It seem’s like EVERYONE’s doing best of 2008 lists.  Rolling Stone, though that’s expected yearly, which was also the case with Spin (even if the Jonas Brothers appeared on both lists – what gives, music critics?)  Multitudes of the manga sites I stalk… er, frequent… listed their Top 10’s, 20’s, etcetera.  Even this very site followed the trend with Joseph Wilk’s Best Albums post (which, he’s admitted, wasn’t based on his own opinion, but plenty of fine albums made their way onto the list.)

So without further ado, here, have a teen perspective on the Best Of 2008 in music, manga, fiction, and other library-related categories.  No, no, no, don’t thank me.  (Insert dismissive hand-wave here.)

Best Novel: Hands down, this one’s going to John Green’s Paper Towns.  Sure, there were tons of books I adored this year, but this came out on top due to the intriguing plot, true-to-life characters, and quirky sense of humor.  It takes a good writer to make you freak out over the simple phrase “You will go to the paper towns and you will never come back” – John Green is that writer.

Worst Teen-Lit Trend: The angsty teenager is a trope we all recognize in today’s YA lit.  But now authors have got it into their heads that angst can’t REALLY be ‘good’ angst without a narrator who dresses in black-and-hot-pink Hot Topic ensembles, thinks My Chemical Romance is the goth-est thing EVAR (yes, ‘evar’, not ‘ever’!) and shows no difference whatsoever from the ‘preps’ she claims to hate other than a significant lack of Aeropostale clothing.  We get enough characters like this in terrible Harry Potter fanfiction, and now they’ve crawled into the literature market as well.  What’s the world coming to?

Best Manga That You Probably Need a Double Set Of X Chromosomes To Appreciate: You might recognize Ai Moringawa’s name from her (slightly Ouran-like) semi-sports comedy My Heavenly Hockey Club, which is entertaining in its own way.  But if you’re a skeptic shojo fan who’s okay with slightly un-PC jokes and would like to see all the cliches of the high school genderswap turned on their head, her more recently published series Your and My Secret is freakin’ hilarious.  Except for maybe the grandfather, but I’ll take any parody-ish shojo I can get, and that’s exactly what Y.a.M.S (cool acronym, huh?) delivers.

Best Continuing Manga: Okay, okay, I’m a little biased because this is probably one of my favorite series, but I’m going to have to go with Hiromu Arakawa’s Fullmetal Alchemist.  It’s more than just a typical shonen manga – it’s got a lot of heart (almost too much, sniffle sniffle) to go with its action, and recent plot twists are just getting crazier and crazier.  Spoiler: THE WHOLE COUNTRY IS A GIANT TRANSMUTATION CIRCLE.  (Sorry.  Just had to get that out of my system.)  If your library doesn’t have this (up to volume 17 available in the US, don’t read online scans or I’ll throw a wrench at you) then you should order it immediately.

Saddest Magazine Event: It’s a tie between the double demise of ‘08 (NewType, then PiQ) and the fact that OtakuUSA no longer contains a DVD.  Actually, maybe that’s a good thing.  One of the DVDs I got had an episode of Aquarion… I think I’m scarred for life.  Ladies and gents, this is NOT one to show at your anime club.

Best Single: It was released in 2006-ish, true, but M.I.A.’s “Paper Planes” rode the success of Pineapple Express right onto your radio.  For a few short months, you could hear a freakin’ global revolution, right in your own car.

Best Album of 2008: All “you know how I know you’re gay” jokes aside, Coldplay’s Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends was a definite tour-de-force.  When the first single hit airwaves this summer, everyone knew it was going to be a great album.  They weren’t wrong, either.  (I’d also like to mention Fall Out Boy here as an honorable mention- “What A Catch, Donnie” from their new CD Folie A Deux is pretty darn powerful.  Say what you want about emo- the song’s got Elvis Costello!)

Biggest Musical Letdown of 2008: “Hey, remember last spring when that British chick Estelle released that one awesome single?  What was it called again?  Wasn’t Kanye West the guest rapper?”  Yes, it was called “American Boy”, and again yes.  The fact that this song didn’t get further recognition hurts a lot – it was one of the catchiest pop tunes of the year, and anyone who says otherwise can go listen to Natasha Bedingfield or something.

Biggest “*^&%^$%^##!” moment: Tha Carter III.  ‘Nuff said.

What You Should Not Put In Your Book-Jacket Summary Ever: The phrase “rhino heist.”

