Fandom gives back

Anime may seem too Japanese to cause an impact on American culture, but anime has inspired many American fans in their own artistic endeavors, sometimes even at the blockbuster level.

A casual onlooker may not realize the effect this nerdy subculture has on mainstream media. But the anime boom of the Nineties stuck with long-time anime fans, and most creators can’t hide their anime influence.

I’ve created a list showing the full breadth of creativity that has come out of anime fandom. The list ranges huge movies to individual fan animations and from educational to entertaining.

1. “Pacific Rim” is an American sci-fi action hit of 2013, and viewers may be surprised to learn that anime was a big influence in the conception. Acclaimed directed Guillermo del Toro and his team exemplify the fact that many contemporary North American creators owe a lot to anime, despite the cultural differences. Jemarc Axinto traces the anime inspirations for the film, especially the “mecha” genre, or anime centered on robots, in his 2014 article “Pacific Rim: In-depth study of the influence of Anime” for The Artifice, an online magazine focused on entertainment and arts.
2. Even though “A Preliminary History of American Anime Fandom” is a long read, it’s worth it for a chronicle of the American anime fandom up to today. Jason H. Bennett outlines what is anime, what it means to be an American fan of anime and the connotations of being a fan throughout the years. Bennett wrote this as a member of the anime community while a candidate for a master’s in history for the University of Texas at Arlington.
3. Anime cannot be defined only as animation from Japan, and internet-based American company RoosterTeeth proves it with its own anime, “RWBY.” “Rooster Teeth’s ‘RWBY’ Will Be First American Anime Exported to Japan” covers the groundbreaking news of “RWBY” being imported into Japan, the height of anime-inspired success. Bree Brouwer has examples of “RWBY” animation and the anime that it will stand alongside in her 2014 article for Tubefilter, a site for online video platform news.
4. Some fans fear that Americans ruin the original content. “Akira,” a seminal anime film, is currently under threat of a live-action remake by American movie-makers. In “How Gary Whitta’s Live-Action ‘AKIRA’ Screenplay Got It All Wrong,” Serdar Yegulalp, who is editor-in-chief of Ganriki, a weekly-published blog focused on anime news, explains why “Akira” can’t be accurately transposed into an American understanding in his 2015 article.
5. Blockbuster films and exported shows aren’t all that should be taken note of when examining the influence anime has had on American audiences. Fandom consists of many people who make creations on micro and macro levels of exposure. I’ve created a nine-video playlist of some of my favorite fan creations that take obvious inspiration from anime. The videos, all under five minutes, range from original music to highly edited video creations and from plain silliness to profanity and gore, all hosted on YouTube.

Breaking the bank

Being an active participant in anime fandom doesn’t consist of just watching anime; it takes a lot of hard work.

The most prominent—and one of the most expensive—parts of fandom is cosplaying.

“Cosplay, short for ‘costume play,’ is the practice of dressing up and acting out the part of a particular character,” explains Stefanie Dao, an integrated studio arts student at Iowa State University. Iowa State University is research university located in Ames, Iowa.

Here is a group cosplay of some Sailor Scouts from the shojou series “Sailor Moon” at 2013 Anime Weekend Atlanta; they are standing in the open lobby of the Marriott.

Anime has many outlandish designs, so creating a costume accurate to the original character’s can take hours of labor and tons of cash.

Even before going professional, some cosplays can cost hundreds of dollars, even thousands. The most expensive cosplay outfits on the 2014 Comic Con floor cost between $400 and $1,000 and took over six months to make, according to Business Insider’s 2014 post, “The Most Expensive Cosplays At New York Comic Con.” Business Insider is a commercial website started in 2009 in New York, focusing on business and technology news.

A couple at 2013 AWA cosplay their fan-designs of Pikachu from the immensely popular “Pokémon.” This photo was quickly taken at the exit of the convention’s artist alley. The fan-imagined design of the character and elaborate decorations must put these cosplay costumes on the more expensive end.

