hoshizora

The standard shibboleths of fandom are failing me.

Endless waiting and an inability to peruse the fandom because of potential spoilers have left my enthusiasm for Avatar at an all-time low.

HELP

I just want to say that the new Macross TV series is pretty great so far, and if you are or were a Macross or Robotech fan, you should probably check it out.

BECAUSE OF HOLY SHIT

( Highlights so far )

ETA: Here's the op.

Look, I'm going to try to go, so I might as well get this out there sooner rather than later: Is anybody else going to go? Can we pool our meager resources? I have it on some kind of authority that I am not creepy, though this has not been verified by a reputable sanctioning body in a while. Creepiness may have... crept in.

I am even (!) open to that great adventure, the Road Trip, though it's a long-ass way from Houston to San Diego.

Let's talk.

Sigh.

It was fun while it lasted.

ETA: I should point out that while this IS very sad, I still have a job. For now.

Anybody that reads ANN already saw this, but there's a great Publisher's Weekly interview with Kio Shimoku, creator of Genshiken, one of my all-time favorite manga.

His answers to the questions are not at all what I'd expect. He sounds like a fascinating guy, one I'd love to get to know better.

For perhaps obvious reasons, I've been thinking a lot about nerd shame recently. Sigh.

Having rediscovered my nerd roots and all (thank you, Avatar and crazy-ass otaku job), and having thought about this issue enough to say that it's been (embarrassingly enough) at the core of much of my internal philosophical debating the last couple of years, I'm starting to become sensitive to a sad, but predictable trend.

And now that I'm hip-deep in anime dorkhood once again, I'd like to state that I categorically refuse to engage in the hipper-than-thou game with anime/manga/japan crap that it is now almost impossible to avoid playing with, for example, music.

I will like what I like for whatever reason I like it, regardless of when it was made, who made it, who else likes it, or how popular it is.

Nobody likes a snob. I'm not going to be one, and I won't abide one.

It is always less risky to dislike a Work than to like or love a Work, because disdain puts you in a position of superiority, but love makes you vulnerable to criticism.

Put another way, disdain is easy and risk-free; love requires courage.

The trouble with being a Fan of anything is that frequently you love a Work so much that it drives you over the edge of happiness into despair, because you want to create something that moves somebody else the way the Work had moved you, but are afraid that you cannot.

Is it weird that when I watch fansubs lately, and I see the impeccably-timed karaoke lyrics with fancy fading effects, the painstakingly animated subs over absolutely every instance of written Japanese onscreen, I think..

"These fansubbers are getting too big for their britches."

For the most part I would write it off as a vaguely old-school "damn kids get off my lawn!" reaction, but when I see a stylized version of the fansub group's name carefully laid over the show title, "Otaku Studios Presents (show name)" or the like, I'm pretty sure they are getting too big for their britches.

If you read this and have no idea what I'm talking about, don't worry; it just means you're not a pathetic dork.

bigbigtruck's Samurai Champloo Fan Anthology, "Battle Cry," is done. Interested nerds parties should check it out. It is chock-full of awesome art and stories, and one very small (but unique!) contribution by me that is neither.

Seriously, it's worth a look for the cover art alone.