I'm just saying...

Like most other college campuses, my school has an over abundance of random and inane clubs; knitting club, Irish step dancing club, chocolate lovers club, surf club, I like to scratch my butt club, etc. I love it. I truly love that people are able to make clubs and societies pertaining to whatever it is their hearts desire. All of these clubs are well attended, which shows it isn't just one person sitting around trying to get funded by the student government. I think it's cool that no matter how obscure your interest, there are probably ten other people who are just as interested in it as you. From time to time, however, there are a few interest groups that make me cringe, shake my head or at least ask, “Is that really such a good idea?”

Case in point: Anime club.

Let me begin by saying that I am a fan anime. I'm not saying I'll fall head-over-heels for a show or a movie just because it has people with giant eyes and animal ears, but I do have a couple shows and movies I enjoy. I respect anime (or Japanamation as I grew up knowing it) as a valid art form and find it generally entertaining and full of incite in many cases. There are also many aspects of the genre by which I am completely bewildered and disgusted but I'd say that's true of most other visual mediums. No, my issue is not with the fact that there is an anime club on campus but rather the general tone of said club.

It's a discomfort that's hard to pin-point. It's the same kind of discomfort I get when a person's first or only exposure to African American culture is through gangsta' rap. Similarly, it holds a subtle hint of racism when a person's only or first exposure to Japanese culture is through anime. It doesn't make your a racist if rap or anime is your first exposure to another culure but it does underscore the racial unawareness in your world. Everyone has to start somewhere, a problem arises, however, when that first introduction becomes an essentialization of a culture and the lens through which one understands said culture. Here, I feel the fandom of anime has a tone of fetish, another way of tiptoeing dangerously close to racism and often times crossing the line.

I'm not saying this club should disband, I'm just saying maybe liking anime shouldn't be your reason for learning Japanese or studying in Japan for a semester. I'd kind of like a class on anime to be taught here, either in the film or sociology departments, just to put a different, more culturally aware perspective on this phenomenon. I'd register for it, just as long as I wouldn't have to sit next to someone wearing wings and a pink wig in class and be expected to act like it's normal, 'cuz it's not.