[Notes on the hiatus: I LURKED MOAR. Some other very loud 'commentators' could use a bit of it themselves. Get over it.]

Once upon a time, if you wanted to dress up as a famous character like Mickey Mouse or Ronald McDonald, you either had to be doing it at a costume party or have permission from the copyright holders.

One day, a bunch of geeks (most likely Japanese) decided that no party was necessary to wear costumes, possibly because they weren’t invited to enough parties. When they actually got out of the house to meet up, possibly at a school festival or comics convention, cosplay was born.

Cosplay, like doujinshi or fanfiction, is first and foremost an act of love. It is also an act that would embarrass normal people, which demonstrates that all cosplayers are a special kind of crazy.

It is also an act in violation of copyright. But like fanfiction and doujinshi it is tolerated. Why? Because fans who write fanfic or draw doujinshi or dress up as fictional characters are a special kind of fan: The kind who can publicly turn on his or her own chosen fandom with the passion of a jilted lover if crossed. This is due to the previously mentioned love and lack of shame.

Back in the late 90′s, Fox tried to shut down X-Files and Simpsons fan sites in an attempt to exert more control over its copyright, with predictable results. Faced with the fury of a hundred thousand paranoid fans, Fox relented. You can’t stop the signal.

 

Like all niche fandoms after the wake of this act of defiance, cosplay found a home on the Internet. The Internet allows foreign (and let’s face it, fresher) memes to spread its seed around the world. Things like anime, and indie comics, and /b/ronies.

And cosplay.

Once local awareness of cosplay hit critical mass, a local convention was held. A convention that warmed the hearts of people who were longing to meet other people ‘just like us’. In this case, ‘just like us’ meant ‘people whose love for character X outweighs their sense of personal shame’, a trait I actually find admirable.

A convention that must have also subconsciously reminded Sandman fans of a certain Cereal Convention.

Cosplay now had a forum. I don’t mean the particular competing forums (which are differing levels of private containing even more private circles).

I mean forum in the technical sense: an open public space. Roman society worked because each city had a forum, a place where people could meet and exchange opinions with people outside their immediate social circles. Prevented people from becoming insular and isolated. In cosplay’s case, its forum began as an abstract idea, existing entirely on the Internet, and then as a string of conventions held together by chattering about them on the Internet.

Two things happen when you have a public meeting space.

First, some people want to own that space. Claim divine right based on some hazy line of succession or on popular opinion or by strength of ideals. Approve only certain types of gatherings within that space, according to law or custom or public morals. Exercise the power to exile or excommunicate. This is the aristocratic stance. Remind you of anyone?

Second, some people build markets right next to the space. Wherever people meet, no matter what kind of people they are, there’s a market. And if there’s a market, people will cater to that market. Even if they don’t actually care about the forum itself, if there is a market, merchants will meet demand.

These are both facts. They’re happening right now. I’m not writing to complain about either. They’re the natural consequences of a large community. Even the Church makes a killing selling prayer books and unleavened bread and has overbearing self-appointed leaders telling everyone what REAL spirituality is about. (It even has kiddie-fiddlers too.)

And I don’t know if cosplay can continue its little experiment with corporate capitalism. I pointed out that cosplay is in a legally gray area, and other bloggers have written about this. If enough money is being made, the copyright holders are going to start sniffing around. And not everyone has the corporate clout to be ‘official’ cosplayers.

No, I’m just here to point out that both of these things only exist because of the people that matter. The people in the forum. The people who participate. The people who dress like fools because of love.

The cosplayers.

I salute all of you. You magnificent, freaking weirdos. The cosplay ‘state’ and the ‘cosplay’ market exist because of you, not the other way around. Some of you already realized this on your own. And when enough of you finally realize what that really means, it’ll be a real interesting day.

And I’ll be here.

Lurking moar.

