I had a rather glum conversation earlier with a friend who was, with some reluctance but also no small sense of frustration, withdrawing from the anime club that he had given a good deal of time and attention to over the past several years. His reasons for doing this were twofold: 1) he needed more time to devote to some other projects, and 2) he really didn't feel like a good many of the other people in the club were taking his suggestions seriously.
The second issue was something that had been bubbling for quite a while, and it finally boiled over when he was flat-out told that a series he had lobbied hard to get shown (Hajime no Ippo, a series I've also tried to promote when possible) was being pulled from the schedule at quite literally the last minute. This was bad enough, but what was even more irksome was that it was apparently losing out to another show that didn't have one-tenth the wit or spine.
This wasn't something that had happened once, either; it was a pattern. Time and again he would push hard to get genuinely interesting and daring material included in the lineup, only to have it greeted with indifference or hostility, and to have everyone fall back to watching shows that didn't particularly need the context of an anime club to appreciate. I'm reminded of the folks who drive hundreds of miles to a convention and then spend most of their time camped out in a hallway somewhere playing her exact same video games they have at home.
I guess it all goes back into the same subject I've touched on repeatedly these last few weeks and months. Most people are not looking for an adventure when it comes to this stuff, and that's not criminal or ignoble. It just is, and the only way to work around it is to trend as gently as you can towards showing them something new. If that doesn't work, then go look for another context to do that in.
It's heartbreaking to realize that you're not connecting, that something you care deeply about is simply being brushed aside. But it's also not something to be trapped in; you have to go to the people whose tastes you know can be enriched by yours.
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The next Eclipse set has been announced from Criterion, and it's a doozy. Three films by William Klein, including Who Are You Polly Magoo? and the mind-blowing Mister Freedom, which is so far out there that if I don't review it here, you are free to stand over me with a baseball bat until I get it written.
I've also got a copy of Superbad in the queue, which I've heard enough good things about that I might make it my first Blu-ray review (gasp).
i've spotted this increasing over the last few years, that anime fans - whether more recent or not, i don't know, might just be a general shift - are more and more interested in what meets a preconceived idea of a typical anime style (visual and narrative-wise) rather than keen on exploring and enjoying the challenge, difference, the unusual. films like paprika and tekkon kinkreet are virtually passing by, yet they're good key examples of prime achievements in the field. i noticed, at the time of it's release, a series like 'elfen lied' (which ive not seen) positively splitting the audience into a small sector willing to accept and enjoy the nature of the show, and a larger majority simply prejudging it for it's violence. it's not how i remember things being when i liked anime in my late teens to early twenties, and it's the main reason that i didn't reinvigorate my interest in the genre when i started buying films regularly at the start of the decade... anime and it's fandom seems to limit itself intentionally, have strange ideas not about avoiding questionable content, but about how to assess and adapt to cultural differences as though they were to be avoided rather than adjusted towards, and of also of the ideas behind how personal and group attitudes rewrite the way things will be in the future. talk yourself out of it now, talk others out of it down the line. this doesn't go for everyone who likes anime, but it's predominantly the impression i get from forums, so i pick what i manage to clearly select from the stuff standing out as clear-cut quality (GITS SAC, for example) and overall just plain old stay well clear of the kiddies otherwise... shame, isn't it?
I can't say i have been in the anime fandom medium for that long, but it has always been like this as far as i remember (10 years ago aprox) Ironic because, 10 years ago internet was still far from being the great source of information it is now, so you would think many fans will actually take advantage of this resourse these days to look for new stuff. Instead, they just look for more of the same, then again, you can say the same thing about fans in other media, videogame fans, fantasy books fans, scifi fans, etc. Most people are just comfortable with "more of the same", trying to get into something "new" requires some degree of mind work, a risk of not liking it, and so on. In the case of videogames, most people prefer to indulge in first person shooters, recycled Zeldas and assorted games to no end, while gems like Okami hardly barely sell something.