Mission Statement: Where to Start, Where to Start...?

You have to sit through at least five hours of text to get to this point.

Honestly, I'm not entirely sure what direction I want this blog to go. It's mostly for my own benefit, just a place to vent and jot down my musings, but still... It's a tough call, isn't it? You want the first major post within a blog to be a good introduction to the kind of things you'll be producing, while at the same time leaving room to allow your blogging style to grow organically. Well, considering I'm just getting started my obsession with "Fate/Stay Night" (from a certain point of view - I'm already nuts about the franchise, having watched the original anime, Zero, and Carnival Phantasm; played Extra; and halfway through the "Unlimited Blade Works" route of the Visual Novel), I suppose that's a good place to find a jumping off point.

What is it that makes someone get into something? That's a question I ask myself quite often. This is especially true in modern days, where finding a completely fresh and new intellectual property is like searching for a needle in a haystack. As such, I'd say that our only course of action is to broaden our horizons with existing franchises. Me? I have plenty of love for series that have been going on for a long time and will be continuing for at least as long. Gundam probably being the longest running franchise that I currently am huge on.

34 Years and Counting

It's a REALLY daunting task when you look at a long-running franchise and you see so much content in it, at least for me. So then why is it that I took the plunge into Gundam? I currently have watched every Gundam series, with the exceptions of compilation movies, SEED Destiny, Stargazer, Unicorn, and the oddball series like SD Gundam Force and Sangokuden (and I still have plans to watch the normal stuff and at least give the strangeness of Sangokuden a shot). This obsession doesn't even count things like manga, games, or whatever other forms of fandom out there (like Gunpla). The first time I ever laid eyes on a Gundam anime was just barely a year and a half ago, so why is it that I blasted through it so quickly?

I suppose a word would be "dedication", or maybe "completionism" would be a closer substitute. I don't do anything half-assed, if I get into a franchise, I REALLY get into it. I might argue that this is a deciding factor between the men and the boys - at least, if we're talking otaku. For the record, I do not self-identify as "otaku" because I think it's a good thing. No, I openly admit that my love of Japanese animation is probably bordering on an unhealthy obsession and something that the majority of society will more often than not ostracize me for.

Self-identifying as an "otaku" in Japan will give people this impression of you.

So then why do it? If it's hard, and if it isn't making anyone like me, why go to such lengths to engross myself into a subculture that is feared (as if) and hated (better) by society? Well, the answer is simple.

Because it makes me happy.

Do you need anything more than that? Very rarely will you see people in any sort of environment say, "I am doing what I'm doing because it's what I want to do, plain and simple." There's little in the way of outside influences, at least for me. Wheeling this all the way back to Fate/stay night, I should cover the play-by-play of how I personally got into the franchise.

It was a long time ago, back when the DVDs of the anime were being sold for the first time in the States. My brother picked up one on a whim, and upon inspection of the cover we both agreed it looked pretty interesting, so what did we do? We watched it, and while the visual novel is way, way better than the anime, the anime itself is passable. To use a gardening metaphor, this would be "sowing seeds."

I say "passable" rather than "good", because the issue it had was the mixing of all three routes into one that leaves many questions unanswered - specifically surrounding Archer and Sakura. That's where the second step came in, where I did my own outside research on the series (by that I mean I searched Wikipedia) and that slowly started to build up a larger devotion. I was a dumb kid at the time, so I still said, "eh, I don't want to read a whole novel just because I liked the anime." One does not care to acknowledge the mistakes of one's youth, I know. Anyhow, back to the gardening metaphor: this is making sure the seeds are planted well. Is that a thing you do when growing plants? I'm not a gardener.

Then comes the next step: I actually rewatched that anime a couple years after that. Why? Well, Fate/Unlimited Codes was coming out and it had caught my eye. So I watched it, and I got Unlimited Codes and I kinda liked it.

That 100% Completion translates to "I kinda liked it."

This is where the seeds were all set and all I had to do was water them to grow a carnivorous plant of obsession. Of course, being a lazy bastard... I wasn't going to water them. Because I'm kind of an idiot like that. No, it took all the way to the release of Fate/Zero to make me want to read the original novel. Why? Well, I guess I like having a smug sense of superiority. Fate/Zero made the franchise that was nearly unknown in the West become popular internationally and I didn't like the feeling that the anime I stumbled upon was suddenly the "in" thing. Call me a hipster, or an elitist, or whatever, it's probably true.

So then, with Fate/Zero flooding the fanbase with newbies who likely would never read the original, cramping my style with things like having Diarmuid be more popular than Cu Chulainn (INEXCUSABLE) I had to seek solace by finally just buckling down and deciding, "I WILL read this Visual Novel. Then I can spit in the face of anyone who fanboys over Zero without ever reading the original!"

"Not exactly the most noble of intentions..."

You don't know who that is?  Pff. Read the novel. Actually, don't. I feel comfortable knowing that I can really enjoy a character who is so unknown, because... here's where things start getting deep.

In a fandom, just like in life, it's impossible to not be swayed by a group mentality. The more people are agreeing on something, the harder it is to take a stance against it. I hypothesize this is why series that many anime fans openly despise (let's say Naruto or Bleach) can still manage to make boatloads of money. This can be both a blessing and a curse. In it being a blessing, I would say that this group mentality, or rather my desire to avoid it, lead me to finally read the original Visual Novel. At the same time, I will admit that soul-shatteringly popular characters like Iskandar are popular for good reason and that admiration is rewarding the staff for working hard to make a unique and enjoyable character.

At the same time, there are the bad parts about this. Group mentality is the same reason why sub-par writing can be praised just for being popular. I won't lie and say that I absolutely hate the extremely popular Sword Art Online, not ONLY because I find the writing atrocious, but because it became one of the "must see" anime of 2012. Honestly, if it was just a series that came and went, I would've been way more lenient on my judgements, since I want to believe that the stuff everyone's watching is, you know, good.

I refuse to admit that a person would seriously talk up a series just because other people like it. This is my own philosophy of "honesty is best" and "like what you like." I know Sword Art Online probably isn't the best example, since there are PLENTY of viewers who are in the same boat as I am in regards to it. Perhaps at some point I'll cover in-fighting within a fanbase, but for now, I have a tangent to get back to.

Putting good characters in their outfits doesn't make SAO suck any less.

Honestly, if someone can give me a reason to ease up on SAO, I'd like to see one. I honestly am curious about what people liked about it, since at least from my perspective, I saw nothing good in it other than some high production values. But this isn't a blog to slam things I don't like (don't be surprised if you see a lot of that), this is a blog to think about why we like things.

Actually, wait, that's brilliant. That right there is a wonderful mission statement for this blog. It took tons of leaping from topic to topic with nary a fluid connection in sight, but I've found exactly what I'll aim to do with these blog posts:

I shall examine my thoughts about the pop culture (read: anime) I expose myself to and, using that, try and develop a deeper understanding of myself and others by analyzing why it elicited the reaction it did. Please be aware that no matter how harsh I might seem, I want to be able to understand other people's feelings, as I hope they can understand mine.

That said, this is Raikou bidding everyone: welcome. Come and have a seat, and if you have something to say, don't hesitate to say it.

THE POWER OF UNDERSTANDING