I admit it, I’m now a 50 year old woman who likes to watch cartoons. No, not cartoons – anime. There’s a difference. I try to explain this to my friends, of which none of them understand this little obsession of mine, and they look at me like I’m a Trekky. Nothing wrong with that, mind you, but I’m not a Trekky;) Okay, so I have an engineering degree, I’ve seen pretty much all the Star Trek movies and I love technology. But I’m not a Trekky, because I’ve never written or read KirkxSpock slash.
I’ve gotten off track…So my friends do think of anime like cartoons, except they don’t think of them as “cool” cartoons like Family Guy or The Simpsons or even South Park. No, anime is not cool like that. Anime plots deal with deep issues, like kids whose father abandoned them trying to resurrect their dead mothers (FMA) or a psychopath thinking they can ring in a new era for humanity by killing all the criminals in the world with a magic notebook (Death Note), or a war which pits natural born humans against genetically modified humans (Gundam Seed). No, that’s not cool. But having some baby with a head shaped like a football who can talk to the dog is great entertainment (Family Guy). Okay, it is funny. And I do like that as well. My kids love it in fact, even though they don’t get most of the jokes and I’m probably not a great mother letting them watch it. Of course, my kids think anime is not cool.
I did get my boyfriend to watch an anime with me (insert made him watch it under penalty of not making me angry with him), and I think he actually liked it. Though he never asked to watch it. I always had to say, “Hey, lets watch that next episode of Ergo Proxy”. He’d mumble something in return and I’d happily put it on.
I think the biggest gripe I’ve heard about watching anime in the US is that most of it is subtitled. Us Americans do not like to have to read and that rings true for subtitles. I may be talking to wrong audience here, since if you follow my blog you probably read my Yaoi, M/M Romance books and/or fanfiction. But asking an American to read and watch a program at the same time? No way. I have to admit myself that I’d rather see an anime that’s been dubbed. It’s just easier and you can see all the great animation that’s going on without having to divert your eyeballs to the bottom of the screen.
So back to my point about being a 50 year old woman who likes to watch anime – I’m not all that strange, I’m not a Trekky (no, I’m not!) and it’s good, damn it. If you haven’t, you should give it a try:)
Oh, and the latest anime I’m watching is awesome: The Pilot’s Love Song
I want to see some Kal-el and Ignacio Yaoi Fanfiction:)