Ask John: Why Are American Otaku So Pretentious?
|Question:
Why are many Western anime fans so pretentious? It always seems to me that many fans of anime in the West try to over-analyze and make observations of things in shows that aren’t as big of a deal or just plain don’t exist. Is it that Western fans really want to justify their hobby as being mature so they’ll gravitate towards shows that [are] supposedly deep and complex and turn up their noses at shows [that are] immature and shallow?
Answer:
Perhaps merely a difference of parlance, I think of many of America’s anime fans as compensatory rather than pretentious. American anime fans aren’t so much trying to make themselves seem intellectual and cultured for their own edification; they’re compensating to avoid embarrassment and shame. “Cartoons” is practically a bad word in America. Cartoons are perfectly normal for small children, and America has grown to accept certain types of cartoons as viable for adults – particularly satires and parodies like The Simpsons, South Park, Metalocalypse, and Archer. And animation is occasionally granted exception if it’s obviously “artistic” and oriented to cineastes and art theaters. But outside of these narrow compartmentalizations, cartoons aren’t widely considered an appropriate medium for rational, responsible adults to watch. So American otaku are faced with the option of either enduring and ignoring the upraised eyebrow of mainstream society, or justifying anime as “okay” to watch because it falls into one of the few categories of cartoons considered acceptable for adult Americans.
The simple homage character “Action Mask” in Japan’s Crayon Shin-chan was reimagined as “Action Bastard” for American audiences – a representation of an effort to consciously misrepresent the nature of the show. Crayon Shin-chan is a children’s cartoon, thus not considered appropriate for adolescent and young adult American viewers. In order to make the show “okay” for older American viewers to watch without embarrassment, the show had to be punched up and made more “adult” and satirical. Dragon Ball Z is a shounen anime. By definition, it’s an anime targeted at male children. Yet for years American anime fans have tried to delude themselves and others into the perception that Dragon Ball Z is an “adult” cartoon because it contains graphic violence and death. Early American Dragon Ball Z fansubs were filled with swearing – yet another attempt to make the show seem more adult, and therefore more acceptable for grown viewers to watch, than it was ever intended to be. While there’s absolutely nothing wrong with a children’s anime like Pokemon being the show for young children viewers that it is, the show has become a target of self-justifying American otaku that feel compelled to distinguish that the “adult” anime they watch is different from embarrassing and age-inappropriate children’s cartoons like Pokemon. Viewers that may have felt embarrassed to watch “girls cartoons” like Sailor Moon, Nurse Angel Ririka SOS, Tokyo Mew Mew, or Ojamajo Doremi can justify watching the magical girl anime Madoka Magica because the later is “dark” and “adult” because it includes violence, death, and provocative philosophical themes. The most successful American anime co-productions, including The Animatrix and Afro Samurai, are successful not because they’re intelligent or legitimately artistic, but rather because they’re violent and superficially “adult” enough to escape from the conventional American stigma of being “cartoons.”
I do think that the American anime community, along with the American mainstream, is slowly becoming more tolerant of, and less embarrassed about, animated programing that isn’t either children’s cartoons nor adult animation. Increasingly American anime fans seem willing to admit that Dragon Ball Z is a children’s cartoon, that seemingly adult oriented intellectual and provocative anime like Evangelion, Cowboy Bebop, and Gantz are still targeted at older teen viewers rather than actual adults, and that the pressing problem isn’t the content of animation but America’s outdated perception of animation. However, the lingering fear of being laughed at for watching “kids cartoons” and “that anime stuff,” still motivates a lot of Americans to rationalize that the anime they love isn’t “kids cartoons”; it’s serious adult-minded literary and artistic animation. The ability to honestly feel comfortable watching and enjoying immature, shallow cartoons requires, ironically, a great deal of personal, emotional maturity. Many of America’s younger anime fans are teens still in the process of forming their self-image and developing their self-identity and self-confidence. American anime fans who are absolutely comfortable and happy admitting a fondness for foreign children’s cartoons may be slightly aggravated by other fans that seemingly refuse to acknowledge reality. But most, if not all of those adult and/or experienced fans who feel no shame in watching children’s anime or shamelessly gratuitous anime may forget that they themselves once felt insecurities about their hobby. Until ingrained, traditional American perceptions and stereotypes about animation change, American viewers are going to have to face the dilemma of either defiantly and proudly disregarding social opinion, or convincing themselves and their peers that they’re not strange or immature for watching children’s cartoons because the animation they watch is not actually children’s cartoons.
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Short answer: they’re pretentious to compensate for their small penis 😉
I tend to keep this hobby to myself per say, if it’s a mainstream anime like ghost in the shell or gundam then yeah I will talk about it but something like toradora or clannad is nothing something I will openly admit I watch to anyone unless they are close personal friends of mine. Online is different due to the fact who cares what people think about you online, they don’t know the real you.
The fact of the matter is, anime is made by adults who (hopefully) have something to express to their viewers, and any honest artist naturally includes themselves in their target audience– why produce something you don’t actually like? There is a lot of good anime that transcend their target demographics and convey rather sophisticated ideas compared to supposedly “adult” productions like, oh I dunno, Desperate Housewives.