Author of 2008: Love her or hate her (I’ll go with the latter), Stephanie Meyers ruled both the best-seller list with Breaking Dawn (and, on a smaller scale, The Host) and the box office with Twilight.  Power like that is an admirable thing.

Best Movie: I can’t help it – I’ve got a soft spot for robots in love.  So of course Pixar’s Wall-E snagged this category.  The tale of little trash-compactor Wall-E and his friend/crush/girlfriend/scanner/iPod-lookalike EVE does something most animated movies can’t: it manages to surprise you.  Eat your heart out, Quantum of Solace!

I, Otaku: Inside The New American Geekdom

“You’re just a manga artist, discharging evil into society! How dare you live in a place with a roof?!”

- Excel, Excel Saga

Index

·Introduction: Social Studies of a Different Sort<

·Otaku: Who Are They, and Why Are They Dangerous?

·Types of Otaku: A By-No-Means-Definitive Field Guide

·Q&A: Common Misconceptions About Otaku, Manga, and Fandom in General

·Serving Otaku: What Can You, As a Librarian, Do?

·Otaku-Dom: Is There Anything Really Wrong With It?

·Appendices

- Appendix A: Anime Every Library Needs (Seriously)

- Appendix B: Wait, Where’s This Go?

Introduction: Social Studies of a Different Sort

So I heard this great joke today: two girls walk into a library. One points at the manga section and says “That’s all pornography.”

… Yeah. I don’t get it either.

Apparently I’m supposed to find this funny. And I do, in a sort of sarcastic way. I mean, the plight of the average American otaku is rather humorous, struggling to be understood in a world that would rather have us impressionable American teens obsessing over the Jonas Brothers or the latest Hilary Duff flick. It’s more socially acceptable, after all, to indulge in these entirely mainstream things, is it not?

Maybe, but as the unofficial poet laureate of misunderstood 90’s children everywhere, Jonothan Larson, stated in the lyrics of RENT, “Is anyone in the mainstream?”

And nothing is more misunderstood than today’s anime and manga fangirl (or fanboy, as the case may be.) If I could, I’d travel around the world and educate today’s more… “normal” teenagers on the role of the fan-person (and how’s that for gender neutrality?) in today’s young adult culture.

But maybe I’ll just write a paper on the subject.

Otaku: Who Are They, and Why Are They Dangerous?

Otaku  is a Japanese term that technically means a person obsessed with something; I suppose if you wished, you could call your immature cousin (you know, the one with the Zac Efron posters that you hate?) a Disney Channel otaku, or your father a football otaku. But over time, the word’s taken on a new meaning. It’s now mostly used to refer to anime and manga fans. However, there are two types of people it refers to.

Otaku Type #1: The meaning that an American might normally apply. A person who likes manga and anime, possibly cosplays, and probably writes quite a deal of fanfiction.

Otaku Type #2: The scary type of otaku. This generally refers to the, you know, twenty-year-old man with the twenty-five thousand half-clothed anime figures in his bedroom and the, er, questionable anime-styled computer games on his hard drive. (Not to say that this type is entirely terrible. Read Kio Shimoku’s Genshiken manga for a whole host of loveable Type #2’s.)

I, of course, consider myself, and most of the people I know, Type #1’s, but that doesn’t cover every kind of otaku known to man. And woman. And possibly their cats too (not really.)

Types of Otaku: A By-No-Means-Definitive Field Guide

The Casual Otaku (Female): Usually teenaged, these girls are entranced by the pretty boys of shojo (manga for girls) and proceed to fangirl over them like nobody’s business. They’re all Fruits Basket and Hana Yori Dango all the time, so don’t ask them who Osamu Tezuka is (even if they can thank him for revolutionizing the genre with Princess Knight way back when.)

The Casual Otaku (Male): Has picked up a few volumes of popular series like Naruto and Inuyasha, but don’t expect him to like any good manga or anything.

The Narutard: Run away. Run away now. (This is not meant to offend any Naruto fans out there. It does have its redeeming qualities: Kakashi’s Icha Icha Paradise (translate it for LULZ) reading in lessons is quite funny, and Inner Sakura is my hero.) A quick way to spot Narutards: their blue-and-silver Hidden Leaf headbands, displayed with (admittedly admirable) pride.

The Eva-Scholar: Watched Neon Genesis Evangelion for all the subtext and now thinks he knows everything. Newsflash: he doesn’t.

