Observations On Shifting Trends

[said_scarlett]

As some of you know, I have a 12 year old niece. She's in middle school, she's popular, she's at the top of the social totem pole. Earlier this year, I got her the first DVD of Fruits Basket. I didn't know how she'd take to it - she'd seen my manga and some of my anime DVDs, and she knew that lennaofmidearth and I watched anime, but I figured it couldn't hurt. And the first DVD was the only DVD of the series I was missing, so if she didn't like it, it wouldn't be a waste.

Fast forward about a month. She's watching the series over and over again every day. She has it memorized. She's introduced it to all of her friends. They all love it. I'm boggled. Lenna is boggled. We're amazed by this. We start looking around into other anime to show her. I don't bother with manga because I had no idea how she'd take to it. Neither Lenna nor I are big manga readers. And besides, it's easier to get anime than manga out here in Middle of Nohwere.

Last week, I'm out on the deck smoking. D (my neice) comes out. She's holding something in her hand. She walks up to me and asks 'hey auntie, have you read this manga yet?'. I don't even remember the title of the series, I was too busy going 'where did she get this?!?' and 'holy crap, my niece is bringing me manga!' It was a Shoujo Beat title, some middle school romance. And it was volume three....



I asked her where she'd gotten it, and she told me a friend of hers had lent it to her. And her friend had lots of other manga. I handed it back to her after skimming the back - something about a boy from another dimension coming to the main herione's school - and told her I wasn't familiar with it. She informed me it was very good, and I ought to read it. She went back in the house and I stood there a bit, stunned.

After discussing this event with Lenna, I went looking for other manga titles D might enjoy. Hey, Christmas is coming and this is something we can bond over! While looking for recommendation and summary lists, I find dozens of articles on the popularity of manga among American teen and pre-teen girls.

Manga, apparently, is The Big Thing right now. It's taken over. It's popular. To me, who discovered anime at the tender age of 11 - Vampire Hunter D, the original - and had it considered just another 'weird' thing, I'm amazed. When I was a teenager, anime was not cool. Anime was not mainstream. The popular girls did not gather around to trade manga volumes and squee over bishounen. Anime was a boy's club - Sailor Moon didn't count, I was told quite often. I'd watch it in the Sci Fi Club room after school with the guys. We watched Eva. We watched Dragon Ball. We watched Gundam. We watched anime with giant robots and blowing shit up. I had one female friend who was into anime. And she was mostly into pretty anime boys. But that was okay.

I still remember the first anime I ever owned on VHS - which I still have! It was Ghost In the Shell. My meager collection included some Sailor Moon tapes, Burn Up, Akira and Metropolis. It wasn't until I was out of High School that I started seeing anime crop up in more mainstream venues. I nearly had a meltdown when I discovered that Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust was going to be shown in one tiny theater in Boston. I saw it over and over again on its one week run. I remember a co-worker at the pet store telling me about this awesome show, and I had to see it, and give it a chance even though it was 'a cartoon'. It wasn't a normal cartoon, he informed me in a hushed and frantic voice. It was from Japan. It was amazing.

It was Cowboy Bebop.

As the years went by, I saw more and more anime popping up in stores and being shown on television. Manga was cropping up in regular bookstores. It had its own section, it wasn't squished in with graphic novels anymore. I've watched as my weird, off beat interest has become mainstream and accepted. Even now I'm constantly stopped and complimented on either my FMA flamel necklace or my bag, and half the time when I say it's from an anime, people nod and go 'oh yeah, I know that stuff'. I don't have to buy my DVDs and merchandise in tiny, out of the way special interest stores. I don't need to stare at a single shelf of crappy anime trying to find something. I don't need to try and explain what anime is to people. I can share it with my niece, and I can be strangely pleased that the very things that added to my own 'outcast' label are now the very things that are the hit among the 'in crowd'.

Anime and manga are everywhere, and they're not going anywhere anytime soon.

