Nothing of Consequence

[NorthernKaleCity]

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.

Luna Art has nothing over your collection, Akage. I'm sure you can sit back and appreciate the wonderful times you spent looking for those Sailor Moon cels, the hard work it must have cost you to make those cel works your dreams come true and the stories you must have with every single cel in your collection.

I don't own one cel, and you'd think I'd be out selling my left kidney to get a hold of something from Kenichi Sonoda during his Bubblegum Crisis run.

So for every time you think this Luna Art's collection is better and far more superior than yours, just think to yourself that at least yours is LIGHT YEARS better than mine!

Crack open the mass produced stuff and enjoy the goodness inside. Things like cel works, I imagine, one would be a little bit more careful than to just scan the hell out of them just to show them off to the world. That sounds like someone clamming for bragging rights, rather than someone who collects cel panels for the authenticity of being a true fan like yourself.

Fuck Luna Art. Akage's collection rules.

[DKop]

Fuck Luna Art. Akage's collection rules.

I find that one line so satisfying to read, all hail the great Cel Queen Akage

I have a mere cel collection of just the stuff I like, and i'm pretty content with that. If I come across anything else or Akage might point me too, then i'd get them, but cel collecting isn't my main bag atm.

I think for me, in the end, do you have control over our collections, or do they control us? I'm willing to bet a majority of you (also including myself) want to say the former is true, but the latter speaks much louder. As collectors of anything fandom related, if things get to a point where we think "this is too much" and the joy of collecting is just a habit than a passion, then its time to step back and take note of what we own and see what we could sell/give away to someone else that would appreciate it. That's how I feel on my video games ATM, ive even sold off high collectors items like Snatcher for the Sega CD to my buddy Josh at Limited Run games, because I know he's appreciating that game than I do, and to get it signed by Hideo Kojima at a gaming expo someday. To me I see that serving a much better purpose than the game sitting in storage because I don't have any room to show it off to anyone, and I can live with that decision. It comes down too what matters to you the most and what is just there as space wasters. If its wasting space, let it go and make your money back, which by doing that its one less thing to worry about trying to itemize in your collection.

Kale is right about the worthiness of a collection only matters to the person collecting. If a person is doing the collecting for praise and fame from other fans, that will die away along with the purpose of collecting in the first place. Then they're left with nothing but memories of trying to please others for a false fame that was meant to die off. If you're collecting because it gives you pleasure and joy regardless of whoever may or may not like your hobby, then it's worth sticking with it because this is what you like to do. I don't know the intentions of this Luna Art person, but eventually that will be found out in due time if they collect because they love it personally or for the glory of others.

So just keep doing what we all love to do, because that's what matters in the end. It's all material that will soon fade away in time, and we're the ones that decide if its worthy to be of value or not. That's kinda how I look at my collecting hobby, and if an item means nothing to me, then it deserves to be in the hands of someone that will cherish it more than me.

[Akage]

So for every time you think this Luna Art's collection is better and far more superior than yours, just think to yourself that at least yours is LIGHT YEARS better than mine!

I enjoy looking at other people's collections, but that's more in general because I like to see what people own and how they choose to arrange things. I also like seeing how people use space and colors. I don't feel all warm and fuzzy inside knowing I have more/better stuff, and I would hope that those that can spend $30K on one cel don't act that way as well. I'm sure that there are people out there that need that sort of thing, but there might be other issues involved as to why they feel the need to behave that way. When I compare my cel collection with others who collect the same thing, it's more of an analysis and less of a pining over things I don't own.

Yeah, I agree DKop's point about allowing collections to control us. I have known of collectors who will buy something only to turn it around a couple weeks later to sell for a discount. Sometimes it's because the collector wants something new and needs the money to buy it (or pay off their bills), and sometimes it's just because it loses their appeal once they've owned it for a while. When I first started to collect cels in 2003, there was one particular Sailor Moon cel collector who would claim that a cel listed on Yahoo Japan was her wishlist and expect everyone to back off to allow her to win it. Normally, I wouldn't have much of an issue with this..but she would do this every week when a new crop of auctions appeared. I got fed up with the behavior and just started winning the artwork instead.