Almost all cosplay costumes are handmade. There are some manufactured cosplay stores, but often even those require some personal touch. The anime community has created many resources for helping make cosplay on a budget.

Local cosplayer Ivy Jones shows her dedication by coming to a rainy Columbia College to debut her handmade Weavile outfit, also from “Pokémon.”

Not all fans can afford the time or money (or bravery!) to cosplay. They still often show their support through other creations or through consumption of DVDs, books and other merchandise.

Here is just a fraction of the anime and manga merchandise that my suitemate, Caitlin Thigpen, and I brought with us to Columbia College to keep us fueled throughout the semester.

Novice to veteran: Fans weigh in

The sexism within anime is obvious to both old fans and new, and some fans want to create a space in anime by women, for women.

“Women don’t see themselves reflected in these shows. They see facsimiles of what a female stereotype is,” says Caitlin Elyssa Thigpen, a 22-year-old Columbia College student majoring in writing for print and digital media. Columbia College is all-women’s private college in Columbia, SC.

Thigpen has been immersed in anime for 12 years. She started watching “Naruto” when she was 10 years old and has been a devoted fan ever since. “Naruto” is an anime based on the manga by Masashi Kishimoto that ran from 2002 to 2007 and continues in the on-going sequel, “Naruto: Shippuden.”

“It’s kind of strange to see how women are portrayed in the anime industry,” says Lorrane “Raney” Lee Simmon, 22, also majoring in writing for print and digital media and minoring in literary studies at Columbia College.

What’s strange to Simmon is how sexualized women are in anime, which she finds does not align with real life.

Simmon has watched anime for less than a year. She started with “Ouran High School Host Club” in her junior year of college and has been watching anime as often as she can. “Ouran High School Host Club” is a 2006 anime based on the manga by Bisco Hatori.

Thigpen and Simmon share an interest in feminism as well as anime.

Opinions on anime in general

Simmon and Thigpen are both generally positive about anime as a whole. The two particularly appreciate anime as an expression of creativity.

“I think it’s pretty amazing,” is Simmon’s simple reaction to anime. She cites her enjoyment of the storylines, characters and cuteness within anime.

Simmon is hitting on one of anime’s most distinct and attractive features: A lot of anime is “kawaii.” “Kawaii” can be understood to mean cute, but it is also a cultural movement; the Japanese cultivate cuteness.

Kawaii culture appeals to Americans, too“Founded during the postwar era, today the kawaii style not only dominates Japanese popular culture but also has been exported as a cultural product all over the world through the burgeoning of global consumerism in recent years,” says Tao Deng in her 2009 master’s thesis, “Selling ‘Kawaii’ in Advertising: Testing Cross-Cultural Perceptions of Kawaii Appeals.” Deng wrote her thesis at Marquette University, a private Roman Catholic university in Milwaukee, Wisc.

“I think that it’s very diverse. It has something it can offer everyone,” adds Thigpen, who also found that anime has helped her creatively, with her art and her writing. Anime has introduced her to a new way of storytelling, as a Japanese narrative is very different from an American one, with a much slower pace to its storytelling and slower reveals.

However, as a veteran fan, Thigpen does have some grievances with anime: “I do acknowledge the industry as a whole kind of has a fetishizing aspect to it, especially when it comes to women.”

Opinions on anime and women

“I just don’t like it,” is Simmon’s reaction to anime’s treatment of women.

“I don’t like the fact that women have to wear skimpy clothes. I don’t care if it’s- I don’t care if that’s how it ‘supposed’ to be.” Simmon put particular emphasis on the normalization of the objectified woman in anime.

“It could stand a lot of improvement,” echoes Thigpen.

“There’s not really a section or genre that I’ve managed to find in anime that doesn’t sexualize them in some form,” said Thigpen, even mentioning that the female-driven magical girl genre includes fan service. Fan service is the practice of hyper-sexualizing characters and camera angles in order to entice a male audience.

