Hey Imgur let's talk about Anime

I have a mixed background with Anime. I grew up watching it and by the time I was a teen I thought it was the best thing in the world. 

I ended up running a highschool anime club for three years, and hosted a 500 person panel at Anime Boston in 2010. 

I really loved anime and for years I would watch the seasonal releases. Trying to weed out the good stuff to watch.

I loved One Piece in particular and watched the pre-time skip seasons… about half a dozen times

Then I got the chance of a lifetime. I got to move to Japan. I got to live in Japan for over four years.

And I really started to hate Anime. It was everywhere. On TV, on the walls of my city, even stuff I would have had to travel to a Con for was just in a 711 down the street 

I started to see what really drives the Anime market from an American perspective. Merchandise. Not quality or the fans or popularity, its Merchandise. 

And all the trends that I used to hate started to make sense. The Harem anime in particular started to make a lot of sense.  More figurines to put in store fronts

The other thing that bugged me about anime was there seems to be little with much to really say. It's a visual medium that values style over substance.

And there seems to be a willing silence on some of Japan's history. Even though many Japanese still hold disturbing views of history

I'm no media expert, but at least British and American media has become more aware of its portrait of history. Sometimes. More recently.

And Shonen anime in particular seems to be rife with bad writing and almost a contempt for plot sometimes. Probably due to the rate Mangaka are forced to shovel out art.

But now we come to the elephant in the room.

A god dammed master piece of media, but pretty much forgotten in the land of the rising sun (that might have changed with the Netflix release). I comed all of Tokyo and found almost no merchandise for it, or Samurai Champloo.

Both had astounding sound tracks, art, and character. Cowboy Bebop especially feels like American themes were a priority. 

I guess I'll wrap it up here. I just wanted to talk about my feelings on anime, and not trying to take anyone's enjoyment of something they like. None of this was researched so experts please don't take offense. I would love to talk in the comments to anyone that wants to chat.

I've posted some of my favorites but not everything is there. I really like a lot Netflixs animes, and see a great future for the medium. Avatar the last air benders is a whole other topic I'd love to talk about as I think it might be the best thing ever animated.