A weekly look into American otaku culture

Buzz was generating through out all off last week as a mysterious website popped onto the internets with promises of the popular anime series, The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, being licensed in the US. The website only claimed that “The World as we know it will end” that Friday. But for those looking around, one could find hidden messages to decrypt written in the website’s source code. The popular website AnimeOnDVD.com also played along with the highlight of the letters SOS written on their news posts. The hype was big, and many started to speculate who was behind the mystery.

Well, after my last round of final exams that Thursday night, I checked on the website after midnight to see if the announcement was made. I was on the east coast, but the announcement was going to be made midnight on the west coast. But as midnight struck through the different time-zones, the website’s source code updated with various messages. One of them was even a comedic dialog between Haruhi and the other members of the Brigade. Finally, then midnight came on the west coast, the website changed with this video:

At first I thought it was a joke. A bunch of fans got together to pull the biggest hoax in anime history. But as the video continued, it became clear that this was no joke. In fact, this was probably the most enjoyable marketing campaign I have ever seen.

Bandai’s idea behind the ASOS Brigade is to reach out to everyone who has already become fans of the series through watching the fansubs. They have created their own amateur-style home movies and are posting them on the internet. They have also created a Myspace page and encourage fans.

The movie is done “for fans by fans” style, and they really know their target audience. The movie interlaces Japanese and English dialog with a Korean-Americain, former Pink Ranger Patricia Ja Lee, playing the lead role, and two Japanese actresses playing her sidekicks. Lee even admits in the film that the Japanese actresses are only meant to appeal to the otaku fanboys. This is a very suitable attitude for the character she portrays, and is even more entertaining when we, the otaku-fanboy audience, realize how true it is.

But the video also dives into other aspects of the online anime community that we weren’t expecting from a company like Bandai. Internet catch-phrases like “O Rly?” and “No Wai!” are used through out the video, which are only used by visitors of such otaku-influenced websites like 4chan.org and ytmnd.com. Also, after fans complained over Lee’s choice to translate a word to “psychic” over the word “esper”, a new subtitled version of the video included the fan-prefered word written under the original recording.

And while this Myspace page (like most pages on that website) is a nightmare to look at, it is actually one of the greatest parts of this campaign. The profile is done through the point of view of the series’ narrator, Kyon. The blog that is featured on the site is very well written and entertaining.

Hello to everyone in the States. Haruhi has ordered me to make an American website for a new branch of our club she is forming, the Americans Spreading Excitement All Over the World with Haruhi Suzumiya (ASOS). My name is Kyon, and I am a sophmore at North High School, in Hyoga, Japan. Truth be told, Kyon is a nickname. I suppose that isn’t relevant. In any case, Haruhi Suzumiya, the president of our club has worked out a sponsorship with an American company. In exchange for mentioning the US release of the The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya DVDs, we get supplies for our next student film. I heard it was a box of costumes and a few video tapes. I don’t want to think of what kind of costumes that Haruhi will make poor Asahina wear after the last time. In fact, I never really wanted to join this club in the first place. Well, that doesn’t concern the rest of you.

And in the latest blog post, Kyon makes references to very fansub-specific ideas:

Haruhi has been in a FIT since we didn’t post the subtitiled version of the video. Asahina grabbed the wrong torr…err…file. Haruhi has been sending me text messages to my cellphone nonstop since then. She just posted a rather angry message on the main http://asosbrigade.com website, so at least I have the link. […] I thought the raws were fine, but in any case…enjoy!

And that is where I feel the ASOS Brigade holds its defining characteristic. Many people feel that Haruhi will never sell well in the US because most of the fans have already seen the show through illegal methods. This campaign is an attempt to target the fansub community into actually supporting the series financially when the opportunity is available to them. The movie ends with special thanks to “All fansubs lovers who buy the official DVDs and who help support more creative works,” and specifically gives no thanks to “downloaders/bootlegers who never buy the official DVDs.” This is a very bold statement, but I completely understand where they are coming from.

I fully support Bandai in this campaign, and encourage you all to do the same. This is a fantastic series to get behind, and deserves all the praise and support it can receive. I have never had this much fun over a marketing campaign before, so mad props to all the folks behind it!

It’s funny how three bloggers have already reported on horror stories that come with purchasing the 2nd volume of the Ichigo Marshmallow manga that was recently released by Tokyopop in the US. I too can verify my uneasiness at my hometown Borders when I had to present this book to the cashier.

The main problem is one image on the back cover with the character Miu from the series. She is in a two-peice bathing suit and licking the tip of a water pistol. This image gives off a feeling of being child pornography, and we fear that a young male purchasing such a book would be judged as a pedophile from the cashier and those around him.

And yet not a single cashier really notices the content on the cover. All they look for is the barcode to scan and that’s it. There is no second glances. There is no jugdement. All this worry and accusations are only in our head. So why has this fear run so universally among all of us who have bought this book?

I think the reason why we have this worry is because we actually love the cover so much. We don’t love it for some kind of pornographic reason. We love it because it is a beautifully designed cover with adorable images. The faded plaid blue background perfectly compliments the cute images of the Ichigo girls. I personally feel that this is the prettiest manga cover I’ve seen in a long time.

And yet we feel guilty about loving this design, because we grow up believing that the only thing a guy would ever want is sex. So to be attracted to an image of a female must automatically be sexual in nature, and to be attracted to an image of a girl must automatically make you a pedophile.

But what if it was a woman who bought this manga? Would anyone ever accuse her being pedophiliac? No, because it’s understandable that a woman enjoying images of cute children is just a sign of her maternal nature, and this is just a sign of a healthy biological clock. As hard as it is to believe, men feel the exact same way.

We love the girls of Ichigo because we want them to be our children. It plays off our desire and longing for fatherhood. Our attraction is not a desire to ruin childhood innocence through lust and sex, but to protect their innocence through love and compassion.

And yet this completely natural desire is considered unnatural to single men in our world today. It is believed that the only thing that single men should care about is getting laid at this age, and so any fascination that he may have about children must be pedophilia. Since we don’t have much support defending against that assumption, we begin to fear that maybe society is right, and that we do have some unnatural sexual desire for children.

But that’s just not the case. The image of Miu with the water gun is precious because she is just a cute kid in a cute swimsuit playing around. There is nothing sexual about that. Yet we love this picture, and we love to look at it. And so we start to worry that maybe this attraction is some hidden pedophiliac desire like everyone says it should be. But the truth is she’s just a cute kid!

So when is it okay to start wanting children? When should a man admit to wanting to become a family man? When does our culture say that this desire to want kids becomes non-sexual? Is it only after marriage?

That’s bullshit.

So my fellow anime fans, please try not to feel guilty about loving stories and images of cute little girls. The attraction you feel towards these characters is completely natural as it is only a longing for fatherhood. There is nothing wrong or sexual with that. We need more then just sex to continue the human race, we need parental love to ensure that those children survive.

So while you are still single and this desire is not yet accepted, then just grin and bare the “pedo” assumption that will happen. But if you’re clever enough, you might actually be able to use this to get a serious girlfriend (of very legal age, mind you) a lot sooner then the rest of the crowd. After all, at a certain point, girls will be only interested in those guys who want children. And your early acceptance of that fact will make you a prime candidate in no time.