On this page I've posted some of the most interesting anime questions that I've received via e-mail from visitors to the site, and that I've tried to answer to the best of my anime knowledge
July, 2005 - Q: Why is it that a show like Naruto is so popular here in the U.S, compared to other such titles? I know how much anime fans here in the states love Naruto. Some go as far as labeling it, "the best anime ever!" Usually shounen/fighting-style anime (ex. Dragonball Z) is almost always massively popular here, which I guess is understandable. However, what makes this case different is that Naruto is a show that has never been televised here in the states, yet it is immensely popular, with a little help from the fansub community of course. Let me use another shounen-series for comparison: One Piece. One Piece sells more copies of its manga and anime dvds in Japan than does Naruto. Yet, One Piece is not even close, in terms of popularity, to the level that Naruto is here in the U.S. Why do you suppose that is? Is it a difference in cultural taste? Is it b/c America can't help its obsession with ninjas? *lol...I just want to hear your opinion on this.
A: LOL, it is interesting how popular Naruto is here in the US ^^ But I think a big part of it is because it IS NOT televised here. Since it is only available through the "underground" fansub community, that makes it more of a novelty and the people who are fans can feel a bit more intimate and feel as if they're part of a community that's more cultured, as opposed to other shounen series' like One Piece and Dragon Ball Z, that have already been watered down in their American releases and mainstreamed to the general public. Naruto fans can feel like they're part of something that the general public is not...their own society so to speak. But once Naruto hits US TV, I'm pretty sure we'll lose some fans(but gain new ones through the TV exposure.)
Besides that, you're probably right about the ninja obsession being a part of Naruto 's popularity too, LOL. And, like a lot of other long running shounen series', it just has aspects that a lot of people can relate too...the intense action and violence, complex plot, characters with very strong goals...people just go for that =) But as for why it's more popular than One Piece here in the US, probably has to do with a few things; first, like I said before, One Piece has already been televised and terribly edited, so that's forced it to lose a lot of its novelty as a truly Japanese anime to some potential fans, at least here in the US. Another thing is probably because its characters don't look very "anime-ish"(personally, I think the One Piece look is very interesting, but I'm sure a lot of anime fans are turned off by it...) And also, Americans have a very stereotypical view of pirates, so probably when choosing to watch a show that has to do with ninjas as opposed to pirates, they'll probably want the ninjas(which isn't fair, since the One Piece pirates are definitely not stereotypical pirates, but that's ignorance for ya.) And lastly, One Piece is a lot older than Naruto, and people just tend to like the newer series'. I'm pretty sure when One Piece first found its way over to the US(by fansubs or whatever), anime still wasn't as popular or well known as it is now. But when Naruto came out, anime and fansubs were already pretty big here, so Naruto just got way more exposure in the anime and fansub community than One Piece did. And I'm sure by the time a lot of new anime fans found out about One Piece, the series was probably so far ahead, that they didn't want to bother to try and catch up with all the episodes. Even though both shows are still ongoing, Naruto came at a better time for popularity and exposure.
July, 2005 - Q: I am getting into the exciting world of anime, but I still have a lot of questions that need to be answered first. What were you like at 15(my age by the way) and what were your friends like? Were you or your friends popular? Smart(getting good grades)? Athletic? And here's my final question: People at my school tend to think of anime as stupid and reject others because they like it(even just a little bit!!!) I have a good personality and good friends from "both sides of the spectrum." I feel if I expose my interest in anime, my non-anime loving friends will dump me. I know I might be sounding superficial and I love to express myself in the way I act and do, but I don't want to lose friends from either side. What advice would you give me?
A: At 15, I was also starting to get into anime. I was only familiar with a few different series' at the time, but I was eager for more(I was mostly familiar with the so-called "kiddie" anime, like Pokemon, Digimon, Cardcaptors, etc.) I think that was my first year of high school. So yeah, basically at 15, anime was still new to me, and I wanted to see as much as I could. It's hard to say whether my friends were "popular" or not because my high school had nearly 4,000 students total, and with so many students nobody knew each other, so no one was really considered popular or unpopular. There were plenty of people there that liked anime, people that didn't like anime, and people who just didn't know or care.
When I first started high school I didn't have any friends, but all of the friends that I eventually made during my four years there(roughly about 6 or 7) all liked anime in some way. Pretty much all of them(including me) got good grades, but I think only one of them was athletic. But I think they were all smart ^^ And in response to your last question, I don't think you should try and hide the fact that you like anime from your friends that don't like it. If you like it so much, then it's a part of you, and if they can't accept that part of you, then they're not true friends. True friends should be able to accept each other's interests, even if they don't share them. For example, one of my friends in interested in the "gothic" look. Now I don't particularly like that, but I don't judge her entire personality on that one aspect. I accept the fact that she has an interest that I don't like myself, but there are plenty of other things that I like about her, so I just overlook it. I'm sure there's no one who likes everything about their friends, but if they find that the things they like outnumber the things they don't like, then they can still stay friends. So if your "non-anime" friends make fun of you and abandon you just because you have a special interest that isn't "popular", then they're not good friends and you're better off without them. If that's the case, then they obviously don't like you for you, but rather you for how you stand on what's "in with the in-crowd" so to speak. But if they don't like anime, but they still like you, then they're good friends =) Wow, that was pretty intellectual, LOL. Hope this helped and I hope I didn't confuse you too much =P
September, 2005 - Q: I wanted to ask you what happened at the ending of Paranoia Agent? Yes, I did see all of it, from beginning to end, but I'm so confused! Although, it was a great anime I wanted to know if Lil' Slugger was actually real, or an imagination of Miss Sagi. Cause if I remembered correctly, the young detective said,"Lil' Slugger and Maromi are the same." Also, if he wasn't real then how did he get the other victims? And I noticed the end of the last episode started all over again, like it did in the beginning of the first episode. Well, if you can please help me clear out at least the last 3-4 episodes of Paranoia Agent the most, I'd really appreciate it!
A: About the ending of Paranoia Agent, yes Lil' Slugger was not a real person, but rather an apparition that "appears" to people who are cornered and distraught. I suspect he offers a "way out" to these people, which is shown by how he attacks them...despite whether the blow from his bat injures or kills them, they're able to escape from their problem. Moromi is the same way in that people become engrossed in his cuteness and innocence so that they can forget about and escape from their real problems(anything can be like that actually; video games, music, TV, smoking, drugs, etc.) I'm still not exactly clear about, if Lil' Slugger isn't real, how did he injure and kill all those people. It might be that the people were so distraught that they injured or killed themselves, and blamed it on Lil' Slugger. I'm not sure. But anyway, as for the final message of the series, I think it's that even if so many people are "pushed into a corner" and destroy each other(personified by Lil' Slugger growing bigger and bigger), life will still go on and people will just go though the same situations over again(which is way everything restarts at the end and we see the same scenes from the beginning of the series.) The reason Tsukiko and the policeman(forgot his name) survived was because they came to realize and accept that the "escape" world they tried to live in was not real and they had to face reality and their life problems eventually. The whole reason we see the scene with Tsukiko's past and her dog Moromi was because for her whole life she didn't want to tell her father the real story because she feared he would be angry with her...she lived on this falsity until the end of the series when she was finally forced to do what was right(apologize to Moromi and realize her mistake.)