First of all I found the perfect work to describe me in general, Hikikomori. HIkikomori literally translates to 'pulling away,being confined." Basically its the Japanese term for a shut in. They are anti social and stay inside their house/room/apartment, so yeah...I get home around two thirty from school...get on the computer, snack, and roleplay and watch anime all night until I go to bed..so maybe when I cry at the end of animes, its likely to be partially because I just spent about roughly 12 to 24 hours of my life on an anime....yeah. BUT I HAVE NO REGRETS!I LOVE ANIME AND MANGA AND VIDEO GAMES AND I WILL NEVER TURN MY BACK ON THEM! So yeah, there's that. Now lets move on shall we?
Conversational Skills!
Everyone needs tutoring on how to talk about some subjects. Like politics and religion and sex....there are some things you just don't voice out loud unless you're ready to get in a scuffle over it. One of these topics is anime. I will fight you over anime. My friends have religion...some of them have politics..and some of them even have sports.(scary right? can't believe I'm friends with such losers who get so much sunlight and fresh air and human interaction)So I have anime. I am not afraid to rip into someone who says something stupid about it, are close minded or ill informed, or are just wrong about something. So yeah its a touchy subject for me. I don't like to talk about it with everyone. So I guess I should get on with the article...here we go!
When you're at a convention or you just met someone who likes anime and you are about to start talking, most people don't think a fight is about to go down. Unlike when people talk about religion or sports, people have died over religion and many have been seriously injured because of sports! But what you don't know is that you are at the same risk for injury even though its anime, sure you may not die, but an otaku will beat you to a bloody pulp for saying the character she stalks is dumb or ugly. She will take a person down! I know because I will as well and as we all know, I'm an otaku.
Now that you know the risks of the conversation, for some reason, you have chosen to continue with the topic, maybe you really love anime and have to talk about it with someone, or maybe you are just willing to take your chances. Whatever the reason, you press onward with the anime conversation. Here is where we start our conversational skills.
Skill 1.
1. When someone mentions an anime they like and they think it is just awesome, don't be all like,'Oh yeah I've seen that' if you haven't. :P No one likes that. Deal with it. Just tell them the truth and say,"Oh sorry, no I haven't seen that one, but whats it about? It sounds kinda cool." Or something along those lines. One, if you lie you are liable to get caught and the person your talking with will be all like 'eh lame.' and two, tell them to tell you more about it opens the way for more conversation and a future conversation for after you've seen an episode or two.
Skill 2.
2. Don't be a noob! Don't be all,'oh I love (random mainstream anime)'. The only time that is alright is if you KNOW FOR A FACT that the other person likes that anime, is a noob themselves, or won't rip you to shreds mentally and emotionally for being such a loser. Sorry but its true. Most anime fans who are veteran anime lovers, will probably think that anime is lame and you suck for watching it, that or they will think you're such a silly noob because they used to watch it and now it is but a childish memory for them. So yeah, unless you know you're with another noob, just dont mention main stream anime.
Here is an example of what might happen if you are a noob talking about mainstream anime to a veteran: Noob:"I love this anime! Its 600 episodes long and STILL GOING! I love the plot and how it repeats over and over, not to mention all the filler! God I love filler! It has no plot point at all and if they cut it out the actually plot would only take up 30 episodes! Oh and there's no blood when it comes to fighting! None at all! And oh I laughed so hard when they ate jelly donuts and sub sandwiches!"
Anime Veteran: "One That anime sucks for every reason you just said. Its boring, there is no action, and on top of that you're watching the 4kids version is there is no blood and they are eating "jelly donuts". 4kids murders anime and if you say one more word I'm going to tell them YOU'RE an anime. No get out of my sight."
Example two:
Noob: "Noob talks about lame anime..."
Anime Vet.: "Oh yeah," *laughed like a five year old just said something dumb* "I remember when I watched that anime. Oh how childish and dumb I was for liking it. So silly!"
So yeah, either way this conversation goes down hill, but take a look at the third example.
(In this conversation both are cosplaying from the same anime and there for they know the other is a noob like themselves.)
Noob: "Oh yeah I love this anime blah blah blah, no point to the plot, blah blah blah, whatever! :D It rocks!"
Noob two: "Oh mi god! I loved that anime too! And oh god that filler episode that had no point?! It was great! Lets be best friends!"
Noob "OH yeah!"
