Tao of the Otaku

"Everybody makes their own fun. If you don't make it yourself, it isn't fun. It's entertainment."
- Ann Black from "State and Main"

This quote embodies how I approach anime. Anime in itself is a medium. Anime is a hobby as much as movies become a body's hobby.

What got me started on anime was "Voltron". What got me hooked was "Robotech" and three generations of epic story telling. From 6th grade to high school, the Post-Robotech drought relegated anime into two categories: "Akira" and other. "Macross Plus" was an oasis, no a Dubai luxury hotel, in the desert. When I got to college, I joined the campus anime society and a whole world unfolded before me.

Here were new science fiction and fantasy stories. Before there was a The Matrix and Lord of the Rings, special effects really were special, but a the vastness of space uses the same ink as a night sky over Tokyo. Here were stories with an Asian character. To an Asian-Ameican, animation from Asia shown in America was a cultural mirror unveiled. Here was a different artform. The image is created from the blank page; it was additive like a novel, not subtractive and simplifying like the eye of the camera.

I've also realized that there was also over 20 years of accumulated quality, half-quality, and buried gems waiting to be unearthed by the newcomer. At the club, we were thoroughly spoilt by Miyazaki, Evangelion, Escaflowne, and Serial Experiments Lain.

Now the current from Japan is wide and deep; episodes Kanon became available a week after their maiden broadcast. The increased throughput made the wider range of shows available, and I realized that most of anime is fluff. Somewhere in the back of my mind, I superimposed merchandising model and a marketing plan over the Kyoto story arc of "Kenshin". It still took a while to sink in that Sony, with their endless screaming Playstation ads, viewed the episode as a red shiny apple for their hard black seeds. This analogy becomes generous for many shows, because apples are actually nutritious.

There are still recent shows that I enjoy (Hanbun, Haruhi, Kanon), but new quality programming has become sparser after spending years mining the past. Familiarity breeds boredom, if not contempt. Boredom leads the mind to seek another mecha series, another Slayers sequel, and another game that features "a race against time set against a world in conflict between technology and mystic nature with a little romance" [1], and the search for newer and better leads to the question: "What's next?"

Relying on consumption to fill my time ultimately leaves me empty. The alternate to continually taking in is to push out, to create, to make your own fun. Otherwise, it's just entertainment.

To create, I muse about anime, write this blog, and write fanfiction (under another name). I suspect that many fans deepen their interest in the hobby with writing, drawing manga, fanart, cosplay, and other efforts. Creation challenges the creator. The effort to build brings reward. Mere consumption lacks this need to stretch, strengthen, and grow. These acts of risk taking, writ large and small, are fulfillment that can be brought back to the real three dimensional world.

TO BE CONTINUED...

[1] Read "Final Fantasy", which is perhaps the biggest case of false advertisement since the credits following the "Neverending Story". Joking aside, Michael Ende's original novel warned the reader against indulging too deeply in fantasy. Even if you've seen the movie, I urge you to pick up the book; the first movie tells less than half of the story and the less important half at that.