#Friends Of Comic Con Forum

[sunshine-zenith]

This is kinda a part two to this post here, about Ballister’s scar. Specifically I wanted to speculate a bit on Ballister’s relationship with Queen Valerin when you consider the fact that he was a mistreated and vulnerable child when he met her

Like. Look at this moment here

She’s reassuring him. She genuinely believes in him, and it’s clear from the knighting ceremony, when she specifically lowers her voice to tell him how much she’s been looking forward to this moment that her intentions around him a pure. She wants to change things, she wants to give this kid a chance, and she’s killing two birds with one stone by making him a knight

But like Nimona herself says, question everything

Look a little bit closer at this image — the queen is well dressed and already had a statement prepared. Ballister is dressed in rags and looks like he hasn’t even been given the chance to wash his hair. He looks surprised and a little scared when the media erupts with questions. And I don’t think this was the Queen’s doing, necessarily — odds are the Director was the one who was supposed to prepare Ballister, and chose not to, because she probably knew that while the Queen wouldn’t judge him for looking like the homeless kid he was, the media would. Still, it shows that while the Queen has overall say on Ballister’s future, she doesn’t have a lot to do about his present

Ballister says he loves the Queen, but it’s hard to tell if he meant he loves her like you’d love a family member, or if he “loves” her like someone who has been raised to not question authority “loves” said authority. He took a deep breath and looked to Ambrosius during the knighting ceremony, not to her. She realistically probably wasn’t super involved, even if she wanted to be — she had an entire kingdom to run, other knights to knight, and likely spent her days making progressive decisions that were controversial with the conservatives in her kingdom. Plus, if she had been super involved, it could’ve increased bias against him, like she was favoring him above everyone else — Ambrosius seemed overall not sure popular among the knights, and while they respected his authority when he was put it charge, there was definitely a vibe that they resented him for being the “Golden Boy” descendant of Gloreth.

Let’s compare Bal and Queen Valerin to Comic!Ballister Blackheart and one of the Queen’s inspirations, Dr. Blitzmeyer (the other was the king, who was a basically prop that was referenced heavily in relation to Ballister as someone he should kill before dying off screen).

Blackheart and Blitzmeyer end the comic opening a lab together, working as co-scientists. Blackheart clearly thinks of her as a friend, but she thinks of him as a fond colleague for most of the comic — she’s happy to offer help in the form of exposition, and she helps him save the day by giving him a McGuffin That You Just Gotta Read The Comic To Understand, but part of her is worried he’s a rival scientist that wants to steal her ideas. She still welcomes him in her home and offers him team. When he’s at the end of his rope and needs a comfort hug, she awkwardly indulges him

She’s surprised when he puts her down as his emergency contact

Dr. Blitzmeyer is a quirky scientist that hangs out on conspiracy forums and probably practices witchcraft for the sake of scientific study. Queen Valerin is a warm and progressive monarch who makes controversial decisions. And they make big decisions regarding helping Ballister

Remember the reluctant McGuffin handover?

She’s weighing the odds of him lying to her and stealing/tampering with/destroying it, hesitating before trusting him. If she had said no, a lot more people would’ve died in the comic, but she had no way of knowing that. She was barely interested in looking out her window and just worried the thing she spent years on would be wrecked

Now, the Queen — we don’t see her weigh the pros and cons of letting Bal become a knight, but she had to. And consider what she was presented with: a homeless kid with either no family or an abusive one judging from his scars and bruises. He had no adults in his life to protect him. No one to tell her no, making him essentially a child soldier might not be in his best interest. And he jumped a fence into the middle of a knight training session declaring he wanted to be a knight, basically coming to her — essentially the perfect candidate for her semi-social experiment

I can totally see her in another world letting this kid into her home and giving him tea and comfort, but I don’t think she could here. While she meant good, she took in a kid with nothing to lose and gave him everything to lose (a home, education, likely his first friend, safety), while also putting him under unavoidable social pressure. And she did it while the only adult figure other than her in his life, the one who would actually be involved in his upbringing — the Director — openly and defiantly failed him from the get go, and protested letting him join the knights to her face

Y’all I adore Queen Valerin, even if we only got her for like five minutes. Even if it’s in a speculative sense I like that she’s a good person while morally gray actions. She very much improved Ballister’s circumstances by giving him a home and the opportunity to pursue his interests. She clearly cared about him. She’s also a politician who, even if unavoidably, lowkey set him up to be a scapegoat without a backup plan and no outside support

Like. Y’all.

[mystybelle]

...

D&D is good at the kind of fantasy stories that have old and faded, hand painted covers with the hyper realistic style of art on them.

Epic fantasy with extremely archetypal heroes, where players are larger than life distillations of details into tropes.

So I think it makes sense that people who play DnD are hesitant to try much else.

Other games don't deliver what they're looking for, the designs are fundamentally different.

I think that as indie or just non-wotc designers, we might be reaching out to the wrong demographic. Because the kids I knew when I was still flesh, and even millennials (who were all adults to me at the time); they were constantly building their own games in order to RP.

I only knew what DnD thanks to my mom, because she was a huge Tolkien fan and desperately wanted to play but, (christianity) said no. But the first ttRPG I read was in the back of a Yu-Gi-Oh manga that used (an apparently very) simplified version of THAC0, and the first I ever played was Pathfinder. But I only played it twice.

The rpgs I played, that weren't on a PlayStation, were writing RPs. Made up stuff my friends and I pulled together; that wouldn't work in DnD for various reasons, and a massive RP on a single dying forum.

The game was only still going because the 28/30+ year olds that ran it had been writing together since they were kids. I assumed that was an outlier until I started talking to more weeb elders, comic con vets, survivors of the "yaoi paddle," and the kids they raised and made chill spaces for. But they've been making and playing games besides DnD forever, and from what I could see, would've had a lotta fun with systems that fit the games they were actually trying to play.

[kustas]

do you have any recommendations for manga that someone new might not find? i read your post and really agreed but am not sure how to look for new manga other than what’s talked about

My favorite method for finding new comics in general is heading to a secondhand store, or any place where you can find large quantities of books you can browse who aren't sorted nicely. A random arrangement of books in a box makes it incredibly easy to find cool new stuff, and secondhand stores, by nature, tend to have old/weird/obscure series in a larger proportions than brand new bookstores have (and for much cheaper!). I am lucky to have two in town, as well as regularly attending flea markets and the like - comics being very popular in my country and having been for generations now, bargain bins of stuff for a few bucks apiece are a staple of any antiques market.

My second favorite method is...asking! Friends, online forums, discord chats, randos at your local anime con. This blog is an example of it alone, but when people like stuff, they're eager to share it! There are many places both online and in real life where you can walk to and say "hey, any recs for weird manga?" and people can and will line up to give you their favorites. I have a few mutuals on here I know I share many tastes with, so such people are typically high up on the list of who I'd ask. If there's a piece of media, especially a more obscure/weird one that you enjoy, it's safe to assume other people who are passionate about it and you will share tastes and might have other things they like that you will like too. For manga especially, if you have discord, I recommend the server of the youtuber Koenji Shawn Reviews, a book collector. The people there are avid fans of a lot of stuff with a focus on vintage adult manga and have helped me many times in the past to find rare stuff! They also regularly share informations about exhibits, new editions, and their readings.