The Fujoshi: The word “fujoshi” literally means “rotten women,” but it’s used to describe a fangirl of… well… yaoi (gay love) manga. Actually, most of these girls are pretty nice, and not all yaoi/Boy’s Love is terrible- the Gravitation anime is pretty good. But when they start squeeing about some fifteen-year-age-difference couple (cough cough) you kinda just wanna kick them. Or barf.

Q&A: Common Misconceptions About Otaku, Manga, and Fandom in General

Q: Are all otaku horny teenaged boys?

A: Actually, in America, most otaku are female. This may be due to those with Double-X chromosomes having something in their genes causing them to “ship,” or pair up, any two male anime characters with a hint of romantic tension.

Q: Otaks don’t bathe!

A: Excuse me? I shower every other day. But I can’t speak for the others like me. I do admit, though, that by day three of an anime convention, some of the patrons, well… stink. And I’m not talking about the quality of their L cosplay, either.

Q: I hate big robots and ninjas and the like, so what manga is best for me?

A: Since you don’t seem to enjoy shonen (aimed at boys) manga, you could try shojo (aimed at girls) manga on for size. Azumanga Daioh is the sweet, very comedic tale of a group of average friends throughout their four years of high school. xxxHolic is a kinda creepy, edge-of-your-seat manga about a teenager who can see spirits and his job working for a mysterious, extremely hung-over shop owner. And Sand Chronicles is a realistic often heart-rending tale of a teenaged girl just trying to make it through life. You might not enjoy my reccomendations, but at least give them a try.

Q: I don’t get what’s going on when I read manga online. Am I not Japanese enough?

A: Online translations suck, and they’re 110% illegal to boot. (Although there is something hilarious about reading a badly-translated chapter of Fullmetal Alchemist and seeing Ed exclaim, “WTF?!”)

Serving Otaku: What Can You, As A Librarian Do?

·Start an anime club. There’s actually a program that will send libraries free DVDs for these, so money shouldn’t be a problem. Pocky is, of course, essential.

·I’ve never actually seen one of these in my hometown, but while you’re at it, a manga discussion group would rock a lot of fans’ worlds. Instead of sitting and watching like in anime clubs, these could center around discussing different genres/demographics in manga and comparing different series. It would give us more literal-minded fans somewhere to rant. Even better, once a month the club could hold a fanfiction beta-ing session – that’d help a lot of people out!

·If you haven’t already, subscribe to manga anthology magazines such as Shonen Jump, Shojo Beat, and Yen+. Not only will your teen patrons thank you, they’ll devour these. (Yen+ has the best variety in titles, from shojo (Pig Bride, Sasarah, and Nightschool especially) to shonen (Soul Eater and Higurashi: When They Cry are the standouts of the genre offered here.) There’s something for everyone.)

·Get a good variety of manga. A selection that’s only romantic comedy will turn away action fans, too much Shonen Jump manga will drive drama fans to mutiny, and the titles that fall outside those two set genres are often some of the best (Azumanga Daioh anyone?) Order a bit of everything and everyone will find something.

·If your resident otaku is running out of manga to read, find American graphic novels that overlap in themes or styles. For instance, a girl who’s exhausted her supply of Ouran High School Host Club will probably enjoy Chynna Clugston’s high-school comedy Blue Monday, which shares the same crazy sense of humor and adds in a healthy dose of teen-movie storytelling. And if someone just can’t wait for the next volume of Honey and Clover, Bryan Lee O’Malley’s one-shot Lost at Sea is another brilliant coming-of-age story, where the destination is never as important as just getting there.

Otaku-dom: Is There Anything Really Wrong With It?

But even though anime and manga are becoming more and more common in the US, otaku are still regarded as the nerdiest of nerds, sub-zero on the social echelon. We’re seen as losers beyond repair, total freaks, with no redeeming qualities other than fodder for lame “fatass no jutsu” jokes.

What, I ask you, is really so terrible about a fondness for anime and manga? Think about it- adults would prefer it if we loved High School Musical, with its “We’re All in This Together” message and not-so-subtle preaching of the “assertiveness is for bitchy girls” philosophy, but wouldn’t a series like Tokyo Babylon, set in a universe where, much like our own, life isn’t always fair and the good guys don’t always make it out unscathed (or with both their eyes, since it’s done by CLAMP), better prepare today’s teenagers for life? What’s a better representation of friendship, Gossip Girl’s overblown, attention-seeking teenagers, who network among others of their status just for popularity and family ties, or, say, Aria’s Akari and Aika, who, while they do have the occasional tiff, have a relationship based around mutual respect and shared interests? I’m sorry to be so preachy, but the teen life presented in the American media leaves much to be desired, at least from me.