It must be real tough to be an average cosplay photographer (or ‘Freelance Phographer’ as this profile indicates) in this country. It’s not enough that everyone accuses you of groping tweeners and taking surreptitious upskirt photos. Now you can’t even have a good laugh at other people’s expense, like this guy who just wanted Ondoy rains and Milenyo winds because it’s pretty outside his window. I mean, who wouldn’t want to go back to killing hundreds and displacing thousands of people, destroying property and livelihood, especially if you have the luxury of watching the whole thing from the distance of a TV screen?

All right, seriously now. If this is the sort of antics you need to resort to get love and attention, you may want to put the camera down for a little while and reconnect with your humanity. Just a thought.

EDIT: I have been graciously provided with a screenie of the wonderful ‘karma trap’ in case the link goes down. (This would make no sense because then how would he trap karma? Then again he admits freely that his plurk karma is frozen, so… he’s dumb.) Enjoy.

EDIT 2: The link has gone down! So much for ‘the experiment being a success‘

EDIT 3: I liek pho.

In the forum post I allude to in the comic Divide By Zero, I get accused of politicizing the cosplay scene when all anyone wants to do is ‘have fun’ — but apparently everyone’s idea of fun is bashing other people while furthering their own agendas for supremacy.

Now, I like to think that cosplayers aren’t dense or stupid. (If you disagree, bear with me, I like my rose-tinted glasses.) So how can people who are deeply immersed in the backbiting and name-calling that pervades local cosplay claim that everyone is one big happy cosplaying family?

I only realized what the reason was after I participated in my brother’s election campaign back in our hometown and discovered that party unity is a pleasant facade, loyalty is a handicap, and everyone covers up selfish, short-sighted agendas with high-minded ideals. Often the people who are the most vocal critics of politics are the people most interested in obtaining power through its use.

It was that point that I realized that every time you seek to gain something through your interaction with society, be it companionship, affirmation, power, information, or financial gain, you are engaged in politics. That’s every single time you go out to meet people. Even otaku.

Politics is like masturbation. Everybody does it. Nobody likes to admit doing it.

Which is too bad. Politics is a dirty word in our country because our politicians are dirty. Politicians can be statesmen, they can be paragons, they can be revolutionaries, too, but they’re so rare these days that they’re shining exceptions to the unspoken rule. Society can be changed for the better with enlightened leaders. It’s just much, much easier to maintain and take advantage of the status quo. All you have to do is look after yourself.

Genghis Khan said, “It is not sufficient that I succeed; all others must fail.” Well, he would know, right? I mean he conquered an empire three times the size of Alexander the Great’s, and could dance a mean troika while singing in gibberish.

So how does this relate to me, you might ask? Well, do you want to be liked? Do you like snickering to your friends about the exaggerated facial features of other people? Are you trying to get your beloved’s friends to put in a good word for you? Are you trying to guilt-trip your friend into treating you out to dinner? Are you convinced that your little clique of a subculture is better than everyone else’s and therefore gives you the right to publicly humiliate them? Have you ever tried to pass off responsibility for your own mistakes on someone else to avoid reproach?

Congratulations. No matter how you gussy it up, the precise word for the activity that you are engaged in is POLITICS.

Wankers.

So a friend and I were shooting the shit the other night and he was going on about the ‘Amateurism vs. Professionalism’ clash he observed in the local cosplay community. This particular friend allied himself firmly with the ‘Professionalism’ camp, saying that people who work long hours for low pay in costume are just as deserving as the ‘Amateurs’ of the term ‘cosplayer’.

“What the hell is the difference between both camps, anyway?” I asked.

“Amateurism,” he said, “is basically the whole ‘Do it for the love of the hobby for no money’ camp. This is great but it goes nowhere. It’s stagnant. For the scene to progress it has to embrace the fact that some people will want to do this for a living, not just as a hobby.”

