NOTE: This was a response to the Answerman question "Do you feel a sense of community with fellow Anime fans?" over on Anime News Network, they published it so I thought I would share it as this weeks article...
Enjoy, and give me your thoughts...
You know, when I got started in Anime fandom some 15 years ago there was a real sense of community, we were a bunch of people dedicated to a very niche hobby trading tapes and stories, honestly for me and many others that was a golden age. Now, the times have changed…
Commercialization of Anime has brought about some wonderful advances [go to your local DVD store of note FYE, Fry's and you will see] but at the same time its caused the soul of the community to vanish.
One first has to understand what made the community what it was back 15 years ago, we were people that were interested in Japanese culture as much as we were the animation, there was an understanding that we were watching things that were as much a cultural window as entertainment. The problem with now is that the fans really don't have a clue where its all come from, they complain about the $30 DVD with 4 episodes, I remember paying twice that for VHS tapes with one episode on them! We never would run around calling each other “Chan” and “Sama” honestly, we would have felt that to be an insult to the culture not the least making fools of ourselves. For us it wasn't a fad so much as it was a hobby that we really didn't care if it was understood or not. Now, all you hear is people calling themselves Japanese names and glorifying series as the greatest ever without even looking at what came from the past.
I recently saw it first hand when I was in our local comic shop, one of the employees was there and I looked up at the screen and saw an AMV playing of Oh! My Goddess The Movie. He proceeded to tell me how amazing this show is and how it's the pinnacle of modern Anime, and wanted to know if I was interested in coming to the store's Anime night. I asked him what they would be showing and he listed the episodes of Naruto and Bleach along with Bubblegum Crisis. I politely declined, he asked why, I explained that for me, when I used to go to club meetings, it was to see something new, not the same stuff from the TV. He looked at me and said “How can you call yourself an Anime fan and not love Naruto?!” I couldn't believe my ears. It underscored to me how today there is far more activism in Anime than there is community, I shouldn't have to defend not liking Naruto to be a fan, but its more of a “Look at me I'm an Anime fan!” than anything else anymore. Call me old and jaded, but being told by a couple of kids how everything prior to Bleach sucked is more than a little annoying.
There is community to be found, but its in the smaller niche groups, Cosplayer's, Fansubbers etc. honestly I would love to see the community go back to smaller more focused groups without all the commercialization. Where true fans could really enjoy themselves and not be lumped in with the kids who don't know what fandom really is.
I would love to see community rise again, truly I would, I just don't see it happening anytime soon.
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