I've never met Luna-Art personally, although we have tangled over the same cels on various Yahoo Japan and Mandarake auctions in the past. To my knowledge, she never attends any anime conventions. I hope one day she can, even if I can't meet up with her. I find myself enjoying more interacting with the guests and the stories behind the artwork just as much as the artwork itself.

[usamimi]

A little late to the thread, but I definitely echo what Akage and Dave said...there's really no wrong way to be a fan. Having a huge collection of something doesn't make you better or worse than fans who have nothing. As long as you enjoy a thing, you're a fan of that thing, period! Some are more casual in what they love, some have more money to spend. Neither gives anyone the excuse to lord it over others' heads and make them feel crappy about it, for sure.

I've had a lot of friends sheepishly tell me they felt "inferior" to me as an anime fan, or fan of a specific thing, because they don't know as much as I might or I might have a bigger collection of something than they do. I always try to sit them down and tell them that's silly. I only know a lot because as a kid I was a maniac with too much free time on my hands that would try to memorize as much useless information as possible. And I'm always first to point out my meager "collections" are probably nothing compared to other fans out there. Like it's been said, there's always gonna be someone who knows a little more or owns more than you, so it's dumb to think of it as a contest. Just have fun and like what you like~

[Valand]

From my perspective, there is actually really is going to be someone with the biggest (but not necessarily the greatest) collection out there making themselves known or not. But I don't think that necessarily makes them the biggest fan. Neither does having watched it the most amount of times. Who knows, someone might just have discovered it and ended up loving it more than anyone else. Which is impossible to measure of course, as people have various ways of expressing it. And they don't necessarily have to in the first place.

Now even if we could pinpoint the biggest fan, they wouldn't be better than anyone else. Maybe not good at all. You could discuss what makes a good fan, but it probably isn't going to be the one bragging of how big of a fan they are. I think most people would agree that a good fan is someone who supports the anime (or whatever) in question. And while buying every piece of merchandise certainly is one way, there are other and perhaps better ways to help keeping it alive, such as by sharing your passion in an including way and make others interested (though just buying stuff is totally okay too!). But trying to make yourself seem better is just going to have the opposite effect.

That doesn't mean that someone who's a fan without ever showing it or collecting anything is a bad fan however. But paying for the anime itself would be a good thing at least.

This is my opinion anyway.

[NorthernKaleCity]

Yeah, there are going to be fans out there on this giant ball of dirt that we may never know about or, fans bragging themselves out to be better than they really are or, people with bigger collections than perhaps, all of us combined. But you have to find happiness within the goods you have, fuck everyone else.

I think each and everyone of you sharing these stories for others on the Lounge to read at their leisure really shows how much each of us have struggled to be fans of the genre in our own particular way and how we still struggle from time to time, even today.

But never for one second think that any of you haven't accumulated what you have only to think any less of it, than it really is. If you can afford to indulge in what makes you very happy in this world while maintaining a sense of balance in your lives, that extra video game, cel animation, coveted VHS tape or whatever makes you giddy, is definitely worth the buy.

Who says we can't go out and get what we've always wanted? Life does sometimes, but that's beside the point.

Mind you, if it comes to buying something you've always wanted on one side of the scale but on the other plate weighing in is the payment for your house, for god's sake, tip the scale yourself and pay the house.

[NorthernKaleCity]

Hey, someone left a bowl of Cheese Puffs here. Sweet.

*munch, munch, munch*

[George W]

You are ALWAYS good enough. Always.

All Anime needs fans. It is very selfless - it doesn't care what your income is, or what you do for a living. It just appreciates being appreciated.

You shouldn't care what other people think about you. Be comfortable with who you are. You are special - one of a kind. Unique.