“I don’t get it. The conflict, I mean,” I said. “Take Trekkies. Trekkers. Whatever. Most of the content is produced by Paramount, who are the actual IP owners, or Paramount’s licensees. But the vast majority of people engaged in the Trek subculture are complete amateurs. Pale, thin-blooded bastards who show up in a sour-smelling Starfleet uniform that hasn’t been washed since last con. Anyway clearly Paramount couldn’t sell any Star Trek-themed merchandise without relying on the amateur fanbase, and the fanbase would have nothing to consume if it weren’t for the suits who decide what to do with the franchise.”

“What are you getting at?”

“I’m saying that there is no Us vs. Them dynamic inherent between amateurs and professionals unless one or both factions start one. The professionals clearly shouldn’t be alienating their fans. The amateurs clearly need to be valuing the content and exposure created by professionals. This Amateurism vs. Professionalism clash is a complete crock of shite.” I had rewatched Trainspotting and Grant Morrison’s Disinfocon talk and kept lapsing into a Scottish accent every now and then.

“When you put it that way…”

“The only reason why both factions are warring with each other — and by the way, the Amateurs simply call themselves ‘cosplayers’ and the Professionals ‘mascots’ or ‘models’ or ‘actresses’, once again proving my point that the power to name is the power of definition — is because of the dominance motivation.”

“What?”

“Dominance is an adaptive strategy. One way to make sure you survive in a particular environment is to dominate it. It’s not the only strategy, mind you, but it is the one favored by humanity since we learned how to bash each other over the head with clubs. You can still see it in playgrounds. Heck the cosplay scene is one huge playground and all the kids who got bullied back in preschool are taking it out on everyone else now. Have you noticed how childish the politics of the scene are? Basic big-kid-in-the-sandbox primate politics. The problem is, as the entire human race has demonstrated, dominance is such an effective strategy that everyone does it. And the thing about dominance strategies is that there always has to be a loser. Someone has to submit. And the dominated have no rights except the ones the dominators give them.”

“So how does this relate to cosplay?”

“Well, think of your standard factional tactic in the cosplay community. First they try to convince you to choose sides. They usually do this by dissing the opposing side. That group is a bunch of insular harpies. This group is a bunch of attention-seeking wannabe celebrities. That group is full of social misfits that everyone who’s anyone shuns. This group is cultishly led by a megalomaniacal leader. That group is a bunch of jilted wannabe Yagami Lights who are BAWWWing about their crushes being seduced by dirty old men. It’s like high school, but with costumes. Fortunately no single group currently holds complete dominance, which is, hey, fun for me.”

“And then?”

“And then if you don’t choose, they attempt to apply the ‘If You’re Not With Us You’re Against Us’ tactic. Since you’re not a dedicated hobbyist you must be in this just for the money (or the hits on your blog). Since you’re not putting yourself out there in public in actual costume you must not be a real cosplayer. Since you haven’t been around since the beginning then you have no authority to speak about the subject. It’s all very transparent, and all attributable to a failure to express these territorial urges when you’re supposed to — when you’re a toddler.”

“So how do you get them to leave you alone? Never pick a side?”

“That’s the hardest thing to do. Dominance-minded social robots have an inherent distrust of anyone who won’t pick sides. But if you value your independence, you have to resort to the tried-and-tested tactic of the little kid in the playground no one will mess with.”

“The what?”

“In every playground, you have your big kids who pick on everyone and all the other kids that they pick on. But there is usually at least one small kid the big kids never mess with.”

“Because?”

“Because whenever this kid — who usually doesn’t bother anyone if left to his devices — gets into a fight, he will fight back like a caged wolverine instead of simply submitting. Kicking, biting, clawing, eye-gouging. So the big kids learn that even if they win a fight against him (and they usually will), no one comes out from fighting the runt without getting hurt in the process. So they leave him alone.”

“So what are you saying?”

“I’m saying, BE THAT KID.”

A pause. “You mean, be the ‘Voice of the Minority’, O Fearless One?”

“Shut it you wanker.”

