Observations On Shifting Trends
As some of you know, I have a 12 year old niece. She's in middle school, she's popular, she's at the top of the social totem pole. Earlier this year, I got her the first DVD of Fruits Basket. I didn't know how she'd take to it - she'd seen my manga and some of my anime DVDs, and she knew that lennaofmidearth and I watched anime, but I figured it couldn't hurt. And the first DVD was the only DVD of the series I was missing, so if she didn't like it, it wouldn't be a waste.
Fast forward about a month. She's watching the series over and over again every day. She has it memorized. She's introduced it to all of her friends. They all love it. I'm boggled. Lenna is boggled. We're amazed by this. We start looking around into other anime to show her. I don't bother with manga because I had no idea how she'd take to it. Neither Lenna nor I are big manga readers. And besides, it's easier to get anime than manga out here in Middle of Nohwere.
Last week, I'm out on the deck smoking. D (my neice) comes out. She's holding something in her hand. She walks up to me and asks 'hey auntie, have you read this manga yet?'. I don't even remember the title of the series, I was too busy going 'where did she get this?!?' and 'holy crap, my niece is bringing me manga!' It was a Shoujo Beat title, some middle school romance. And it was volume three....
I asked her where she'd gotten it, and she told me a friend of hers had lent it to her. And her friend had lots of other manga. I handed it back to her after skimming the back - something about a boy from another dimension coming to the main herione's school - and told her I wasn't familiar with it. She informed me it was very good, and I ought to read it. She went back in the house and I stood there a bit, stunned.
After discussing this event with Lenna, I went looking for other manga titles D might enjoy. Hey, Christmas is coming and this is something we can bond over! While looking for recommendation and summary lists, I find dozens of articles on the popularity of manga among American teen and pre-teen girls.
Manga, apparently, is The Big Thing right now. It's taken over. It's popular. To me, who discovered anime at the tender age of 11 - Vampire Hunter D, the original - and had it considered just another 'weird' thing, I'm amazed. When I was a teenager, anime was not cool. Anime was not mainstream. The popular girls did not gather around to trade manga volumes and squee over bishounen. Anime was a boy's club - Sailor Moon didn't count, I was told quite often. I'd watch it in the Sci Fi Club room after school with the guys. We watched Eva. We watched Dragon Ball. We watched Gundam. We watched anime with giant robots and blowing shit up. I had one female friend who was into anime. And she was mostly into pretty anime boys. But that was okay.
I still remember the first anime I ever owned on VHS - which I still have! It was Ghost In the Shell. My meager collection included some Sailor Moon tapes, Burn Up, Akira and Metropolis. It wasn't until I was out of High School that I started seeing anime crop up in more mainstream venues. I nearly had a meltdown when I discovered that Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust was going to be shown in one tiny theater in Boston. I saw it over and over again on its one week run. I remember a co-worker at the pet store telling me about this awesome show, and I had to see it, and give it a chance even though it was 'a cartoon'. It wasn't a normal cartoon, he informed me in a hushed and frantic voice. It was from Japan. It was amazing.
It was Cowboy Bebop.
As the years went by, I saw more and more anime popping up in stores and being shown on television. Manga was cropping up in regular bookstores. It had its own section, it wasn't squished in with graphic novels anymore. I've watched as my weird, off beat interest has become mainstream and accepted. Even now I'm constantly stopped and complimented on either my FMA flamel necklace or my bag, and half the time when I say it's from an anime, people nod and go 'oh yeah, I know that stuff'. I don't have to buy my DVDs and merchandise in tiny, out of the way special interest stores. I don't need to stare at a single shelf of crappy anime trying to find something. I don't need to try and explain what anime is to people. I can share it with my niece, and I can be strangely pleased that the very things that added to my own 'outcast' label are now the very things that are the hit among the 'in crowd'.
Anime and manga are everywhere, and they're not going anywhere anytime soon.
And it's about time.
Fast forward about a month. She's watching the series over and over again every day. She has it memorized. She's introduced it to all of her friends. They all love it. I'm boggled. Lenna is boggled. We're amazed by this. We start looking around into other anime to show her. I don't bother with manga because I had no idea how she'd take to it. Neither Lenna nor I are big manga readers. And besides, it's easier to get anime than manga out here in Middle of Nohwere.
Last week, I'm out on the deck smoking. D (my neice) comes out. She's holding something in her hand. She walks up to me and asks 'hey auntie, have you read this manga yet?'. I don't even remember the title of the series, I was too busy going 'where did she get this?!?' and 'holy crap, my niece is bringing me manga!' It was a Shoujo Beat title, some middle school romance. And it was volume three....
I asked her where she'd gotten it, and she told me a friend of hers had lent it to her. And her friend had lots of other manga. I handed it back to her after skimming the back - something about a boy from another dimension coming to the main herione's school - and told her I wasn't familiar with it. She informed me it was very good, and I ought to read it. She went back in the house and I stood there a bit, stunned.
After discussing this event with Lenna, I went looking for other manga titles D might enjoy. Hey, Christmas is coming and this is something we can bond over! While looking for recommendation and summary lists, I find dozens of articles on the popularity of manga among American teen and pre-teen girls.
Manga, apparently, is The Big Thing right now. It's taken over. It's popular. To me, who discovered anime at the tender age of 11 - Vampire Hunter D, the original - and had it considered just another 'weird' thing, I'm amazed. When I was a teenager, anime was not cool. Anime was not mainstream. The popular girls did not gather around to trade manga volumes and squee over bishounen. Anime was a boy's club - Sailor Moon didn't count, I was told quite often. I'd watch it in the Sci Fi Club room after school with the guys. We watched Eva. We watched Dragon Ball. We watched Gundam. We watched anime with giant robots and blowing shit up. I had one female friend who was into anime. And she was mostly into pretty anime boys. But that was okay.
I still remember the first anime I ever owned on VHS - which I still have! It was Ghost In the Shell. My meager collection included some Sailor Moon tapes, Burn Up, Akira and Metropolis. It wasn't until I was out of High School that I started seeing anime crop up in more mainstream venues. I nearly had a meltdown when I discovered that Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust was going to be shown in one tiny theater in Boston. I saw it over and over again on its one week run. I remember a co-worker at the pet store telling me about this awesome show, and I had to see it, and give it a chance even though it was 'a cartoon'. It wasn't a normal cartoon, he informed me in a hushed and frantic voice. It was from Japan. It was amazing.
It was Cowboy Bebop.
As the years went by, I saw more and more anime popping up in stores and being shown on television. Manga was cropping up in regular bookstores. It had its own section, it wasn't squished in with graphic novels anymore. I've watched as my weird, off beat interest has become mainstream and accepted. Even now I'm constantly stopped and complimented on either my FMA flamel necklace or my bag, and half the time when I say it's from an anime, people nod and go 'oh yeah, I know that stuff'. I don't have to buy my DVDs and merchandise in tiny, out of the way special interest stores. I don't need to stare at a single shelf of crappy anime trying to find something. I don't need to try and explain what anime is to people. I can share it with my niece, and I can be strangely pleased that the very things that added to my own 'outcast' label are now the very things that are the hit among the 'in crowd'.
Anime and manga are everywhere, and they're not going anywhere anytime soon.
And it's about time.