The curse o' the otaku!

Non-Eva Anime and Manga discussion

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Kiel
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The curse o' the otaku!

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Postby Kiel » Mon Oct 04, 2004 7:56 pm

Is it just me, or are we being persecuted for our "beliefs" a lot more lately?

I've been getting a lot of weird stares from people who see that I have an EOE poster in my locker.

I get off colour coments about "Pokemon crap" when people see my Sadamoto inspired sketchbook.

I wear my Kuroneko hat while I do the morning announcements, and people heckle me like I'm a freak!

( :oops: Well, with the hat...It's understandable)

I would think, now that anime is becoming more and more mainstream in popular culture that people would be a little more understanding.

But, unfortunetly, I, along with every other anime fan in my school, get's the shaft.

It's even harder being an Eva fan with other anime fans! I've had so called "otaku", rant about DBZ and Shaman King at lengths, but the minute I mention Eva, I get the weirdest stares...

Anybody else experiencing unnessary bad karmatization, or am I alone in this sea of hate-erade?
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Postby Dave » Mon Oct 04, 2004 8:12 pm

You are alone Kiel.
Beatus vir qui suffert tentationem.

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Postby Gilgamesh » Mon Oct 04, 2004 8:29 pm

Not really, whenever I have some anime-related item around me for some reason when I'm at school and someone asks about it, I just talk about it like it's just a hobby I indulge in. I have a pretty intellectual reputation at my school, and I give my peers at school the impression that anime is a very intellectual thing to watch. Like, when they ask me about Evangelion, I don't say *super annoying geek voice* "AW MAN, THIS IS TEH BEST THING EVAR! THE ACTION IS SO AWESOME!!!!!111". No, I make it sound as good as I possibly can. I tell them, "It's a brilliant drama that is heavy on Freudian psychology and religious symbolism, beautifully rendered in a unique Japanese art style called "anime."

That usually impresses most people, including my teachers (I actually got my former Mythology teacher to watch Haibane Renmei). Then there are others who have this strange notion that all anime and manga is pornography. Like the people in my Driver's Ed class. There are some not so bright students in that class who I let read my Ai Yori Aoshi, Chobits, and Love Hina mangas and they are convinced that I am bringing cartoon porn to school. I don't try to correct them. I just tell them, "Yeah, there's a lot of nudity in that one," in a matter-of-fact manner. They ask me if the girl on the End of Evangelion disc gets naked in the movie and I tell them, "Yes, there's plenty of full-frontal nudity." Then they ask me if I'm afraid to bring this stuff to school (because, remember, they think it's pretty lewd), and I just put on my best badass impersonation and say, "Why should I be afraid of anything?" They think it's pretty cool.

Pretty much, I've found that if you're not ashamed of your hobby and you're not afraid of what others think about it, people will at least respect that.

It seems that I've pretty much avoided the curse o' the otaku.

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Postby Tailgunner » Mon Oct 04, 2004 8:48 pm

school....what is that. Oh i graduated and i don't have a locker. It is grate to be out of school means more time to work on my Jeep and go 4X4 Image
UP THE IRONS!!!!

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Postby Esion » Mon Oct 04, 2004 9:10 pm

School is always like that.
Anyone who is even the slightest bit difference will be singled out. Don't worry about it.
Yea and God said to Abraham, "You will kill your son Issac." And Abraham said, "I can't hear you, you'll have to speak into the microphone." And God said, "Oh I'm sorry, Is this better? Check, check, check... Jerry, pull the high end out, I'm still getting some hiss back here."

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Postby MongolSquad » Mon Oct 04, 2004 9:12 pm

Eh....I get mixed reactions. Some think anime is like one entire thing you can watch. They didn't realize it's like other types or entertainement. Like you don't watch every movie, it'd be impossible, and there's good and bad ones. They think all anime isall the same. I tried to explain this once to a classmate, and he seemed to understand. But, he asked what my top favorites were, he gave me somewhat of a weird look at some of the titles...like "Cowboy Bebop" and "Fooly Cooly". But I tried to explain each one. I think I only mentioned Cowboy Bebop, Evangelion, Trigun and Fool Cooly. Evangelion was the hardest to explain. I said basically, its a show involving lots of deep physcology, Judea Christian refereneces, and it involves a lot of deep character deveopment. I didn't dare try to go into the plot.

So, it depends on how you approach it. I don't advertise my anime interest, but if its brought up, I try to explain and some people are good about it. And others it just goes right over their heads. So really, it depends on the "otaku" on how people view it.

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Postby Tailgunner » Mon Oct 04, 2004 9:35 pm

Well i wasn't into anime in high school, i was in the shop class metal and auto all the time. But i did get weird stares because i was a Iron Maiden fan and was always had a Maiden shirt on. i didn't get back into anime till i was at tech school, i did find some poeple that liked anime thier and we would always talke about it difront anime and stuff.
UP THE IRONS!!!!

