Anime

For the next few weeks, I'm staying with a friend in Arizona. It's kind of like looking into myself, a few years ago. You see, he's really into anime. Posters on the walls, kitsch all over the place. I used to be the same way, but a few years ago I just gave it all up - right about the time I came back from Japan, actually.
Moods change, interests change, but anime I dropped like a brick. I think a lot of it was going to Japan, and realizing that Japan isn't anything special - just another group of humans trying to get by. And a lot of it was watching anime as it was broadcast on Japanese TV - the newest of the new releases - and realizing that it was the same shows I'd seen before, formulaic crap.
I know a lot of it is nostalgia, but I can't stand this modern crop of anime girls. Cutesy names and exaggerated expressions. One we watched today has a protagonist in third grade, and I just can't accept that. I was an idiot in third grade. Give me an adult character any day.
And the anime crowd is just creepier and creepier. Fetishes don't make you cute. Furries, boy-on-boy comics, pedophilia...I don't mind the fetish, but wearing it on your sleeve is annoying. For a lot of these people, their fetish is their personality. Look, if you don't want me to care that you're a furry, then develop a personality that doesn't center around that one point.

Mostly, I just wish this friend of mine would develop some interests outside of anime. I feel kind of bad about it, because I introduced him to anime a long time ago, and it's kind of taken him over. We used to watch stuff like The Cannonball Run, but now it's Magical Lyrical Nanoha or something like that. He spent a few hours just showing me AMVs and pictures he had on his computer. I just couldn't build up the nerve to tell him I just didn't frickin' care. Partially because I was once him - I could spend days just looking at art books and debating this character versus that. But some people grow up, expand their hobbies, keep anime as an interest but learn about new things. I think I've done that. And some people pay $50 on Ebay for a $2.50 doll from Japan. Sigh...you wouldn't have so many financial difficulties if you stopped buying all that useless kitsch.

Oh, one other mini-rant. Anime music videos. What a load of bull. There have been some good ones in the past - I've seen a beautiful tribute to Hayao Miyazaki done to The Mummer's Dance. But a lot of these are just stupid, and not funny. Look, it's the audio to the Fight Club trailer, but with Pokemon! Look, it's The Recruit, with Evangelion! I can't stand them. They're so awful. I think the big thing is that some signals got crossed, and people started thinking that combining the audio from The Fast and the Furious with some driving anime was real creativity. Now, I'm speaking as a person who did a few AMVs in the past, but it was something new and exciting then. I don't think I'd want to be a part of that scene now.

The one thing that watching anime is doing, though, is making me want to draw. In part it's realizing that I still have stories to tell, and a medium to tell them - I just need to put the effort in. Another part is realizing that I like my characters, personalities, and designs more than the new shows I'm seeing. I want to put my pencil to paper and see Beri staring back at me - I instantly know all about him, who he is, what he needs.

(And yeah, I'm starting to really regret giving the character a Mary Sue name. He was sort of a self-insertion character - a friend and I decided to talk about and draw what we'd be like in the Magic universe. But it kinda grates on me. Maybe I'll edit that out in a future strip or something. I do like my other characters - Paige and Kylie are favorites to write and draw, although I ought to give them more depth. I could do better if I could be hosed to script and storyboard my stuff beforehand, but that drains all the spontenaity out of drawing, and that's why I enjoy drawing in the first place.)

Oh, as an aside, I was thinking about why I dislike Collectable Card Games today. One thing that really gets me angry is when the rules change. Just in general. Like the way I lost the Comcast job - I did my part according to the rules, and they changed the rules. One of the things I hate about driving is that there's all these rules, and also all these situations that supercede them. Anyway, what keeps CCGs fresh for other people is a disaster for me. Constant infusions of new cards and new rules mean frustration. That's why I haven't played Magic in ten years - I have a deck, I know the rules, but I'm afraid of what I'll encounter from my opponent. Split cards? Immunity to damage? Phasing? Kicker? If I can't predict my opponent, I might as well be playing a brick wall.

As a closing, I should mention that I actually really like this unnamed friend quite a bit. He's a good guy, and we've been hanging around for years. I'm glad he's got a strong interest. It's just kind of frustrating nowadays that we're not exactly into the same things anymore. Well, on the upside, his parents have a huge DVD collection, so maybe I can catch up on some western movies while I'm here. I'm thinking of rewatching the whole Star Wars saga. And I'm going to get the Firefly box set for his parents - his dad's been talking about how he likes Cowboy Bebop, so I think he'll love Firefly.