And finally, if you're just looking for anything to read, there are online manga repertories with tagging systems. I personally use Anilist, which has a search function that lets you input a large variety of tags, stuff like year, genre, tropes.... I find it fun sometimes to look up random arrangements of tags and see what pops up. Additionally, looking up a manga on Anilist will give you forum topics about it, sometimes critiques, and series users think are similar - you can also look up who worked on it and find their other stuff, if there's any adaptations, all of which are great for link-hopping into obscure rabbit holes. Not everything is on there, but it can be a good start!

[sarahlynndawson]

San Diego Comic Con

I'm super excited to be appearing on my first panel at San Diego Comic Con on the fan forum - The Future of Doctor who! Moderated by my great friend CNN & BBC Journalist, Sandro Monetti the panel promises to be a lot of fun! Hope to see and meet all the Whovians there!

Here is a cool article about the event:

[ezzyrebel413]

I miss when people took "don't like, don't read" seriously. I miss when there weren't people invading fandom spaces and trying to force real world morals on fiction. I miss when people in fandom spaces encouraged each other rather than tear each other down for disagreeing with them. Sure, we had our fair share of disputes and ship wars, but it wasn't that serious and it stayed in forums instead of spilling over into other aspects of our lives. Nowadays there are so many new fans coming into established fandom spaces and trying to push real world morals on these works of fiction. There's antis around every digital corner. People are mocking cosplayers online simply for doing what cosplayers do. You can't even post a funny comic to a dedicated Facebook group without the comments turning into a war zone, despite the group having a strict no bullying policy. (Currently in an argument about this one in the ATLA Facebook group. Seriously that comic is cute not gross. Stop being mean to the person who posted it.) Between the discourse and the censorship on most platforms, what used to be a safe space has become very hostile and discouraging. I've watched some of my favorite creators disappear from social media because of this. I've had friends quit their hobbies because people were so awful to them for not catering to the opinions of others. Despite how I may act, even I find it difficult sometimes to do things I used to be excited for. Cons aren't as fun anymore. The last con I went to, the highlight of my weekend wasn't even related to the con. I don't post even a fraction of what I write and draw. I was called out by one of my readers on Ao3 tonight for being too hard on myself in the author's note of a chapter I just posted on one of my fics. I miss when this was fun and not stressful.

[janecrocker]

who did you kill for this url and do you still like/associate with homestuck

I didn't kill anyone lol- it was passed down a line of friends/lovers of Jane. I used to be super active in the community, did a lot of cosplay and ran several RP blogs dedicated to her.

Your second question has a complicated answer. I love what Homestuck did for me. I met my partner of now ten years in Homestuck cosplay (as Jane!) at a con meetup. I met one of my dearest friends in an RP forum (as Jane!), and they went on to be in my wedding; not to mention the countless other friends I made as a result of the comic. It was a huge part of my life for a long time, and I'll always have a fondness in my heart for it and for Jane specifically. I, like many others, was frustrated by the ending and was left conflicted/even more frustrated by meat/candy. So no, I'm not nearly as active in the fandom as I was. But I still love Homestuck for what it meant to me and for all the people I was able to meet. And yeah, I still like it, ~despite it all~ lol.

[centrally-unplanned]

I actually do have some insights now on this question, funnily enough - mainly from this interview and a few pieces elsewhere. The big one is that O'Malley had a shoulder injury while making Seconds, which impacted his ability to draw. He had to 'relearn' his process and it never fully recovered, a not uncommon story (Rich Burlew of Order of the Stick comes to mind). Which is fair enough, can't really fault that one. You can tell it was serious, too - in his streams he has physical therapy equipment right in his room almost a decade later (feels weird to say this, the amount of access we have to people these days is creepy).

I don't think this is the biggest cause though. The other one is the Scott Pilgrim of it all, directly - he has commented explicitly that "managing Scott Pilgrim is a full time job", dealing with the brand. He in particular is not someone who likes to let go of control, from what I gathered - at one point after the movie came out his agent had him do talks with animation companies to maybe pivot to cartoons, and he was very disparaging of the whole process from a "cog in a corporate machine" standpoint. So I think this is a combination of A: its just true, brands are a big deal and certainly can be a full time job, B: a consequence of him being unwilling to just outsource the whole thing to a brand manager like others do, which I totally get, and C: an emotional thing where that kind of brand management just isn't his calling, so it drains him.

The third cause is the most tealeaves but imo the most important; he kind of quit the comic scene. He talks about how with the success of SP he couldn't attend cons like SPX anymore, he was no longer small, he didn't fit in. And on top of that he started getting comments from other creators, aspersions he reads as coming from jealously and resentment. And he was always a 'community' guy, talking about his ideas with co-creators and such. He left Toronto to move to Novia Scotia, very remote, in the late 2000's, then moved to LA but is a self-described hermit there. I remember in another interview, people asked him about how all the people he based the characters in SP on thought about the comic or the movie, and he said it was pretty uncomfortable actually. It made those relationships too raw, and he doesn't talk to most of them anymore.

Seems like the success of Scott Pilgrim burned O'Malley out hard on the very nature of the comic industry as like something worth the struggle of being a part of, and that was a big part of his drive. He was a community building guy, as mentioned with Impromanga, how he moved to LA on a whim to hang with online friends (who went on to found Gaia Online, apparently), how he was a big member of the Warren Ellis forums in their heydey, etc. It looks like that whole part of his life changed, and he changed. He says very explicitly that he did change his habits, he wanted to enjoy life and not be burdened by work as much. Which, mood, but I also can bet has a lot to do with how he just wasn't part of a group that made that kind work enjoyable anymore.

Okay okay ONE MORE THING about O'Malley, and I will say what I am sure many have thought, but its rude to say - we can say it here anonymously on tumblr where he will never see it. He got successful way too early. 20's O'Malley is hungry as fuck to do "his art"; this guy is living it hard in the indie rock scene and the comic scene, sardine-bunked up with roommates for rent, prep cook by day, drawing comics by night. He goes from these one-shots to Lost At Sea and you can see exactly what he was working on, then Scott Pilgrim hits and all the growth is present again, the world building and naturalness and sense of breadth that Lost At Sea couldn't have. He feels like he has ideas and purpose and wants to push his style farther.

Then Scott Pilgrim drags on for six years, you can tell he wanted out by the final volume. Its suddenly a multi-media franchise, he is wealthy and successful but presumably also stressed out. He divorces his wife in 2014, he makes Seconds which is good, but its definitely limited, more about art evolution while a bit of a retreat on the characters - and a lot of that art evolution should be credited to his colorist Nathan Fairbairn or his co-artist Jason Fischer. And then he writes, but doesn't art...sometimes. Averages like two works a decade.

