I've been a nerd forever, but recently my social life started picking up after I started talking to some the foreign students at my school (mexican guy and a bunch of japanese. even talked to a korean guy who freely admitted to liking starcraft). They most likely know most of my friends there are anime freaks, but still treat me alright and accept me as a friend. It probably helps that I'm the same race as most of them.
Now I find myself in the position of hosting a massive New Years party, and I'm not sure what to do. (most of)The guests are mostly my friends from way back, people who LAN, watch anime, roleplay, and on the surface look and act like well dressed elitists, so there's no problem there, but my house has a lot of anime and video game-type stuff lying around. Should I hide it, and keep in the good graces of my newfound fellow Japanese friends, or let them see a part of me that I normally hide under a veil of "normalness"? I want to keep my friends (and in some cases, potential romantic interests), but I don't want to appear to be a loser. What is the best course of action here?
Hide almost everything but leave one giant eroge wall scroll up. That's what I would do anyway, mostly because I don't care what people think.
I guess you can store away the most offensive material, and what is prone to be easily broken/damaged. It's also not a bad idea to tidy things a bit,...
Otherwise, and unless your new friends are anime haters, I see no point in hiding your centers of interest, as long as you don't bore them to death with them.
Actually, the best approach is to act naturally about your hobbies. If you find them normal, people will find it normal. If you're embarrassed about them, people will also become suspicious.
do not hide your hobbies. i tried that once and ended up with the wrong kind of friends. if you and your old time friends can act normal it shouldn't be a problem blending them and yourself in with the new people.
it depends, if your home is an anime shrine, it might be somehow creepy. don't hide your hobbies completely, keep it in moderation. Only your bedroom should have anime stuff.
In my case, the bedroom is the only room in the house without anime stuff.
But on the other hand I don't collect figures.
yea, figures are a big no no...
If a bunch of 'friends' are comming then you shouldn't worry. They are your friends and they already like you. And it's a party! No one's gonna' "What's this anime? That guy's alooser. Let's get out of here." There will be a great atmosphere. "What's this DVD? Paprika?? Awesome!!"
I suggest you don't leave everything lying around. Put your Gungams on a shelf and your DVD's in their rack. If people see them like that they'll figure it's a hobby and not an... obsession.
Why are people so ashamed of liking anime? I don't think anyone's not liked me just because I have anime posters on my wall.
If you have A LOT of anime stuff, and some odd stuff like anime figurines and models, then you should maybe consider putting some in a box or something. Otherwise, you shouldn't feel ashamed of yourself, your friends seem to like you, don't over-analyze everything and put up some sort of de-personalized faċade over yourself. Everyone is different, it sure would be a boring world if we all were identical clones.
take care of your hobby figurines as they're a rare thing or something, put them in a good glass shelf with dynamic lighting or something close to that.
collecting anime figure, collecting stamps, collecting shoes, they're all the same. thats your hobby, be proud of it! if you're trying to hide it, thats what make it shameful. (but you might want to hide those ecchi things, that indecent to show)
> I don't think anyone's not liked me just because I have anime posters on my wall.
Based on past experience, it would alter my view of a person if I saw it before I knew them well.
>>10
It doesn't feel like a normal hobby. Even when it's something you enjoy. I've learned that society WILL look down on you for liking nerdy things, unless you have some other quality to counter it. And I lack a lot of those qualities.
So after reading all of this... I guess I'm going to split the difference... I got rid of my posters years ago (just weren't for me), and I grew out of figures as well. Main issue is the large amounts of manga and anime on my shelves (I keep my bookshelves in my TV room near the DVDs). I'll remove some of the more otaku-ish books to boxes in the basement, while titles that were more mainstream I'll leave there. My DVD rack will undergo a similar procedure, and American DVDs will be displayed more prominently (the Miami Vice and Hawaii Five-O ones will be placed in the most visible positions- they should've been there anyway). I'll try to relax about things, just present things the way they are- it's a hobby. Not a lifestyle.
I'm secretly a gymnast but nobody knows.
I pretend to be totally physically inept.
But when I go on the internet at home I don't sit on a chair, I'm in the splits position. I'm actually quite scared that someone might find out soon because I always seem to be bumping into people on the way to the gym. Its just that I'm modest and I don't like to show off. Whenever someone asks me what my hobbies are or if I have any talents I just say no. I just say I go shopping,watch tv, listen 2 music watch films and sleep.