It’s Friday night at Little Tokyo, and I’m hanging out with friends, some old, some new, all involved one way or another with the otaku scene. Cosplayers, anime and manga fans, gamers and GMs.

I’m downing my fifth shot of cold sake and I’m thinking about several things all at once. Someone complained about the state of a certain cosplay forum they used to haunt. Another brought up the Animax-sponsored K-On! event everyone and their distant cousins were invited to. Another ranted about the new Cosplay Critique Center on Facebook that popped up recently.

I turned over the karubi I was barbecuing with a pair of metal tongs and I wondered why I didn’t care.

I mean, I cared mildly, in the way one distantly cares about something a friend is concerned about but doesn’t affect one personally. But I didn’t CARE. Me. I get on my soapbox for semantic hairsplitting like ‘cosplay’ vs. ‘costrip’ but I didn’t care enough about any of these new things to rant about them.

Or was it because my opinions have somehow gotten ‘safer’? I miss the days when I didn’t know ANYTHING about the scene so I didn’t mind offending anybody. Now like many of my contemporaries my ‘items’ just keep getting blinder and blinder. Is it true? Am I losing my edge? How depressing.

Another shot of sake and another slice of yakiniku please.

Let’s be honest here. I actually have a lot to say about all of those things and more. I mean, take the K-On! cosplay. Put aside the fact that it’s corporate-sponsored. That doesn’t concern me. What does concern me is this:

Look at this. I mean frankly, the entire idea of K-On! is that these four girls are moe precisely because they’re completely unselfconscious of their own moeness. That’s not happening for me in this picture, even though the outfits are spot-on. Ashley comes close in appearance, but we all know she’s the confrontational one, as opposed to Mio who would wither onstage before picking a fight. As for Yui, one needs to have a certain innate level of naivete to do the “Un-tan” routine with the castanets properly. Observe:

As for the so-called Cosplay Critique Circle — well, dissing others for what they look like has been around since we developed sight organs. This is nothing new. Anyone who has gone to a club or been to a high school with girls in it knows what this is like. The only thing new that this has brought to the scene is the sheer public nature of Facebook, which is a step up from simply putting up a troll blog which only a select group of bitter jilted cosplay lovers read. So people puffed up behind the safety of the Internet are giving harsh critiques about people they’ve never met in order to feel better about themselves. WHAT ELSE IS NEW?

There’s another thing I don’t understand. Of COURSE looks matter when it comes to cosplay. Cosplay is inherently visual. Looks aren’t everything, clearly, but it’s just like dating, or attending job interviews. Your appearance is the first thing people notice. Some people will dismiss you at first glance. Others will take the time to get to know you. You are cosplayers. By the very nature of the hobby you are exposing yourself to public scrutiny. GET OVER IT.

Here’s what I don’t understand. Here we are, me and my friends, some from way back, some I just met that night, and we’re all united by our love for the hobby. (And by sake and yakiniku.) Why can’t it be like this on a larger scale? Hasn’t this been what I’ve been trying to say all this time? Well, hasn’t it? Even the forums are either dominated by some strange agendas of people who were clearly bullied as kids and want their belated turn as the big kids on the otaku playground, or by people who intend to simply capitalize on the scene, either for cash, fame, or their pick of naive ingenues who like to dress up. Why don’t I just put up my own community of people who actually LOVE the hobby, LOVE the scene enough to make fools of themselves from time to time in the name of FUN?

…

Yeah, why don’t I?

More sake and yakiniku, please!

Danny Choo recently stated on his blog that he was adopting the term ‘Japanese Pop Culture’ to refer to what was previously known as the Otaku Subculture. He said that this was because:

1. The term ‘otaku’ isn’t widely known outside Japan
2. Otaku subculture is now big enough to ditch the sub- prefix
3. The mainstream Japanese media has often used the terms ‘Cool Japan’ and ‘Japanese Pop Culture’ to refer to otaku topics.