Obviously just reading the tea leaves but this guy burned out on 'having it all', the drive was clearly gone. Maybe it always would have, idk, you get older right. But Scott Pilgrim is unpolished, its great but its not your Lolita or anything. If it had just done 'fine', maybe he wraps it up in half the time, has a better idea, really learns and polishes...just seems like that could have happened.

He certainly isn't the first favourite creator of mine who flaked out halfway through their career to do bullshit in the second half, Anno.

[norealgoodbyes]

Been trying to think about the news today and it still really doesn’t feel real. Or at least the meaning hasn’t really hit me yet. I’m not sure if or when it will. If I were an artist maybe I get some of what I’m feeling out of my system that way, but I’m not. I’m not much of a writer either, but I’ve seen a few people talk about what Yu-Gi-Oh! meant to them personally and I figure maybe I could try that.

One of the clearest memories of my childhood is of watching the precipice duel- I’d think I’d been casually watching the show for a while up till then, but that’s when it totally changed to me. My parents had routinely been getting me into various sports and extracurriculars that I did not want to be in and that Saturday morning I had a softball game to get to. My dad basically had to drag me out of the house to get me there and I missed the last half of the episode. I remember seeing the rotting BEWD melt around Mokuba in Kaiba’s hallucination and it stuck with me through the entire drizzly game. It had to have been the first time I think I really cared about characters in a piece of media to that extent. And I didn’t have anyone to talk about it with. 

I had friends as a kid, but kids can be cruel. I’d learned a few years prior that Pokemon was no longer a safe thing to talk about at school if I wanted to enjoy my recess. It was clear from the get go that Yu-Gi-Oh would fall into the same category. It’s not like I was getting beaten up, but I was a dumb, sensitive kid who was painfully honest. Kindof an easy target. I didn’t have the kinds of friends who would stick up for me for liking something “uncool”. I wished I had Yuugi and his friends. Instead I learned to lie about my interests at school and hoard manga and cards in a cabinet in my room. I’m not sure it was a happy time, but I wouldn’t have given up on Yu-Gi-Oh for the world. It meant so much to me. I loved the characters, the drama, the card game, the lore, the mystery of the millennium items. All of it. 

I remember when I started getting access to the internet and learning about how different the show I’d been watching was from its Japanese counterpart. It was so exciting! It was like ‘here’s this thing that I already love, but there’s an entirely different version out there with swears, violence,’ -blackjack, and hookers, you get the idea. It was absolutely tantalizing to a slightly edgy tween. I remember there was a fansite that hosted episode summaries and a forum; I think it also had scans of the GX manga, which had just started coming out in Japan? If anyone knows what it was called, please let me know. I don’t remember the name, just that it had a white, sortof silvery layout. It also had a modest little fanfiction section which I poured over religiously. I hadn’t written any myself, but I had so many ideas. Something about a sprawling mess of a story involving magic and other worlds I think? I don’t remember the details, but it kept my mind occupied through a lot of middle school.

I managed to push my love for the series away for a long time after that. Bits and pieces of it would filter over into my life from time to time and I’d pretend it was meaningless, or ridicule it as that ‘dumb card game show’. I’d push it down and try to forget. It wasn’t till I was at a con back in 2016 walking around with my best friend that I confessed that I’d earnestly loved it. I knew he wouldn’t mock me for it, but god. His quiet affirmation that that was ok, cool even, almost brought me to tears while walking through the dealers hall. I don’t talk with that friend very much these days for complicated reasons, but I don’t think I’ll ever forget that. 

I started this blog the following year, in 2017. Since then, it has been an absolutely incredible time to see the amazing outpouring of fanart, comics, fanfiction, meta essays, and love for a series that I had thought I was years late to joining. Even if I’d only vaguely known that there were other people out there who were as deeply affected by this series as I was, I would’ve been happy. To experience what I have since starting this tumblr goes way beyond that. Every day I get to see someone else who's fallen in love with some aspect of the series that I’d never considered, a character examined from a new angle, a piece of art capturing something new about it. It’s so beautiful to me and makes me love the series even more. And it’s so wonderful to not feel alone in that. There is such an incredible community here that I am so glad to be a part of it, even in my own small way.. 

I’ve since gotten better about being more transparent in my love for the series in real life too and the support I’ve gotten from my friends still takes my breath away. I’ve gotten bold enough to hang a print in my room! My boyfriend got me Pot of Greed earrings for my birthday! I don’t feel like I’m hiding my love in cabinets anymore and I’m not wishing I had some else’s friends. A lot of that has to do with who I am and how I’ve grown up, but I think a lot has to do with you all too- and of course, Kazuki Takashi. I’m so glad to be here with you and I know I wouldn’t have any of that if it weren’t for him. 

Thank you so much, Takahashi-sensei, for the gift you have given us and the friends we’ve made through it.

[ichinoue]

My thing has always been why aren't IR fans mad at studio pierrot instead of Kubo? Kubo has always known Ichihime was going to be end game. He never led them on to believe otherwise. It's the studio that jumped the gun giving them filler IR scenes that never existed in the manga because they wrongly assumed IR would be endgame. They have all this anger towards kubo when they should've been pointing their pitch forks studio pierrot's way. Even then if they bothered to read the manga despite pierrot fucking up they still would've seen Ichihime coming a mile away and not been surprised they were endgame. I understand if they didn't like the fact that their ship wasn't endgame. For me sometimes I like canon ships and sometimes I like fanon ones. Depends on the dynamic and how well written the ships are. However in the case of Ichihime even if you didn't like the ship, how you can say it came out of nowhere is mind boggling. The signs were so blatant that even if you had shipping goggles on you still would've noticed it. To say otherwise is the living embodiment of delusional at it's finest.

The crazy thing is that before Bleach ended, IR shippers were like....weirdly affectionate with Kubo??? They would talk to/about him as if they were in on some ~open secret~ with him in regards to him shipping IR. Like if Kubo drew a colorspread featuring Ichigo and Rukia they would worship and praise the fuck out of him like "omg, sensei is SO good to us! We're so spoiled!!! :) He wants their love to be known!" or "oooooh sneaky sensei, look at him drawing all that IR eye-smex ;)" or they would be like "the number one ichiruki shipper is Kubo sensei!!!" and it was just like....??? Why? Because he drew a colorspread featuring his two main characters? Wow, *shocking* Maybe that would actually mean something if Bleach weren't a shounen...y'know...where platonic nakama bonds are featured on the colorspreads the most but okay, sure, w/e.

Like I get that all shipping fandoms do that, we thank the creator when they give us new content for our pairings and stuff but idk dude, some of it just seemed excessive at times I guess?

