Want a good laugh?

[_D_]

Here's a good one:

http://en.rocketnews24.com/2012/12/14/d ... y-insider/


Go here and read some of the surveys:

http://en.rocketnews24.com/2012/11/16/i ... find-love/

Wow! One or two generations removed from the Chairman and we have...

http://en.rocketnews24.com/2012/10/27/s ... -husbands/

[greg]

Ha! I've seen that picture before. Japanese otaku can be so retarded. However, since moving back to Japan last year, things are different than 10 years ago. With the old guard, it was unusual for any teacher to admit that they liked anime, tokusatsu, etc. Now it's no big deal. I've even had a vice principal talk to me about visiting the giant Gundam that was moved from Shizuoka to Odaiba. There is a new subculture of people arising in Japan that would be the equivalent to a "geek" in America: someone who is obsessed about such things but is neither socially awkward nor is not a social pariah. I see "cool" and "normal" teachers with a One Piece, Dragonball Z, or Dragon Quest statue on their desk. Thank God, because now I don't feel so awkward. Now, saying "I'm an adult and I really like anime and manga" no longer provokes the equivalent reaction from people as though you'd just said, "I rape little girls and murder them." That old stigma is wearing off. However, unfortunately, too much anime is still geared towards these social leper otaku guys who will never, EVER feel the loving touch of a woman.

[_D_]

Buds of mine have seen things like Gundam models on the desks of people at Los Alamos or in the forces on their CO's desks, so things are changing. Hard to believe a generation ago this sort of behaviour would get you a reprimand...

[usamimi]

Yeah, there are still times I try to keep the fact that I like anime/manga under wraps...mostly to keep the crazy, over-obsessive types away. Perfect example: there was a girl I worked with at a video store once, and she found out I liked anime after she saw me rent some anime under my employee account. After that, all she wanted to talk to me about was Inuyasha. The worst part was that she never, ever pronounced Inuyasha correctly. Now, I'm not that big a fan of the series (it's ok), but having to hear her constant squealing over "Ee-New-Wash-a" (that's how she said it ) got really annoying after awhile (I kept wondering how the hell she managed to mangle his name so badly, considering she supposedly watched the dub on CN all the time). I think the worst part was when she started asking me all sorts of awkward questions about anime right in front of customers--like "Who's your favorite anime character? WOULD YOU EVER MARRY ONE?! I WOULD!"--like it was totally normal, and wondering why some customers would practically flee in terror after hearing her. It was kind of embarrassing.

I mean, obviously, there's nothing wrong with being a nerd, but I'm always thankful when I meet nerds that know there's a time and a place for geeking out; and don't act like annoying creeps when they do.

[greg]

Heh, yeah. I've heard the "Inuwasha" mispronunciation before. The same goes for pronouncing Naruto as "Nuhreeto" (rhymes sorta with Dorito). Gosh. Back when the anime selection at Fry's Electronics was at its peak size, I was always cautious around other shoppers there. I hated it when they tried starting conversations with me. Some of them were okay, but so many of them were just... ugh.

I'm not big on fluff/filler anime, but I do like Inu Yasha. It's like a Japanese-y Dungeons and Dragons: warrior, bow & arrow shooter, cleric, chick with a ginormous boomerang... Well, not totally like D&D, but it's somewhat similar. I've heard that Takahashi refused to give the series a proper ending, making even more of her fans mad at her.

[usamimi]

Yeah, to be honest, I still get a little nervous being seen around anime or manga in any store for the same reasons. In the past, when people have seen me buying either, I've had crap like...guys trying to come up to me and hitting on me because they're like "Ooooh look she likes anime/manga! MAYBE SHE'LL BE MY WAIFU!" Or just weird people trying to start weird conversations with me...I once had a guy come up to me and sound ANGRY because he noticed what I was buying (I can't remember what it was) and was like "I can't believe you'd buy that! IT TOTALLY SUCKS! YOU SHOULD WATCH NARUTO!!!" >___> (The crazy fans was one of the many reasons I actually stopped following Naruto after a while...)

I actually like the CONCEPT of Inuyasha a lot. I started buying it back when Viz released the single-chapter comics "almost simultaneously" with the chapters coming out in Japan, back in the day (lol, remember when that was a huge deal?!)...but after a few years of the story not really changing much, somewhere where they hit like 20+ vols in Japan, I guess I got kinda bored and stopped reading/watching. I still love the concept and the characters, I just hated that the story just seemed to drag on forever. (At least Ramna or Urusei Yatsura was episodic enough at times to keep things interesting.) By the time Inuyasha was starting to hit it big in the US because of it airing on CN, I was already kind of over it. I am kind of curious about the new "final chapter" anime that's finally come out, though...just to see if the ending is a bit more satisfying than what I heard about the end of the anime.

