Secret Society

Tara asked if I would post on anime and how it excludes people, and here it is!

Anime is just like any other activity, it just might be more exclusive than others. Why you ask? Because there's so many little subdivisions that make up anime/manga/videogames. Different shows, voice actors, animation, companies, plots, genres, and all that good stuff. It can be likened to film in a way, but I think that because people who watch anime are more...into it they go all out in terms of fanboy/fangirl -iness. What's more I think it's not as wide spread of a hobby as film. Films can be probably be argued to be much more public and casual than the swarms of people like me who can probably quote different anime, reference them in daily life, draw them, etc. (we don't need to hear more about my geekiness).

Basically this idea came up before Tara really got into anime. She'd come to the anime club with us and would have no idea what was going on, especially if we showed an episode right in the middle of a season. Now anime can get pretty weird sometimes, even for me. So I can understand why people wouldnt take to it right away. You need to gradually be introduced to anime and manga with ones you find interesting, then after a while the weirdness of it all will become normal.

Anyway back to the topic. Because anime/manga/videogames is more like a cult hobby (although it's coming out of the shadows, and videogames not as much as the other two), and there's just so much ground to cover, and that it changes constantly due to new episodes and chapters every week (for the current stuff), it's hard to catch up if you don't have ridiculous amounts of free time...unless you're like me, who has way too much free time :D

For example, at Tara's first fanime we went to the masquerades (a series of skits of fan's favorite shows made up by and done by said fans). Naturally when a popular show came on or was referenced everyone in the entire theater laughed or yelled or cheered, etc. but if you're not attuned to the goings on of certain things you just wont get it. It's the same for anything really, math, history, school stuff, sports, food, tv shows, books.

It's a very strange thing to be on the outside of the circle when everyone else is on the inside. There is no actual initiation that otakus (as anime and manga and videogame nerds will be referred to as henceforth, even if it's not quite the right word for most people) force onto others, like hazing for a fraternity. Everything is self-motivated. If you want to join the otakus, you can. It takes a while, but once you're in the circle everything becomes way more funny and interesting and you get stuff!

So there's my whole random dissertation on the otaku social group and how to join. I'd post a list on what you should be reading/watching/playing but it's way too extensive and I havent even read/watched/played most things. All things considered I'm a pretty low key otaku (partially cause I dont like to read things if they get popular). I'll make a makeshift list basked on genre. Keep in mind I'm just typing this straight out, no editing, so dont kill me.

First I have to explain genres...ugh...Oh you can stop reading now if you dont want to be (or already are) in our little secret society. :D

Ok so shounen is manga/anime geared toward young boys 'shou' little 'nen' years = young. Why it only refers to boys is another long winded post about inequality but I'm not gonna go into that.

Shoujo is geared toward young girls 'shou' little 'jo' girl

Seinen is geared toward older boys 18+ give or take a few years

Josei is geared toward older girls 18+ give or take

Now a lot of manga (not all) is kind of...over the top when it comes to romance-y stuff. And I dont mean overly fluffy and cute and happy(although this is also true)
I mean really graphic, and weird, and too much fanservice (fanservice is when the author/artist draws really explicit poses/people/actions/etc.) Smut, ecchi, yaoi, and yuri all fall into this category.

Yaoi and yuri are strictly gay/lesbian relationships that are all overly...graphic. This isnt to say that gay/lesbian relationships in all manga/anime are. For example, shounenai= 'boy love' which is manga/anime about gay men. I've read a few and some of them are actually really...sweet and cute. Although it took me a while to realize they were shounenai cause I'm slow like that ^_^" Shojoai is the same thing, only with girls.

And everything else is pretty much the same as genres for movies, books, etc.

So here's a list of stuff that's popular right now (doesnt mean I've read them all, or that you have to). Also most popular manga are animes and vice versa (sometimes animes start up and then mangas come about). There are cases of light novels being turned into anime/manga such as Durarara! (great show by the way)

I just realized making a list based on genres is hard and stupid. why? because they're online! Arent I smart?

Check out the popular manga on mangareader.net, mangafox.com, and mangastream.com (only has the most recent chapters)

Now i'm just gonna list random stuff not on the list that I really really liked just alphabetically cause I'm lazy