Some of them even believed some forum post from an IR fan who claimed to have made friends with Kubo at San Diego Comic Con (lmfao) and that he promised her he would "put a little love in for IR" which was just like ??? (here's a screenshot) So obviously, it wasn't that this random forum person was lying, it was that KuBO lied!!! he BETRAYed us!!! he promised us the ichiruki!!!!!

So that's what's so weird to me, it's not even just that the anime led them on, it's that they genuinely believed Kubo was a die-hard IR stan and that Bleach was clearly all about the """IR fated lovers, story of destiny!!!!""

...Even though he said a long time ago that he didn't want to focus on romance. And then in an interview he gave post-bleach he said: “Given that bleach is not a romance manga, the romance is drawn purely as a supplementary component.”

Bleach is not a romance manga....Romance is supplementary....But yeah, his intentions all along were to make bleach a love story between Ichigo and Rukia. Do you see how strange and hilarious this is?

They truly convinced themselves that this man "shipped" IR and wrote Ichigo and Rukia's characters to be ~~destined fated lovers~~ They would ignore the blatant shipteases and ramped up screentime and romantic hints he wrote for IH. They ignored how he starved IR of content for years, left their development stagnant after the arrancar arc, and greatly decreased their screentime together ever since. It was so clear that IR was doomed to remain platonic. Especially when you remember that Kubo literally shut ichiruki down in an official interview, wayyyy back in 2008, when he said, and I quote, "It’s not friendship but it’s not an amorous feeling either…Despite standing in a close position with each other, it is not romance." And there you have it. A flat-out denial. But they ignored him. They wouldn't listen to him. And then they had the audacity to claim he "betrayed" them.

But given the continuous smackdown he handed them in the final arc, I really don't think he gives a shit lmao.

[scottymcgeesterwrites]

90′s kids are actually 00′s kids

Let’s be honest: there are only four things I really remember about the 90′s - Princess Diana, Monica Lewinsky, Seinfeld, and Pokémon. Everything else is a random mix of personal memories, like friends I made in school and the times I got seriously injured or sick. But the outside world was still a bit of a blur, waiting to be discovered. A few years ago, my fiancée and I went to NYC Comic Con. They had these mystery boxes that you could buy. Each mystery box had a different theme, so Star Trek, Star Wars, DragonBall Z, etc. You would pay like $50 or something like that for items inside the box related to that theme. We saw a 90′s theme mystery box and bought it. 

We opened it up, expecting to be excited about reliving the 90′s.  We didn’t recognize a single fucking thing in the box. 

No idea what any of that stuff was. 

My formative years were really the early ‘00′s. That’s when I was becoming a “person” and when I developed my emotions, for better or for worse. 

For me, the real “nostalgia” is the GameCube, skinny jeans, drum and bass, Fatboy Slim, bad action movies with washed out colors trying to imitate The Matrix, Homestar Runner, Internet forums, and the final days of the true arcade. The early ‘00s were truly a weird, transitional and liminal space between two worlds. It was a world of twilight, where two ends met. It saw the decline in physical copies of movies and music and the rise of the digital age. It was the final goodbye to the analog world. It saw the rise of hacktivism, and the early days of social media was the Wild Wild West before the corporations brought the hammer down with rules and threats of copyright infringement. The new millennium was unsure of what it would become, but storm clouds loomed in the distance. The 90′s didn’t end on December 31st, 1999 at 11:59 PM; they ended on September 11th, 2001 at around 8:45 AM EST. That was when “the fun” stopped, and when we all had to rethink our lives.

I remember Craig Ferguson (my favorite late night host), and a bunch of underrated celebrities who we used to make fun of (or loathed) who have now been vindicated. Keanu Reeves. Britney Spears. Guy Fieri. Robert Downey Jr. Cara Cunningham. Everyone you loved back then turned out to be a monster, but everyone you took for granted was really a good person all along. I remember being mad at seeing open fields being taken over by cheaply-made, mass produced McMansions near my house. I vandalized one of the construction sites. When I confided in someone about it, they called my cause petty and stupid. Two years later, the Great Recession started because of the housing bubble. I tried, in a brief violent moment, to fight back something I didn’t understand. It was inevitable.   I saw the world transition and the storm clouds roll in. I felt the paradigm shift. I saw the party end as millions of people looked up and said, “I have a bad feeling about this.” I overheard thousands of conversations from the stairwell late at night as my parents talked worriedly with their friends about the Iraq War and the Patriot Act. I remember the start of the Bourne movies. In a way, they were a response to the Bond movies. James Bond was the 20th Century hero, the upholder of ���Western civilization” and the status quo. Jason Bourne was the first of the 21st Century heroes - the hero who regretted and fought to change the status quo. I remember movies trying to make bold, serious takes on superheroes. Some succeeded, like Batman Begins and X-Men. Others failed, like Daredevil and Ghost Rider. Everyone wanted to be serious then. That, and so much more, is what I remember about my childhood - my real childhood. In my heart, I am a 00′s kid.

[zkfanworkweek]

ZFAW Fan Content Creator Interviews: HayleyNFoster

Hey everyone! We hope you’re all excited for ZFAW, and to honor (ha!) ZFAW’s commitment to supporting and celebrating fan content creators in the Zutara fandom, we’re going to be rolling out a series of interviews with well-known and widely-beloved content creators over the next few weeks. We’ve got artists and fanfiction authors, some names you recognize as well as a few phenomenal up-and-coming talents, and we can’t wait for you to meet them all!

For the second interview in this cycle, we have our best propaganda creator and this fandom’s hottest new artist/undisputed queen of the animatic, @hayleynfoster!

1. Tell us about how you came to ship Zutara. What does this ship mean to you?

When I was around 14 or 15 and caught Avatar: The Last Airbender on television, I was drawn in by the art style, the humor, and the wonderful characters. I caught the episodes out of order, and the first one I saw and wasn’t prepared to be sucked in by was The Waterbending Scroll. It intrigued me at that age, and the line “I’ll save you from the pirates” combined with the tension between Katara and Zuko in that whole scene was electrifying. I remember my teenage self thinking these two have so much chemistry! And when I saw a commercial on Nickelodeon that featured fanart submitted by fellow Avatar fans, I realized that I could do that to! So I set about making Zutara fanart for myself. I stumbled onto Youtube, practically in its infancy, and discovered that people set clips of Zuko and Katara set to music (And this was still in season 1 days… so people who made these amvs were the real mvps because they were able to make compelling narratives in their amvs with like practically nothing to work with!). The AMVs really spurred my interest in this couple, I remember distinctly one Zutara AMV using the Dido song White Flag utterly capturing my imagination. I found fandom shortly after, getting into deviantart and forums. But the ship really began to mean something to me when, as I was working on my drawings in the computer lab at school, a buoyant presence hovered over my shoulder noticing my Zutara art on the computer screen. The girl was someone I had never really talked to and had only seen from afar but she immediately started excitedly saying she shipped Zuko and Katara too! In this simple shared obsession, I made one of the best friends I’ve ever had and we’re still friends to this day. We would theorize and fangirl over Avatar like it was nobody’s business; we poured over bootleg San Diego Comic Con footage that showed spoilers for season 2 before it aired; we lost our freaking minds when we finally saw The Crossroads of Destiny. We had watch parties every week as Season 3 of A:TLA aired, and comforted each other when the show ended as it did (much ranting was shared). Those are some of my happiest memories from high school… all because this one pairing from this wonderful show. Even though Zutara didn’t happen, we still chat every now and then about it. Zutara will probably be a lifelong obsession, always bubbling under the surface. And without it, I would have never realized that animation was a viable career path. It really did inspire everything including the work I’m doing to this day in the animation industry. I owe a lot to this ship and to Avatar: the Last Airbender.

