You actually made me think about it quite hard, I’m writing up my own blog post about something similar. I’m subscribing to this blog now. Wish I could write as well as you though!

I don’t think I’ve ever had an actual crush on an anime character, especially not to the extent some girls I knew in high school did, i.e., always saying how cute/hot certain anime guys are, fantasizing about dating them, etc,. My love for certain character consists of having pictures, figures, etc., of them and not so much wanting to actually get intimate with them.

@ Vagish

You’ve done a good job condensing a lot of what I’ve said into one paragraph. Nice XD

It’s hard trying to phrase it exactly but thats what I think. Although I have never had a crush on an actor or an anime character. Well maybe thats because I haven’t seen a harem or ecchi since I wax 15.

Gotta love anime <3!

It’s been years since I’ve crushed on an actor myself. No slur on those who still do – it can be a lot of fun. Not sure if what I feel about my favorite anime characters can be called a crush exactly – since they’re so patently not real. Something to ponder. ;)

I never got why girls would scream over this week’s hot guy, yet when I bought a couple prints from an artist I admire, I almost squealed when I got in the mail. I surprised myself with that x3

Oddly though, I would be a bit fangirl-ish to meet an voice actor from an anime I like. I think because, unlike some American cartoons, I feel much more feeling from anime voice actors. When I was watching Ghost Hunt, at one part, a ghost lady moaned and it sounded so real that I kinda freaked. Than I had to go and listen to a few times and even show my dad |3 True, I donot know what these people are really like, but they seem to enjoy their job.

I think the way dialogue and story play in most works of fiction, both anime and live-action shows included, things are never exactly like reality – in real life, things don’t happen with the prefect sequence and precisely spoken dialogue of most fictional works. So both mediums are pretty equal to that extent, but animation has the extra additive of not even looking like reality, thus pushing the suspension of belief further.

And you’re right, many people who love certain actors don’t love them personally but love them for a fictional role that they play, which is no better than loving an animated character. But as I said, at least that animated character doesn’t have that questionable “hidden life/personality” that actors have.

@ ultimatemegax

What you said about image imprinting is a good point and yet another reason why I can’t get into live-action characters – seeing the same person in different stories ruins the suspension of belief. But with animation, the character design possibilities are endless. I really need an image to feel connected to a character, one of the reasons I can’t get into literature characters very much unless pictures of them are provided. An example, I probably wouldn’t have gotten too attached to the Harry Potter characters if I hadn’t seen the movies and associated the book characters with the looks, voices, etc., of the actors.

I suppose open-minded people wouldn’t think it odd that someone my age prefers animation over live-action. It’s still a bit awkward because most people assume that if you’re a young person in America you automatically like certain mainstream pop-culture things.

@ Dann

Documentaries also make up the few live-action programs I watch too, particularly nature ones like they show on Animal Planet and National Geographic. But I honestly don’t watch much TV at all. I’ve gone weeks without turning on the TV for anything other than video games.

Anime also has the benefit that almost no two characters look the same (unless they are meant to do so purposely) thus we are imprinted with that image for one specific character instead of an actor/actress’s image. While you could have the same voice actor play many different roles (Daisuke Ono-san comes to mind), it’s incredibly tough to alter your looks and mannerisms enough to become a different character for a live-action role. There are exceptions such as child actors and roles where the costuming is vastly different, but it almost never happens in Western entertainment (that I’ve seen).

I can’t necessarily agree that all live action can’t be seen as fantasy (look at Star Wars for how fantasy looked in 1977) but I will agree that it appears to becoming more “realistic”. I will also say that some anime try for the realistic approach instead of full fantasy. How would Haruhi look if it wasn’t taken directly from a real high school and town? I will grant the CGI in Day of Sagittarius, the cave cricket, and the fight in Melancholy IV, but other than that, it’s taken place in a “real” environment.

Lastly, I feel the same when I’m at work and my co-workers talk about movies. I’ve said more than once that if the question starts with “Ultimatemegax, have you seen….” then the answer will likely be “no.” and it’s accepted. Ironically, one of my former teachers liked my interest in Japanese music and let me play it in the workspace, much to the annoyance of certain people at 04:45. I don’t think your friends and co-workers will think it odd that you don’t watch western entertainment, much like you don’t think it’s odd about the shows they watch, just something neither side views as interesting to themselves.

The only thing which comes to mind is that once you’ve got narrative, you want suspension of disbelief, and many people are finding the illusion of reality that comes from photography helpful.

That fits in with a self-observation, that once I started primarily watching anime rather than live-action, that’s about the time I became less interested in exciting and “realistic” stories which make you wonder how the hero is going to get out of this, in other words, stuff which requires you to think of the fictional world as something which really exists, and became more interested in stuff which…communicates with you, through themes and representative character journies and so forth, where events have meaning, rather than just happening in order to be dramatic, in other words, stuff which uses the fictional world as an abstract representation of the real world, rather than a substitute.

I’ve thought animation was a better medium for fiction than live-action for some time, now I’m wondering if that’s because it’s inherently honest; it admits its world isn’t real, and so can be more meaningful because it’s more truthful, while live-action is constantly relying on you confusing its world with reality.

As in the common retort to being attracted to an anime character of “they aren’t even real!” For that to be an objection means you either have to believe a movie star is genuinely the character they play on the screen, or you’ve got to believe that you’ve got a real-life chance with them. (Or probably both.) It just means the objector doesn’t truly grasp that they’re fantasising.