I feel your pain. tear...
ps there are new chapters to my stories.

I totally agree with you! I hate people who think that anime is ** stuff! Not all anime is like that, like; Rayearth, Digimon, Boogiepop phantom, Hamtaro, DBZ, Ranma 1/2, Totoro, Crest of the Stars, Sailormoon, Sazan eyes, trigun, cowboy bebop, last exile...I can go on and on but I'll stop for now. Hee hee.
Happy writing!
Tk.T~

I feel sorry for you...you live among narrow minded idiots! I guess things are different in the US and the UK...in the US anime is so thoroughly accepted that some American cartoon companies are making cartoons that SEEM like anime (Totally Spies, Teen Titans). And as for those narrow minded idiots that you have to cope with, I bet they watch those sick so-called "reality shows".

I also remember this essay...but I didn't say much last time. Ugh, that is annoying when people dismiss movies just because it's anime. People are the same way when it comes to movies. I notice a lot of people tend to judge movies based on the special FX these days. I find it very annoying because a movie with great special FX can still be a crappy movie plot-wise (such as the dissapointing conclusion to the Matrix trilogy). As for American cartoons, the number of actual good ones are far and few inbetween. I notice a lot of the action cartoons here tend to resort to humor to cover up the fact that you're watching something that you've seen a bajillion times. In addition, I find it sad when animators resort to putting goofy anime effects into the cartoon (I don't watch anime for that!).

I remember this essay! I admit I was ashamed to like anime when I started getting into it, but not as much anymore (I think I said that last time though). I'm more embarassed of some of the people who are into anime (i.e people who call themselves otakus). I don't know how much anime cost out there in the UK, but in America, some stores charge for it such outrageous prices that it's better off to buy it on the internet (for example: a local movie store sold Slayers sets for $130 bucks while I bought the all 90-something episodes for only $90 online).

It's true... having a taste for anime can cause you to be shunned. Oh, for the green (brown, really) fields of Mexico, where there's nothing wrong with liking anime...

Overall, these were pretty good essays, but I think you are preaching to the choir here. Critics who don't 'get' animation are not restricted to just Japanese imports. All animation gets dismissed as 'kids stuff' by many critics. Which isn't really a problem because any true anime fan already knows to disregard critics who don't get it. Word gets out about who gives accurate reviews and who doesn't even watch the movies in question. Don't worry too much about it.