2. What inspires you to create zutara fanworks?

The resurgence of Avatar: The Last Airbender this year really helped sort of spark that dormant love I had for Zutara. The show’s ending still disappointed me on the rewatch, but Zuko and Katara’s relationship arc was as captivating as ever, so I turned to some fanfiction and looking at people’s pretty Zutara art and AMVs to just revel in fanon instead of getting to hung up on the actual ending of the show. But then I realized, with quarantine and my work load being pretty light, I had time to actually make all new Zutara art for myself, art I was never fully capable of making as a kid, but now could do with my 7 years of industry experience and just… life experience. And I was inspired to do some corrective animatics to satisfy my own desire for a different ending. I just really like exploring these two characters, doing different and interesting things with them, and frankly I’m inspired to make cute, fluffy, romantic art simply by virtue of living in a really sad and depressing world. Things are so crazy right now, creating art about two characters I love being in love, is comforting. And it helps to have inspiring music and amazing Zutara amvs to just sort of stir up my emotions and imagery in my head to make into animatics and art.

3. Be selfish - if you could request one fanwork based on your own art/fanfic, what would it be? What would you absolutely love to see someone create?

Ohhhh… Well, It’s always nice to have people write fanfiction that puts words to my animatics. I am not that great at coming up with dialog myself, so I’ve just chosen to indulge in visuals and emotions for my boards. But when I read things like RideBoldlyRide’s take on my Reunion Animatic, it makes me pretty giddy. (They finally have voices!) :) And this is the MOST selfish thing I could request, but I’m not shy about saying how much I love well done amvs, so I will literally kill for someone to make Zutara AMVs to songs I like… Like, most of AURORA’s songs but especially Exist for Love, Sunseeker by The Naked and Famous, Promises or Take Me by Aly & AJ, Adore You by Harry Styles, Human Enough by ONR, Never Let Me Go by Florence + The Machine, and/or Almost (Sweet Music) by Hozier just… I can see the AMVs so clearly to any of these songs in my head, but I don’t have the tools or skill set at my disposal to make a compelling fan video. When I was in high school, I originally thought I wanted to go into video editing simply because I loved making very crappy AMVs (they were so bad you guys), but I figured out being a storyboard artist was more in my wheelhouse. haha

4. Any words for people who are new to the fandom and/or nervous about sharing their work for the first time?

If you’re new to the Zutara fandom, just have a good time! Don’t waste too much time arguing with people over your shipping preferences. I wasted so much of my teen years having pointless shipping wars with people on DeviantArt, and I’m just so much happier nowadays because I’m just making Zutara art in my little corner of the internet, and honestly, in the politest of ways, I don’t give a shit if people don’t like my art or Zutara. haha I think that’s sort of a key thing for people thinking of posting creative works here in the fandom, just make art for yourself, satisfy your own desires for the pairing, get your creative sparks flying, and create just for the joy of creating. It’s always nice to get comments and such, but simply making the art should be what spurs you on, not the external validation. And have a good time, don’t worry too much - I say as someone who worries about EVERYTHING. But honestly, making art for A:TLA is some of the most relaxed I’ve been because I make it just for me. I’m lucky others seem to like it too!

5. What’s an idea for a fanwork that you have but haven't gotten around to making?

I have an idea for a second generation storyline with my Zutara kids that involves Kya (the eldest firebending daughter) falling in love with an airbender boy (tentatively named Gora in my headcanon who’s a bit of a rabble rouser and one of Aang’s kids he had with a Kyoshi Warrior), and then they start a socialist revolution in the Fire Nation in order to dismantle all of the hierarchical societies across the Avatar world… Together Kya and Gora Fan the Flames of revolution… ehhhhh... Get it?? Oh! Oh, and then Katara, who had put in legit liberal reforms in her time as Fire Lady listens to her daughter after resisting in the first part of the story, but then realizes she can actually play a part in the dissolution of the royalty and is also active in the revolution realizing that moderate liberal reforms are no substitute for a society free of serving royalty (which she had always been uncomfortable with but had rationalized with herself that she was doing good in her capacity as Fire Lady.) I just feel like there’s a lot of cool potential for discussing these ideas and also having some aspirational change in the Avatar world. lol For aesthetics and just happy fluffy times, I can indulge in Fire Lady and Fire Lord Zuko stuff, but really at the end of the day, I take issue with the structures in a society that have to exist for monarchies to exist. Soooo, I kind of want to do my own corrective story for that… if I ever have the time or guts. On a less ambitious note, I would love to do a Zutara sparring animatic to practice doing action, but I need a good story; I am not good at doing fights just for fighting’s sake. Those are just some things I have rattling around in my head.  

6. Are you participating in ZFAW? If so want to give us a hint as to your plans?

Yes! The most I can say is I have one animatic almost finished and one that’s still being thumbnailed. The rest are probably going to be comics or emotive single pieces based on the fanfics I really like right now. :)

[lt-sarai]

We Are Watchers

Most people watch television. Whether it's cable, satellite, or streaming services, television is a big part of our lives. It brings people together and gives us a way to connect, to have something in common with strangers. It’s something to talk about besides the weather. The majority of people I’ve encountered, either online or in person, can be broken into three groups: Passive consumers, Engagers, and Bad Apples.

Passive consumers are the most common. They watch a show and maybe talk about it with their friends, rarely engaging in the larger fandom communities. For them, it’s something to pass the time. My friend Dylan asks if others have seen it and talks about it unprompted. He might come up with theories about what will happen but they’re idle, only asking about things if we’re already gathered and talking. He generally doesn't feel a need to go outside our friend circle to discuss anything. My coworker Rae asks me if I have speculative theories or if I’ve read fanfiction about the show but they refrain from creating any fan content themselves. They immerse themselves in fan-made content in addition to the show but don’t create anything themselves. Passives tend to watch more for themselves and mostly find fulfilment from canon alone.

Engagers watch a show and theorize about it with others who may be strangers. They talk about who will or won't end up in romantic or platonic relationships, often writing speculative fanfiction about their favorite characters. There are those who write blog posts with theories about a show and form smaller sub-communities with like-minded people. Most people on the social media website Tumblr fall into this category, myself included. Then there are people who also create fan content such as fanfiction, gifsets, fan art, or video edits. They may go to conventions and engage directly with creators, often cosplaying. My online friend Nagita and I often have long conversations about TV shows. I send her my fanfiction and she sends me her fanart. She goes to Comic-Con every year in costume and does her utmost to get pictures with and autographs from celebrities and creators.

