Since it’s December, a lot of bloggers have been writing their 2009 posts and I’m at a loss. I automatically count myself out for being inactive majority of the year. A specific post made by digitalboy about his Forty Fandoms made me realize that I do not belong in any fandom. I’m not so into seiyuus. The farthest I go with music are anime OSTs. I don’t ship a studio. I follow a specific author’s work.
I am but a mere viewer who watches anime every season until the end and may not think of that show ever again. I’m not even inspired to learn the Japanese language.
Fandom Dilemma
I always think of myself as a shoujo romance fan. Candy Candy started it all. I like shoujo and I gravitate towards them. I know many people who love it like I do. Not counting slice-of-life, it’s the genre that’s closest to reality. Japanese reality where genre roles blah, blah. However, since it’s like that, I can pick on the story and the characters for being a certain way. Right now, my current shoujo anime obsession is Kimi ni Todoke. It’s a very nice, uncomplicated show and it’s a breath of fresh air compared to a lot of the other shows I’ve seen in recent history.
I’m 99% sure that after KnT ends, I will move on to the next anime and only think back at KnT with fondness as a nice show. The last time I went crazy over a series was for Toshokan Sensou. Anyway, some can say that there is the manga. However after an anime ends, I shelve the manga until it ends or until I have nothing else better to do. I’m just not manga reader. Unless it’s something I really, really love. Like xxx-HoLiC, which isn’t even shoujo.
There are no toys I can drool over. Not where I live anyway. I only have one figma and I bought it because I wanted a souvenir from a con I attended. I don’t even know if it counts as a figma because it’s one of those random box things. Anyway, the point is that no matter how much I fangirl a shoujo, after the anime or the manga ends, there is nothing left to fuel my fandom until it dies a slow, natural death. I’m not picking on KnT. It’s just the one shoujo I’m very into right now so I’m using it as an example.
There is no lasting epicness that will leave a lasting impression on me for the next 10 years. It’s like a flavor of the season and nothing else. Truly, the shoujo genre is lacking in staying power. Or maybe I’m growing out off love stories. When I was getting back into anime, I thought I would start watching some old stuff I’ve seen in the past in addition to some shows from this season. Watching back to things that fueled the passion for anime is sure to get me fired up to get back on track. However, I may think it’s incredible the first time I watch it, but when I re-watch it because I want a trip to nostalgia, the experience comes out weh. kthnxbye. Next!
The only true exception is Nodame Cantabile, which is truly awesome in my books. I can and will watch/read it over and over without getting tired of it – anime, manga, j-drama.
Reminiscent Fandom
My upbringing gives me a level of appreciation for the mecha genre. Something in my system automatically thinks that giant robots are made of sunshine and rainbows, i.e. awesomeness. I’ve always had mechaheads for friends, but I never re-developed my childhood fascination and true love for mecha until I watched Macross Frontier. Not even Geass did it for me. Otou-san’s post-analysis on how MF matches up to the rest of the franchise made me want to watch more and Ghostlightning’s convenient proximity help fan the flame. I guess, they’re the ones to blame because they’re the only ones who tell me to watch it and say what I think about it. It’s not like they forced it on me, but they’re the ones who didn’t end their recommendations with “-but you may not really like it because it might not suit your taste.”
Random screenshot to serve as text wall breaker.
One of my resolutions for 2009 was to watch all the series in the Macross franchise. That didn’t happen. The farthest I’ve come for the year are Do You Remember Love? and halfway through Macross Zero, which is half-assed. So I think I should watch at least one more. So I picked up Macross 7 after re-watching Macross Frontier. Despite thinking that Basara and Fire Bomber are one-hit wonders with Planet Dance, it was one of the most entertaining shows I’ve seen this year. I’ll elaborate on a future post.
I find it strange that I enjoyed re-watching Frontier more than re-watching Lovely Complex, which I watched before MF. I was supposed to re-watch Bokura ga Ita since I need a break in between because I consider mecha as a genre I can only take in small doses, but I jumped right into Macross 7.
The experience of watching mecha makes me feel like a little kid. It has nothing to do with the character design or the hardware or even the storyline. It just makes me feel like a little girl where my most absurd fantasies are fulfilled – being the feet in combining robot games. I was told to be too tall to be the leg, which is traditionally held by the shortest member of the cast.
Because, absurdity is all what mecha anime is all about. The story can go as crazy as it wants, but I’m not going to complain. The concept of humanity-in-peril and how we can only be saved by pilot/s in transforming planes and a muscian/s is already something I accepted from the get-go. Doing that makes just sit back and enjoy the ride as opposed to getting something normal and raeg when it turns absurd.
