Daijoubu

Taken as a whole, Anime fandom is a particularly amorphous entity, encompassing a wide range of types and interests. Discussion about anime fans has recently gone from some anime blogs attempting to define elitism, to now others explaining why anime fans have nothing to be proud of. Elitism seems to get a very negative connotation, even among other fans, so I guess if you are an anime elitist you will be disdained not only by most of “real life” society, for whom all anime is tainted by the stigma of porn, but even by other anime fans, who will find your attitudes annoying. The more “elite” you become, the more isolated you will be, eventually ending up as a hikikomori.

I’ve certainly known my share of what could be called the “ugly otaku,” but perhaps a more informative term than “anime elitist” is “anime purist.” A purist thinks that one thing is better than another because it’s unadulterated with whatever that fan doesn’t like. Obviously this comes down to a lot of opinions, but at their best, purists are the great defenders of aspects of anime that we all appreciate to one degree or another. As long as we stay in balance and respect other ideas, a dose of purism is not such a bad thing. But it’s also an interesting aspect of “fandom studies” that two fans of the same thing (anime) could hold opposite views on seemingly fundamental points and yet both be purists in their own ways.

Konata knows best….

Clearly there are fans who appreciate certain genres or elements more than others, be it shounen, shoujo, giant robots, slice-of-life, moe, fanservice or whatever, and they can be regarded as purists for those genres or elements. A lot of series these days, though, will mix various approaches or aspects of different genres, either for creative purposes or to cash in by creating the illusion of depth. This means that there are fewer series today that can be regarded as truly “pure” examples of their genre. This can cause trouble for those with a limited tolerance for say, too much fanservice (which is ever-present these days), or technobabble, or seemingly deep pseudo-philosophical musings. But every genre needs its hardcore of fans–it’s their intense devotion that supports the production of the types of series they follow. As long as each type of series has a certain critical mass of such fans, that genre can continue.

Even Narutards have a place in this–I can respect the purity of their devotion, although even that can get complicated and unpleasant if taken too far. Take those “shippers” who are devoted to specific character pairings that they like. We can then see a descending scale of purists here: one fan is an anime purist, liking Naruto and other anime while disdaining other types of entertainment; another fan is strictly a shounen purist, liking Naruto and Bleach, but disliking other genres within anime; yet another is a Naruto-only fanatic, who hurls abuse at fans of Bleach; finally we come to the extreme purist, who is obsessed with some pairing like Sasuke and Sakura, and wishes Naruto totally gone from the picture.

Turning from genres to methods of presentation, there are purists with strong opinions about issues like editing. Perhaps the most notorious and tiresome debate is the perennial sub vs. dub. Now I gravitate exclusively towards subs myself, and we might expect that an anime purist would probably prefer them, but there are many who enjoy both subs and dubs, and yes, there are also even dub-only purists—they can be called “pure” in their desire to have everything they listen to in their own language. But the anime fan community is (hopefully) large enough to encompass these divergent types of purists, and DVD technology can satisfy many in a way that was not possible in the age of VHS (back when I first got into watching anime).

….But Konata is also open to new ideas.

There are also those purists who disdain fansubs on principle and stick to domestic releases only. They want to support the industry and dislike any taint of illegality. A while back, reporting on Anime Expo, “The Anime Blog” noted the unsurprisingly negative reactions of American industry people to fansubs, and even wondered, in a poll, about giving up fansubs “to save the industry”. Others have chimed in on this recurring debate. Companies that license anime have a legitimate and legal right to hate fansubs, but there is perhaps something to be gained by understanding, not those who just want free stuff, but the true “elite” among the downloading purists. What they want is to experience anime fandom in real-time, following new series as they come out in Japan, getting merchandise when its still fresh, and talking to others around the world through blogs and forums as the shows are airing. This is a fandom which reaches beyond the industry of one country and looks first to Japan itself. Among non-Japanse fans, these seem to me to be the ultimate purists, and yet what they are focused on in their pursuit of unadulterated anime is what even the most casual fan in Japan can take for granted by turning on the TV or strolling through Akiba.

So the quest for purity can come in many forms and is really the backbone of any fandom. On the individual level, though, the pursuit of otakuness can have divergent effects over time and people at different stages of their personal fandom can have very different positions. It was interesting to see on animenano last week two bloggers post on the same day, one concerned about “too much anime” and the other seeking to rise in otaku level in the future.