And it's about time.

Comments

[burningvigor.livejournal.com]

Hee, yeah. I mean, I wouldn't say that anime is the popular thing. I imagine most of the popular groups at high schools aren't into that sort of thing, but it's definitely more well known now. I remember when Tokyopop first started to really translate a LOT of manga. I guess they had been around for a while before then, but they didn't do well 'cause no one bothered to buy manga. Now there are shelves in it in just about any bookstore. It's fantastic. :D

In any case, you should feed your niece's need. XD

[nijiironohako.livejournal.com]

It's starting to get big here. I was covering books in a school library and had that... Yugio thing beside me. It's like a tv series and card game? Never watched it XD Anyway, all these boys just began to hover around and wanted to read it and I was all 'no' and broke their little hearts.

But kids are drawing manga and anime style characters, tv is shwoing a lot more anime (especially on digital and sky and all that (we only have the basic freeview channles, dammit. used to love the new batman cartoon and I was never into batman...)). Japanese is also getting into colleges as a subject and you tend to find a LOT of anime fans there XD But the lady I work with, her sons a big fan of anime and he's about 16. I think it's more acceptable in kids a little bit younger right now because when he got into it, it might have still been a weird thing for the popular kids. But I could be wrong. I haven't been 16 in a while. Of course when I WAS it was it was still considered a bit geeky. Probably because kids tv doesn't show the true power of anime. I mean if half the boys had watch Akira instead of thinking it would be some watery kids thing, it would have been a hit, I'm sure. But people my age still think its a bit...you know....weird. My housemates did XD

Maybe it'll be like the Wicca movement. All the girls and a few boys suddenly liked witchcraft and it went from being an outsider thing into something mainstream. Although, so far at the library, it's only really the boys that seem to be into it. I think thats because Yugio thingy is the 'popular' one right now and it doesn't look like it really involves little girls, where as digimon had girls in it and pokemon had cute animals.

I'll shut up now before I go on forever.

[chaneystarr.livejournal.com]

Haha, I know, isn't it wonderful? I went through the same experience, when the first anime I'd ever seen was Ronin Warriors and Sailor Moon and the Sunday movies on Sci-Fi like Venus Wars and EYES of Mars and Lily Cat and it wasn't till much later that I found someone else with enough anime to spread the addiction. But I'm going through the same experience now with my husband's younger sister (who's 15) She's the one suggesting to ME which anime/manga to watch and I think the girl probably has a bigger manga collection then me, though I've always been into the anime more than the manga until recently (that's probably her fault too)

And yeah, Fruits Basket was what started her obsession too, haha, and then she got all her friends into it as well. Since then, I know they've gone through DNAngel, Angelic Layer, Ouran (the favourite at the moment) and more along the (what I term) cutesy teen genre, haha.

Although last time I was over, she FLOORED me because I walked into the house and she started bouncing and babbling to me about Gravitation and Loveless and how they were awesome and she was now obsessed and I go "DUDE, she's watching SLASH!!!" and then she proceeded to inform me how they were all into it now, and that her entire group of friends was laughingly shipping Kyo/Haru and Kyo/Yuki and the two main boys from DNAngel and ALL the Kingdom Hearts characters. Oh and of course the Ouran Twins. I think I just went O.o forever. She even made me a slashy Ouran music vid. I just went "bwuh?"

[imagines.livejournal.com]

Haha, that's exactly how I got into manga! My friend showed me some she'd gotten from the library, and I thought it was cool, so I started buying it. That was when I was twelve or thirteen. Even then, it wasn't a huge thing like it is now. I think most people (at least in my area) still associated anime with Pokemon and Yugioh, which were marketed to seven-year-olds. But now I know some people who were introduced to it through Cowboy Bebop and Fullmetal Alchemist. It's awesome!

I hope I can end up sharing it with my nephew. He's not even two yet, so there's a little ways to go before I can show him FMA, but I have hopes! XD