That’s a weird question, isn’t it. It needs a bit of context. Lately I have come across several people that consider themselves anime fans even though they haven’t watched an anime in years, haven’t kept up with the industry and aren’t really interested in picking up any new shows. But they did enjoy anime at some point or at least a particular series and they go by the mindset of once a fan always a fan!
You maybe thinking to yourself, what does it matter? If they want to call themselves anime fans who cares how much anime they watch or when was the last time they watched it. I believe the answer is: it doesn’t matter at all. Bring on all the fans. I would love for anime to become mainstream enough that I can have actual conversations on it with strangers on the bus. (not now though – I don’t leave the house) I would love for my fellow bloggers to have access to a large enough audience to make their professional blogging dreams come true!
I just find it interesting that after so many stories of people hiding their love of anime for fear of being made fun of or misunderstood, there are now people who go out of their way to self-identify as such even if they don’t really care that much for anime at the moment. It’s almost like there’s some merit to being an anime fan. Like there would be a reason to *want* people to think you are one. Almost as if liking anime is….cool….😮
Guys!!!! When did this happen? How did this happen? Why didn’t anyone tell me???!!!?
Wait, does that mean we’re all cool now by extension? I’m not sure I’m prepared for that. I’m probably going to need a whole new wardrobe… (I mean it’s most likely just going to disappear anyways…) The world sure is a funny place. You go to bed one night a carefree anime lovin’ dork without a care in the world, you wake up the next morning and BAM! You have all the pleasant weight of uber coolness on your shoulders. They don’t teach you how to deal with that at school.
But it’s all good, we’ll figure this out together.
First let’s just all agree that anime is indeed the coolest and people who watch it are therefore to be admired and emulated. We always knew that of course but it took the rest of the world a little time to catch up is all. Isn’t that always the case!
Now that we’ve established our baseline reality, what do we do about it? I don’t think I’ve ever been cool and all the super cool bloggers I’ve talked to refuse to admit they’re cool so I’m sort of at an impasse. I have no personal information on the subject and no one wants to share. Probably cause it’s secret knowledge just for cool people… I guess we can just gloss over that by saying something like cool people don’t need other people to know they’re cool. So yeah, that’s it… Crisis averted!
So what does the new anime centric cool look like? I mean coolness is all about rigidly following rules and confirming to strict guidelines, right? I wouldn’t want to accidentally do something not on the pre-approved list and squander all this completely arbitrary and unearned new coolness before I properly take advantage of it.
Also how do you take advantage of coolness? I assume people are going to stop me in the streets to ask my anime opinions and take careful notes. That seems like the least they could do. Soon enough a display of anime knowledge is likely to be mandatory for any popularly elected office or job with a social requirement. I suppose I should add my blog address to my LinkedIn and have it printed on my business cards. Oh and I will want to keep it out of my dating profile or else I’ll just get buried under date requests. And I’ll never be able to tell who likes me for me and who’s just using me for my Anime knowledge. I’m probably going to get stalkers who are constantly cosplaying as my favourite characters and such. I appreciate the attention and all but it gets to be a bit much after a while, you know?
What am I saying, of course you know. We’re in the same boat! For those of you that haven’t gotten the chance yet, maybe update your social media so only your friends know about your anime skills. Better safe than sorry!
I figure that I will very soon stop having to actually pay for anything as long as I make my love of anime obvious in some way. Like if I’m walking around with an anime t-shirt I can’t imagine I’d have to pay for coffee, or like office supplies. If it’s an obscure series I should get a free trip to somewhere. I guess we should all stock up on highly visible anime accessories. They’ll be as good as gold soon enough. (This was obviously written a little while ago…)
From what I know of anime I figure I should probably try to be fairly sex positive and open minded to kinks. Surprisingly I’m way ahead of that one. I’m also already good with the crazy hair colours and peculiar wardrobe choices. This said I was once told cool isn’t about appearances so none of us have to change our looks in any way.
From what I’ve observed, cool people don’t need to reach out much. Others just come to them as if drawn by an invisible force. Now that we’re all super cool anime fans, we might have to struggle a bit with our naturally outgoing um…nature and try to put on a more introverted front. Now I know this is going to be very though for a lot of people so may I suggest a way to distract yourself from the numerous social events you can’t wait to attend. How about staying home were it’s safe and warm and you can order pizza, and watching more anime! Amazing idea right? I’m pretty psyched about coming up with it and look forward to trying it out.
Most of all though, I think we shouldn’t fret too much about it. Sure these are all super useful and totally realistic guidelines you may want to follow but at the end of the day, anime has made us all inherently cool and there’s no need to do anything more than be ourselves!
How are you dealing with your newfound infinite coolness? Or were you born cool so you haven’t noticed any change? Those are the only two options…
