Anime Takeover
On March 21, 2014 the Annual Anime (ah-NIH- may) Boston Convention at Hynes in Backbay attracted 24,978 attendees, all of whom wore elaborate and colorful costumes as they waited to get inside. Every year the convention has grown, bringing people together and becoming the largest Anime Convention in the northeast. For these fans, anime, also known as Japanese cartoons, is a lifestyle; its popularity among young Americans has continued and will continue to develop because it has helped them find their own form of self-expression and creativity.
James Maston, an employee at Boston Web Marketing is one of these fans. Maston, a 25 year-old soccer player, fell in love with anime when he was 12 years old. “I began watching anime in middle school. Everyone I knew started watching Dragon Ball Z. It was the first anime to be picked up by cartoon network. We loved it because of all of the fighting. It was badass,” Maston said.
Dragon Ball Z was an animated series that premiered on Cartoon Network in 1996. The show follows the adventures of the protagonist Goku. The series follows him from his childhood to his adulthood as he trains in martial arts and searches for seven dragon balls that summon a wish-granting dragon.
When Maston began high school, he started to discover other anime shows. Most of which took place in a futuristic world where violence and sex were the main components. These all aired late at night on Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim. “Japanese culture is very suppressed, they have to bottle up their emotions and will never publically display them,” said Maston. “They have to suppress their feelings of aggression and sexual desire but that is why anime is so popular. By watching these cartoons, they are able to express their emotions. I’m even able to express my emotions through them,” said Maston.
Many people agree with Maston. They believe that anime is a way for them to express themselves. Madison Chartier, a petite 19 year-old from Rhode Island loves the freedom the Anime Convention gives her. “The reason I came to Anime Boston was because this is the only place I can be myself. When I’m here, I can express myself completely and know that no one is going to judge me,” said Chartier as she stood in her bright emerald costume.
Carlton Haworth, a 20 year-old from Rhode Island, feels the same way. Dressed as one of his favorite anime characters in a long red robe and cat ears Haworth said, “I’ve come here to be myself. I’ve already made so many friends and I’m looking forward to meeting more.”
Haworth also talked about how difficult it is to constantly be made fun of at home for just being yourself and dressing up as different characters with your friends. “It makes me angry that people are so judgmental. We’re not hurting anybody; we’re just dressing up. They shouldn’t knock it until they try it,” said Haworth.
“It’s easy to understand why so many people come to these conventions. They come because this is the place where people will embrace you, they will lift you up for liking what you like. Of course people who like the same things are going to gravitate towards each other especially if they usually get made fun of,” Maston said.
Maston also enjoys anime because of its complexity. “It’s not just like watching cartoons, I know it looks like cartoons but the narrative, the story and characters are so in depth and there are so many levels. It can be like watching a really great movie. And the amazing thing is that there are so many genres that there is something for everyone, Maston said.
James Duyck, a 21 year-old mathematics student and President of MIT’s Anime Club, is also a huge anime enthusiast. “Every Friday we have showings where we get together and we watch and discuss movies. We even have anime Karaoke night. We also make sure to watch anime right before finals so we can reset our brains before studying,” Duyck said. For Duyck and other members of the MIT Anime Club, these cartoons have helped them create a bond with each other. It gives them the opportunity to come together and share their common interests.
MIT’s Anime Club goes beyond watching anime and also focuses on different social issues that affect the anime community. One of the issues that they have currently been discussing is how anime consumption is changing in the United States. “Anime is becoming more and more normalized. People can now filter out what they want and pick specific genres to watch. Before, there were fewer options. People are always looking for something new and because of new technology anime is now constantly producing new material,” Duyck said.
Anime first arrived in the United States in the 1960’s with Osamu Tezuka’s “Astro Boy,” an animated series about a robot with pointy jet-black hair created by a scientist to replace his own child who was killed in a car accident. “Tezuka was heavily inspired by Walt Disney’s creations such as Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck, he loved the expressiveness used to convey emotions. That is why most of the Japanese cartoons you see today have western features,” James Duyck, MIT’s anime club President said.
For the first couple of decades, anime remained an underground phenomenon. Americans were only able to consume these cartoons by watching blurry videos and bootleg copies. It wasn’t until the 1990’s that the anime culture began to take off. “It began to grow in the 90’s. This is when the large following started to take place. This is when people started to come together to talk about what they were watching,” said Yuko Kondo, a saleswoman at Anime Zakka in Harvard Sq.
Born in Japan, Yuko Kondo has been surrounded by anime since she was a child. For her, anime isn’t filled with sex and violence. “The violence and objectification of women is only a tiny part of the anime culture. There is so much more. There are so many genre’s such as romance, drama and stories for children,” Kondo said.
As the anime weekend ended, fans packed up their bags and headed home. For them, this was a weekend of exploration and expressiveness. It was a place where they could come together, share what they love and let people know that for them, anime is so much more then just cartoons.