Why are alot of the trans here anime freaks/japanese obsessed?

[kyril]

I actually hate anime. Like, to an irrational level. I had an ex who was anime-obsessed, and I found it to be by far the most annoying, unpleasant form of putative entertainment that I've ever been exposed to, and that was while we were together. Now it's all that plus it reminds me of a guy I can't stand.

[Nero]

Because anime has bigger boobs.

[thathalfjapaneseirishboy]

I'm part Japanese, but I honestly am not much of an anime/manga fan. I read or watch one once a year. =P

[JustAnotherDreamer]

meh.. it doesn't interest me in the slightest.

[spacial]

Check out the show Wandering Son on crunchyroll.com.  Firstly, the site is completely 100% safe and legal (but that means you'll have commercials) and secondly, the show is about two middle school students dealing with transgender issues.  It's very realistic, but very good.  It's still airing in Japan though so they only have four free episodes up right now.  And yes, it's subtitled.

I've watched the first episode. Looks interesting. But this is the first time I've tried to watch anime.

[JennX]

Yay for inaccurate stereotypes

This X 10000000000000 FTMF loss.

I like anime, but obsessed? Hardly. Most of my guy friends are way, way, way more into anime, than I could ever dream of being. Being trans and a fan of anime/manga are sometimes mutually exclusive, or to put it another way, just a coincidence.

[Inanna]

Anime and manga seem to be a lot more accepting of both gender variance and homosexuality, aka yaoi and yuri.  Countless series have a cross-dressing or gender bending theme, many of which are mainstream.  Off the top of my head.... Hana Kimi, Ranma 1/2, Kashimashi, Pretty Face, 1/2 Prince, Kampfer... uhm I could go on a while.

Having been raised in the southeast US, it's nothing short of therapeutic for me to watch these lighthearted series with lgbt topics.

[MeghanAndrews]

I have a theory. I think that younger people today <25 tend to gravitate toward Japan/Anime/Swords/Kanji because Japanese culture seems a little more fluid with regard to gender expression. Look at the difference between male and female characters in anime, just the faces. Fairly gender neutral compared to Western counterparts. I personally don't get it, I don't like anime or swords, etc. I do think it's neat that it's a cultural thing and allows people, sometimes socially repressed people, to express themselves in ways that they wouldn't have been able to before. I think that there must be some correlation between the fascination with Japanese culture & anime with the amount of time one spends on the computer, lol.

[Fuji]

Personally, I don't accept yaoi/yuri/genderswitch anime as evidence of diversity and tolerance in the medium, because it objectifies the people and situations in them.  I'm a fan of yaoi, but I also understand that it is 100% objectification, and completely unrealistic.  Yuri is sometimes nice to read too, but hinges on the idea of the "shoujo"- a passive and sexually immature girl- so yuri too is usually unrealistic.

Yaoi and yuri are popular, that's why there are so many.  Not because anyone is tolerant or sensitive to gay and lesbian issues.

I don't consider Ranma 1/2 to be an anime about a transexual.  It has a character that changes sex, but its not like he is a transexual like we might identify with.  Ranma changes sex against his will, and his changes are played up for humor, titillation, and chauvinism.

PS, I love Ranma 1/2.  I just think it's incorrect to assume our favorite anime are progressive.  We don't love them because they are progressive, but because they are consumable and fun.

One of the reasons anime is so popular is because of the anime/manga consumer culture in Japan.  Series are created in order to keep people watching, reading, and buying merchandise for as long as possible, and usually at the expense of a decent plot resolution or original forms of character development.  But those "hooking" elements - moe characters, pervert humor, chronic miscommunication, high school drama, UST- are what make them fun, and make them a niche that anime fans, like me, enjoy indulging in.

Few anime are actually progressive.  I think the anime I'd consider to handle gender issues in a thoughtful or realistic manner I can count on one hand.  I think there are more RL movies trans people can identify with then there are anime they can identify with. I identified trans with characters in two anime EVER, Sailor Moon and Wandering Son.

That all said, I don't mean to negate what I said earlier about anime being accessible to gender variant people.  Because anime is marketed at children and adults (though they are separate, often aimed at EITHER girls or boys, or women or men)  they can deal with more complicated topics.  You're more likely to see a gay character in a cartoon in Japan then you are in American because some anime are marketed to adults.  And some, it turns out, aren't even played as the punchline.

Anime is not progressive as a medium, but within the medium, as in any other, there are gems that really reach out and touch us in the way art is supposed to.


Edit: Wow, do I sound bitchy or what?  I find anime fascinating, but I also want to keep it in perspective.

[Inanna]

I think there's a difference between progressive and accepting.  Ranma 1/2 is not progressive about gender intentionally, but it is definitely accepting of gender variance in its own weird way.  After all, I doubt a continously sex-changing protagonist would appear in mainstream American media.  Ultimately I believe the series is progressive without even meaning to, by simply showing that a person's body does not always reflect who they are inside.  It accustoms the cisgendered person to gender dysphoria, in a reverse way.

Also, I'm not always looking for a realistic take on trans issues.  Let's face it... reality for transgendered people could be a lot better.  Sometimes it's nice to have a fun little escape where a person's physical sex is completely changeable.  And.. who knows?  This may be possible within our lifetimes.  I certainly hope that it is.