Technically Hollywood blockbusters like Star Wars and Avatar are fantastical adventure stories for 12-year-old boys, yet everyone goes to see those. People dig into their elaborate worlds crafted by teams of highly paid, highly skilled adult artists, or in Avatar’s case, discuss the themes as they relate to current events in the “adult” world– it’s obvious James Cameron wanted to criticize globalization and challenge ongoing US foreign policy through a story about blue cat people from outer space. Yet (Ask) John is right about 2D animation having a special stigma in American culture. Not everyone (including myself) takes Avatar very seriously, but I imagine it would’ve been far less effective in conveying its themes to a US audience if it were 2D-animated instead of photoreal 3D-animated.
It’s hard to say how much of a disservice it is for (American) otaku to portray the anime they watch as works that challenge viewers with mature themes and mature content… I mean it’s half-true, isn’t it? Evangelion is primarily a super robots anime for teens with heavily merchandised character & mecha designs, yet it contains everything from shocking superviolence to experimental film aesthetics and a myriad of themes & ideas that would fly over the heads of its teenage demographic. Even though things like Evangelion and even Clannad & Toradora are shows for adolescents, I don’t think it’s pretentious to say that these shows can also provoke thought and enjoyment out of adult viewers.
When I see things like old DBZ fansubs & Manga Entertainment translations that pile on the cuss words, I wonder who are they trying to convince? Is it really shameful to watch something that doesn’t specifically target your demographic? Do you have to obfuscate the fact that you’re watching something primarily for an age group 5-10 years younger, or for the opposite gender? By not being a native Japanese person, you’re already out of the target demographic anyway.
So yeah, like PaladianCecil234 above, I don’t try to explain my anime fandom to people who can’t fathom enjoying something outside of their demographic, as if doing so would challenge their age and gender. If I get pressed on the issue of “I heard you like anime”, I try to navigate the agreeable mainstream waters of Studio Ghibli rather than elaborate my fandom. Nothing I could say would make them “get it”.
I never thought I’d make a “true anime fan” argument, but I think part of being a true anime fan is having the honest desire to watch something that’s not made for you– with the hopes that you can still connect to the artists behind the production, and get something out of the comic book world that they passionately created. Things like artificially vulgar or excessively Americanized translations shortchange that process. The true fan is the one who can admit “hey, I’m a 20-something grown-ass man, but this girly animated drama about Japanese high school is actually pretty interesting! Just as interesting as the gritty samurai anime I just watched last night, and the gag show with the Hello Kitty-looking mascots.”
I never thought I’d make a “true anime fan” argument, but I think part of being a true anime fan is having the honest desire to watch something that’s not made for you– with the hopes that you can still connect to the artists behind the production, and get something out of the comic book world that they passionately created. Things like artificially vulgar or excessively Americanized translations shortchange that process. The true fan is the one who can admit “hey, I’m a 20-something grown-ass man, but this girly animated drama about Japanese high school is actually pretty interesting! Just as interesting as the gritty samurai anime I just watched last night, and the gag show with the Hello Kitty-looking mascots.”
-Wonderful, splendid said ! Totally agree !
Because most of them are straight-up jackasses.
They believe they own the product and have the right to dictate terms not only to the other fans, but to the very companies (American and Japanese) who create the product they purportedly love.
Most anime fans these days are meme-infested pirate-loving babbleheads who would have no place in an organized society (presuming we had one!).
Pretentious?! I am offended by that remark! *monicle* Now get out of my hobby, you punk kids!
Seriously, I thought this arguement went out the window when the squeeling, yaoi-loving, glomp-tastic teeny boppers populated the halls of anime cons. People are still concerned about this?
Sure, back in my high school days when the dodo was plentiful, I disregarded my fair share of shows for being “too kiddy” or (ironically) “too mainstream,” but have since grown out of that. I’ll watch anything, provided its not censored by American hands. In other words, I will not watch Pokemon or Shin-Chan as its presented to me. Give me some uncut, Japanese-language versions, and I’ll be pre-ordering.
I don’t go around preaching the word of anime because it’s as it’s been said: not everyone can “get it.” It’s sort of something people find on their own. When I’m having discussions with anime fans, however, I don’t care what I bring up. From kids’ shows to hentai, I’ll discuss it. That’s the beauty of anime: there’s a wide range of it to talk about.
But John is, as usual, spot on. I tend not to discuss anime to normal folk. There’s simply no profit in it. Do I get embarrased about it? There’s always a little burn if I’m not in the mood to talk about it, and I do prefer to keep my obcession to myself and like-minded friends, but when push comes to shove, I won’t deny my dedication to anime.
I also watch American cartoons, many of which are awful, but I do this for a laugh, sometimes at my expense. There are also some kids shows we’ve made that are actually good.
It’s not on topic, but I actually agree with starcade in a milder sense, up until “no place in an organized society.” I like being isolated as much as the next introverted nerd, but by suggesting anime fans are only fit for isolation drags the argument back 10 – 20 years.