It's not Japanimation, ok?
Dec. 31st, 2022 08:16 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
brigidLike a LOT of Americans my age I grew up saying "main-gah" and "ann-ih-may." My kid is quick to correct me. It's "mahn-guh" and "ah-nuh-may." Then my kid goes and reads a bunch of it online and I don't get any credit for making this possible.
Which sounds like I'm making wild and sweeping claims, painting myself as some key player or something, when really I'm just a sucker willing to shell out $40 for a VHS tape with 3 episodes of "Sailor Moon" on it in 1996, proving that there's a market for Japanese import animated tv shows and movies in small towns outside of Chicago.
I remember a friend of mine managed to get a volume of "Battle Angel Alita" and brought it to school, showed it to me during art class. I hold to hold it a specific way, the edges of the pages, not open it too wide in case I cracked the spine. My volumes of "Blade of the Immortal" are all photo reversed so as not to offend delicate American sensibilities. My kid casually informs me that if I want to read the JoJo's Bizarre Adventure volumes we've gotten them then I have to start at the back because it's not like American books. I fish these books out from under the couch, pick empty glasses off them, close them when they've been set down splayed open. They're just books, they aren't rare. You start at the back of them, mama, JEEZE.
We watch stuff together, and sometimes I'll explain something... a specific word/phrase, or cultural thing, or laugh at a joke referencing a different piece of non-American media. My kid looks so bemused when I do this, is sometimes impressed and sometimes condescending. This kid is 13 so sometimes manages to be both at the same time. It's MAHN-guh, mama. JEEZE. It's FRENCH.
It's such a change.
And it's wild to see young people complaining about spending a whopping $25 for a season of an anime on Blue-Ray or be upset that something published a month ago in Japan hasn't been translated and published in the USA yet.
It's not Japanimation any more.
Which sounds like I'm making wild and sweeping claims, painting myself as some key player or something, when really I'm just a sucker willing to shell out $40 for a VHS tape with 3 episodes of "Sailor Moon" on it in 1996, proving that there's a market for Japanese import animated tv shows and movies in small towns outside of Chicago.
I remember a friend of mine managed to get a volume of "Battle Angel Alita" and brought it to school, showed it to me during art class. I hold to hold it a specific way, the edges of the pages, not open it too wide in case I cracked the spine. My volumes of "Blade of the Immortal" are all photo reversed so as not to offend delicate American sensibilities. My kid casually informs me that if I want to read the JoJo's Bizarre Adventure volumes we've gotten them then I have to start at the back because it's not like American books. I fish these books out from under the couch, pick empty glasses off them, close them when they've been set down splayed open. They're just books, they aren't rare. You start at the back of them, mama, JEEZE.
We watch stuff together, and sometimes I'll explain something... a specific word/phrase, or cultural thing, or laugh at a joke referencing a different piece of non-American media. My kid looks so bemused when I do this, is sometimes impressed and sometimes condescending. This kid is 13 so sometimes manages to be both at the same time. It's MAHN-guh, mama. JEEZE. It's FRENCH.
It's such a change.
And it's wild to see young people complaining about spending a whopping $25 for a season of an anime on Blue-Ray or be upset that something published a month ago in Japan hasn't been translated and published in the USA yet.
It's not Japanimation any more.
no subject
Date: 2023-01-02 05:17 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2023-01-03 05:16 am (UTC)Meanwhile when I get the joke/reference/etc. oldest is very shocked and bewildered. How does MOM know about THAT??!!?!?!
Bless. Bless. You sweet summer child.
no subject
Date: 2023-01-06 06:48 pm (UTC)Also, yeah, remembering trying to find any Japanese media anywhere other than the local bootleg store....whew.