Ladies and Gentlemen, this is War.

This is my comment on impz, Lupus, and Crusader’s rant on KyoAni and animé being mainstream. Note that I shift into propaganda mode about halfway through. I kinda got carried away there. And I see too many similarities between otaku and Christians in real life. Heck, I’ve been through a fair amount of it myself. So all of it, at least from my experience, seems to work.

I’m gunning for acceptance of animé, not just as a means of entertainment, but as a way of life. With things as it is, though, it might be extremely hard.

As for animé and mainstream, not gonna happen for a long while. We can thank Superman for that. For any Japan-based animated work to make it big in America and elsewhere, it has to be EPIC QUALITY. And it has to shatter their perceptions of animé as a whole. (tl;dr: planetarian movie.)

And it’s not just the media, but it’s fans. If the world sees us as more than crazed antisocial bad fanfic-writing cartoon-loving haughty people who scream at the latest animé releases, I think we’d be off to a good start in making people accept animé as viable and fun entertainment. We fans have to project a positive image to people in order to make the masses accept our way of life. And from the looks of things, we have one heck of an uphill battle to climb.

If we look at formerly deviant fan communities (Star Trek, D&D, gaming, just to name a few), they have at least gained acceptance, not just as entertainment, but as a way of life, mostly because of their earnest efforts to show the masses why they love their hobby. Of course there’s a fair amount of taunting, ribbing and tasteless jokes, but at least the public has accepted, albeit grudgingly, that their hobbies are relatively fun and wholesome. We need to show to the public that animé is not just fun, but wholesome.

I don’t care if the whole fucking nation does not know what an otaku is. If we’re going to adopt an arrogant attitude, that the masses are unenlightened and unwashed and we are the enlightened ones and that we have to ‘convert’ them, they will simply resist our efforts to show them why we love our hobby. In fact, if I’m not wrong, the mainstream media has been trying to put us in a bad light. So what if the likes of Densha Otoko can help us in a good way? The mainstream media WILL FIND A WAY TO PUT US IN A BAD LIGHT, even if it has to retread old stories to do so. And the masses eat this up, why? They don’t understand the whole story, and only know one side: what the mass media tells them. Contempt leads to fear, to anger, to hate, etc.

It starts from us, the fans. Carry on the torch that has been lit by Densha Otoko. Prove to the world that otaku can be as human s the rest. And when that happens, the world will be a little bit better.

Why do I say this? because it’s the only way to save our way of life. Right now, we are being besieged by hurtful, if sometimes true, news reports. Our games are called ‘rape simulators’. Our hobby is said to incite feelings of lust in teenagers. And heck, we’ve been linked to murders and terrorist acts. All it takes is a madman like JT or Ann Coulter to blow this way out of proportion, and we’re history. Heck, it’s already a problem in Japan, where packs of ‘otaku hunters’ roam the streets to prey on unwitting fans to steal their money (I don’t know if they have solved the problem yet).

Get this straight, this isn’t pre-WWI anymore, where people’s minds were open to strange and new things. This is the 21st century, where control of the media is not just possible, but has already been done, where people worry too much about their next meal to care about other things, where people simply don’t have the time to find out about everything they hear on the news. So what if we have the Internet, not everyone uses a computer in the way we do.

It starts with us, the fans of Japanese animation. We must show the world we are not creepy antisocial people. We must show the world we are not just human, but also fully(if somewhat questionable)-functioning members of society.

Ladies and gentlemen, we are fighting a war. A war that has no borders, no armies, and none of those shiny guns as well. A war that has, until recently, been confined to Japan. A war that the enemy has the upper hand, because they have already sown the seeds of fear and ignorance into the masses’ minds. This is a war that cannot be won by brute force and isolationism. In order to win this war, we must fight, not with force, but with diplomacy. We must win back the hearts and minds of the mases one at a time, by being nice to them. We must show the world we are not what they see us as.

Fight the good fight, brothers and sisters, for when the war is over, we need not fear anyymore the iron grip of the enemy. We can walk free, without the need to hide our hobbies no longer. Japan has shown us the way to win the war, and we must emulate its positive values. Keep a smile on your face, and be as obliging as possible. Spend time with your family and friends. Work dilligently at your studies, and keep your fanaticism in check. Do all these, and we are well on our wayto winning ths war.

(I apologize for the sudden shift in writing style and topic, but it really riles me up when I see otaku acting like arrogant louts not just on the internet, but in real life. They make zero pretense in hiding the fact they are otaku, and act as if they deserve it. It sickens me when they act in such a manner. Yes, I know not all otaku act like this,, but my experiences have told me otherwise. I do live in a country where free speech is a pipedream, after all.)

By the way, Demian, you’re wrong. Somewhat.

PS: New Top Blog tomorrow. And yes, I’m doing Mr. Miao.