History and background of anime.

            The word anime is a term that comes from Japan, meaning animation. Anime is characterized by its numerous different characters, colorful backgrounds, and graphics, as well as its imaginary themes. Going back to the history of anime, the first anime film created was released in Japan in 1917. It was first used to show the world what was going on at the moment with the anti-American propaganda. After meeting up with one of my classmates, Xin, and discussing his subculture I was able to learn a lot from it. Xin is a participant of the anime subculture, which is a show for Japanese animation that as he said, “has an extreme range, it goes all the way from children animation to adult animation”. Children animation is more educational, in the sense of teaching lessons, teaching them how to do stuff, make friendships and more. On the other hand, there is adult animation where it illustrated more sexually related stuff, such as protection from sexually transmitted infections like condoms, sexy scenes are also projected, all for a more mature audience. There is also anime for a younger audience such as teenagers, this anime is mostly about humor and these age-related moments, like school and activities with friends. Being introduced for the first to this subculture places me in the position of an outsider, however, it’s a really interesting subculture and I will look more into it, maybe I become a participant in the future. All anime participants are different in terms of what they watch, however, they all a lot in common, such as the way they show their participation in this subculture.

An interview in a loud and crowded library

            At first, my group and I met in the library. It was crowded and loud since we were in a section of the library assigned for group work. We sat down and started interviewing each other. I was really nervous; I think I was the only one with the feeling. As soon as we sat on the table, I notice that Xin had his air pod’s in a case that was decorated with Anime graphic designs. That was very interesting to me because one of my questions was “how do you show your participation in this subculture?”, so since I got there some of my questions started to have answered without him saying a word. 

            As I began the interview, I notice that Xin was very excited about the topic. As he was going to answer my questions, I saw how he kept moving his hands together on top of the table. I saw how he came closer to me when I asked: “what type of anime do you watch?”. He was smiling often and using his hands to express his ideas and give me a better understanding. Throughout the whole interview, I was how he as gesticulating and that showed me his excitement about the topic. Xin’s tone of voice was getting louder and louder, that showed me his excitement too.

Thinking about joining anime? Know its participants.

            Anime participants are a very diverse group. Participants in this subculture have different races, gender, ages, and background. Anime has such an immense variety of genres that anyone can become part of this subculture. Genres in anime include romance, action, horror, history, psychological, drama, a narration of life, magic and more. Groups are made depending on the viewer’s likes. For example, as Xin explained to me, romance is usually watched by females, history, and education are more for kids, and action and terror are more selected by males.       The anime subculture as fun as it sounds, it also has rules or more like codes these depend on where you are. For instance, the code is mostly used in Japan, China, and Korea that if you like a character and its development in the film, and someone says that for some reason they don’t like that character, you can affirm that “they are wrong because they have bad taste” as Xin mentioned.

Overall, what is the importance of this subculture?

            This is such an amazing subculture, I am very proud I had the opportunity to look at it closer and have a conversation with one of its participant. Anime is a series of films that can serve any purpose. It goes from comics, humor, action, terror to teaching you a history lesson. This is what I found the most interesting part of this subculture is, you can do and learn so many things in this subculture. The fact that there is such a great variety of films for every group and different ages makes this subculture want to be joined by people from everywhere in the world. I am willing to investigate and find more about this subculture, and I feel that from now on Xin and I have something in common, and are our interest in the same subculture.