Bad Apples are the smallest, but often the loudest, group because of their negativity. They are Engagers gone rotten. They watch a show, make their own theories for what or how things will play out, and verbally attack anyone who disagrees with them. The lesser ones come across an opinion they don't agree with and stop to tell that person they don't agree with them. Some seek out opposing opinions and tell people why they're wrong, often in the guise of attempting to educate. The worst go out of their way to find opposing opinions and attempt to bully people into leaving the larger fandom community entirely. Tumblr and Twitter both are hubs for this kind of activity, which includes gatekeeping, the idea that if you’re not doing it right you shouldn’t be doing it at all. Bad Apples on Twitter even go so far as to attack a showrunner for making decisions they don’t like. Bad Apples are the reason content creators leave social media forums.

Television has become such a large part of our culture and our lives. It allows one to find pleasure and relax. Fandom culture allows a safe space for budding artistic expression. But it also gives cyberbullies yet another issue about which to make others feel lesser. If Passives and Engagers don’t let Bad Apples bring them down, there will be nowhere for the bullies to stand and make themselves seem taller.

[killian-whump]

The people who interview Colin at Comic Con get paid for it though. Why doesn't this guy deserve to get paid? It's promotional for colin, not him. For him it's his job. He made a product and he's selling it, just like everyone else who makes things. Would you work for free? Also if people don't get anything in return for making things, they'll probably stop making things, so if you want more things, it makes sense to support those who make them, right?

The people at ComicCon get paid by their bosses. Am I this guy’s boss? Am I even his fan? Do I even know who the hell he is? No, I do not. He literally just popped up out of the loch and said he needed about treefiddy and YOU CAN’T EVEN GIVE HIM A DOLLAR TO MAKE HIM GO AWAY. HE'S GONNA ASSUME YOU GOT MORE.

No, but all jokes aside... I mean, look, if you got eight euros lying around (or six euros, I guess it’s more like six euros, I was wrong before, but eight euros sounds funnier, so I’m gonna stick with it - I mean six euros is just as unaffordable to someone with zero euros as eight euros is anyway, so what do I care), then by all means, feel free to give this man your eight (or six, as already discussed) euros to listen to a conversation he had with Colin.

I don’t have eight euros. Or six euros. Or any euros. Or dollars. I have no income. I have no bank account. I have no way to make payments online without a bank account or a credit/debit card or, you know, money of any kind.

I literally cannot give this man eight euros or six euros or treefiddy or a drawing of a dinosaur in exchange for his Colin interview. The options for me and those like me are to go without or to pirate it. Who benefits if we go without? No one, that’s who. Literally no one benefits from us sitting on our asses going, “Gee, I wish I could hear Colin talking to whoever this guy is, but oh well.”

So we rely on the kindness of one or more generous souls who DO have the money and DO have the means and ability to pay for the content to take pity on us poor lot and release the file. Then we poor plebians send it amongst ourselves and enjoy it. And literally nobody gets hurt. No monies are lost, because we weren’t gonna pay for it, anyway.

That’s the reality of piracy in general. Now admittedly, there are some people who absolutely can afford to pay for content and choose to pirate it instead - but the majority of pirates either only take what they “need” and try to support creators however and whenever they can, or they take everything and anything that isn’t bolted down because they’re literally a digital hoarder and may even believe that when armageddon comes, mankind will be relying on them to single-handedly replace every piece of media that ever existed with the contents of their 1400 terabyte external drive that they’ll be powering with 2 corroded D-cells and a captive lightning bug. I wish I was kidding, but there’s entire forums dedicated to this mentality.

Anyway, where was I? Oh yeah. Colin’s basically doing folks a favor when he shows up on their Zoom show or their podcast or whatever, because his droves of fans will follow him there and really bump those views and likes through the roof. It’s sort of like when your friend plays in a band, so you get all your other friends to attend his show so it’ll look like his band is doing really well and maybe it’ll make other people take them more seriously... only this time, your friends all got there and were expected to pay for tickets to see the band, even though they were only going as a favor to you in the first place, and some of them are like, “Okay, whatever, here’s some dollars, just let me in” and some are like “Eight fucking euros? I’m wearing a bin liner as a hat, do you really think I have eight fucking euros to give you?”

Anyway, stop laughing at my hat. It’s very fashionable somewhere.

Yes, I searched for “plastic bag hat” just so I could put a picture here.

[booktineus]

SHIPPED BOOK TOUR & GIVEAWAY Q: Have you ever been to a pop culture convention? Or if you haven't, is there a convention you would love to go to one day? There aren't too many pop culture conventions in Australia, but I've been to Supanova a few times! Today I'm excited to feature SHIPPED by @meredithltate24! Two bitter rivals meet anonymously in an online forum for their favorite canceled sci-fi show—what could go wrong? “You’ve Got Mail” goes to Comic Con in SHIPPED, a YA enemies-to-lovers romcom perfect for fans of Geekerella! Out on May 18th, 2021 from @penguinteen. You can see the full synopsis in my stories 😊 📖 Epic Preorder Alert! Submit proof of preorder or library request to authormeredithtate@gmail.com & you'll receive a “Warship Seven” sticker with character art by @jenniferstolzer (see it in my stories!), a handwritten thank you note, emailed copy of bonus material—script snippets from “Warship Seven” (Stella and Wesley’s favorite show) including many deleted scenes & interviews with the Warship Seven cast. This offer is open internationally while supplies last! (Signed copies of Shipped can be ordered from Blue Willow Bookshop & Main Street Books - link in my bio) 🌟 INTL TOUR-WIDE GIVEAWAY 🌟 Win a hardcover copy of SHIPPED sent via Book Depository! HOW TO ENTER - Follow me, @meredithltate24 & @mtmctours - Like & leave a comment ADDITIONAL ENTRIES - Tag friends who might want to enter! - Share this post via stories tagging me & mtmctours to count your entry. - Visit the #ShippedMTMC hashtag from May 10th - 16th for more posts & chances to win! Ends May 19th at 11:59 PM EST. Winner announced on MTMC Tours' account. (Not affiliated/endorsed by Instagram) //HASHTAGS// #Shipped #mtmctours #yalit #yabooks #reader #booknerd #booktour #bookgiveaway #bookstagrammer #bookish #booklover #auskiwibooksta #aussiebookstagram #booklov #reading #readmorebooks #newrelease #goodreading #bookworm #bookdragon #conventions #booksandflowers #booksbooksbooks #newbooks https://www.instagram.com/p/COxYe5brKnZ/?igshid=j0t643olq0jk

[mcudarklibrary]

Author of the Month Q&A: February

We are beyond thrilled to celebrate and showcase the work of our February Author of the Month @caffiend-queen​. Over the course of February we will be highlighting some of the works of this gorgeous lady that have made us laugh, cry and tremble with fear. 

