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| I can't believe I ate the whole thing. |
I think I watched at least a drive of around thirty college football games on the glorious opening weekend of college football. But, don't think that I neglected my anime watching. Not for a second. Thanks to a full day off on Monday, I'm caught up with all of the shows I'm still watching. And I even have a letter to one of America's most beloved voice actors.
Newsings:
A quick update to my main rant from last week. Famed director Miyazaki Hayao has decided that his latest film Kaze Tachinu (The Wind Rises) will be his last. I'll have a further comment when I finally see the film later this year when it is released domestically.
The main commentary this week is on an interview that Vic Mignogna, most famous for his portrayal of Edward Elric in the Full Metal Alchemist franchise, was on the ANNcast with Zac Bertschy and Justin Sevakis. It was one of the best episodes of their always fine podcast that I've heard to date. I have written a letter to Vic, because I want to speak directly to him in response to some of the things he said in the interview.
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| Please don't hate me, Vic. |
Dear Vic,
I would like to thank you for appearing on the recent ANNcast. Your candid and heartfelt remarks made it one of the most fascinating podcasts I've heard in recent memory. I appreciated your insights into voice acting, especially the part where you answered that your worst performance was probably your first. I kind of know how you feel, having just started my blog. I hope to look back in a few years and feel the same about my early work as you do about yours. I also really enjoyed the discussion you and Zac had about your Christian faith. Again, I admire you for speaking so openly and honestly about something where you are truly passionate. Despite having left religion in recent years, I feel your Sunday services provide a great value to those who want it. This despite my sleeping through every one of them, since my Saturday nights tend to run late. You also asked a couple of questions about hostility towards you, and I want to provide some answers based on my own observations and personal experience.
The main reason people are so hostile to the idea of a Christian proselytizing at them has nothing to do with the message, or even the messenger. It has everything to do with what these people, many of them young, associate Christianity. As someone who was raised in the Christian faith, I know the joy and love that a relationship with God can bring people. I saw this firsthand in my church. However, as a gay man, I see the other side of Christianity, the side that holds signs like "God Hates Fags" and wishes gay activists would die. As much as I would like to believe that most Christians are like those in my church, the most vocal and most prevalent are a group of hate-mongering bigots. Pastors like Fred Phelps are the face of Christianity in 2013, so when you start saying you are bringing the Good News to people, they see it as anything but. Since young people, the majority of anime congoers, are largely in favor of equal rights for sexual minorities, they see you as a messenger for a group that they see as intolerant and hateful. That's not to mention a fact you yourself pointed to, that a lot of these people were bullied for being different in the first place. And like it or not, a lot of that bullying can be traced back to the church. So, as a defense mechanism, they will at best ignore your message, or at worst become hostile to you, no matter what you personally believe or what you say, because of that negative association they have with Christianity. This isn't your fault, nor is it theirs. It's the fault of the assholes who have hijacked your religion of love and turned it into a soapbox for hate.
How do you stop the hostility? I have an idea, and I'm going to make an assumption. This assumption is based on your vehement denial of hating gay people, and ignores the prevailing myth that you are homphobic. I'm going to assume that you do not preach that sexual minorities are evil, and that you fall under the category of Christians who are "Not All Like That" (NALT). They even have a site for NALT Christians to speak out against the hateful crazy element of the religion, notalllikethat.org. This is how you fight the hostility, and even the apathy, of young people. Start by asserting that you aren't like the people who have hurt your audience and their friends. Do that and you stand a much lower chance of the negative reactions you wish to avoid. Say that you've learned to ignore the biblical verses about homosexuality the same way you've ignored the verses about shellfish, mixed fabrics, and eating meat in its mother's milk (cheeseburgers!). This won't stop people from being assholes, but it's a lot harder to hate someone who knows that his message has baggage, and actively seeks to distance himself from that baggage. No one gets angry at the guy holding the John 3:16 sign on my campus, but the guy screaming that everyone is a sinner and is going to hell always draws an angry crowd. I'm thinking you're more like the John 3:16 guy.
In closing, I want to give one more piece of advice. No one outside the faith wants to hear about anti-Christian discrimination in the United States. Christians control at least one political party in the country. Entire regions are filled with people who think asking where you go to church is a reasonable icebreaker. Now, if you have any proof that a convention turned you down for being Christian, take their ass to court, because that's illegal (not to mention any convention dumb enough to not bring in Vic Mignogna is kind of insane). Other than that, Christianity is such a part of the daily fabric of people's lives that the idea of anti-Christian discrimination is absurd. Yes, people say mean things to you. That's their right, because we have this thing called freedom of speech. The beauty of freedom of speech is that it goes both ways. You can say whatever you want, and I can criticize you for saying it. That's not a bug, it's a feature. I know you probably won't read this, but I feel better getting it out. Good luck in your future endeavors and maybe I'll see you at a future convention. I'm the guy ranting about boys-love and the current season of anime.
Regards,
Steven
Power Rankings:
This week, a lot of the shows I'm watching didn't do anything to further their plot. So, all of my top five were shows that did that. And to be honest, I would have struggled to find a sixth.
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| 5. Uchouten Kazoku |
It's hard to top the previous week's episode, but the intermingling plot lines about leadership within the tanuki clan, broken arranged marriages, and our main character possibly being eaten in a hot pot keep things interesting. As well as the show's general quirkiness.
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| 4. Free! |
The anime that is aimed directly at me as a former swimmer moves into the top five this week after a second straight week of actual swimming competition. These episodes have allowed the show to play to its strengths. Namely, the beautiful animation and telling the story of Rin and Haru, whose rivalry has always been the most effective part of Free.
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| 3. Monogatari: Second Series |
I know this will shock anyone who has watched any of the Monogatari series, but this episode was filled with talking and explaining what was going on. I didn't mind because even during the exposition dump, there is always something interesting happening, be it the on-screen text or scenery of a destroyed world that Araragi and Shinobu find after their trip through time.
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| 2. Uchuu Kyoudai |
Time to gush! This week's episode felt a bit like filler, with the main action about the brothers doing a photo shoot for a Japanese magazine. However, the episode slowly fills the audience in on a major issue that Hibito, the younger brother, has that may prevent him from returning to space. It's also an example of things happening twenty episodes ago coming back up in a way we wouldn't expect.
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| 1. Shingeki no Kyoujin |
This is anime's equivalent of Game of Thrones. Who is your favorite character? Because they are going to die. Probably horribly. I love it.
And one for the road
Yeah, I got nothing. As I posted, I binged on college football. It happens. I'll have something here next week, I promise.
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