Longtime readers of this blog know that I have a history of criticizing the terms the community uses to refer to itself and its members. Some people see this as a form of needless semantic nitpicking, but I strongly disagree. Despite the now-cliched old Shakespearean line about roses by any other name smelling as sweet, I believe that names have power, largely the power to define identity and associations. Heck I have the gall to call this blog Project Otaking, after all.

Roses smell just as sweet by any other name, but I doubt your date would be impressed if you gave her a bouquet of Pigscrap Cowsvomit Blossoms, no matter how intrinsically identical to roses they actually were.

I mean, I can understand why Danny Choo would benefit from repackaging something as scary as the otaku subculture into something that sounds safe and approachable, like ‘Japanese Pop Culture’. He’s in the business of selling it to Westerners (and countries heavily influenced by Western culture, like the Philippines). Otaku brings up connotations of lolicon, getting married to two-dimensional characters, and bad hygiene. Japanese Pop Culture calls up sparkly, squeaky-clean images of Shibuya and Roppongi, instead of cramped, dimly-lit Akiba alleyways.

And considering Choo’s high-visibility projects like OTACOOL, the man has stored up enough geek cred to make statements about the scene in general… right?

Me, I’m not so sure what to think. See, I’m thinking of the publicity fallout when John Mayer recently used the N-word during a Playboy interview. Later he apologized, saying he was trying to ‘intellectualize’ the use of the term. This from an interview where he claimed that his dick was a ‘white supremacist’. Right.

Back to Danny Choo, cosplay, and the otaku subculture. Cosplay is at a turning point, with the purist hobbyists going one way, and the people who want to take the hobby mainstream (complete with government funding) in another. Danny Choo is from the latter camp, with OTACOOL2 pretty much cementing that impression in my mind, turning the often-scary world of cosplay into a glossy package you can sell at a mainstream bookstore.

The term ‘otaku’, similar to the N-word Mr. Mayer foolishly blurted out (honorary hood pass or no), is usually derogatory when non-0taku use it, and a badge of pride when otaku use it to refer to themselves. And just like the N-word, it is very hard to turn into an easily-marketable package. It has too much accumulated baggage associated with it. But Japanese Pop Culture is not the same thing as the Otaku Subculture. There are simply too many types of otaku, many like military or SFX otaku spilling outside the neat little marketable boundaries of ‘Japanese Pop Culture’.

The nuance isn’t nitpicking, and it isn’t difficult to sort out. The key, I think, comes from Danny Choo’s post itself when he says that the Japanese media uses “Cool Japan” and “Japanese Pop Culture” to refer to the otaku subculture.

Japanese Pop Culture is a name given by the outside media to refer to the broad group.

Otaku is the name we give ourselves.

So many of you are aware of the Christopher Handley decision by now, where apparently customs officials opened up a package from Japan addressed to Mr. Handley which contained manga depicting minors ‘engaged in sexually explicit acts and bestiality’. Last week our intrepid manga fan was handed down a six-month sentence for violating the US Protect Act, which which outlaws cartoons, drawings, sculptures or paintings depicting minors engaging in sexually explicit conduct, and which lack “serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value.”

The interesting is that the Protect Act is actually narrower in scope than the so-called Anti Hentai Bill authored by Rep. Nikki Teodoro of my very own district in Tarlac. (As if she weren’t irritating enough to begin with.) The Anti-Hentai Bill covers persons in possession of “any representation, whether visual, audio or written combination thereof, by electronic, mechanical, digital, optical, magnetic or any other means, of a child engaged or involved in real or simulated explicit sexual activity”, and appoints cybercafe owners as sort of a cyber-Gestapo, requiring them to police what their customers are surfing.

I’m sure the legal and moral implications of these things have been combed over by many other writers. Privacy concerns, what constitutes child pornography, and so on. I’m not interested in covering old ground, despite the fact that both laws are so broad they will get you in jail if you so much as draw a big stick figure riding a small stick figure.

