Last week or something TJ published his rumination on whether watching anime is a sign of human evolution heading towards enlightenment or an indication signifying that the individual’s brain went haywire, where he confessed that he feels ashamed of his precious interest and doing activities affiliated with it, because the so-called ‘common sense’ says it’s an infantile fun. I’ve never been close friends with this ‘common sense’ because it streams from general public consensual perception of the world that has always been narrow, simplistic and to me even unsavory. How would you employ ‘common sense’ to explain wave function collapse, M-theory and transpersonal psychology? Having said that, I do not want to condemn it completely and particularly in this case I think it’s worthwhile to give the ‘common sense’ a try, albeit in a slightly different way.
First I thought of the article either as of crafty endeavor to stir the still waters of anime blogsphere or an indignation sprouting from highly competitive, strict and conservative society, TJ lives in. Later, nonetheless, I’ve started having second thoughts about this particular simplification.
I realized I cannot compare Singaporean general public’s opinion on anime to the one that the fellow citizens of my country hold, simply because my people haven’t been exposed to it in such extent and the community around it here is rather small and inconspicuous. Even at cons, you scarcely get to see Narutards&Bleach-bitches running around, clad in their homemade flashy attires, yelling notorious phrases from their revered ‘masterpieces’. And in that instant it hit me. I do not think I’ve discovered America here, but let me voice it clearly anyways:
The main reason why the general public tends to look down on anime is not because of anime itself, but rather its fellow community constituted of multifarious geeks with their specific quirks, who, on the first glimpse, do not conform to society in a way, that effectively marks them as despicable, outlandish existences ^_^
Remember the first scene from Densha Otoko dorama? Akiba brimming over with disheveled-looking nerds with oily hair donning grubby oversized T-shirts, drooling over their freshly purchased merchandise? Now who the hell, apart from fellow otaku comrades, would be deliberately willing to have anything to do with those folks? Let’s admit that most people are at least in some way a mite superficial and self-conceited and the person’s appearance plays a vital role in making the first impression.
So when your face is a hotbed of pimples, you reek because you seldom take bath/shower as the result of being preoccupied with hunting chicks in eroge and your body’s all flabby cause you only leave your residence in cases of acute emergency (like new manga/galge/anime dvd special edition featuring whatnot has been released) … then no wonder, people think of you as of an apparent visual eyesore and rather avert their gaze asap. Then multiply these guys by thousands and yay, here you have the cornerstone of prejudices against otaku subculture. And they don’t even have to start talking!
On the other hand look at Kohsaka from Genshiken series. He’s a deemed otaku, nevertheless he’s good looking, dresses well, doesn’t support the notion that strong body odor is a man’s symbol of pride just as the mane does the job for lions and look what difference does it make! Girls are chasing him, for god’s sake! You might object that it’s a fictional character, but I submit to you that these people, albeit they’re rare specimen, do actually exist.
And here goes my question. If the majority of people in the anime community were actually caring for their looks, worked out a bit, dared to spent some money on brand clothing, styled their hair properly and started using frickin’ deodorants, eau de toilletes and perfumes would that make a difference? Would the general public perceive the community and anime in general in a different light? Hell, I bet they would!
