As a dork/nerd/geek you find that the people you meet tend to have a lot in common with one another. It’s probably one of the few subcultures where so many of your interests line up with others. Geek culture tends to be a self-feeding cycle where the more nerds you meet, the nerdier activities you’re introduced to and the more you tend to love it. I have found that to be true in just about every area of nerdom, except one. Anime.

I can sit back and watch the beautiful artwork of an anime any day. The genre has a distinctive style that is recognizable instantly, even by the layman. The content carries adult themes, but not always adult execution and I think this is where it falters for me. Not being an anime guru, maybe it’s just what I’m watching, but it’s difficult for me to get past the cheesiness of it. The bug-eyed moments of frustration, the bad voice acting, the strange whimpering noises and lastly, the fascination with school girl heroines. When it all comes together the final package leaves a sulfuric taste in my mouth.

Part of the problem is my highly Americanized sense of theater or pacing. Anime seems to bounce all over the map sometimes in the direction that a story may go in. The pacing is….different, for lack of a better word. I can’t quite get my arms around it.

The female heroines often become uncomfortable for me because their typically boobalicious and bouncy. All those years spent denying I had a crush on Smurfette makes the sexualization of an animated character off-putting.  I feel awkward watching an animated love scene, but most of that awkwardness is due to outside forces, not internal forces. I worry about how I might be perceived if someone sees me watching this clip with no context. I remember watching Kitty Grade on the train during a commute to work. I was  so incredibly embarrassed that I had to turn the episode off until I got home. It seems silly that at 31 years young I’m still concerned with how strangers perceive me, but you have to admit that this can be taken out of context. If someone was watching two animated characters make out on the bus, what type of frame would it give that person if you met them through a mutual acquaintance later? I’m sure you’d be able to say “That’s the dude!” and everyone would know what you were talking about.

Because I’ve always been so in-step with geek culture, it pains me to have to write-off anime as a loss. I feel like I could be missing out on something spectacular. I’ve tried a few animes in the past and with Hulu offering a decent set of them I’m currently giving them another shot. (Virus is my current viewing attempt) Here’s what I’ve watched so far, along with if I enjoyed it or not.

• Apple Seed – 4/5
• Akira – 3/5 (the first 60 minutes gets 5/5)
• Kitty Grade – 2/5
• Blue Submarine No. 6 – 2.5/5
• Bleach – 2/5
• Ninja Scroll 3/5
• Afro Samurai 4/5
• Sword of the Stranger 3/5
• Ghost in the Shell 2/5 (This movie bores me to sleep every time)

There are plenty of others, but these are the ones that come to mind and these are supposed to be some of the best works out there. My geek-dom doesn’t want to give up, but I’m getting close to waving the white flag.

This entry was posted on Friday, January 8th, 2010 at 11:00 am and is filed under Movies/Television, Random. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.