I love anime. I love it so much I started a fricking blog to share the love and convey my opinions and thoughts on the matter. I love anime so much I actually prefer it to most live action cinema. I love anime so much, I researched the culture it sprang from and am currently in a not-so-clandestine affair with it. I love anime so much I’ll only speak of it with people who are actually interested in it…whaaaa?
Why would I do that? Why would I only speak of something I love so much ONLY with other people who feel the same way? Why don’t I go door to door extolling its virtues and hand out fliers at airports to help spread the word that anime is AWESOME!?
I don’t get extreme with my methods of anime love transmission because I DO love it so much. I don’t want people who are uniformed on the subject of anime to feel pressured into watching it when they’re just not ready for it. I would almost equate watching anime with “going all the way”: When it happens, it happens, and it takes a relationship to the next level. If someone’s marginally interested in anime I’ll drop suggestions every now and again that Such and Such or Blah Blah is a good series or movie. When they’re ready to watch, they’ll come to me and I’ll be ready with my anime library primed for their perusal.
I have a friend. She’s a very good, very close friend. Recently, she moved back to STL from California and was living with us until she could get settled in. She knew I ran an anime blog, she knew I really liked anime, she knew I loved the anime and Japanese culture, but that’s about it. I would say: “We’re watching This Series tonight, wanna watch it with us?” That’s about as much pressure as I ever applied to get her involved with anime. I figure, she’s an adult: I’ve given her facts and synopsis of anime if and when she asked. If she really wants to watch anime, she has my apartment keys and can borrow whatever she wants when she wants.
That about sums up how much I try to get other people involved with anime. I don’t feel I’m shirking my duty to the anime community at large by not getting more people involved. I DO want more people involved but it’s kinda like “When the student is ready, the master will appear”. I’ll leave the initial discovery of anime to the individual and then I’ll try and expand their horizons and understanding when they’re ready for it.
How do you share the anime love? Are you a Manga-Thumper who wants to get as many people involved with anime culture in order to save their gaijin souls? Do you quietly lead by example and wear the occasional anime related t-shirt to a party to get discussions started? How do you get your friends and family involved with your anime love-affair?