“Mahou shoujo” or magical girl anime does consist of girls who are magical, usually in a group. Girls are the main characters in this type of anime, but the shows still consist of exploitative themes, such as in “Madoka Magica,” and objectification, as seen in “Cutie Honey.”

Thoughts of the past and future

“I think I’d be more aware of the issues with anime than I am currently,” said Simmon as she imagined what watching anime at a young age would give her.

Simmon does not feel as qualified as older fans to speak on the problematic nature of anime’s treatment of women. But she does think knowing about these issues earlier would have benefited her.

Thigpen does add that even as a girl she was aware of a certain alienation from anime’s portrayal of women.

Meanwhile, Thigpen ponders her life without anime: “I really think that I wouldn’t have developed my art as much I have. I wouldn’t have been as motivated to work on my art techniques.”

Thigpen’s comment is particularly striking as the three of us discussed the lack of female animators and directors in the anime industry. Anime giants Hayao Miyazaki and Shinichiro Watanabe are nearly household names. But, between the three of us, we could only name one woman, Rumiko Takahashi, who is a successful female artist in the manga industry, not anime.

In 2013, 12 female anime directors were associated with about 150 titles released that year, and that was an all-time high, according to Otaku Lounge’s post “10 Female Anime Directors” from March 18, 2014. Otaku Lounge is a personal blog for Artemis. She wrote her doctorate where on sexuality in anime, where she writes generally on issues within anime.

Despite this, anime has managed to inspire people such as Simmon and Thigpen to perhaps fill that deficiency.

Obliterate otaku

We American anime fans need to stop using the word “otaku.”

Among American fans, “otaku” is used to denote someone who is obsessively invested in Japanese culture, including anime. “Otaku” for the Japanese, however, means something completely different and much maligned.

Hayao Miyazaki is a prominent Japanese animator who has often voiced criticism of otaku, garnering scorn for himself.

Miyazaki defines “otaku” as “People whose interest in anime is largely obsessive, fetishistic, closed-ended, a substitute for a good life instead of a component of it,” according to Serdar Yegulalp’s 2014 post, “Why Miyazaki’s ‘Otaku’ Problem Is Everyone’s Problem.” Yegulalp is editor in chief of Ganriki, a blog dedicated to weekly posts on anime.

Otaku are closely tied to the anime industry as part of their obsession results in consumerism. They’re usually men who are associated with owning a stockpile of anime and manga memorabilia: body pillows, figurines, lewd posters and more.

The object of an otaku’s fantasies are often young girls, and that perversion is evident in “fan service” anime.

“Me!Me!Me!,” an animated short released on November 2014, seems a perfect example of anime that caters to the fetishistic desires of otaku. Almost overtly graphic in its use of nudity, sexual situations, gore and violence, the animation genuinely shocks the viewer.

However, “Me!Me!Me!” is an example of Japanese criticism of otaku culture. “Me!Me!Me!” is a collaboration between Studio Khara and music producer TeddyLoid for the Japanese Anima(tors) Exhibition, hosted at Animator Expo.

For an American perspective, TheFineBros filmed YouTubers reacting to “Me!Me!Me!” The participants directly address the issue of otaku.

But beyond the shock value, the video is a scathing criticism of the otaku lifestyle. In addition to the obvious violence and objectification done to girls, a gruesome death also befalls the boy. “Me!Me!Me!” suggests that no one benefits from otaku culture.

What makes “Me!Me!Me!” remarkable as criticism is the fact that the video comes from animators who profit from otaku culture. Hibiki Yoshizaki, the director, works on “Neon Genesis Evangelion,” and Shuichi Iseki, the animation director, works on “Kill la Kill.”

Both challenge but benefit from otaku, and with “Me!Me!Me!,” they make their opinion clear.

Otaku aren’t all child murderers, but I still argue that American fans should stop using “otaku” to refer to themselves as anime fans. The use of the word misappropriates a Japanese concept and perpetuates approval of a lifestyle that demeans women.

Solo player

“Dragon Ball Z” ruined my middle school life and did so within 20 minutes.