If you're really worried about the amount of stuff, you can just hide it if that'll make you comfortable, but if these people are really your friends, then it won't matter to them, I don't think.
Like >>8 said, clean your house and put everything in its place, but you don't really have to hide it. Don't look like a slob, but don't put it a way like anime was a hobby you haven't been into for a long time. Just be yourself!
I don't think it would really bother them. The society that the media portrays, the one that looks down on nerdy things like figure collecting and whatnot, isn't really what society's like. Most people are too self-conscious to care about how other people's rooms look like; they're thinking of trying to be presentable as guests in your home, not plotting ways to destroy your reputation or whatever you're paranoid about. If they are plotting, they weren't very good friends to begin with, anyway.
Though, if you've got pr0n lying around, I'd probably stash that away somewhere safe.
most of my friends are cheerleaders or competitive athletes-and they think it's totally cute that I'm a bit nerdy. They even ask me to bring anime and doramas over to parties cause I've gotten them so interested in it
>>20
Went alright actually. The girls were rarely around the stuff that was still on shelves, but they've since told me I don't need to worry about liking that stuff. One of the guys was actually impressed with some of the 80s series I had. Overall, it went alright, and my confidence is up. Guess I just need to relax and not stress out about my hobbies.
People don't care what you like as long as you don't talk about it all the time.
>>22
True, the only reason I have any prejudice against anime fans is having known some that would talk about it always.
>>23
Basically why I hated Japanese class so much. I wanted to learn the language but all the otaku fucks were screwing it up for me talking about OMG MIYAZAKI.
Once you get past the intro levels the KAWAII NINJAS XD people tend to thin out quite a bit.
"Ghibli films" is the stock answer you will get from at least 90% of Japanese people who say they like anime. IMO these people and anyone else who mentions Ghibli is not an otaku unless they also show knowledge of anime from at least a few more studios. They're barely more otaku than someone who likes only Disney movies.
P.S. Ninjas are totally awesome. XD
Oh good, that's reassuring. I've wanted to start learning the language for a while, but beyond the difficulty in finding places where I could get lessons I was worried it would be dominated by idiot shits who have no lives past their body pillows. There are a reasonable number of Japanese overseas students at my university (some sort of language program with a uni over there I think) and they seemed quite relieved to learn that I didn't particularly watch anime/read manga etc. (although at an event to promote mixing between them and us natives I guess they were justifiably wary), although I will admit to having been drawn more into it in the last year. (Science degree. Kind of hard to avoid it and still socialise.)
I don't think there is any real stigma with watching this kind of stuff anywhere in the world as long as you avoid scary obsessive levels; it seems pretty universal to watch a little 'kids stuff' and similar to de-stress, or as a kind of cathartic release from more adult pressures.
Yeah, all the animu guys usually get weeded out as they have to learn such difficult concepts as "verbs" and "particles". Half of them expect to just pick it up. Asian Studies was my major, so I took three years. There were plenty of weeabii in 101, with a full class of 30. By 102, half the weeabii were gone (roughly), at about 23-25. By 201, it kicked into high gear and only the ones that actually wanted to learn the language survived. Sure, a couple guys did like anime but the class tended to be mostly people interested in the language or people of Hawaiian or Japanese ancestry.
If you can travel abroad to a English-language university, it's also worth it as well. Japanese universities are relatively easy, you'll get practice, and it's fun! I missed out on it, which sucks, and I really regretted it.
And you're correct. My Japanese teacher even ran Azumanga Daioh in the classroom quite a few times, had us write "movie reports" detailing elements of Japanese culture in both traditional and anime films (though they tended to be much more classy than OMG LUCKY STAR, mostly Miyazaki and such), so it's not all bad. Just don't make it a huge obsession. I now like(d) Azumanga Daioh and Haruhi (pretty much because of the class, actually), but I don't see a problem with it, I don't go talking about it to everyone, and it wasn't the reason I decided to go into the field.
It's really the people who drop "baka", "kawaii", and "moe" into casual conversation to try to be cool that you have to watch out for. There's a lot more to Japan than anime and manga, it's really a shame that intro classes get flooded with those people and turn people off to learning the language because of it. I actually switched from Biology to the major, and didn't regret it one bit, it was something I'd never otherwise do and it was the high point of most uni days for me. High-level classes (201 and up) were absolutely hilarious as the group was so casual.