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children. I keep it on a top shelf in my closet. Despite having it for a dozen years or so I have never sat down and watched it. I have read about it, read wikipedia on it, tvtropes, etc... but I have never actually sat down and watched it. Even now, I tell myself that it somehow deserves a more special time to be watched or some such nonsense.
I do not claim to make sense. Thank you for responding.
I've ripped open manga books that I collected as a kid now because, I've realized that behind mylar bags, these books are of no use to me. I wasted years wondering how to draw like my favorite artists when all along, I had the reference material in my possesion from which to draw inspiration from. Don't let another moment go by without you watching something you really want to, just for the sake of preserving some "special time" for it.

There's no more special a time than now. It sounds cheesy as fuck, but it's true.

And if someone special bought that DVD for you, don't you think they'd want you to enjoy it? That's why they bought it for you! Like your thread title says, there's nothing of consequence at stake here. Preserve that memory by watching the movie, and how good it makes you feel inside.

Do yourself a favor and watch it. Rip the factory seal off that son of a bitch, crack the box open and smell the plasticky goodness, sit down in front of your HDTV with a few hearty snacks, pop that DVD into your DVD player and just watch it. Enjoy it. Then when you're done, look around to see what other anime you can watch or, what Marvel movie is up on your playlist.

Just doo eet, mang. 8-)
TheMidnightSnack wrote: Wed Jun 13, 2018 8:12 pm
I've had that feeling too, ever since getting into anime. I've seen other anime fans with huge collections, online blogs, etc, and i feel like, Am I as good of a fan as that guy?
It's not only certain series, I feel like I don't pay enough attention to anime in general.
You can't let bother you. No matter what.

Also, if you want to give this film more attention, why is it in your closet?
You could show it love by just letting it see the light of day. :D
Being a fan has nothing to do with how many mangas you've collected, how many anime DVD or Laserdiscs you have on the shelf, how huge your online following is or how large your blog is, or how well you can draw your favorite characters from your favorite artists.

When you realize that your love for anime is really, all about making YOU happy to BE a fan, you said it yourself, you can't let it bother you, no matter how "bigger" some other person's fandom is, compared to yours.

No one on here is any bigger a fan, than you. No one here is a better fan, than you. It has to start with you!

That's the beauty of being a fan; your love can range from the smallest, minute detail to the most extravagant, lavish prized piece in your collection of human-sized anime robots, or whatever cyborg creation you have crashing around in the garage. :o

Just, be a fan. Don't let another moment pass by, guys. :D

Re: Nothing of Consequence

Posted: Sun Aug 12, 2018 12:49 pm
by NorthernKaleCity
I hope you two are feeling better and have sat down to watch those DVD's. :D

Re: Nothing of Consequence

Posted: Tue Aug 14, 2018 12:25 am
by Akage
NorthernKaleCity wrote: Sun Jun 17, 2018 10:15 am No one on here is any bigger a fan, than you.
I hate the concept of the biggest fan. These are the idiots at conventions that will tell you that they're the #1 fan of a series because they've seen the series x amount of times, can recite the main character's lines by heart, have spent $$ on merchandise, dedicated hours of their live to making AMVs, etc.

If this is their interpretation of what a big fan is, it means absolutely nothing. There will always be someone with a bigger, better, and more expensive collection than you. Take my Sailor Moon cels. In terms of both quantity and quality, I'll lose every day and twice on Sunday to another fellow collector who goes by the moniker Luna-Art. For every collector like Luna-Art who scans and shows their collection online, there's probably 10 other Japanese (and Chinese) collectors who have black hole type collections with fantastic stuff and who will never show it off. The people who can afford to pay $30K for a master Totoro set-up are the same people whose collections both have the quality and quantity that make it superior to mine. And I am more than ok with this because I am not collecting to make a profit, impress anyone, etc.

What means something is how much enjoyment you get from what you own. It doesn't matter if someone has seen something a million times or can drop that much on merchandise. Are they enjoying what they have, and, if they are, why do they feel the need to brag about it? The biggest fan doesn't need to proclaim what a big fan they are. The biggest fan enjoys what they have, wants to share that love with others, and encourages people to embrace the fandom in whatever way they deem fit.

When it comes to mass produced items like manga, posters, BluRay, yeah, by all means, use that stuff. Open their boxes, pose them on your desk at work, hang them up in your home, whatever.

Re: Nothing of Consequence

Posted: Tue Aug 14, 2018 5:18 am
by davemerrill
I totally agree about there always being people with bigger and better collections around somewhere.

Back in the early 1990s my anime club was doing anime rooms at all the local conventions, having regular meetings, copying tapes for everybody and generally being the go-to people in town for anything anime related - and purely by chance I met a guy who lived a mile from my home, who went to my high school a few years before I did, but who had a gigantic anime/tokusatsu tape collection. I'd been thinking I knew all the local fans and that nobody was going to top my collection or my resources, and here's this guy, quietly doing his own thing a mile away. He wasn't interested in any sort of local fan activity - he wasn't going to attend club meetings or staff convention video rooms - he was just enjoying the anime collecting. It made me ask just how many more fans were out there that we didn't know about?

Re: Nothing of Consequence

Posted: Mon Aug 20, 2018 5:41 am
by Guyver I
I think that's a good point, about the "unknown fans." I can say I was never really a participant in fandom, aside from attending conventions, and being on the Animeigo messages boards and the CAML mailing list and whatnot. Partly, because there weren't many clubs around my area; and when I was old enough to drive and maybe go to club meetings, there still weren't many around - on some level, because I think clubs were dying out to some degree as the internet and digisubs kind of lessened the need to gather around to see new stuff, but also (and I can freely admit this sounds kind of jerky on my part) most of the clubs I'd run into didn't realize anime extended beyond what had been on Toonami the last few years, and trying to talk about anything other than that, was just a no go. And being interested in the history of the medium itself, was something that couldn't really be discussed without seeking out folks significantly older than myself, which is still true, on some level, in regards to pulp and comic history, for me.

My best friends in middle and high school (and mostly still, to this day) would go to conventions with me, and those are among some of my best memories - but it was kind of outside of fandom. They were interested in some shows, but mostly in the live-actions tracks and the dealers' room, all interests I shared as well.

I didn't really think of fandom as "fandom," as an organized thing really until a little before grad school, when I started reading the SF fan histories of Sam Moskowitz, Damon Knight, and others. I knew groups put conventions together, and that these were collections of fans, but I didn't really give it much thought beyond that, at the time. Now, I look back (I'm somewhat on a blitz the last few years, collecting up old fanzines and convention programs, as part of a project I hope to start soon) and see more organization and I appreciate it, even if I can't really say I was a part of it as much as others, at the time. I think not being a part of it, allowed me to never really think if I was a "good fan" or anything like that, as I didn't really have anyone to which to compare myself.