My middle school was host to a sleepover for the top 20 reading scorers. And, being the competitive nerd that I am, I was right near the top of the top 20.

Naturally, the sleepover took place in the school library. Staying in school at night was already too surreal for a seventh grader to handle, but something even more fantastical happened that night.

One of my fellow bookworms brought a PlayStation.

Possessing only a Game Boy, I was insanely jealous. She did let all of us have turns playing what games she brought, but only one has stuck with me: a “Dragon Ball Z” game.

Maybe you think I remember this due to my deep love of anime. However, I actually remember it because of my purposeful avoidance of anime at the time.

At the age of 12, I was already tired of every introduction needing a “No, I am not Chinese” or some variant. I consciously avoided anything people could hold over me to stereotype me, including anime.

I never played that “Dragon Ball Z” game. As soon as she popped in that disc, I was out of the conversation and out of the fun.

Only three “Dragon Ball Z” games were made for the PlayStation, according to the Dragon Ball wiki, a fan-run site. What is consistent across the three games is how decidedly underwhelming all three are.

“One game that should have stayed in Japan” is how IGN starts off its 1997 review of “Dragon Ball GT Final Bout.” IGN is an entertainment website, catering to video gaming news and information. IGN was founded in 1996 as an independent company and became a subsidiary of j2 Global in 2013.

“Infogrames should be ashamed of itself for such a blatant attempt at cashing in on a popular license,” says Ryan Davis in his 2003 GameSpot review of “Dragon Ball Z: Ultimate Battle 22.” GameSpot is another gaming site started in 1996 as an independent company and became a part of CBS Interactive in 2008.

Neither major gaming site even bothered to review “Dragon Ball Z: The Legend,” the last of the three mediocre games.

It cannot have been that fun to play, but I remember everyone else tossing around in-jokes, making references, having fun. I was most likely isolating myself.

But that’s not what I saw at the time. What I saw was a clear divide between them and me. For some reason, that stuck with me throughout middle school.

It took years to conquer the disdain I held for anime. My sophomore year of college I started with “Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood.” I was immediately hooked, and I realize now that I would have adored anime back then.

I really do believe watching anime as a child would have done me good. I would’ve been more open to people at a younger age, instead of being so defensive. More importantly, I would have gotten some of that community that I missed out on that sleepover night.

Today, I haven’t quite gotten to “Dragon Ball Z” in my anime-watching career, but recently it moved to the top of my list.

What are we paying for anime?

Today, we may recognize anime when we see it, but pinning down a definition is trickier.

Experts consider the 1917 “Namakura Gatana” by Jun’ichi Kouchi the earliest Japanese animation piece discovered, but anime isn’t what comes to mind when you see it.

“Tetsuwan Atom” or “Astro Boy” in 1963 started the serial format for anime. Many recognize this as the beginning of anime for that reason. The visuals of “Astro Boy,” however, look more Disney than Miyazaki, as do many 60s Japanese animations.

There’s still that quintessential anime feel that’s missing.

The word “anime” means “animation” in Japanese, but that alone is unsatisfactory. A certain aesthetic distinguishes anime from any animation, as well as thematic consistency.

But themes and aesthetics are even more nebulous standards, and the debate as to whether anime must be strictly Japanese-produced remains unresolved.

The lack of definition adds to the already difficult task of totaling exact numbers of anime watchers, worldwide and especially in America. Reports often originate in Japanese and, for numbers specific to America, anime viewing is a largely an online experience with a huge, underground fansub community.

Fansubbing is the practice of translating and distributing anime outside of official venues. This means that instead of paying to watch anime on commercial sites or DVD, fans can watch subtitled anime online for free.

Often, redistributing previously translated anime is fairly easy to do today, much easier than dealing with VHS in the 90s anime boom.

“HorribleSubs rips material directly from the site Crunchyroll, and many popular and obscure groups (Kanjouteki, Tsuki, Color Me Subbed) in turn re-encode the HorribleSubs rips,” says Douglas Michael Schules in his 2012 thesis, “Anime Fansubs: Translation and Media Engagement as Ludic Practice” for the University of Iowa.

