The Ton-chan Effect ← ¬.Q

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The Ton-chan Effect

There is this speculation that the insular nature of the Japanese anime industry becoming even more so. I can neither validate these speculations nor resolve them here, I’ve pretty much kept to the sidelines when these are discussed in the various fora I frequent (blogs, twitter, google reader shared items).

Arguably, this will keep fans like me, even if I watch and enjoy some of the contemporary (and popular shows, like K-ON!!), on the outside. Instead of looking forward to shows that appeal to my tastes (a lot of such shows were popular in the past; mostly robot shows and science fiction), I’ll find myself having to adjust my tastes more and more “to keep up” with that of the Japanese audience, if I want to remain interested in anime going forward.

I imagine this in terms of K-ON!! episode 16, wherein I get to be Azusa wanting music (anime) to be a certain way, to have some level of seriousness (so to speak) but instead become carried by the current of indolent cake-eating. Azusa CAN enjoy herself this way, and DOES (like I do enjoy K-ON!! a lot), but this isn’t what she wanted to begin with.

Jun-chan is even further removed, a near-complete outsider but interested in the light music club — like many casual anime viewers I’m acquainted with. They unfortunately wouldn’t get into the K-ON!! kinds of shows — and pretty much act like “tell me when there’s a new Gundam show again, or another TTGLI, or Samurai X, or Ghost in the Shell.” It’s quite a challenge explaining to them what I get out of cake-and-tea girl cartoons where “nothing” happens.

I understand that the Japanese anime industry doesn’t exist for me, much less for my acquaintances who are hardly even invested in it. I’m just sharing this moment when I feel like I understood something about where I am in the scheme of things — which is nowhere of consequence at all.

it is moist & delicious meta

and it's not even a lie!

ghostlightning penned this last love song at 5:23 on July 30, 2010.

It's categorized as Commentary, and it's tagged over nine thousand things, including: Anime Industry, Casual Viewers, fair treatment (11), Fans, k-on (8). What a slut.

At least it only has 8 comments and 2,645 views.

8 Responses

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At 5:36 am on July 30, 2010,
schneider said:

While I have not started K-ON!! yet, I will have to agree with you. I wasn’t a moe fan to begin with, but the more I realized that such shows were to stay, I decided to swim in them rather than sink.

Thankfully, they weren’t bad at all. In fact, I found my horizons broadened as a result. I don’t regret this choice.

Azusa resonates a lot with me, because while I like my anime to be a certain way (mecha), I get carried away with cake, because it’s just as fun, too. If I don’t find anime fun anymore, I could just outright leave. But that won’t happen anytime soon…
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  At 2:42 pm on July 30, 2010,
  ghostlightning said:
  
  Yeah, there’s this thrill in discovering value in something that “you’re not supposed to,” at the same time there’s the letdown of attempting to watch all these shows from the ’80s and “you’re supposed to” like but end up not liking as much (e.g. Votoms, 32 eps in). There are stresses not only on one’s desires, but also on one’s identity.
  
  I think Azusa can represent many of us.
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At 6:45 am on July 30, 2010,
lolikitsune said:

Good post, very good post. Agree.
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  At 2:43 pm on July 30, 2010,
  ghostlightning said:
  
  I-I-It’s not as if I write for your approval or anything sempai /makes tea
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At 6:28 pm on August 4, 2010,
Robert Weizer said:

I’ve resigned myself to the (not altogether unpleasant due to my relative “newness” to semi-regular anime watching [I started it with I believe Cromartie in February 2009, before that was Adult Swim and was infrequent]) fact that I’m much better off just ignoring the hell out of the “HEY WHAT’S GOING ON THIS SEASON” image macros and waiting for digiboy and others to write about it after it’s out.

Any time that was delegated to complaining about the “state of anime” is explained away by this very fact that “it’s not for America and we have no chance to make any sort of impact at this point” and utilized towards a much more productive action: popping a boner every time I hear 70s and 80s super robot anime is more subbed than I thought or is completely subbed.
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At 8:54 am on August 5, 2010,
TheBigN said:

Instead of looking forward to shows that appeal to my tastes <– This is always an interesting point to consider regarding how one feels about anime today. I don't think we consider how much we expect things to fit into our box of enjoyment, and that might be why some responses to some of the stuff out there today might be too extreme for my liking. At the same time, I can also understand why some people are feeling because they aren't getting what they want, but I don't feel sorry for them if they choose to keep lamenting on that instead of lowering their interest in current anime (I hope not) or trying things that are out of their box, so to speak (which is what I hope for). Not that I want tastes to evolve as shows do, but just retaining an enjoyment for anime. Those two aren't mutually exclusive though. :P
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  At 11:41 am on August 5, 2010,
  Robert Weizer said:
  
  I wouldn’t have tried Zetsubou unless I had started reading Fuzakenna and other blogs, personally!
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At 4:20 pm on August 5, 2010,
lolikitsune said:

Just sayin’. http://melative.com/Flak/37309

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