Konnichiwa, Mikuites! I’m back! Did you miss me? Today wasn’t so hard, so I had the energy to type, although my arms are kinda sore from lifting chairs. But despite the physical work, it is nice to go outside every once in a while, as opposed to being stuck inside all day––which actually kinda ties in to today’s topic.
Anime itself has become a growing subculture, especially in the last decade, but within that subculture has developed a hierarchy. Though I’m not usually one to spark conflict, there have been many times in my 7 years as a fan where I’ve witnessed people arguing over who’s a bigger anime fan than the other––especially during the four years I ran our local anime club. If you didn’t know what Clannad or Code Geass was back then, you were considered a newbie. The altercations remind me a lot of how gamers make comparisons between what divides a hardcore and causal gamer.
Anime, obviously, is much different––because while gamers have three main consoles to select from, we only have one (two, maybe, if you count manga––but that’s a whole ’nother monster), which makes it harder to gauge what makes one anime fan better than another.
So, how do you define a hardcore anime fan? I like to bring up the “quality vs. quantity” argument. One would assume that someone who keeps up with all the currently airing anime is more hardcore than someone who does not. But what if that someone (which was mostly the case amongst my colleagues at the club) keeps up with all the latest anime, but have no idea about obscure titles like Shigofumi or GA: Geijutsuka Art Design Class? Is someone who’s read the Soul Eater manga from beginning to end better than someone who’s only watched the anime? Perhaps most importantly (at least in my opinion), is it more important how much anime you’ve watched or which titles you’ve seen?
Maybe it boils down to a matter of taste. Is someone who likes Claymore better than someone who likes Queen’s Blade? Who’s better: Pokemon or One Piece fans? While many people are willing to defend how great Kampfer is, does that make them void of being a true anime fan by default?
Anime is infused with Japanese culture, and it’s no secret that some of us try to integrate a bit of Japan into our lives, whether it’s learning the language, eating Pocky, or even celebrating Japanese holidays. Does knowing the language make you any greater of a fan? In order to be considered “hardcore”, must you attend conventions or even go so far as to visit the Land of the Rising Sun itself?
Hell, just being an anime blogger has to put me a few steps ahead of most of the “casual” pack out there. :P
While here in the States we use the term “otaku” playfully, in the East it’s practically insulting. This leads to the main question: is being a hardcore anime fan even a good thing? Having bought two Nendoroids (BRS and Miku), my fandom has already surpassed my expectations from just a couple years ago. I told myself I would never pay that much for a figure, and yet I still gave in––and once you buy one, it’s hard to stop. XD
There has to be a line drawn somewhere. Forget about comparing casual fans to hardcore. How do you separate a hardcore fan from one who has gone to the extreme? The problem is that I think it’s all relative. While owning two figures might be considered “extreme” to someone who only watches a couple episodes a week, it could be perceived as insignificant to someone who has been collecting figures all their life.
I think fans can be divided into anime (and/or manga) experts, and Japan experts––though on many occasions they tend to overlap. Thanks to anime, even though I know more about the Japanese culture than the average American, I can only speak the few words I’ve picked up from anime due to repetition. I believe that instead of drawing a linear line, we should imagine anime like a pie chart and anime fans taking up certain percentages of the pie––some more than others, obviously. In other words, you’d probably have to measure yourself on a percentage scale from non-Japanese to complete Japanese. But again, what anime is considered hardcore and what is not? Some will even argue that liking anime doesn’t make you any more Japanese, it just makes you a fan of animation.
Tell me then, how much of an anime fan are you?