But then, I am just a teenaged otaku, so why should you listen to me?

Well, I hate to stereotype, but the average otaku really is more intelligent than the usual Clique-reading lipgloss conniseur. Sure, you get some idiots in there (quite often, Shonen Jump fanboys are in the lower range of IQ’s) but most otaku I’ve met are smart, well-educated people. I’m not saying that everyone needs to read anime and manga; I just want my “people” to be accepted as who we are.

Geeks, but not necessarily bad people.

Not overly perverted or closed to othe forms of storytelling. Not idiotic or stuck-up.

We’re human, just like you are.

All I ask is for the world to treat us like such.

Appendix A: Anime Every Library Needs (Seriously)

Cowboy Bebop: Don’t laugh at the name – this show’s a classic. It packs in everything you’d want in your sci-fi adventure anime, and more. And the music by supercomposer Yoko Kanno (Macross Frontier, Aquarion) and her band The Seatbelts is beyond divine. Like extasy for your ears, I swear…

Excel Saga: Twenty-six episodes of pure insanity. It should tell you something that the main character dies at least eight times in the first episode alone. Or that she kills her manga creator more than once. Or that she keeps a puppy around for emergencies- food emergencies.. Oh yeah, and Yoda has a cameo appearance in episode four. It’s pretty awesome.

FLCL: Just a normal boy-gets-hit-over-the-head-with-a-bass-guitar-by-a-girl-on-a-Vespa story, right? Well, until robots start popping out of people’s heads.

Fullmetal Alchemist: It starts as a simple shonen story of two brothers searching for a mystical stone, then slowly begins its transformation into the epic, dramatic, sometimes even heartbreaking tale that’s become one of America’s most popular anime. (Also, Riza Hawkeye can kick your ass.)

Genshiken: As mentioned back up in the section about Type 2 otaku, this series is about a group of crazy, obsessive fanboys (and a cosplayer, and a fujoshi, and that one girl who gets dragged along by her boyfriend) and their day-to-day lives. If you want to know more about Japan’s geek culture, this is the perfect show to get your education started.

Neon Genesis Evangelion: Thank god director Hideaki Anno didn’t get medication during the creation of this show, or we wouldn’t have one of anime’s most popular and entertaining stories. Teenaged Shinji Ikari is drafted, by his estranged father, to pilot one of the mysterious “Eva”s, biomechanical robots (call ‘em mecha) created by a mysterious institution known only as “NERV.” Intrigued yet?

Read or Die (OVA): Yomiko Readman is a substitute teacher with a secret: she works for the British Library as a special agent known as the “Paper.” Her special power is that she can bend paper to her will, using it to do anything from blocking bullets to making a huge paper airplane. The OVA’s only an hour and thirty minutes long, so it’s perfect for movie night! Keep in mind, however, that it’s meant to be parody…

Samurai Champloo: By turns hysterically funny and emotional, this show has something for everyone, even if samurai and swordfighting aren’t your thing. It’s not only dangerous one-on-one battles Mugen, Fuu, and Jin must face on their quest to find the mysterious ’sunflower samurai’… sometimes it’s an eating contest. Or a game of baseball (albeit a fatal one against European invaders.) And it’s always awesome.

Trigun: Vash the Stampede is a man with a six-million double dollar price on his head. If only the bounty hunters chasing him knew that he was really a dorky, donut-loving pacifist with a weakness for pretty girls. Normally I’m not one for English dubs, and especially not one for Johnny Yong Bosch, but his performance here is excellent.

Appendix B: Wait, Where’s This Go?!

Sometimes, the line between “adult” and “teen” manga begins to blur, and librarians may not be sure where to place certain titles. As an actual teenager myself, my friend Zoe (read her blog over at http://www.bookchild.wordpress.com) and I convened on where a few of more, um, mature series should go. (Note: we get about 25% of our manga from the adult section at the moment, so please don’t tell us to stop reading innapropriate books! We hear it too much already!)

Chobits: Even though its fanbase is mostly older teens (and it’s rated Teen+), we’d place this firmly in the adult section. For one thing, it’s about ROBOTIC GIRLS, and they’re not even cyborgs. They’re goth-Lolitas. With ears. And they have a tendency to forget to wear clothes. No matter how sweet Chii and Hideki’s love story is, some twelve-year-old could pick this up, entranced by CLAMP’s adorable cover art, and end up totally freaked out. (Don’t worry. It gets better after chapter one.)