We recently caught up with the fabulous writer for a chat about all things dark fics, fan fiction and Tumblr.  

Any Cute History Behind Your User Name?  

I hosted morning radio and TV shows for most of my career, so my alarm went off at 4am every day. I discovered the joys of caffeine in pill form within the first year - cut out the middleman and go straight to the source. After a while, our producer started calling me "Caffiend" because he could tell when I'd had my "hit."

How Long Have You Been Writing Fics of Any Kind?  

Um... Just four years, really. I've done a lot of social media blogging and contributed to websites and magazines for most of my career. But the "fun stuff" started on AO3.

What Was The First Fan Fic You Ever Wrote?   

My first story was "Dr. Laing's Loose End." I have no idea how something as depressing and dystopian as the High Rise became my Tom Hiddleston muse, but there you go.

What Was The First Fandom You Wrote For?  

My sweet, first true love, Tom Hiddleston - though his Loki and Jaguar Villains will always be first in my heart.

Your First Marvel Crush  

Loki, Loki, Loki. Though through the pernicious efforts of the women listed below, I've developed an unnatural fondness for Steve Rogers and Bucky, particularly their dark sides.

Your Favourite Fandom Writers  

Oooo... so many to choose from! @lokilickedme inspired me to write fanfiction in the first place, and the sheer genius of @nildespirandum - who is one of my dearest friends and yet I still secretly seethe with jealousy when I read her work. She's one of the best writers on any forum. I was drawn into Dark MCU thanks to @sherrybaby14​'s "Who Am I?" and "The Distraction." Ohhhh ... god. Then @imanuglywombat​ insisted on piling on with "I Brought a Lemon to a Knife Fight," "Concrete Jungle Rapunzel" and "Die Besessenheit" (with the lovely @Sophiria). Then to finally bury me under the lurid adoration of all things Dark!Steve and Dark!Bucky was @jtargaryen18​ with "All of Heaven in a Rage," "Waves that Beat on Heaven's Shore," and oh, so much more. I have a huge respect for popular writers who generously give out signal boosts and support to new writers. @sherrybaby14​ had to show me everything on Tumblr. I was such a moron. @devikafernando​ is a very popular, successful novelist who still supports everyone else. I adore @maidenofasgard​, @ohhhmyloki​, @pedeka, @icybluepenguin, @latentthoughts, @hurricanerin​, @emeraldrosequartz​, @cursedcursingviking​, @toozmanykids​, @myoxisbroken​, @threeminutesoflife​, @the-soulofdevil​, @darkficsyouneveraskedfor​, @devilish-doll, @villainousshakespeare​, @fanfictionaries​, @omgviolette12​ ... goddamnit. This could go on forever, but I'm grateful for so many talented writers and endless inspiration.

Favourite Kink   

Daddy kink and voice kink. I've loved listening to beautiful voices since working in radio - Sean Bean, the actor - almost reduced me to tears, his voice is that good. Tom's voice, of course, is sex. Pure sex. The Daddy kink I don't quite get, because if I were required to address my dear spouse as "Daddy," I would fall over laughing and never be able to have sex again. But writing it? Daaaaamn.

Favourite Trope  

The "I'm abducting/forcing/trapping you into doing what I want for your OWN GOOD." Loki's especially good for this because you know that vain bastard is quite certain he knows what's best for you.

Tell Us A Secret  

Maybe not such a secret because I've had to admit this before, but before I realized that Tom Hiddleston was my god, I actually interviewed him at San Diego Comic-Con during the press run for "Thor: Dark World." And I don't remember a goddamned thing. You have to understand, SDCC is hell, and all of your time is spent trying to figure out how to get you and your cameraman and your shit-ton of equipment to Hall H for your next interview within ten minutes without getting impaled on a cosplayer's horn. I remember how tall and beautiful he was, and that my camera guy was going to put me on a box to make the shot look better and Tom widened his legs (!) to get lower for me instead. The true horror of this is that I sell most of our celebrity footage to gossip sites, so I don't even have anything to look at.

Motivation For Writing 

It's our sacred "Bubble of Unreality." I've noticed that a surprising number of writers in our community have children with special needs - my twin boys have autism - and I think we create this place and thrive here because we can save lives and fix injuries that are impossible to control in the real world.

What Got You Into Dark Fics  

There's something wildly erotic about the dark side to such powerful men. They're commanding and hot as balls under any circumstances. But, twisting those characteristics in a way where their willingness to hold themselves back from what they want is gone, is so compelling. Especially if what they want is you.

[recentanimenews]

OPINION: The Life and Times of an Indian Otaku

  Makoto Shinkai's Weathering With You marked a historic first in my anime watching career. Contrary to popular belief, being the first anime to be released in Indian theaters is not the historic first in question (that honor goes to Shinchan: Bungle in the Jungle). Rather, Weathering With You would become the first film I'd ever watch on opening day — "first day first show" as we Indians call it. In the mad scramble to get tickets, I'd emerged a winner. Was it worth the struggle?

An emphatic yes. It was so good I went on to rewatch it twice.

    To fans in India: I’m so happy to tell that ‘Weathering With You’ (Tenki no ko) will release in India this October! We have licensed the Indian distribution rights to PVR Pictures and BookMyShow backed company Vkaao.

— 新海誠 (@shinkaimakoto) August 10, 2019

  The Indian theatrical release of Weathering With You in 2019 marked an important moment in the history of the Indian anime fandom. The story of how Shinkai noticed (and fulfilled) an online petition by Indian fans asking for its release here is already the stuff of legend. Because access to anime (especially in theaters) was so scarce in India, even in 2019, fans sought to have the film legally released in theaters. And thanks to Shinkai, it worked. To Indian anime fans, this represented the moment Japan — and the rest of the world — recognized our existence in the fandom. But Indian otakus didn't spring up overnight. Anime has had nearly three decades of history here. It just looks a little different than the rest of the world. The origins of anime in India go back to the '90s. Prior to the economic reforms of 1991, we had one — yes, only one — TV channel, the state-owned Doordarshan. The post-1991 wave of private TV channels brought with it a flood of international TV shows, among them anime like Robotech (which aired on the newly-created Star Plus). Ramayana: The Legend of Prince Rama, the anime adaptation of the Indian mythological epic of the same name, was released in 1992 and had a long and troubled production history, but the end product was a grand success, with its all-star Hindi cast and catchy songs turning it into a TV fixture for well over a decade. It even received a US release, with Bryan Cranston voicing the lead role. The remainder of the '90s would see various anime achieve varying degrees of success, from Nippon Animation's 1989 adaptation of The Jungle Book — which became a nationwide hit — airing in India starting in 1993, to late-night anime like You're Under Arrest and Gunsmith Cats. Despite this, there wasn't yet an actual fandom surrounding anime at the time. That would all change upon the turn of the century.