What I am interested in is that the US and Philippines have higher crime rates and cases of pedophilia than the demonic Japanese culture that is churning out this filth despite this sort of official prudery, based on local ‘standards of obscenity’. So we know for sure that this isn’t an effective deterrent per se.

So what happened? The key is a difference of culture. The U.S. (and therefore by extension the Philippines) revolves around a belief system that punishes you for thinking wrongly. Even thinking about sinning is a sin. We are societies founded around the idea that the stories in a particular book are literal truth instead of allegorical fiction, and this is why we think playing violent video games will turn us into serial killers, despite the fact that the evidence does not reflect this assertion. But we’re not big on evidence as a society anyway.

On the other hand, Japan distinguishes from one’s private and public persona, one’s tatemae and honne. We read books and watch movies and tv shows with plots involving murders and rapes all the time. (CSI comes to mind, whatever the flavor.) Japan understands this. In fact the whole idea of being a salaryman during the week and then cosplaying as an anime character on the weekends is understood as simply exercising one’s free choice to do whatever the hell one wants to do over their free time, provided that during the rest of the time one pays one’s debt to society. The Japanese also understand the difference between the symbol and the symbolized.

We don’t. Or at least we like to pretend that we don’t. Actually each one of us goes through the day filled with thoughts of murdering the driver of the car in front of us, or messing around with a co-worker on the sly, or lifting the wallets of obnoxious, pushy, overweight businessmen. We just pretend we’re not like that, because the thought of committing a sin is a sin.

So we throw the people who make the mistake of getting caught thinking these thoughts into jail, and the rest of us publicly denounce them as monsters and fiends, and we turn a blind eye to our own growing corruption, which is reflected in the corruption of our entire society. So the moralists continue to pretend their shit doesn’t stink, telling us that every new trend comes from the devil. Every new thing is a threat to the orthodoxy, and a threat to the orthodoxy is a threat to people in power. So we persecute imaginary crimes, and we ignore real ones.

Meanwhile, Japan quietly advances into the future, leaving us cultural prudes behind, focusing on the real but frolicking in their imaginations, unburdened by our prudishness or self-righteousness or the thought that somewhere, imaginary crimes are being perpetrated on imaginary people.

It’s just a matter of culture.

During the past year or so, upon returning from the hallowed halls of the Judicial System to the Wild West of Otakudom, I have been subjected to many arguments from people who think calling someone “GAY” is equivalent to scoring some sort of metaphysical point. Coming from a line of work where precision of argument is of the utmost importance, I would like to disabuse these people of their delusions.

Look at the scary Maslow-like diagram above. Don’t worry, it won’t bite. It is the Hierarchy of Arguments by Paul Graham. It is arranged from the least valid objections at the bottom to the most valid ones on top. The bottom 4 tiers contribute very little to the actual discourse. The top 3 are better, but don’t guarantee that a refutation is valid, they simply increase the probability that a counter-argument is sound.

Since the whole thing is a bit abstract at this point, let me illustrate using real-world examples.

1. Name-Calling. We all know what this is like. We don’t need to spend too much time on this one. Example: You’re a dirty old man pedophile fag slut. *highfives gang*

2. Ad Hominem. This appears to be another favorite. This is a step up from Name-Calling because the accusation may be relevant, but doesn’t actually address the argument directly. Example: Of course he would side with her. He’s a White Knight. Another example: What does he know, he bought his costume instead of making it himself.

3. Responding to Tone. Finally we see a response to the actual debate, but not to the content. After all, it’s better to be flippant and right than respectful and wrong. Example: You might be right, but you shouldn’t be so arrogant about it. (Btw, I get this a lot for some reason. )

4. Contradiction. This is the lowest form of actual response to argument, where you state the opposite case without little or no supporting evidence, often combined with Responding to Tone statements. Example: I can’t believe you’re so snarky about cosplayers who don’t make their own costumes. Cosplayers who don’t make their own costumes are cosplayers too.

With the next 3 tiers we finally get arguments that address the actual issues.

