Custom essays on Anime in relation to fandom

Many heroes in anime are romantic and heroic, they present a sense of mono no aware which can be translated as “the sadness of things” – appreciation of this short-lived nature of things merely adds to the joy of the experience and the heartbreak of losing it.
Another item that distinguishes anime from American animation is that the heroes and villains tend to be ambiguous in nature. Anime exposes the audience to the idea that one can be loyal, even to the death, to a leader who is unworthy or to a cause that is questionable, and that such loyalty is still noble in its own way. Sometimes evil wins in anime, but that only happens when a good person does what he does for all the wrong reasons. “Fighting for the wrong cause does not affect the heroism of those doing the fighting provided that their dedication is sincere.” (Levi 2001, 36.)

Anime fandom
Fandom is an informal name of sub cultural communities, whose members are united by some common interest or hobby – passion for a genre of art, writer, actor and so on.
Anime fandom is called “otaku” and it’s creation in the USA was called the “most significant event of the post-Cold War period.” (Levi 1996, 2)
The main idea of anime fandom is the idea of family, and what it means to belong to a group when you have always been an outsider, as the main aspect of fandom is to be good to the fans and they will be good to you. Anime fandom does not care one whit about your appearance or your beliefs, does not care the color of your hair, piercings and tattoos, or if you feel marginalized or even hated by those around you. They only care that you find something of value in their fandom, whether it is the art or the people or the gatherings or the traditions or the songs and one other things that are important to fans.
Not all fans of a certain product belong to the fandom culture, the main raison d’être of fandom is to communicate with other fans. To belong to a fandom a person should not only be interested in particular hobby, but to participate in information exchange, which is the main raison d’être of the community. Now this exchange is carried out mainly through the Internet, however, there are some classical forms – local clubs of amateur fiction, fanzines (amateur periodicals) and conventions (regional, national and international congresses or conferences).
The key form of pleasure for a fan is rooted in activities that allow the fan to further identify with the object of fandom. For that purpose they create gatherings known as cons – these are meeting with other fans, where they present affective plays, that allows the fan to challenge the perceived walls between internal and external realities. The con allows for a safe environment in which this play can take place, and provides playmates of all varieties for experimentation with alternate storylines, new plot ideas, or even comparison of techniques for costume creation. These gatherings allow fans not only to investigate their own objects of fan culture and those of other fans, but also to help create the fan culture and to further the process of giving it meaning (Hills 2002 ,113)
Modern television, on-line forums, and email systems also allow fans to communicate and share ideas , as nowadays there is a tendency that people are more likely to interact with others via email, and do this more often than with their actual neighbors.
Anime fans, as it was already mentioned, are seeking answers to what violence, love, pain, redemption, and life means – it is this independent search for meaning that defines the fan as separate from the main body of society. There is a popular view of who a fan is: “Somebody who is obsessed with a particular star, celebrity, film, TV programme, band; somebody who can produce reams of information on their object of fandom, and can quote their favoured lines or lyrics, chapter and verse. Fans are often highly articulate. Fans interpret media texts in a variety of interesting and perhaps unexpected ways. And fans participate in communal activities – they are not “socially atomized” or isolated viewers or readers.” (Hills 2002)
The fan sees the symbols of the anime, verbal or visual, and interprets them as he sees it, and come up with own feelings, beliefs, and understandings of the work presented. Of further importance is that the seldom care what society thinks of their views.
Mainstream US society “articulates social conflicts, contemporary fears, and utopian hopes” without making any attempt to deal with the realities. In contrast anime and its fans refuse to ignore the unpleasant parts of life and try to better the world, realizing that they will fail but trying – that is “mono no aware” aspect of anime. (Napier, 33)
At the end of the 20th century in the USA appeared a lot of specialized clubs in many high schools and almost all major universities, and it has since made headway into more mainstream areas of American culture, that was proved in the Big Apple Anime Fest 2002 and Anime Expo New York ,that had great attendance.

Bibliography
Kasa, N, 2005, Constructing Animerica: History, Style, and Spectatorship of Anime in the United States, Regent University, p.140.
Thompson K, Moral Panics (New York: Routledge, 1998), 104.)
Levi, A., 2001, “New Myths for the Millennium: Japanese Animation”, Animation in Asia and the Pacific, Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, p. 36.
Levi A., 1996, Samurai from Outer Space: Understanding Japanese Anime, Chicago: Open Court Publishing, p.2.
Hills M, 2002, Fan Cultures, London, Routledge
McCabe, K. A., & Gregory M. M, 2005, School Violence, the Media, & Criminal Justice Response, New York, Peter Lang Publishing
Napier, S.J., 2000, Anime: From Akira to Princess Mononoke; Experiencing Contemporary Japanese Animation, New York, Palgrave