  Cartoon Network revolutionized the Indian anime market when the channel arrived in 2001. The launch of dedicated anime programming block Toonami brought with it two anime that would permanently shape the future of the fandom: Dragon Ball Z and Cardcaptor Sakura (albeit in its heavily-edited Cardcaptors form). While I never watched Dragon Ball Z (compared to all my friends at school), I did watch some Cardcaptors with my sister, which would actually be the very first anime I watched. My own viewing habits notwithstanding, DBZ was very much the anime of the moment. Schoolkids would frequently shout out famous lines from the iconic English dub. We'd even invented various hand games based on attacks and moves from DBZ. In 2003, another monumental shift would come as the childhood classic Pokémon hit the small screen, followed closely by Digimon, Yu-Gi-Oh!, and Beyblade. The merchandise associated with these franchises turned them into smash hits with a younger audience. All the cool kids had Pokemon cards and Beyblade tops. Battling with them at school was the stuff childhood was made of. To this day, these toys continue to sell well. Beyblade tournaments are still very much a thing. While many of my schoolmates were avid fans of DBZ, there were other trends in anime that could be observed, trends that had to do with language. From my experience, certain anime were only available dubbed in Hindi — a language spoken largely by the northern half of the country. Coming from a south Indian city with a significant north Indian population, I could observe a clear trend wherein Hindi-speaking north Indians grew up with these Hindi-dubbed anime, while people in the south (who spoke other languages) largely grew up with titles that were available in English (or Tamil, as fans of DBZ's Tamil dub can testify). Interestingly, these Hindi dubbed anime tended to be ones that were popular in Japan but not so much in the West — stuff like Doraemon, Shin-Chan, KochiKame, and Case Closed. This gave the north Indian anime scene a rather unique flavor. An even more interesting case is that of India's northeastern region (comprised of states like Nagaland, Manipur, and Meghalaya). Being culturally different from the rest of India, these states have had a history of consuming Korean and Japanese media, and they embraced anime and manga in a way the rest of the nation had not. Anime-related cosplay is huge in the northeast, with some of the best cosplay conventions in the nation taking place there and becoming a part of the local fashion scene. The general acceptance of otaku culture in the region continues to be high.

Eventually, anime would become a little more accessible to all. The launch of dedicated channel Animax in 2004 represented another watershed moment in the fandom. The shows Animax brought over were unlike anything we'd seen in the medium. Shows like Bleach, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, Inuyasha, and K-On! redefined what anime meant for Indian audiences who had previously seen anime as a childhood interest and no different from other cartoons. As the channel slowly began to shift its focus to the older teen/young adult demographic, more mature anime like Cowboy Bebop, Hell Girl, Akira, and Welcome to the NHK challenged our conservative notions of what was acceptable to air on TV, especially considering these shows aired in daytime slots rather than late-night. This honeymoon period did not last. Animax was delisted by service providers in 2012. The years to come would be some of the most frustrating for us anime fans, as availability was at its most inconsistent and uncertain. While the channel attempted to make a comeback later on in 2016, it eventually disappeared for good in 2017. Despite all these problems, I look back on Animax fondly. Thanks to it, we became aware of the existence of the entity known as "anime." We began to actively seek out anime over other forms of animation. In short, it resulted in the formation of an actual fandom centered around anime. Anime fan clubs began to pop up in major cities like Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, and Kolkata. Widespread conventions outside of the northeast region came next. Anime Con India was started in 2010, followed closely by Delhi Comic-Con in 2011. Anime conventions in India are a curious thing. They are very unlike the sprawling, sophisticated conventions of the West. The funds simply aren't there for that sort of thing. I don't recall a single Indian anime convention that was attended by a voice actor, animator, or the like. So what are Indian cons about? In an interview with The Citizen, Anime Con India founder Nitesh Rohit talked about his reason for starting the con: "like any other belief and faith they all needed a temple to congregate (at)." This statement really resonates with me, and sums up what Indian cons are about. What they lack in scale and facilities, they make up for in intimacy and a feeling of togetherness. They are more or less small-scale events for anime fans to find other fans, to network with them, and basically feel less alone. Because feeling alone was part of the original Indian otaku experience. The early fandom was largely an urban phenomenon, as going to cons wasn't an option for everyone and the internet wasn't what it is today. So, you had these disconnected pockets of fans. People around you were unlikely to share your interest in anime and may have even judged you for it. The general consensus in India was (and still is) that animation is a medium for children. And remember, for a long time, anime accessibility varied by region. So, if you were lucky enough to find a kindred otaku, there was no guarantee they were into (or had even heard of) the same titles as you. This meant that we hadn't really had the ability to develop any sort of unique culture or traditions of our own. Things like going to cons, renting anime DVDs, memes and in-jokes — these things didn't exist for the vast majority of early fans who were school-going kids or college students of little means. A culture of our own wouldn't arise until much later — when that generation grew up.

  Of course, it wasn't just us who grew up — technology did, too. The internet became more ubiquitous. Social media and forums enabled us to network with each other regardless of location, in ways we'd never have imagined. To the scattered fandom of the early days, this has been nothing short of a blessing. The other big change ushered in by the internet was the era of streaming. Until then, most of our anime viewing took place on television and as previously stated, was not always very consistent. Accessibility improved greatly with the launch of Netflix in 2016. In today's India, Netflix is a household name, with a significant portion of young adults having access to a subscription. With a catalog of over 200 anime, Netflix has been responsible for pulling in many new fans. Plenty of people "come for the movies, stay for the anime." Series like My Hero Academia, Death Note, and One-Punch Man have become mainstream successes in this fashion, with a significant following even among non-anime fans. Another streaming service that is beginning to make inroads into the Indian market is Crunchyroll, with simulcasts like Boruto and originals like Tower of God, and the fact that it is free makes it accessible to anyone with an internet connection. Most Indian anime fans I know of have heard of Crunchyroll, and as more titles get licensed it is inevitable that its popularity will rise. And us otakus are doing plenty to help it do just that.

The success of Weathering With You is a shining example of the tight-knit nature of the Indian anime fandom. All it took was one person (an anime fan named Divishth Pancholi) to create a Change.org petition asking for its release in Indian theaters. The petition went viral, getting over 50,000 signatures and attracting the attention of Shinkai and the producers, resulting in its release here. Today, that event is seen as a smaller part of a greater Indian anime movement that is pushing for increased availability and acceptance of anime in India. Hashtags like #IndiaWantsAnime frequently make their presence felt on social media. This fandom isn't without its problems — it isn't the most inclusive when it comes to non-male fans, the "animation is for kids" specter hasn't been fully shaken off, and I'd love for anime BluRays/DVDs to be more widely available here. But I am grateful for the fandom's existence for getting me into anime in the first place. Without them, I'd have never been sitting in a movie theater on October 11, 2019, watching Weathering With You.

By: news+feed@crunchyroll.com