Nana: Sure, Ai Yazawa’s tale of sex, love, and rock’n'roll has a few scenes that might be considered objectionable, and the characters are a bit older than the usual shojo heroines (about twenty or so,) the subject matter is what teenage girls go through: unrequited love, making the wrong choices, and, of course, finding that one best friend who you never want to lose. Keep it in the teen section until about volume 8, but put latter volumes in the adult section.

Genshiken: Teen section, all the way. That’s where the otaku hang out, and what’s the target audience for this but otaku? Plus, there’s nothing that objectionable, except some jokes about doujinshi (fan comics that can sometimes get a little… er… “iffy”) and semi-nudity that’s played totally for laughs, it’s still a 16+ title that should stay right where it is.

Aria and Aqua: Okay, here’s the weird part. Aqua (and its sequel Aria) contain almost nothing that’s inappropriate for teens. So why’s it in the adult section of my local library (next to freakin’ Akira, of all things)?! This is one you could bring home to your grandma, for crying out loud. And it’s impossibly adorable. Move it to where it belongs, or a whole load of potential fans are going to miss out on something completely loveable.

I often find it annoying that, while I’m searching for manga at the library, I overhear other patrons talking about just how awesome and thing-I-am-not-allowed-to-say-in-polite-company-kicking their favorite male characters are. As a girl otaku (manga and anime fan, for the uninitiated) I find this rather disappointing. Now, I’m not saying that male characters are bad (you won’t find a huger Edward Elric fan in all of Pittsburgh than me. Well, probably) but where’s the gender equality? Way back in the early days of manga, Osamu Tezuka (yes, THAT Tezuka, the one they call the God of Manga?!) revolutionized the hero archetype with his comic Pricess Knight, featuring a heroine who could handle a sword just as well as any man. Where’s that spirit in today’s comics, I ask?

If you’re a reader of shonen manga like myself (yes, guilty as charged—you can shoot me now!) you’ve probably noticed the main character archetype: a fiercely loyal teenaged boy with THE OVER 9000 UNTAPPED RESEVOIR OF POWER (which goes by many names depending on what exactly you’re reading.) And you’ll also probably recognize the female archetype: Weaker. Usually given healing powers, or, at times, no powers at all. And generally just there to amass a fanboy following.

Okay, okay, maybe I speak too strongly. But it’s true that shonen manga needs a lotmore girl power. I thought Bleach’s Rukia was going to turn out great—she didn’t put up with any funny business from anyone, and could take care of herself. But then in the Soul Society arc (around volume 11) she simply… lost her awesome. Of course, being locked up in a jail cell for weeks is enough to make anyone lose their awesome. And don’t even get me started on Orihime. WHAT. THE. HECK. She’s the girlie-girl, idiot-savant, so-weak-it’s-almost-in-the-realm-of-parody type. And have you noticed, even if she does have an awesome power, SHE DOESN’T GET ANY FIGHT SCENES? Please, Bleach manga-ka, give us a scene of Orihime kicking someone’s butt. (I hope it’s Aizen’s.)

But the world of female manga characters still has hope. Here’s my list, as requested, of the Top Four Totally Thing-I-am-not-allowed-to-say-in-polite-company-Kicking Women in Manga. Let the revolution begin! (End overdramatization…)

1.Riza
Hawkeye from Fullmetal Alchemist is without a doubt THE best sniper in the whole of the military. And possibly the best at training dogs, but this has yet to be tested.

2.Yoruichi
Shihouin (who is not a cat, really… whoops, spoiler?) of Bleach can outrun anyone, but for some (mysterious) reason chooses not to fight alongside the Soul Society (at least at first.) It’s nice to see someone marching to the beat of their own drum.

3.Sakura
from Naruto – or at least in the later plot arcs. Okay, okay, I don’t actually read this and yeah, Sakura has her moments of weakness, but she’s strong emotionally, doesn’t give up, and is fiercely loyal. Sometimes that’s what counts most.

4.Okay, sorry for the FmA overload here – what can I say, I’m obsessed? But for the last entry on this list, Winry Rockbell is a shoo-in. Sure, she doesn’t fight any monsters or carry a weapon (the wrench doesn’t count,) but she also has tremendous skill in fixing automail (FYI: that’s these awesome metal bodyparts made of awesome. Did I mention they’re awesome?) and is (usually) the voice of reason. Dunno about you, but I’m certainly impressed.