I have a couple of comments to get through before moving onto today's long editorial.

First off, just regarding Sailor Moon news in general, apart from the minor updates to Sailor Moon Channel, there's been nothing (that comes to mind) to discuss. If there was any breaking series-related news to be had, we'd certainly have it up here as we did with the Lohan rumor. There's going to be a doujinshi event here in Tokyo again on Sunday, so at the very least, I'll have more pictures and stories from that next week.

Secondly, regarding WoL, I apologize for the delay with Third Edition for those who've been wondering about it. We're changing about a half-dozen images in the book, which is why things are taking so long.

I wanted to mention that I'll be speaking about the Warriors of Legend project (the book and the tour) this Saturday at my fellowship university in Tokyo. The abstract is as follows:
 

This is laying the foundation for a major project I'm undertaking simultaneous to the work on WoL 2, and one which I hope bridges the divide between the Warriors of Legend series (which is oriented toward my fellow fans), and the larger audience interested in the phenomenon of Japanese popular culture.

Somewhat related to this project is the following editorial, which summarizes a few thoughts I've had lately.

Gazing Westward

Over the last decade anime in the West has grown into a massive marketplace, with millions of fans across the globe. But what has this meant in Japan- to Japanese anime fans, the media, and the industry? Are they interested about the growth of anime in the West?

Akihabara has been, since its birth as the “electronic city” of Tokyo in the 1970s, an international zone within the larger capital. Foreign tourists mingled with the native population to see the latest technological wonders that the land of the talking toilet had to offer. Beginning around 1997 and continuing to this day, Akihabara changed course from focus on computers and the latest electronics to otaku bunka; the Japanese fan culture of anime, manga, and videogames that has been the one rising star of the country’s economy in the near decade-and-a-half-long recession that has plagued the country. Japanese and foreigners continued to flock to the area, now in search of the latest gachapon or rare doujinshi instead of audio accouterment.

Akihabara is an interesting place, both in terms of the area itself, and the people who come there. To stroll through “Akiba,” the area’s pet-name among those who come regularly, is to walk through a maze of shops that, on the outside seem to all be selling the same goods, but each having a specialization that the other lacks. To be able to negotiate Akiba- to understand which shop a particular subset of fandom patronizes versus another- is a step toward reading the language of Japanese fan culture’s insular worlds.

Those who follow the Akiba-kei lifestyle, as it is called in Japan, traverse between two bubbles. One is the bubble of the home, their personal anime sanctuary where their collections are treasured, and the other the bubble of Akiba, the public zone they engage with to both collect what they bring back to the private abode, but to also interact with other fans within their hobby’s particular gaze; being it garage kit collecting, idol chasing, doujinshi drawing, or otherwise.

For all the talk of the internationalization of anime, Japanese fandom remains focused on itself and its hobbies. The spread of anime to distant shores matters not to the average Akiba-kei, apart from being an anecdote of amusement. The language barrier is significant- even if they were interested in interacting with sibling fandoms in other countries, it’s a lot of work with little payoff. Like most fandoms around the world, they remain focused on their hobby, collection, and particular circles.

Indeed, international anime is little more than a curiosity to Japanese fans. The relevance of Stand Alone Complex airing on Adult Swim to Japanese fandom is about the same level as 24 airing on Japanese TV to North American 24 fans. (24 is quite popular in Japan.) The international fandoms (as opposed to the product) are more interesting to them, but the level remains that of curiosity rather than interest in serious engagement.

To illustrate this further, as you know I’ve attended a number of Sailor Moon cosplay/doujinshi events in Tokyo. The small band of fellow foreigners I’ve attended with have been the only non-Japanese in attendance. These events are typically put together by a group of doujinshi authors who come together a couple times a year, rent a small hall somewhere, and put out about a dozen seller’s tables and a corner set aside for photography of the same cosplayers who come session after session (albeit in different attire.) It’s kind of like a mini-convention, but is more a get-together of members from several connected internet forums.

The fans found our attendance interesting enough to point and whisper, but in most cases that was the extent of our interaction. Several fans were hesitant to chat with us, partly because of language concerns, partly because many appeared to be socially awkward and did not even talk much with other Japanese fans. There were cases where fans threw themselves eagerly into conversation (in Japanese), and we would greet each other at each successive event. Having attended several of these events over my time in Tokyo, as the curiosity effect wears off and other fans become used to your presence, it’s far more comfortable and you start to be accepted into the Akiba world. To even begin this process, though, you need to dress in the clothes of Japanese fandom, and I don’t mean cosplay. You need to speak the language, interact regularly, and work within the confines of the insular social network. Unless you have the ability to do that, the fandom largely ignores its Western cousins.

I’ve been discussing the relationship between Japanese anime fandom and that of the international scene, but what about on the media or industry level? If the clip of a Japanese News program’s coverage of Pop Japan Travel that was circulating around the internet earlier this year is any indication, it’s not just a curiosity but a source of laughter, as the news programs skewered the attendees as love of their hobby at the same time as they were impressed by their zealousness. To be fair to Pop Japan Travel, the Japanese media ridicules Japanese fandom too, as indicated in a series of videos on the lives of several Akiba-kei.

This bemused, slightly derogatory response to the growth of international anime at first appears to stand in stark contrast to public official and industry responses to international anime, who are enthusiastic about the growth of anime around the world and seek to highlight Japan’s “culture of cool.” But the role of public officials is to paint a rosy picture of any possibilities for the growth of Japan’s economy and “soft power.” The national tourist organization will suggest tourists “immerse yourself in Japanese anime and comics” and bureaucrats will suggest the government to promote anime overseas but they’ll do so not because of anything inherent in anime but because it’s an opportunity that they can take advantage of.

Japanese anime companies embraced the potential of the international market with too much haste- they got pricked. Toei’s attempts to go it alone sank (anyone buy Slam Dunk?), others attempted to strong-arm the American companies into paying inflated prices for licenses only to cause a host of difficulties. Nintendo thought it would make Pikachu this generation of children’s Mickey Mouse; they succeeded, but only in Japan. Toei has recently stepped back and moved into more familiar and successful grooves with its announcement about working with Disney to produce cartoons specifically for export rather than trying to widely distribute existing product.

I don’t meant to discount the importance of anime’s Western growth to the Japanese industry- it has injected life into an industry that has been important in fueling both the development of Japan’s economy into the start of the 21^st century, as well as affected the view of Japan abroad. But as much as I enjoy anime, one has to remember that it’s still cartoons intended primarily for either children at 7am or asocial geeks up at 1am. The fandom in Japan is largely uninterested, busy as they are in their own circles. The media plays both sides, using it to ridicule at the same time they marvel at the power these products have over people. And the industry, tinged with both expectation and concern, still sees it as a business.

As I mentioned last month, there is a new book coming out in Japanese called “Otaku in USA.” From the description of what will be in the book, it orients itself through the above tropes, focusing on what’ll sell to Japanese readers- a collection of sensational anecdotes on the growth of anime in America, rather than the layered understanding of anime in the West. Perhaps the Japanese just aren’t ready for it, but perhaps this book and others like it will be the gateway for the kind of discussion about anime in the West that’s needed for the Japanese to fully appreciate the cultural phenomenon that they have unleashed.