Issue 9 - Yipe!

A grown-up cosplaying a little boywhose soul is bound to a giant suit ofarmor. And really well, at that.drag rebellious children to.So we have to look at ourselvesand ask if this is theway things are doomed to be.One generation will rise upas the other fades away, oldtraditions dying as new onesblossom.Nope, I don’t buy it.We’ve seen ‘corporate cons’attract new generations offandom decade after decade.It’s clearly not about oldand young refusing to finda happy medium. You justneed to give them a reasonto be there. It could be theannouncement of the latestsuperhero film or a demo of anew video game, sure. Thenagain, it could just be a picturesquearea for Cosplayersto pose. Dozens of screeningrooms for anime and classicSci Fi alike. Manga sellers inthe Dealers Room.And I know people will saywe’ve done this all before.Attempts have been made,olive branches offered. Thekids, they just don’t like us.But that’s ultimately wherenegotiations break down.“Kids.” What’s the best wayto piss off a teenager andconvince them they have nosay in what’s going on? Setup events for ‘kids’. Makeit look like a place wherethey’re being babysat. Remindthem, whenever possible,they’re not on the samelevel as the rest of us.Even worse, consider thatmany of those teenagers arenow adults.We then have the other argument:Anime is not “Sci Fi.”Well, neither is Lord of theRings, but we made room forFantasy. And, sure, HarryPotter is kid stuff, but it’s ourkind of kid stuff, so that cancome along, too. Oh, andThe Prisoner is pretty weirdand British and cult, so whynot?The counter to this is that animeis a medium, not a genre.Not all anime is fantastical,futuristic, or mind-expanding.Very true. However, theanime popular in the West isexceptionally fantastical, futuristic,and mind-expanding.So much so, various serieswhich failed to capturean audience in Japan havebeen renewed based solely ontheir popularity in America.Should fandom celebrateall anime in existence? Ofcourse not. That’s like sayingwe need to welcome all televisionand movie genres intoour tent. But to say we can’tcelebrate this massive outpouringof Sci Fi and Fantasyjust because it’s animatedis ridiculous.The dark side of anime fandom:useless novelties and nauseatinglyadorable plush toys.