It’s been a week or two since I rallied for offline viewing and why internet TV providers are making a good decision to do so. Now, let me write about something different.
I have a friend named Jon. It’s been three months or so since I saw his posts on Facebook supporting a big event with big-shot guests and the biggest prize pool in the local cosplay scene. He’s giddy about it, and I could feel that he’s bowing to the organizers of the event. There’s just one thing that irked me — he’s bluntly dissing off anime fans, so to speak.
Because of my interest in his ideas, I started a discussion with him and my friends online afterwards, and thankfully there were several good responses. Sifting through the inputs, Jon has a valid point — we have a lot of drama, from cosplay scams to waifu warfare, and there’s that dissent between fans of mainstream shounen anime series and newer shows.
Compared to anime fans, fanatics of Western fiction in the Philippines know how to chill, said Lana. Not many people here know RWBY and Red vs. Blue, or even My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. As far as I know, we have a small percentage of bronies in the country — and they even hold their gatherings. Don’t we have a close-knit community as well? In every anime-themed event there are gatherings for various online groups. These communities have their own circle of friends, which is certainly a manifestation of human nature.
Bobby said that anime fans really ruin the community from the inside-out, but he also said that you don’t see the westaboos until you go to a forum. Not all issues in the Western fandom are amplified — and perhaps the only issue that people will remember from the Western fandom the most in this time and age is GamerGate, which is being labeled as both an advocacy to correct gaming journalism and an act of misogyny, depending on how you view it. Bobby added that one does not simply label a new ultra-con as a “master race” event especially if is catering to the Western fandom. “It’s just our elitist mentality kicking in, and there’s no such thing as that.”Costrips Comics – Timeline Photos | Facebook
I went to nexcon yesterday and had a blast. Congrats, to Harley Quinn, who won first place in the cosplay competition.…www.facebook.com
I’ve seen this kind of argument before, when O-kun Fiesta and NexCon 2 were held on the same weekend in different venues. The post above from Costrips Comics somehow reflects this. The only similarities between the two events are that both are supported by Cosplay.ph and they are held at the SMX Convention Centers in Manila and Taguig respectively.
To my dismay, this argument popped up again. I get it, most of you are pretty pissed off at us anime fans when we shove our love for our waifus and stuff, but that does not mean you have the right to say that you have a matured and disciplined community. We’re all equals here. Using only Twitter because you think those who are on Facebook are jejemons is definitely a wrong idea (because there are also jejemons there), and thinking that ultra-cons targeted to Western fandoms are “master race” events is also a wrong idea. What I’m telling you is that it’s wrong to think high of yourself when everyone’s in the same place.
I for one should tell myself to deal with Tokyo Ghoul fans the same way I deal with fans of Silk or Spider-Gwen — to not shove my belief that Touka is superior to Silk or Gwen down people’s throats because I said so. I didn’t have any idea about Silk until I saw Jon’s friend cosplaying as her, I wouldn’t have known that I fell in love with Silk if I was not curious to check her story.
In retrospect, I’ve also had my share of western fiction — from the Harry Potter movies to that copy of W.I.T.C.H. that I still have with me, to the fact that I fell in love with Alex from Totally Spies!, to the fact that I’ve watched episodes of Tom and Jerry and Looney Tunes over and over and over again. May I also ask anyone here who remembers Kappa Mikey to raise their hands? I can’t see you, unfortunately, but I hope we are on the same page.
After this post was published online, Jon told me that the “Master Race” thing was just a social experiment handed out by him and his friends. When I told him “I was enlightened,” he told me “You’ve ain’t realized it yet. You’re almost there.”