When I was younger I told my mother, "I am never growing up from Anime. NEVER." I spent thousands of dollars on it, buying a DVD once a week, importing movies from Japan back here to America, spending hours upon hours in Japantown hauling back pound after pound of manga in a language I swore one day I would be able to read. Suddenly, as I look towards the coming month, towards the approaching convention I so diligently made myself a part of for the past 5 years and now I don't want to go. Well, no, I take it back. I want to go because I want to put together a costume (cosplay dies hard... for now) I want to handle yards of heavy cotton and boning, I want to dye a wig, and have an excuse to dress up outside of Halloween. That's really the only reason why I want to go...
But if I were to take that aspect out of the convention, I suddenly don't have a reason to go. When I was younger, when I attended conventions it was about surrounding myself in people like me, to see karaoke, to watch anime in crowded rooms that smell of sweat, to see my favorite voice actors or mangaka in person and possibly get their autographs, to watch the masquerade, to geniunely experience the convention...
and now? None of those things appeal to me anymore. I told my mother I would never grow up, and yet here I am, working towards my biology degree, aiming to be a midwife, and work with women's health as a nurse... what the hell does that have to do with watching anime? Being a japanophile?
HECK NOTHING, that's what.
Heck. Nothing.
I wonder how many anime fanatics actually know anything about Japan... quite a nasty country.
actually, I know quite a bit about Japan, and the more messed up I find out it is, the more interesting it becomes to me. So about the country itself, I still have an interest for - mostly from a sociological standpoint.
though, speaking from having known my share of anime-fanatics, I can say that quite a handful of them only know what they know from anime which, interestingly enough, makes for fascinating conversation when you try to break down what they know, vs. what is true.