[xAndrewx]

I actually hate anime. Like, to an irrational level. I had an ex who was anime-obsessed, and I found it to be by far the most annoying, unpleasant form of putative entertainment that I've ever been exposed to

Same here though in my ex's case it was because that was all she was interested in. That and animated stuff like South Park and Family guy. Nothing wrong with others liking it but I hate it and since my ex lived with me it was constantly on ugh

[Arctic Kat]

For me, watching cartoons offered escapism from the real world.
As a little kid, I loved watching cartoons -- Looney Tunes, Disney movies, Hanna Barbera stuff...
I preferred anything animated over live action -- because anything can happen in cartoons.

I saw Who Framed Roger Rabbit? when I was in kindergarden and wished cartoon characters really did coexist with humans. I even wished I that was a toon... :P
Toons are very expressive, and I wished I had that same ability to express myself in the real world.

In retrospect, as a transsexual, my early fascination with cartoons was probably the result of me feeling restricted in my own body.
Toons can express themselves however they want, but I -- restricted to a boy's body -- was unable to express myself however I wanted.

...

I fell in love with anime when it started getting popular in America. I was a teenager at the time, and I was in awe over Sailor Moon. It had much more sophisticated storytelling and character development than anything I had ever seen in American television.
Sailor Moon was a super heroine, but she struggled with school grades, romance, other adolescent issues....
Anime characters seem very human, as opposed to, say, Looney Tunes who exist for slapstick comic relief.

[kyril]

Basically, the only people who "hate anime" are those that dislike it because everyone else likes it (or those who have never actually watched it and only can think it means sailor moon or hentai).... and then, even those that claim they "hate it" then go on to say they enjoyed movies like "Grave of the fireflies" or "Spirited Away".

No, I don't want to be to be "That Guy," but I actually really hate it. I don't generally liek cartoons/animated media/comics at all, and I find anime even more grating than Western animation. I don't get the humour (a peculiar variant of slapstick). I don't like the genre conventions of characterization. I don't like the artistic style. I'm exceedingly annoyed by the pervasive reliance on repetition and catch phrases. I don't find any of it funny (and believe me, God knows I've been exposed to enough) and I have yet to see any 'serious' anime I found particularly compelling at a level comparable to the stuff I actually do like to watch.

There was one series I found watchable (Neon Genesis: Evangelion) because the plot was good. But it was watchable despite being anime, not in any way because it was anime. I might have liked it a lot if it had been live-acted. That's the only exception I make, and that only barely, and I'd still never watch it again by choice, even if my ex weren't a factor.

As for the comedy and children's series...I'd rather watch reality TV. I'd be more amused by a 48-hour Jerry Springer marathon than by Ranma. And that's one of the better ones. Cowboy Bebop...well, I think I'd rather gouge my eyes out with a spoon.

[jmaxley]

Never gotten into anime, though I like some of the art style.  For the most part, watching TV at all just doesn't do much for me.  Not really into comic books either, so no manga either.  I do however love Bento boxes and Rement.

[Silver]

Doesn't look like a lot are obsessed here to me. In fact, it seems like most are not into it.

Anyway it's popular right now so naturally a lot of young people will be into it. I don't see anything odd going on here at all.

[spacial]

Having watched two episodes of Wandering Son, and seen a number of stills, plus a few short clips, I get the impression that anime is seeking a more thougtful, perhaps tender approach to story telling.

Most US animation seems to be alluding to slapstick. People getting hurt, but suffering no effects.

British animation tends to try to exagerate local cultural characteristics.

French seems to like to emphasise aristrcratic or salt of the earth type characters. Only seen a few French animations.

I have to say, I'm finding anime a little hard going. The colours are nice to look at, but the story lines are a little slow emerging. Also, it's a bit tricky having to read subtitles while watching for visual nuances. I tried skimming the subtitles, but found important points tended to come suddenly and I could miss them. Though the drawing is really quite good.

[Sera]

It is just TV.  If it is on, I will watch it. If a friend is watching it, I will watch it with them.  But I will not go out of my way to buy/download them to watch myself.  I am not a big fan of TV, but I do enjoy watching shows such as Criminal Minds, Supernatural, and NCIS, mostly for family value, or for interest in all the psychopaths that show up :]

I do go to an anime convention every now and then if I am not to be saving money for something, but I mostly go because I have two friends that go, usually for whatever Japanese band is stopping in, and I love spending time with them.  My favorite part is just being in a hotel together for an entire weekend.  I do not get to see them very often otherwise.

I wear a lot of asian influenced clothing, but let us all face it; Abercrombie and fitch sucks.  I just can not be a blue jeans and T-shirt guy, because I have a mind, unlike most men.

Also, Japane has a beautiful landscape, so I would not mind visiting it one day to see its moss covered carpet of an island.  I also would not mind seeing China.... Iceland... Scotland.... Everything but America.  At least where I live, I wish there was no sun, so I could not see how ugly the world is..

When I was 14 I used to listen to Jrock and spend like 3 hours a day watching anime shows on crunchyroll or youtube [back in the day before they cared!], but that was five years ago, and I mostly got into that because I liked a girl that was into it, so I wanted to be more like her! But hey, now I say, Jrock is a step up over American music.  American music sucks.  Now I am mostly into European bands, usually from France or a related country such as Canada.

[meh]

I'm part Japanese so I am kind of naturally interested in Japanese culture. I'm not an otaku though.

[Apricot]

Hate anime, love manga. I always found that funny. The look and format of Japanese art feels very expressive on paper, but put it to film and it just looked stiff and annoying to me.

[Elijah3291]

Hate anime, love manga. I always found that funny. The look and format of Japanese art feels very expressive on paper, but put it to film and it just looked stiff and annoying to me.

good way of putting it, I agree