In this situation a successful friendship was made but only because they both knew the other was the same as them. Take note of that because this is extremely rare and even when both are noobs the situation can turn south fast. There will be examples of this later.
Skill 3.
3. IF YOU ARE RATHER NEW AND YOU HAVE ONLY SEEN MAINSTREAM ANIMES IT IS VALUABLE THAT YOU READ THIS NOTE!!!!!!
Now then...if you are new to our society, welcome! We are lovely people, really no one is mean, and we are more than willing to help you find good animes. If you embark on your conversation and mention main stream anime as you are likely to do, the veteran you are speaking with may possibly comment on how they used to watch that or how it sucks butt. In this situation, no matter how much you love your crappy anime, DON'T PUSH IT! Do NOT try and defend your anime, you will be crushed and the anime lover will get annoyed with you quickly!
lets look at the first example from before and continue it:
Noob: "Hey! Thats not true! The episode about the hat was important even though it had nothing to do with the plot and 4 kids rocks!"
Anime Vet. raises eyebrow and several others from around and turns to look at you....
They lift up their sleeves to reveal a tattoo on their right arms that reads-'will exterminate 4kids'. The anime veteran will rip into you, pointing out every single, dumb flaw with the anime, crushing your spirit before she/he and the other chase after you with their fake weapons because you said you liked 4kids....you may never attend another con again.
Instead in this situation what should have happened it this:
Noob: "Oh, well I like the anime, sorry your don't."
Aniem vet.: "Yeah its alright, maybe you should watch this anime though!" The anime veteran suggests some appropriate animes that you might enjoy and then you gain a mentor and friend! :D See? All is well.
Noob Redemption:
I know I've bashed anime noobs and mainstream animes a lot, however I will admit this now, I started off as a noob (sort of lol) and I have several loved mainstream animes that are nostalgic for me that I would still watch. I love Sailor Moon, I love the original Yu Gi Oh and I love InuYasha. These are all beginner to gateway animes. Yeah there is a lot of filler, yeah they go on for hundreds of episodes, and yeah they are overly cliche with too many friendship speeches and silly romantic comedy. But thats fine. Everyone starts out like a noob and everyone pretty much starts out with mainstream or gate way animes. They aren't ALL bad. And I will confess that while someone who defends Naruto or Yugioh GX5000 (or any other horrendous anime) to my face as a serious and good anime drives me absolutely insane because they are so stubborn and won't stop insisting that the anime is good...................there is one other type of anime viewer that I detest (with every fiber of my being) more so than the stubborn anime noob..... This is the Egregious Anime Lover. -read below for more details-
Egregious Anime Lover: Egregrious literally means more a fool than any others. This person is a jester is queen's clothing an an absolute insult to me, the humble queen. Another term for this character is 'topper' or 'show out' because of this person's tendency to try and up show you. No matter what you say this person always has to top it. No matter how many animes you've seen, this person has always seen more, no matter how many manga you have or have read, they have always owned or read more. NO MATTER how good you're costume is, theirs is always better, and no matter HOW MUCH you know about Japan, Japanese Culture, or Japanese Language...THEY ALWAYS KNOW MORE EVEN IF THEY ARE PULLING THINGS FROM OFF THE TOP OF THEIR HEAD!!!! They will always feel the need to know,do,see, or have more than you. Lets face it, we don't like these kind of people in regular life because they have a tendency to lie about several feats or accomplishments of theirs and even if they aren't lying, they just drive you nuts because they insist to MAKE SURE you know they are better than you, even if they aren't. ;P So yeah....we are going to refer to them as Toppers.
Conversational Skills Continued:
The latter being said.....
Here is the final HUGE rule for anime convention conversational skills, although this applies to all situations, not just anime conventions:
Skill 4.
4.Don't be a Topper. Its obnoxious and nobody wants to be around you unless they envy you and are just smitten by the site of you. If you have the choice to be a noob or a topper, always be a noob, less people will want to punch you in the face or kick you in the crotch. And this concludes our article. I hope you've enjoyed it.
Remember, its getting cold outside, so bundle up, make some hot snacks, and stay inside where its warm and you can watch anime. :) Forget society, nobody needs them anyways and if it snows, snowball fights are over rated anyways, just have an anime night instead and further seclude your self from the world! XD haha talk to you guys later!
(Current date: November 3rd,2011)
(current time: 11:23)
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