| Monthly Rant @#$%&*! |
| January 2001 |
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| Stop the pop! |
| 'Tis the season! Or, more accurately; "T'was the season" Wow! That was one of the most bitter-sweet experiences of my life! There I am, shamelessly hopping on the bandwagon and indulging in a bit of plesant holiday shopping. You know, the cranium-fracturing, lung-collapsing kind of plesant... as panicking women do not so much as hesitate to squish you under their mom-ish keds with eerie efficiency. Before this particular excursion, I didn't understand the wave of Yuletide angst that seems to ooze from people beginning on the fateful black friday (sheesh! it even sounds evil!) It's supposed to be a happy time! Us girls are supposed to be dressed in flowing yards of festive velvet, while out cozy, turtleneck-clad menfolk surprise us with homemade hot chocolate and little boxes from Tiffany's. Well... at least that's what the commercials say. Anyway, while I was bracing myself against the surging tide of maternal wrath, I stumbeled into one of three known anime havens in the mall... and that's when it happened! *begin rant* Hello! Is that an Akira figureine? Complete with Motorcycle? And next to it... could that be Ryoko from tenchi Muyo? Surely not! The only people who know what anime is are Otaku like myself, and dirty old men who rented it from the "naughty section"... and they didn't know it was anime either! Frightened, I took a few steps back and spun around only to come face to face with... Oh sweet Mikos no! A Serial Experiment's Lain lunchbox?!?!? This was starting to get surreal! To think that some brat might actually recieve for christmas that which many a devoted fan camped out in the cold for! Do they even realize the absolute magnitude of importance these so called "toys" have held? Fleeing in terror, I made it to the second anime haven only to find (oh say it ain't so!) Completely poseable Evangelion Units 0:0 through 0:3!!! Crimeny! Even knowing that there IS a unit 0:3 spoils a good deal of the plot! What iscommercialism doing to my dearest of artforms? Now, while I'm glad that anime is becoming more mainstream, (granted, I would never have caught on that anime even existed had it not been for dubbing and broadcasting) I hate to think of it as "Pop-culture". Why you ask? Well, simply this; once something becomes pop, it inevitably dies out or worse... becomes so "un-hip" that is virtually removed from the country. Remember slap bracelets, pogo balls, crystal pepsi, swing dance, "Where's Waldo"? Go ahead and tell me if these things are even in existence anymore! I don't think many of us could go on if that happened to anime. Otaku seem to have this defensive mentality "I'm glad I can buy it at the mall... but YOU shouldn't be able to buy it! You don't understand. You haven't spent the hours immersed in study of Japanese culture and dialect that I have! We're insulted that these are for sale!!!" Yikes! Well, perhaps I don't feel that strongly, but if you're looking for an "El Hazard-combination-wristwatch-toothbrush-bubblegum dispenser- spokesperson... it's not going to be me! *End rant* Now I am off to polish all my new anime keychains that I found in the mall! |
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