Confession time: I was an anime fan in the early 90s. Back then it was tough to find anime, and watching the stuff was difficult, with 4th generation fansubbed VHS tapes regarded as a major find. Anime was a predominantly male (and Asian) hobby at the time, something that has massively shifted over the last two decades.
While I’ve fallen off the anime train in a big way as time has gone on, it’s done my life a lot of good in many ways. People I met decades ago in a dank club room in the Students Union Building at the University of Alberta are still some of my best friends. I’ve also been to Japan four times and lived there briefly, and that’s due to anime in at least some small way. I experienced culture through my circle of friends in Edmonton, one of the most whitebread cities in Canada. I also got to see Spirited Away, widely regarded as one of Miyazaki’s best, in a theater in Japan, and indeed knew about the master’s works years before he became popular in North America.
One of my favourite anime is Otaku No Video, the thinly veiled story of the rise and fall and rise of Gainax, a fan-run anime company. Being Japanese, anime tends to not bother with irony and satire, but Otaku No Video (gently) gives the genre and the fans both barrels.
Obviously it’s somewhat out of date by now, but nerd truths hold true regardless. If you have a couple of hours to spare, give it a watch. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1XXmf7TwT-4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9UaVC_RKcc