Anime snobs

[Slytovhand]

Ah, good, my memory hasn't faded too much!

Yeah, I was looking for scars....?????

And, of course, now that you mention it all, it all comes rushing back... like a brick.

Wasn't there something about the mages being disbanded or something, and Ged getting them back together again??

I read the Locus link - thanks Sylvia!

Again, now that I've finally finished said movie, I like it! It brought back memories... (obviously false ones )

I think they gave the idea of how magic works a quick bit, but glossed over... but you expect that in movies based on books....

Though.. I'm dreading what they'll do with Elric...<shudder>

[Lace Neil Singer]

Wasn't there something about the mages being disbanded or something, and Ged getting them back together again??

That happened in Tehanu; there wasn't an archmage to replace Sparrowhawk and the mages on Gont couldn't find one. He lost all his wizardry in the dry land in order to fix what was wrong.

[Wingates_Hellsing]

I never liked Naruto, Gundam or any of the Anime that most people like if only because I either found the main characters supremely annoying, or the general style annoying.

I like Hellsing and Blue Gender because they cut out all the over hyped, sugar rushed, ravetastic flying backgrounds and weird 'super attacks' with a more western approach of making a relatively small number of changes to the world and examining how that effects other things.

Sure, Seras has a veritable cannon as a rifle, but does she start spouting catchprhases and use it to launch heat-seeking missiles? no, she shoots you with it.

Alucard never seems to stop yammering about blood, gore, the pathetic nature of his enemy etc. but it never strays far from what's going on and his general delight in taunting his enemies.

But none of that is what drives me away from anime fans. It's the seemingly endless number of 'super fans' that get on my nerves. The ones who are simply obsessed with every single detail of their chosen show, who never shut up about their vast knowledge and never stop insisting that you 'just watch it once!'

Granted, I've met one or two Hellsing fans who took it a little far (one was trying to find out exactly what type of cannon Seras' is based on and the other was busy deciphering what was written on Alucard's gloves) But I'm ready to say that about one in three Naruto fans, half of all DBZ fans, and four out of five Gundam fans that I have met all fell into this category.

So please understand Anime fans of the world, it's not you, it's not your show, it's that past experience has taught me that I'm more or less doomed to loathe many of the people in the room.

Understandably, this makes me somewhat less than happy to be there.

End of song.

[Slytovhand]

Well Wingates... I personally think that's with everything - die hard fans who reckon their particular cup of tea is so awesome, it's all they rave about... and you have to as well!

I'm a little like that with my brand of metal.. they do awesome stuff, and is atypical of what most ppl think metal is about... but - I can't even name all the members of the band

Hellsing?? Ok, if I can, I might try to find it and see what it's like (I'm a noob when it comes to anime! Only seen a season or so of Ghost, a bit of Evangelion and of course.... Akira).

[DesignFox]

Slyt, Hellsing is excellent! I'd highly recommend it. Friends of mine that don't typically watch anime, have enjoyed Hellsing. It is fantastic.

[AFPheonix]

I will echo the Hellsing love. That guy cracks me up.

My husband got me Mushishi for my birthday, and that is a gorgeous one. I've really enjoyed the storytelling in it.

Appleseed is a fun shoot-em-up movie too.

Last Exile is visually beautiful and a great story, same with Samurai 7.

[fireheart17]

My anime tastes range from the common to the obscure.

Yes, I love Sailor Moon. I also love One Piece.

I also love Chobits, FMA, Negima and Haruhi Suzumiya, as well as Full Metal Panic and it's spinoff. I love the Studio Ghibli films...

So my anime/manga tastes tend to vary. I don't have a particular favourite genre, although I've found that while the shojo stuff is cute, some of it is a bit too cute for me.

[the_std]

fireheart, I have to ask. Is acceptance of anime in your general culture more prevalent than it is here in North America, because of your proximity to Japan? Or is it still viewed by mainstream society as kids stuff, not worth wasting your time on?

[Slytovhand]

Anime is still in the realms of 'geek' in Australia.

While Australia is pretty multi-cultural, a large part of society is still very English/American in it's attitudes... and European (esp East European). Experimenting in other cultures is huge on our list of interests, that seems to be as far as it goes (ie, you won't see much of an influx of musical tastes influencing our musicians... and those that do are considered 'alternative' - pop/rock still leads the way).

Interestingly enough, while we are fairly multi-cultural from around the world, there doesn't seem to be a hell of a lot of Japanese communities (unless that just happens to be what I've noticed!). But there can be an obvious reason for that - most people emmigrate to get a better life for themselves, to get away from something. Japan is doing pretty damn well in that regards.

Anyone care to take issue with what I've said??? After all, no stats, just my thoughts on it....

[Lace Neil Singer]

Over where I am, it's firmly in the "geek" category, along with sci-fi and comics. Altho certain comic characters are starting to become mainstream, cuz of movies, anime hasn't yet moved into the mainstream as of yet.

Wingates, I have just two words for you; Kiss fans. Honest, there are fans who do exactly all you discribe and more, who are obsessed with the band to the extent that if Gene Simmons wiped his arse and sold the toilet roll on ebay, they'd be bidding thru the roof. O_o They also tend to turn purple with rage and rant like lunatics if anyone dares to criticize the band or its members in any way.

I'm a fan. However, I'm not obsessed. I hate certain members. I know all the band member's names, and real names, but I'm not about to fork out £100 for a ticket to see a glorified tribute act, dammit. I am certainly not buying a fucking Kiss coffin. Honestly, fanatics come in all shapes and form and are just as irritating to regular fans of the show/band/film as they are to non-fans.

[AdminAssistant]

Honestly, fanatics come in all shapes and form and are just as irritating to regular fans of the show/band/film as they are to non-fans.

THIS.

I'm a huge Dresden Dolls/Amanda Palmer fan. I have a lot of respect for the art she produces. But her super-obsessive fangirls/fanboys drove me absolutely nuts at the Dolls concert I went to.

[fireheart17]

Slyt's pretty much summed it up over here. Yes, I am a bit of a geek and I don't mind it. A lot of my friends at work and uni identify with certain anime, but don't consider themselves geeks. A few bookstores have introduced bits and pieces of manga, along with anime DVDs in some DVD stores, one of the game stores I know is BIG on anime/manga stuff and a bookstore in the city has an entire section just full of manga and comic books.

[Slytovhand]

Ooops - I missed something in my previous post...

Experimenting in other culture's FOOD is huge on our list of interests,..

[fireheart17]

Experimenting in other culture's FOOD is huge on our list of interests,..

I hope you mean experimenting "WITH" other culture's food, since I now have this mental image of a science lab being set up on a giant piece of cornbread. (since we Aussies do not have cornbread)

[BlaqueKatt]

I'm going to say my three favorite animes are obscure, simply because they're older and more or less considered "one-shots", I don't like long ongoing series where if you miss one episode, you lose a huge part of the story. Two are manga related, but one is several movies, I liked the storyline, which is what's important to me.

Battle Angel-a two episode OVA that covers the first two volumes of Battle Angel Alita(rusted angel, and tears sign)-ends at a point where you really don't need to read the manga unless you want to(I didn't)

pet shop of horrors,(which you can find on youtube if interested) which took four stories from the ten volume manga and more or less wrapped up neatly as a stand-alone.(I liked the fact that he manga was only 10 volumes, as opposed to ongoing-$100, and done, until pet shop of horrors tokyo was released, to be another 10 volume series)

and Devil Hunter Yohko-6 movies(though one is nothing but the music from the others)