Fantasy Dimensions

Here is a hot topic: Moe. 萌え for you who can read Japanese. Moe is, to be simply is a fetish for something related to anime. It’s hard to explain, but let’s say someone who has a bandage moe is all ga-ga over any anime character wearing bandages. Well, now there are is a growing number of people who claim their actual sexual alignment is towards the moe or 2-d.

Now, I’m sure I’m going to get some details wrong, but the major point is that there is a growing number of mostly males who say that they can only love something digital… something in anime. (more after the jump)

Now, I’m considerate to other people’s lifestyles. I mean, sure, Second Life sure has a lot of weird things in it, but I don’t care. Simply because it’s none of my business. But lately there is just more and more stigma being attached to anime. This growing outcry for Otaku Rights and people making a big deal out of loving a character in an anime is only deepening the boundaries between “normal people” and someone who “watches anime”.

As it stands, in most normal conversations, if you bring up that you like anime most people will assume you mean Naruto or Bleach or whatever is the flavor of the year on Adult Swim. However, more and more people are becoming aware of the weird things attached to anime. The Otakukins, the website Otakubooty (seriously), cosplay, and more. Anime is being more and more mainstream and so is the oddities involved.

People need to calm down, take their fetishes back in private or get help. I say get help in the sense that a lot of people are using anime as a form of escape and I’m sure whatever that is in their life that is causing that need could be worked at. But yeah, I’m not getting into that because the second you try to relate people needing help with their lives to anime you get zerg rushed down with various opinions. Opinions, of course, are something everyone has.

Anyway, I think something should be done with anime in order to make it more public friendly. More integrated with society. As it stands now to watch current Japanese anime you have to understand how the Internet works, how to torrent things or use IRC. Then you have to take the time to constantly seek it. If you’re spending that much time on the computer then good chances you are probably spending a lot of time online.

Which generally means something bad is going on in your life. A lot of people seek escape and sometimes they tangled up with some things that are really bad PR as a hobby. I’m keeping things PG here, but I will say that some of them are urgh. Anyway, those that do watch anime and get involved with these other things become vocal. Then people relate the two together.

Spending a lot of time online + anime = relation to stuff like furries/otakukin/otherkin (the really bad ones). Then the stigma forms.

So, in my confusing editorial, I’m trying to say that either people need to begin separating anime in general from their “sick” (point of view) hobbies or anime needs to become more mainstream. As it stands now, anyone who is Internet savvy can probably tell you what a furry is and will probably relate anime to one of those hilarious pictures of real Otakus with their 23992384 billion Anime DVDs and stuff.

If it continues, it’ll soon be to the point where watching anime will be instant stigmatization. Right now on Something Awful posters of the ADTRW forum are constantly ridiculed by Helldump and other forums. Its always been that way, but lately it has increased due to a small number of posters who let their “weirdness” out in the public. Few bad apples and all that. Anyway, anything related to anime on Something Awful is now pretty much the end of a poster’s career anywhere outside of ADTRW. Just do the massive amount of stigma surrounding anime.

So if you’re reading major anime label company, try to get anime out there more where it’s no longer the past time of people with a lot of time on their hands. If you’re reading mister STRANGE FETISH + rapid anime watcher, try to be less vocal with your hobbies. Maybe keep them within their community. It’s actually quiet healthy to keep some things within a group of people who understand and away from groups of people who don’t.