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Postby sadsadshinji » Mon Oct 04, 2004 10:37 pm

people would give me weird looks...that why i dont post any posters or show any sketchbooks...

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Postby coff » Tue Oct 05, 2004 12:00 am

I've never had any of these problems. Of course, I hardly ever talk to people.

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Postby Djeheuty » Tue Oct 05, 2004 1:47 am

I had the same reaction in my school, but when some of my close friends started watching anime they relised its just another medium. What i would is show them end of evangelion and confuse them. They will come back to you with an understanding that its not just pokemon or digimon. Or some might even take up interest in it and start asking you questions. It worked for me

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Postby Reichu » Tue Oct 05, 2004 3:58 am

I am at RIT, which is basically populated by geeks. A large portion of them are anime geeks. Anime is a frighteningly normal thing on this campus. Even my sketchbooks, filled cover-to-cover with my ideas for a doujinshi starring naked Evas, barely raise any eyebrows.
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Postby sadsadshinji » Tue Oct 05, 2004 8:45 am

ummmmm...wow...i dont know if i should say that you're lucky...

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Postby the_seventh_child » Tue Oct 05, 2004 10:46 am

I have four shirts:Asuka and her Eva in one, Shinji-Asuka kissing on the other,all the gang together and the last i cannot tell..when i wear them they look at me on a way...
also i have a silver cross with the name "Evangelion" carve on it...they all saying me what a strange cross you have...but i do not care..they don't know,so i don't misunderstund them..
Anime and manga unite us all. Much better than the Olympics. - Carl Horn |11.30.2004.
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Postby Ayanami » Tue Oct 05, 2004 12:08 pm

I always used to be secretive about my love of anime during school, like from 5th grade up, because whenever people would see me drawing, or if I'd bring it up or something, they'd always be like, "Anime is for losers! Blahblahblah DBZ blahblah Pokemon blahblah porn blahblahblahblah crap." So I got tired of it, and just kept my otaku-ness to myself. Pretty much up until last year did I finally just stop caring about what other people thought, and just did my own thing. I had good friends that I could fall back on, so I didn't feel like I was being singled out or anything.

I wear my autographed Anime Central shirt to school on occasion, but I do have an Azumanga Daioh pin and a Puni Puni Poemy patch on my backpack, so people see that every day. Nobody's ever asked me about them, or pointed them out to me, and that's fine. On two occasions though, I was walking to class during passing period, and a couple guys behind me started mentioning Pokemon in a loud voice. (And it wasn't coincidence that they were talking about it while I was in front of them.) I only wish I had been able to see who they were, because I was pretty pissed off when I got to class. XP
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Postby sadsadshinji » Tue Oct 05, 2004 5:20 pm

where do you get the shirts from? i never seem to find any places with them...
and pokemon? lol... its sad how people are prejudiced...from some crappy show that changes their view of everything...

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Postby Hexon.Arq » Tue Oct 05, 2004 5:33 pm

Strange. What little I know about anime seems to be fascniating to the uninitiated I come across.

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Postby Karma Burn » Tue Oct 05, 2004 6:48 pm

I'm lucky. In my school there are nerds who get "respect". Anime isn't a hobby that one would get hassled for. Not everybody knows about but they don't make fun for it. People just don't care.
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Postby Kiel » Tue Oct 05, 2004 7:37 pm

:cry: my school's not like that.

I happen to be part of the most intollerent schools in York region (where I'm from).

Anime isn't really common knowledge to even the "geeky" people.

I like to consider myself to be a little more sofisticated in terms of how I express my fandom...

...but then again, I like singing Bohemian Rhapsody in math class and doing the occasional Strong Bad quote on the morning announcements :lol:

Maybe Dave's right. It's just me...probably 'cause I'm a freak :lol:
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Postby Tailgunner » Tue Oct 05, 2004 8:03 pm

Trogdor the burniator
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UP THE IRONS!!!!

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Postby houtaru » Tue Oct 05, 2004 11:24 pm

All of my friends love anime. They like it for other reasons than I do, however. I try to explain the psychological significance in Eva or even FLCL, and they just comment on Misato or Kitsurbami. Anime is not really seen as 'uncool' in my college and town. Adult swim is hugely popular in the dorms. Ghost in the Shell and Akira also extremely popular among sci-fi buffs. Manga, however may be another story. That may change in the future though. I got some of my friends hooked on the 'Battle Royale' manga. As for evangelion, my friends havent seen the entire series yet but they say they're intrigued after watching both platinum volumes. Some of my friends that are girls are extremely impressed with Asuka. College has much smarter people than high school, however. This may be why anime is more accepted here.


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