[davemerrill]

I try to keep my interest in Japanese animation under my hat, so to speak. I sure don't bring it up in everyday conversation. Generally guys my age will have some sort of memory of Speed Racer or Star Blazers or Battle Of The Planets or Robotech, and if for some reason I have to admit I'm some kind of anime nerd, I can at least say "Yeah, I watched a bunch of the shows when I was a kid and I got hooked on 'em" and then I can change the subject. Japanese people my age generally grew up with the same sorts of cartoons I grew up with - super robots and Yamato - so at least when talking to them I have some excuse for knowing who Captain Harlock is, other than being a super nerd, of course.

I do my best to not engage with the annoying "anime fans" you see in the wild. Generally we don't share interests in the same shows, so they aren't difficult to avoid. I don't know what it is about Naruto and Inuyasha, but holy bejeezus, for whatever reason those shows spawned some fans who are really annoying in public. I'm thinking of one Inuyasha cosplayer in particular, who later moved on to Avatar cosplay, and got himself banned from every anime con in Texas. Good times.

[greg]

They don't call them "Narutards" for no reason! Just the premise of the show is silly. I'm no expert on ninja, but I doubt they wore day-glow orange jumpsuits and proclaim, "I wanna be a ninja!" on a regular basis.

Didn't the Inu Yasha manga continue well after the anime stopped? There was one Inu Yasha movie (I think it was the third one) that was very D&D-ish. They had to protect a castle that was under siege by zombies or something. It was pretty cool.

Takahashi never really gave Ranma a proper ending, as far as I know. And from what I've heard, they never really completed finding all of the shards to that jewel in Inu Yasha, either. (I mean really... how many shards can come from one small jewel?)

I was at my local favorite comic book store in Glendale/north Phoenix called Stalking Moon one Saturday and this one girl dressed up as the dude from Fullmetal Alchemist walked in. She cosplays when taking a casual trip to the comic book store. I mean, really? What the heck?

Equally as ridiculous are the morons who show up to the Japanese "Matsuri" festival in downtown Phoenix in February each year. They think Japanese culture = anime/manga = "I get to cosplay, tee hee hee!" Save it for the anime con, retards! Japan is a lot more than your favorite anime show that more often than not sucks!

[usamimi]

Yeah, the last 2 times I was in WA (first in December, then just this month) I saw kids wearing cosplay costumes outside of the Kinokuniya bookstore...for...no reason. (One was a girl dressed as Homura from Madoka Magica, who was with her mother, who was taking lots of cell phone pictures...The other was a Homestuck cosplay minus the gross grey body paint.) I mean, if it was some kind of event, special occasion, or contest, then I could understand it...but what's the point of dressing in a full costume to go to a bookstore? I really don't get it, either. I have quite a few friends who cosplay, but they don't blatantly go out wearing costumes (unless they're going to a photoshoot or the costume they're wearing also doubles as a casual, normal outfit.)

Yeah, Ranma was left sort of open-ended...And yeah, Inuyasha the anime ended before the manga, but that's not unheard of for a long-running series. Lots of long-running series seem to end with unsatisfying endings, for some reason. I think my least favorite was Rurouni Kenshin....the anime just abruptly ends after the last story arc, with no validation of Kenshin and Kaoru's relationship whatsoever. It was pretty infuriating. If I recall, they released an "unairred" episode on VHS later to calm angry fans that was basically the two of them taking a trip together, but while it was sweet STILL nothing happened...the manga hadn't ended yet, though, so I guess they didn't want to finalize a relationship in case it ended differently in the manga? I guess now with anime being mostly done digitally, they can easily keep up with manga storylines, unlike back then, so it's a lot easier to coordinate endings now.

[greg]

Well, I saw a Kenshin movie in which he was on his deathbed or something, and he'd been overseas for such a long time, leaving Kaoru (I think that's her name) alone and miserable for all that time. It was a movie a friend let me borrow. I just kept thinking, "Wait, how did we get to this point? Did I miss something in-between?"

I bought the first four single-issue DVDs at the '01 San Diego Comic Con, but that was about it. My friend let me borrow the fan subs, so we watched the rest of the series that way. Like me, he said that the show was too long to bother trying to collect. Then somebody else later lent me that final movie. I felt like there was a huge chunk of story I was missing, because it didn't really explain how he had ended up in a faraway place, nor how he had caught that disease, whatever it was. Hopefully this isn't too many spoilers, but I don't even remember many details. Ten years ago, I never thought I'd become the type who couldn't remember the events of movies I've watched. I just turned 37, and I'm wondering if it goes with the territory or something.