9rules blog club: Anime

A while ago there was something called blog club and it basically was looking at a different community each week on 9rules. It went well and then due to many things fizzled out a bit. Well, now it’s back and this time it’s got a home over at the 9rules notes and is open to anyone. I’ve posted about it recently and this week sees the end of the first blog club with posts about anime. If you want to find out more read the 9rules anime blog club note.

My blog club anime entry is going to be slightly different from the way I did blog club before and I’m going to be posting an interview I did with Michael Ono the 9rules anime community leader. So, here goes.

First up, can you introduce yourself please.

Hi my name is Michael, I am a college student in Washington D.C. I enjoy a lot of things like diving, reading blogs, writing, using Facebook and playing video games but I also happen to enjoy Japanese anime. I’m 19 and I like almost any kind of food with the exception of tomatoes and I while I do read blogs, I don’t read as much of the newspaper as I probably should. lol

When did you start getting into anime and how did that happen?

How did I start? Well I think like most people from my generation, I started off by watching Cartoon Network and then by watching Dragon Ball Z. I did a lot of Google searching and found out about torrent tracking websites and fansubbing groups and the whole thing kinda just took off from there. If you’re willing to spend enough time on the Internet you’ll eventually run into this kind of stuff.

Ok, one of the most confused things seems to be the use of anime and manga, can explain what they both mean and their differences?

There’s actually not much to be confused about. Anime is the animation reenactment of a typical graphic novel aka manga. In general, a manga is published first in Japan, and if it becomes popular enough it gets created into an anime. You can pick up a typical manga at Barnes & Noble, just look for the kids sitting in the book aisle.

What anime titles would you recommend to someone as a ‘starter’?

That’s a difficult one because everyone has a different set of tastes. If you can get your hands on it, I would recommend Fullmetal Alchemist if you’re into action and adventure and I could also recommend Planetes if you are into space travel but as a starter anime? Why not try Honey and Clover? The show aired about a year ago and was part of Fuji TV’s campaign to have anime appeal to a broader audience. So why not give that one a try? It’s probably one of my favorites.

Because manga is more easily accessible for those without the means to download anime, I would almost recommend picking up a couple of manga volumes to read. The Planetes manga was probably one of my favorite manga series, I plan to buy Welcome to the NHK and but there are also some fun titles out there like School Rumble and Love Hina. If I could recommend a non manga graphic novel I would also recommend that you read Persepolis and if you like that Persepolis 2. Marijane Satrapi, the author is one of my favorite. She’s great.

If you had to name one anime that is your all time favorite what would it be?

Haha back again! So yeah, Honey and Clover is a great show to watch and I would highly recommend it to anyone if they can get their hands on it. Unlike most of the anime out there, I think that the characters in Honey and Clover all have something that everyone can actually relate to. It’s just a show about regular people growing up and living out their lives and that in itself is beautiful. One more thing about the show, I just think that it is awesome that H&C has a ton of original music in every episode.

There is a view of anime fans which is not overly flattering, the stay at home and never go out freaks that dress up for conventions… Firstly, what do you think about this and secondly, do you own a anime costume?

First of all, yes I do own an anime costume. I dressed up as Coronel Mustang for Halloween one year. If anyone’s had the chance to watch Fullmetal Alchemist, they will know that he kicks butt. And to answer your first question about anime fandom I have this to say.

Behind every stereotype there is a bit of truth. I know some people who are into anime and are perfectly normal human beings. (But then again what is normal?) But then there are some people who I am acquainted with in real life, encounter on the Internet and see at my University who are in serious need of help. Having said that, I think that it is part of human nature and life to have things that bother us. Even the popular kids have their issues.

What do you see as this seasons anime must watches?

Definitely, Hataraki Man, damn that show is good. And I’m such a dork for liking it. Matsukata is really cool in my opinion and I think that the author behind the series was being serious when she wrote the manga. It’s a show about Women working in Japan and the choice to get married or to continue working. Who knows? Maybe I just like it because I’m in journalism school? I get all excited when ever they talk about taking things to press. I know.

Can you give us a quick rough guide to what you can find in the 9rules anime community?

Sure no problem. We accepted a lot of sites in round 5 and there are a ton of sites to look at. To be honest, most of the blogs that I see on 9rules right now don’t cover a lot of the anime’s that I watch. I really like Jeff Lawson’s site because of his commentary. I read the Karoshi anime blog on occasion.

While I don’t necessarily agree with everything that our community does, I have learned that it is important to be opened minded about it all. I think the previous 9rules Religious Community Leader Shawn Anthony got in a little bit of a pickle for doing this back in his old CL days. Which was too bad because it sounded like he had a lot of things that he wanted to do and he sounded like a friendly guy.

I think when your in a leadership position like in 9rules, it is important to not let your personal agenda’s get in the way of your job. Sure I have a lot of goals that I wish to accomplish with our 9rules community but the community comes first…definitely.

What do you say to people that say anime is ‘just cartoons’?

Well anime’s are cartoons but I think to say that anime’s are like the old one genre superhero comics is false. I think when people in America think of comics they think of super heroes and the Daily Circus while there are so many anime and manga titles.

Ok, you’ve told us your favorite, now if you were told you can only ever view 5 other anime what would they be?

Um that’s a tough one. I don’t really know. One of the nice things about anime is that there’s always new stuff coming out so I’m not afraid of not having something new on my hard drive. I still love shows like Fullmetal Alchemist but I don’t watch them every day, or every other week even. But to answer your question, probably Honey and Clover.

What do you feel about anime exploding in the USA, UK and other places besides it’s origins? Do you feel it waters it down or only improves it?

Um this is actually an interesting phenomena. Yes you are right, when anime is translated and repackaged into something to be watched on British T.V. There are certain things that are cut out and misinterpreted. But the real fascinating thing about anime and illegally delivered anime is that the whole world is catching on. (For better or for worse.)

I remember hearing kids from in South Africa who like to watch Naruto. And there was this other time where I could have swore that I saw somebody from Saudi Arabia via the bit torrent country tracer plugin. Ironically, the Japanese government probably doesn’t quite know what to do about the whole piracy thing and if they wanted to, they could probably do something about it.

Does anime mean you have to understand Japanese culture?

Not really but it helps. Japanese culture is really about a certain mindset. There are certain ideas and beliefs that are ingrained into Japanese culture and some of it is good while some of it can be unhealthy in my opinion.

One of the nice things about fansubbed anime is that they’ll sometimes leave translation notes in the subtitles. It’s really fascinating.

What are some of the jargon words you would come across in anime – the most common ones? Can you explain a few of these please?

Well a lot of anime jargon actually comes from the Japanese language itself. For instance, unlike America, Japanese people address each other formally by their last name. San is used to address someone of equal rank or social status. So I guess I could call you Karmatosed-san and that would do the trick. You have simple things like that but then you also have the more obscure and “exotic” stuff like: lolicon which means love for small boys. (I know, times have changed.) Now that I think of it, a lot of more obscure anime jargon is in fact related to certain kinds of fetishes.

Do you have a favorite anime studio and artist?

No not really. Of course I’m always biased towards J.C. Staff for animating Honey and Clover but there aren’t many others. I like listening to Spitz but there isn’t anything much else that I enjoy in particular. Just good anime.

Thanks to Michael for taking part in this interview.

The next fortnight blog club has been announced over at the 9rules notes and when people have finished posting their blog club’s for this fortnight I am going to do a summary up also. The more the merrier so if you’ve not got a 9rules notes account (anyone can sign up and join in), then I’d invite you to and start joining in with blog club. Next fortnight it will be the music community which has something for every musical taste you could possibly be hiding in your iTunes.