5. Counterargument. This is the first form of convincing disagreement. This is contradiction plus evidence. Unfortunately sometimes counterarguments aim at a different point than the original argument, either unintentionally or through intellectual dishonesty. It’s common for two people to fire off counterarguments at each other when they actually agree on the central point, or for one person to use counterargument to perpetuate a disagreement that is already resolved. Example: You make a good point about her popularity as a community figure, but she’s a terrible role model for the young because she’s glorifying the objectification of the female form.

6. Refutation. This is the most convincing form of argument, where you find the mistake in the argument and then, often using quotes, directly show why the original speaker is mistaken. Example: You said that the Endless Eight episodes were filler episodes by KyoAni done as an attempt to save money for the movie. But if that was the case, they would have simply reused cels from previous episodes, and used the same recorded dialogue, instead of freshly animating and dubbing each new episode.

7. Refuting the Central Point. The strength of a refutation depends on which point you refute. Many people prefer to refute peripheral arguments of their opponent instead of honing in on the very thesis of their argument, the very point he or she is trying to make, and then demolishing it with evidence and quotation. Example: You explicitly said at a public forum that “people who wear costumes for pay are not cosplayers, but models,” speaking on behalf of real cosplayers. But didn’t you also receive remuneration for wearing your very finely self-crafted costume that one time? Your status as a cosplayer is beyond doubt, of course, but doesn’t that leave your original statement in shambles?

Is that much clearer now, children? However, like I said above, just because your argument is higher up on the pyramid is no guarantee that that argument is correct. We do not deal in certainties. What it does do, however, is indicate a higher probability that the argument is valid.

So feel free to ignore arguments from the bottom 4 from now on, okay?

Hey, here’s something fun you can all try: Let’s look at debates involving our favorite fandom, and try to find out from which tier each speaker is coming from. It’ll shed a lot of light on how they think. So… where should we begin? Any suggestions?

[The above image is from CreateDebate, an awesome site you should check out if you're at all interested in being a more effective debater. Read the original essay by Paul Graham here.]

So I ran across a public Plurk the other day that said:

“People who started later then me in WoW [World of Warcraft] are now higher level then me. ^^; Guess that’s the price of having a life. Good thing there’s a level cap.” (lol)”

(more…)

So the other day on Plurk Magnetic Rose, who always has her finger on the pulse, called my attention to the recent Anime Expo mass resignation fiasco. A couple of days later another friend of mine gave me the inside scoop into the whole Alice and Rabbit Multiply mess.

Now I’m not privy to either incident, except through second-hand information — which means I don’t feel confident enough to make any pronouncements about either situation specifically.

What did strike me was the conclusion of many observers that all this was simply a sign that the otaku scene is full of dramu no matter where you go.

What’s worse is that, unlike my first impressions of the scene, there doesn’t seem to be any single reason why this is the case, unless you’re a fan of the vague and largely-unhelpful suggestion that all of this is simply ‘human nature’. It’s like an anime Pandora’s Box: there’s a bit of envy, a healthy dose of ‘picking on your perceived inferiors’, a shot of the old persecution complex, a touch of snobbery, and a whole lot of ‘fighting over who gets the biggest slice of the pie’. And sometimes it seems like people will use the slightest hint of disagreement over ANYTHING — which anime is better, how much your costume cost to make, or which particular people you should never be seen in public with — to bully the other side, just to feel good about themselves.

But what’s the alternative?

I mean it’s not like blind optimism or getting-along-for-the-sake-of-getting-along is helping things. I personally think a certain level of conflict is healthy for any community. Some days an indignant part of me wants to ROW ROW FIGHT THE POWER, and I can easily tell when I’m going through this phase because I act as though a monolithic, faceless enemy stands between the True Otaku and victory — and there’s no such thing. There’s people, and then there’s more people.

On other days, I just lie back and watch the fireworks. There’s just something perversely entertaining about watching other people blow themselves up.

Popcorn?