Hulu and Crunchyroll are the biggest and most extensive legal curators of anime. Hulu is an ad-supported video platform started in 2007 and is the joint venture of NBC, Fox and Disney-ABC. Crunchyroll is also ad-supported and was founded in 2005. Both allow the option of subscription for fewer ads. Crunchyroll is the more usage of the two as it almost exclusively anime-based.

Crunchyroll says it uses the best of Asian content to stream outside of Asia, with anime being a strong category, according to Crunchyroll CEO Kun Gao in an interview with Janko Roettgers for Gigaom. Gigaom is a San Francisco commercial blog started in 2006 by Om Malik.

More than 25,000 episodes and 15,000 hours of officially licensed content is provided by Crunchyroll, according to its own company overview. The site also has more than 200,000 paying subscribers in its most expensive tier, reports Roettgers. A premium tier costs $6.95 a month, so $1.39 billion is spent on anime each month– and this is only at Crunchyroll.

An abundance of entry points exist for anyone interested in anime. The only question is how much you’re willing to pay.

Anime matters to me (and other women)

An obvious problem with anime jumps out at me, an avid anime fan: Female characters can only be strong when sexualized.

When you think of anime’s depiction of women, exaggerated breasts and skimpy schoolgirl outfits come to mind. And that is an undeniable, prominent feature.

Uninteresting, one-dimensional and even harmful representation of women is nothing new in fiction. Women in anime also are often strong, complex and compelling. But alongside the characters and stories that focus on and empower women, an equal amount of misogyny resides.

I’ll take an anime I thoroughly enjoyed, “Kill la Kill,” as an example.

Women fill most of the roles in “Kill la Kill;” the two main characters are young women, as is most of the supporting cast. Interactions and conflicts rarely prioritize men, and the series portrays an abundance of female friendships. No character got shunted or underdeveloped because they happened to be female. I was thrilled throughout watching the series to see these teenage girls taken so seriously.

However, I became uneasy watching this anime.

This is the battle outfit of the main character, Ryuko, not even at her most ridiculously pornographic. The clothes are uncomfortable, but the transformation is even worse (there are some major spoilers for the series as well as some nudity and gore in this video).

Now, “Kill la Kill” might just be pointing out the absurdity of women in anime, particularly magical girls. Given the plot revolves around clothes and nudity as well as the blatant references to magical girl transformations, the creators are clearly self-aware of their scandalous show. However, I’m not entirely convinced “Kill la Kill” didn’t miss its mark and fall into the very objectification trap the creators are satirizing.

While “Kill la Kill” is recent anime, released in 2013-2014, the issues rooted within it have been around for decades.

Anime didn’t receive mainstream attention in the United States until an “anime boom of the early ‘90s,” according to Samantha Nicole Inëz Chambers in her 2012 article, “Anime: From Cult Following to Pop Culture Phenomenon,” written for The Elon Journal of Undergraduate Research in Communications. The journal is published by Elon University, a private university in Elon, N.C.

The effect of the anime boom can clearly be seen in American animation creators today, such as Nickelodeon’s Avatar: The Last Airbender and Legend of Korra and the Netflix original series, Knights of Sidonia.

Anime has become a “huge powerhouse in the cinema industry,” according to Chambers, with major commercial successes, such as Pokémon, Dragonball Z and Power Rangers, as examples of series dependent on “anime and the Japanese film industry.”

The marketability of anime is undeniable. “Sixty percent of the world’s animated television shows originate in Japan,” reports Peter Dizikes in a 2013 interview, Why is Japanese anime a global hit?, with Ian Condry, a professor of Japanese cultural studies at MIT.

The visibility of anime and therefore its influence isn’t weak, even if you want to argue this is still a nerdy subculture in the West.

Given its popularity and reach, anime must then come under a critical eye. That is what I am going to do with this blog; I am going to examine anime through a feminist lens. Because I care about anime, I am going to hold it to a high standard.