I'd been thinking about it for a while: is there a Genshiken or a Otaku no Video for the American otaku; an biographical work for the subculture
In order to explain this story, I had to explain Power Rangers before. And Doozy Bots! Well, I was setting up for this story. It's a big one.
When we started this column, I got the go-ahead to do articles on SFX stuff. I do watch Kamen Rider and sentai, but as far as American fans go,
“Subtitled or dubbed?” used to be an anime fan status-making question. If you said one or the other, other American otaku might just look at
It's the question that's been tearing across the internet anime fan base. Say you were in charge at Cartoon Network, and you could just make anime series appear on that 12-6 time slot like magic.
We have talked previously about the old Cartoon Network anime block Toonami, how it introduced millions of American kids to Japanese animation,
A couple otaku tendencies from previous columns got me thinking, particularly paying big money for anime-related videogames: a way of trying to experience the world of one's favorite series first-hand.
Even people who don't know or care about Japanese animation or cartoons have heard at some point about those crazy Japanese cartoons
One of the things that American fans often say about Japanese anime is that the situations are much more honest than the same situations in American animation.
Sadly, I have never set foot in a maid cafe, nor have very many American otaku. Aside from temporarily at anime conventions (where they're very popular attractions!), they don't exist here.
Last time I was in a convention dealer's room, looking over the anime box sets, a friendly stranger turned to me and recommended Squid Girl. Then, as she paid for a few other series
If you order something from Amiami, the biggest online dealer of Japanese toys, from outside of Japan, they'll be glad to send it over. They'll also send you a very polite little note thanking
Depending on whether you ask Media Blasters or the State of New York, Media Blasters is a US anime distributor which may or may not still exist.
The animated adaptation of the "Fairy Tail" manga written and illustrated by Hiro Mashima won the best Japanese anime award at the 19th Anime & Manga Grand Prix.
What can't you try and sell American anime/manga fans? Note I'm not asking what American otaku aren't willing to buy: that's actually a long list, one with “anything that looks old” at the top.
At the start of many DVDs from the now-sort-of-defunct ADV Films, a promotional video would play that explained the question “What is anime?”.
Let's explain another word that came out of American anime fans. Unfortunately I don't have a first-person account of the creation of the word “glomp”,
The fact that American otaku specifically use the words “anime” and “manga” for Japanese cartoons and comics-- and for nothing else-- has led to weird conflicts over the years.
Alright, I've told you how to make fun of American otaku, now I'm going to tell you how to make a lot of them mad. What can I say? When you write about anime
This past weekend the Brooklyn Botanical Garden had Sakura Matsuri, which I likely don't need to explain to you. However, viewing the cherry blossoms is a bit of a different situation here.
I wanted to come back to this distasteful story, because there are only so many developing stories in the world of American otaku right now.
This column was a long time coming. If you ask any young American person of my generation about the word “Voltron” they'll probably get nostalgic, and then perhaps excited.
American fighting game players very widely use the term “anime game”. It's all but official terminology! When we do so, we're talking about a very particular sort of game in the genre: games descended from Darkstalkers (Vampire),
