December Talking Meme - Day 4: What was your first fandom? Are you still involved with it?
Watch me do the December Talking Meme and fall behind after two days! In my defense, last week was super-intense; I had an exam and two hand-ins on friday and spent all week studying for that, spent most of the weekend baking and being with friends from the corridor, and yesterday I read in the library for hours and cleaned my room in the afternoon. I've barely been on Tumblr, much less had time to write several LJ entries.
Day 3 was blank, so I'm not sure I'm gonna try to fill it (maybe if I have time), but Day 4 had a question from spaciireth, who asked: "What was your first fandom? Are you still involved with it?"
Ah yes, my sordid past as Weeaboo Trash (TM).
Jokes aside, I'm not into any of the anime/manga I watched/read between the age of eleven and fourteen (although some could do with being re-read), including Yu-Gi-Oh!, which was my first fandom. Thinking back, I'm not sure why-- why do we like the things we like as children, anyway - but the fact that it was one of the first mangas to be translated to Swedish back in the mid-2000s and thus actually had a fanbase probably had a lot to do with it. It was through manga I was introduced to the idea of internet communities at all (one of the major publishers in Sweden launched a web site aimed at 12-16-year-olds), fandom and all the things that go with it-- fanfic, fanart, slash, flame wars, you name it. All around the time I turned twelve. I was a baby, dear lord.
It's funny in a way to think about, because Scandinavian fandom is really awfully small, despite the fact that the animanga boom in Sweden did bring the phenomenon more into the public eye, but right there at the beginning it was a Swedish-only environment. I pretty quickly figured out Google, ff.net and other fansites - fandom is really responsible for me learning English as well as I did - but for quite some time my main interaction with other fans was in Swedish. The animanga community also had a very active convention culture, something that's somewhat lacking in Sweden now when it's died down (there are still some and nowadays, while most focus on Japanese subculture, they include western fandoms as well).
Still, I wouldn't say I miss it. Growing up was awful, and I don't have particularly happy memories of the friends I made and lost, plus I still feel a hefty amount of embarrassment, looking back at the way I could behave.
This entry was originally posted at http://regndoft.dreamwidth.org/217466.html. Please comment there using OpenID.
Day 3 was blank, so I'm not sure I'm gonna try to fill it (maybe if I have time), but Day 4 had a question from spaciireth, who asked: "What was your first fandom? Are you still involved with it?"
Ah yes, my sordid past as Weeaboo Trash (TM).
Jokes aside, I'm not into any of the anime/manga I watched/read between the age of eleven and fourteen (although some could do with being re-read), including Yu-Gi-Oh!, which was my first fandom. Thinking back, I'm not sure why-- why do we like the things we like as children, anyway - but the fact that it was one of the first mangas to be translated to Swedish back in the mid-2000s and thus actually had a fanbase probably had a lot to do with it. It was through manga I was introduced to the idea of internet communities at all (one of the major publishers in Sweden launched a web site aimed at 12-16-year-olds), fandom and all the things that go with it-- fanfic, fanart, slash, flame wars, you name it. All around the time I turned twelve. I was a baby, dear lord.
It's funny in a way to think about, because Scandinavian fandom is really awfully small, despite the fact that the animanga boom in Sweden did bring the phenomenon more into the public eye, but right there at the beginning it was a Swedish-only environment. I pretty quickly figured out Google, ff.net and other fansites - fandom is really responsible for me learning English as well as I did - but for quite some time my main interaction with other fans was in Swedish. The animanga community also had a very active convention culture, something that's somewhat lacking in Sweden now when it's died down (there are still some and nowadays, while most focus on Japanese subculture, they include western fandoms as well).
Still, I wouldn't say I miss it. Growing up was awful, and I don't have particularly happy memories of the friends I made and lost, plus I still feel a hefty amount of embarrassment, looking back at the way I could behave.
This entry was originally posted at http://regndoft.dreamwidth.org/217466.html. Please comment there using OpenID.