Daryl Surat
04-07-2008, 05:10 PM
Last year was my very first Dragon*Con and I enjoyed meeting with you folks and talking to you. Actually, I didn't "talk" so much as "listen," so if you don't remember me, it's okay. I was trying to be low-key and unassuming for once. My ability to attend D*C 2008 is still uncertain at the moment, but I'll introduce myself all the same. It's rather verbose, but since brevity was never my strongest suit...
Some people may allege that I'm an infamous Internet personality, but I'm largely immersed in a tiny corner of a big slice of the much bigger fandom pie: Japanese animation ("anime") and comicbooks ("manga"). Encompassing as it is, modern SF fandom tends to keep its distance from this pursuit--D*C 2007 was no exception--and I understand why: adherents to the anime medium are on average substantially younger than most other SF fans (that is to say, under drinking age), especially when you factor in the literature enthusiasts. These days, anime conventions are by and large segregated from SF ones: that's why the same city is host to both Dragon*Con and Anime Weekend Atlanta in the span of about a month or so.
But once upon a time in decades past, sci-fi fandom and anime fandom had intertwined fates as seen in the "Star Blazers" rooms at places such as Philcon and the World Science Fiction Convention (which incidentally was in Japan not too long ago). The Internet, store shelves, and convention attendees may suggest otherwise, but the amount of quality titles has remained constant. Fans who like both live-action as well as animated sci-fi never disappeared or ceased to exist. I know this because I've spent quite a bit of time interviewing them (http://animeworldorder.blogspot.com/search/label/Interviews).
As such, for over two years now the Anime World Order podcast has occupied a niche of a niche: reviewing cartoons and comics which most people have never even heard of in the hopes of turning people onto things they'd like which they'd otherwise never encounter on their own. We also help write Otaku USA magazine (http://www.otakuusamagazine.com), a publication put out almost exclusively by anime podcasters and bloggers. But anime/videogaming podcasts are largely isolated in our own world, being relatively disconnected from the greater sphere of podcasting as a whole. Part of it is that we're not sure if there's a central discussion hub for you guys to all know each other so well. Part of it might be the aforementioned fandom schism. And part of it might just be that we're not doing enough on our end of things to make other people care. So in the event that the last one's the biggest culprit, let me take Step 1 towards alleviating that:
Hi. My name's Daryl. Nice to meet you.
Some people may allege that I'm an infamous Internet personality, but I'm largely immersed in a tiny corner of a big slice of the much bigger fandom pie: Japanese animation ("anime") and comicbooks ("manga"). Encompassing as it is, modern SF fandom tends to keep its distance from this pursuit--D*C 2007 was no exception--and I understand why: adherents to the anime medium are on average substantially younger than most other SF fans (that is to say, under drinking age), especially when you factor in the literature enthusiasts. These days, anime conventions are by and large segregated from SF ones: that's why the same city is host to both Dragon*Con and Anime Weekend Atlanta in the span of about a month or so.
But once upon a time in decades past, sci-fi fandom and anime fandom had intertwined fates as seen in the "Star Blazers" rooms at places such as Philcon and the World Science Fiction Convention (which incidentally was in Japan not too long ago). The Internet, store shelves, and convention attendees may suggest otherwise, but the amount of quality titles has remained constant. Fans who like both live-action as well as animated sci-fi never disappeared or ceased to exist. I know this because I've spent quite a bit of time interviewing them (http://animeworldorder.blogspot.com/search/label/Interviews).
As such, for over two years now the Anime World Order podcast has occupied a niche of a niche: reviewing cartoons and comics which most people have never even heard of in the hopes of turning people onto things they'd like which they'd otherwise never encounter on their own. We also help write Otaku USA magazine (http://www.otakuusamagazine.com), a publication put out almost exclusively by anime podcasters and bloggers. But anime/videogaming podcasts are largely isolated in our own world, being relatively disconnected from the greater sphere of podcasting as a whole. Part of it is that we're not sure if there's a central discussion hub for you guys to all know each other so well. Part of it might be the aforementioned fandom schism. And part of it might just be that we're not doing enough on our end of things to make other people care. So in the event that the last one's the biggest culprit, let me take Step 1 towards alleviating that:
Hi. My name's Daryl. Nice to meet you.