Saga
Banned
I remember watching oldschool Dominion Tank Police and Mars Wars on Sci-Fi circa 1997 on their AniSundays programming and was basically hooked ever since. I pop my head in a few AT anime threads every now and then, and anyone who knows me closely knows I have a collection of some 300 different anime titles between myself and the wife. For the most part, I tend to keep it on the DL, specifically because it's always felt like one of those niche things and most people associate anime with anime conventions and anime conventions with renissance faires so by proxy you tend to be lumped immediately into the LARP crowd (somehow) whenever you mention it to uneducated people.
However, Americanized anime ala CartoonNetwork's adult swim seems to be having a strange effect on US citizens. When I say "Americanized", I basically mean how they tend to pick only the ones without an excessive amount of sex, but it appears tons of blood and gore is totally cool in true US-Christian fashion. Boobies bad murdering people good.
This weekend, a few of the guys in the legal team were working at the office. I'm talking older guys - a few in their late 30's, the rest 50's-60's. They called me asking how to hook one of the ceiling DLP's and speaker system in a conference room to watch a movie during a break from one of their 12 hour long meeting sessions they tend to be fascinated with doing on Sunday's. I tried to walk them through it and eventually just gave up and strode into the office to hook things up for them.
There were about 7 guys and two ladies, they had beer, and pizza. I walked in assuming they'd want to watch sports or some shit on cable, and instead find myself presented with the box sets for GTO and Elfin Lied. GTO I can understand, I own the manga and absolutely love Onizuka, but Elfin fucking Lied? Elfin Lied is about as cult-niche otaku as you fucking get, and when I inquired if they'd actually SEEN it, one of the girls pipes up and said they were halfway through it from the last two weeks and she borrowed it from her 12 year old daughter.
I was absolutely shocked. I by no means hold myself to the same "elevated" (see: ridiculous and typically hypocritical) standards of most people when it comes to what I think children should be watching - hell I was watching Hellraiser in my basement when I was 9 years old and my mom was delivering snacks so I've always sort of believed exposure to adult themes is extremely healthy for someone.. but Elfin fucking Lied being watched by a 12 year old? Shit. We're fucked!
However, Americanized anime ala CartoonNetwork's adult swim seems to be having a strange effect on US citizens. When I say "Americanized", I basically mean how they tend to pick only the ones without an excessive amount of sex, but it appears tons of blood and gore is totally cool in true US-Christian fashion. Boobies bad murdering people good.
This weekend, a few of the guys in the legal team were working at the office. I'm talking older guys - a few in their late 30's, the rest 50's-60's. They called me asking how to hook one of the ceiling DLP's and speaker system in a conference room to watch a movie during a break from one of their 12 hour long meeting sessions they tend to be fascinated with doing on Sunday's. I tried to walk them through it and eventually just gave up and strode into the office to hook things up for them.
There were about 7 guys and two ladies, they had beer, and pizza. I walked in assuming they'd want to watch sports or some shit on cable, and instead find myself presented with the box sets for GTO and Elfin Lied. GTO I can understand, I own the manga and absolutely love Onizuka, but Elfin fucking Lied? Elfin Lied is about as cult-niche otaku as you fucking get, and when I inquired if they'd actually SEEN it, one of the girls pipes up and said they were halfway through it from the last two weeks and she borrowed it from her 12 year old daughter.
I was absolutely shocked. I by no means hold myself to the same "elevated" (see: ridiculous and typically hypocritical) standards of most people when it comes to what I think children should be watching - hell I was watching Hellraiser in my basement when I was 9 years old and my mom was delivering snacks so I've always sort of believed exposure to adult themes is extremely healthy for someone.. but Elfin fucking Lied being watched by a 12 year old? Shit. We're fucked!