“Deculture,” “Listen to my song,” “Nyan Nyan” and other choice phrases leave lasting impressions on my mind for as long as I don’t have Alzheimer’s. Seeing an epic scene is epic. I get excited when I see them again and again. In other words, even if the joke gets old, it never turns corny to me. Shows to prove that no one gets too old for the giant robotos.
I don’t think I will venture deeper to the dark side of Gunplas and model kits. Probably not. But it’s nice to know that there are other areas where I can expand my fandom if it develops further.
Future Viewing List
These are not robotos. It’s supposed to be a metaphor of something. I’m not sure. I just like Honey and Clover, okay?
My mecha watch and re-watch list is growing longer with more Macross, Gurren Lagann, and Oh noes! Gundam. My shoujo will come as it happens. I’m still waiting for my favorite shoujo pimp to come up with a recommendation. Am I switching my primary genre of interest? I’m not sure. Apples and oranges. I’m just going to satisfy myself with what I enjoy more at the moment.
My recent experience with mecha makes me think about shows that really sparks up my interest. I realize that my love for the shoujo romance genre has waned. I’m not objecting the fact that some great shoujo anime will remain great. And yes, I will continue to watch shoujo anime or any anime genre for that matter. Because I can. I just find irony at the fact that I feel like I’m growing out of love stories, but not with giant fighting robots.
All hail giant robotos.
sybilant is very similar to you in that she doesn’t form very strong attachments beyond some level of affinity for the shows she watches, which is obviously the opposite of me because I burn deep for the shows and manga that I lurve.
There’s really no right or wrong way to like a show as far as I’m concerned though, albeit I always welcome anyone who’s willing to enjoy anime and manga in however way. If you happened to like Macross, I feel even better.
Someone listened to my song, after all ^_^
All hail giant robots, eh? Someone needs to make an image macro out of that…
I’m glad you liked M7, which is honestly something I’d never imagine girls would like, unless they were neck-deep in mecha in the first place. Basara tends to be grating, but I learned to listen to his song gradually.
As for shoujo… why not Utena?
Grah, fast!
Putting dibs on first post aside, I think I got into a similar situation when I tried to compare my very first genre of choice (romantic comedy, or rom-con) with mecha. Rom-con has similarities to shoujo because it has inclinations to reality with a ratio of 90-10 in terms of realism, while mecha, which took me a while before I tried to touch again, has a ratio of 10-90.
Not to mention that death in rom-con and shoujo is VERY RARE (with the exception of School Days), whereas in mecha, people die (regardless if they are killed), they get supple air time to elaborate (on important characters), and the story moves on.
Somehow, the idea of comitting to a fandom kinda hints that living eating drinking breathing everything about said fandom 24/7 is involved, which I know is an exaggeration, but even assuming that it was possible to do so I’m not the kind of person who would.
In the end, I think it’s really just a comparison argument. Like you, I love shoujo romance to a certain (large?) extent, but the fact that there are ppl out there who obviously love it ‘more’ cos they talk/blog about it more at more detail etc. make it seem like “Oh, so I guess I’m not THAT invested in shoujo after all”. But when you toss comparisons aside, what matters is what remains, that I enjoyed a show and that’s that. As for the non-lasting power of shoujo versus mecha, I find that the ‘best’ shoujo shows are those on the subtler scale of the story-telling scale, whereas in mecha there’s more of a tendency to churn out over-the-top and ‘epic’ (i.e. memorable) scenes.
@ghostlightning
I used to be like you. A burning fan for a lot of geeksdoms not limited to anime. That’s why I’m worried. Well, not really worried, but it concerns me that love has become fleeting for only until the anime ends.
@schneider
Why? I love Macross 7. To be more accurate: I love Basara.
@Shance
It’s not so much as deaths, but the giant chunks of metal hardware making things explode or exploding themselves. Joke. I still love the rom-coms.
@issa-sa
Haha, I went on an unscheduled hiatus with the hope to get over my weariness on anime in general – apart from other things. As I told ghostlightning, I used to be/still am a hardcore fan of a lot of things in geekdom. Maybe it’s me, maybe it’s the lack of things to fuel fandom. Anime/manga culture is sexist.
It’s better this way. People without feelings like you and me are the only ones who can analyze anime without bias.
@Baka-Raptor
I’ll believe that when you watch and review Princess Tutu.
[...] 18, 2010 · Leave a Comment A month ago, bianki wrote a post on being a budding mecha fan. One of the points she makes is: Because, absurdity is all what mecha anime is all about. The story [...]
As much as I love the absurdity of the mecha genre of anime…Macross 7 crosses that line for me. Despite I know you should judge an anime by it’s art, it only took two episodes of M7 before I was a) tired of the low-quality artwork and b) tired of the same recycled combat/scenery scenes being used almost ~6 times in only TWO episodes! Though I understand M7 has it’s merits, my personal opinion of the show puts it near the top of my “bad/poorly executed anime” list.