Has anime lost its cachet in America? by Roland Kelts

[usamimi]

Oh, I didn't mean to come off like I was "angry" at any of these things--hope I didn't come off that way. But yeah, I can totally understand the voice actors promoting themselves constantly (you kind of have to because--like you said--it's not the best paying work, and it's part-time work for the most part.) I do see companies promoting their English voice actors more than Japanese industry people BUT I guess when you think about it, if they're the ones making up most of the guest rosters lately, I should've realized that--duh--that's only natural. So, kinda my bad on that part. ^^;

If I had more time I'd actually love to try to set up some panels geared more towards older fans at A-kon, but since I work on staff as well, it's hard to juggle a schedule around that. I did try to make it to the stuff more focused to things I'm more interested it, but even then I couldn't make it to all of them due to time/schedule conflicts. The "pre-2k" anime panel last year was a lot of fun, though, and I was happy to see it (I really do need to pull that off our camcorder and upload it). And I got to have a nice long chat with a fellow who works on Otakon's staff at the swap-meet (he had old Slayers figures and a Pocket Station, which was how we got into talking, actually. XD) So people like us our still around...we're just not as noticeable because most of us are wearing normal clothes and just hanging around, as stated earlier...

[greg]

Oh, I didn't mean to come off like I was "angry" at any of these things--hope I didn't come off that way.

I think I speak for both of us when I say that the true source of frustration is due to the typical fans who ignore the Japanese guests and are basically ignorant about the genre in general (particularly the classics). Seeing an English voice actor or actress drawing a big crowd while an actual creator from Japan is speaking at a panel to largely empty seats would certainly make me upset.

[usamimi]

Oh, I didn't mean to come off like I was "angry" at any of these things--hope I didn't come off that way.

I think I speak for both of us when I say that the true source of frustration is due to the typical fans who ignore the Japanese guests and are basically ignorant about the genre in general (particularly the classics). Seeing an English voice actor or actress drawing a big crowd while an actual creator from Japan is speaking at a panel to largely empty seats would certainly make me upset.

I get more disappointed than "upset", but yeah--pretty much. I feel kinda confounded when I meet younger fans of; for example, Sailor Moon, who stare at me blankly when I say how I'm still bummed that Naoko Takeuchi's only ever been to one American convention..."Who's that?" they'll ask. Uh....the CREATOR of Sailor Moon?? I know Japanese names can often be hard to remember, but even when I was a kid, I made it a point to at least be able to recognize the names of the people that MADE the stuff I liked. (Plus her name is right on the cover of all the English manga re-releases, c'mon, guys.)

[davemerrill]

I think this is what they call a "teachable moment", when those of us who have been paying attention to this stuff for years if not decades can take a moment and say "Naoko Takeuchi, you know, the creator of the original Sailor Moon manga..."

Every anime con is somebody's first anime con.

[usamimi]

I think this is what they call a "teachable moment", when those of us who have been paying attention to this stuff for years if not decades can take a moment and say "Naoko Takeuchi, you know, the creator of the original Sailor Moon manga..."

Every anime con is somebody's first anime con.

It's true! I try to be gently with people like that. Conventions can be overwhelming--even STARTLING--to someone whose never been to one and doesn't know what to expect. I don't want those fans' experience to be tainted completely by feeling like "oh wow, these people know so much, I barely know anything, I AM AN OUTCAST, GET ME OUTTA HERE." I had friends in high school who tried to come to cons with me get that treatment and ended up never going to another one again.

Though I do have to roll my eyes at kids who proclaim to be the "BIGGEST OTAKU EVER!!" and base that on how much merch they've bought/are wearing. I have to remind myself that I was a stupid teenager once and probably said and did equally stupid/embarrassing things, so I just nod my head, say "that's nice" and move on...

[davemerrill]

It's really interesting to move from a place where you are the only anime fan, or the anime fan in your crowd who got into it first so you've got the most movies or TV shows or manga or whatever, to a place where you are just one fan among hundreds or thousands. Suddenly you have to make that mental shift from being the big fish in a small pond to being just another fish among plenty of fish just like yourself.

I didn't get that feeling at the first A-Kon, because it was really small and everybody knew each other or was one connection away from knowing each other. When I went to Anime Expo, however, it hit me big time; lots and lots of people who knew more than I did, had more tapes than I did, had more manga and LDs than I did, period, end of story. It's humbling.

These days you see this sort of thing at every convention, the two or three local high school anime club officers suddenly realizing there are a lot more anime fans out there, their world expanding visibly before their eyes. Then they have to sit down for a minute.

A lot of fans never get past that initial "big fish" stage, and when anime got to be available through normal media channels, they moved on to something else they could be an authority about. Or narrowed their focus, or dropped out of fandom entirely.