+Anima (Animal-human hybrids who are hated by people)
20th Century Boys (great psychological manga, long, but good, there's also a liveaction movie)
21st Century Boys (the continuation of the one above)
Akumetsu (kind of dark, guy kills bad politicians who're destroying the economy, and then kills himself, but he keeps coming back to life)
Alice 19th (it was...ok...but I'm not a big fan of shoujo)
Alive-The Final Evolution (Good stuff about psychic powers)
Amatsuki (Historical manga, but sci-fi at the same time)
Angel Desetsu (You will never find another manga as funny as this!!!!)
Apple (good oneshot)
Azumanga Daioh (funny short stories about a bunch of high school girls just...being themselves)
Bakuman (a manga about manga)
Bamboo Blade (manga about fighting, I like those :D)
Bartender (manga about alcohol and bartending, it's really good!)
Beck (AKA Mongolian Chop Squad, manga about music, specifically rock)
Bitter Virgin (Kind of explicit, but at the same time it's not...well towards the end it kind of got weird, but very dramatic possibly overly so)
Black Cat (it's ok. The first episode of the anime was really good then it kinda went meh)
Bloody Monday (Great psychological manga about terrorists and the hacker who's trying to stop them)
Bloody Monday 2( continuation of the previous)
Busou Renkin (by the author of the popular Ruroni Kenshin, about alchemy and homonculus, but very different from the popular Fullmetal Alchemist, interesting nonetheless)
Chii's Sweet Home (an adorable manga about a kitten so funny!!!)
Claymore (a popular one, but by the same person who did Angel Densetsu so I had to put it on here)
Code Breaker (pretty good with some good characters, although most of them are cliche)
DN Angel (shoujo action/adv, a boy can transform into a famous art theif because that's just how his family's DNA works and something something only changes back with love more shoujo mumbo jumbo)
Doubt (psychological, dark, lots of blood and guts, good stuff)
Durarara (popular, but really good nonetheless, go find the anime, it's farther than any manga chapters that I've found)
Fruits basket (shoujo, but a good start to introduce yourself into the crazy world of shoujo)
Full Contact (great manga about karate :D)
Full Metal Alchemist (really popular, but love it anyway. go read)
Ga-Rei (about spirits and fighting them, shounen)
Gakuen Alice (about psychic abilities and the school that trains kids with said powers, shoujo and pretty typical and predictable story line, not bad though)
Gamaran (martial arts/swordfighting, kid with the best(?) fighting style, trying ot be the strongest, some historical-ness to it...kinda)
Gintama (act/adv martial arts, about a guy who is a jack of all trades and fights people, funny sci-fi/ancient japan setting, popular)
Haruka 17 (really good manga about acting, and a girl who has the potential to be a great actress, sometimes it's really fan-service-y for guys, but it's pretty good)
Hellsing (popular, vampires, killing, blood, guts, and gore, really really dark)
High School of the Dead (popular, really fanservice-y, psychological, dark, blood, gore, but really goes into the psychological of a zombie attack)
Higurashi no naku koro ni (this series is popular and dark and gory, and mind bending, and awesome)
Hikaru no Go (was popular in its day, a manga about Go a japanese game)
Hunter x Hunter (awesome, same author as Yu Yu Hakusho, action/battle/psychic powers(?))
Koukou debut (shoujo, a girl wants to become 'cute' and recruits the help of a boy, it's pretty good)
Liar Game (psychological manga about an organization that forces people to play a series of mental games or else they'll be in huge debt, better than it sounds)
Lucky Star (kind of like Azumanga Daioh, bunch of high school girls and just their lives)
Ludwig Kakumei (a dark spin on fairytales)
MAR (shounen, alternate world, battle, it was...ok....)
Meteodo (shounen, scifi, short, great manga about a meteor that crash landed and started affecting life on earth, even humans, good stuff)
Mirai Nikki (The god of time holds a game where the players have to kill each other to decide who takes his place, really dark and psychological, slightly fanservice-y for guys)
Moyashimon (about a kid who can see bacteria and microscopic organisms, pretty interesting)
Mushihi (about a guy who travels all over to help people plagued by invisible bug-like things, it's really good)
Mx0 (school of magic and a guy who somehow is able to attend even though he doesnt have magic. Really funny stuff)
Natsume yuujinchou (pretty popular, a kid who can see ghosts and has inheirted a book of ghost's names has to return the names. Read the summary it does a better job)
Piano no Mori (kind of weird at times, manga about kids with awesome piano skills, really good)
Pluto (same author as 20th century boys, really good psychological manga about robots and artificial intelligence)
Psyren (popular, psychic powers, battle manga, pretty good)
Saijou no Meii (great medical manga, just so awesome)
School Rumble (so freakin' funny and so many love triangles that arent really triangles after a while)
Shut Hell (historical manga, battles, pretty good so far)
Souten no Koumori (great oneshot by the person who did Fullmetal Alchemist)
Spice and Wolf (about a fox god who leaves the place she protects and travels with a travelling merchant)
Spiral -Suiri no Kizuna (pretty good psychological manga, lots of mental battles)
Suicide Island (really dark, psychological, people who commit suicide but fail are sent to this island. Most commit suicide again, but the others try and survive)
Stray dog (another one shot by the author of Fullmetal Alchemist, it was great)
The Changelings (pretty good story about a brother and sister who live as the other, due to their personalities, the ending was really lame though)
Tiji-kun (martial arts manga pretty good)
Umineko no naku koro ni (same people who did higurashi no naku koro ni, psychological, dark, gory, mystery)
Uzumaki (really strange horror story, you wont like spirals after reading this)

and i'm gonna stop here cause i'm lazy