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Draconmouth: The Thoughts of Jaya Lakshmi |
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You know what the title means. I’m referring to Al Kahn’s offensive comment on manga and American children’s literacy. Why haven’t I written about this before? The reason is because all the other webmasters expressed their thoughts, and they were similar to mine. But having thought it over, I decided NOT to write my opinion on Al Kahn, but on anime and manga in the US. A percentage of Americans read manga. I’ve met very few in my hometown. All the people at my school, who do either wait till summer, do it but also teach so they don’t have time to talk about it, or don’t do it often but check on the Internet for local conventions. NO ONE goes to any of the Anime Uncensored sites, or even to the Comic Book Guy.com. And NO ONE had my school has even knows about One Piece, let alone reads it. If you don’t know about One Piece, then you do not know classic manga. Why aren’t these people the fiery fans who do not like guns to be edited to pointed fingers? Why do they excuse the pointless and stupid changes? Sailor Moon I can excuse, but Card Captor Sakura? Yugioh? One Piece? These were shows that were entertaining, intelligent and classic to begin with! And what did all the dubbing companies do? They hacked them up into mindless toy-sellers! Stand up for what you think is wrong because YOU can do something about it! Give your reasons! People will laugh, and they will say that you are wasting your time, but if you truly love your manga and anime, then there’s no reason to feel ashamed! A few weeks ago I went on a tournament for Academic Team, where groups test their knowledge against others. During the tournament, I met not one, not two, but more than five anime fans between rounds! It turns out my family is an exception rather than the rule. I only gave one group my email, but I’ll probably see them again next year. Yet they were hesitant. They felt embarrassed about drawing people in the anime-style. The only girl who I could tell who was distinctly anime was wearing a Neon Genesis Evangelion shirt. That’s the only way I spotted her. Here is a way you can avoid people who make fun of manga; read classics. You must read every word of To Kill a Mockingbird, Dracula, and even some Shakespeare when you get the chance. I’m not sure how they enhance the mind, but if people have read them for over a hundred years, then they must have some kind of appeal. I’m doing my best with A Raisin in the Sun now. Read a dose of this along with your weekly or daily manga and then you can show people that you balance the “junk” with “treasure”. We are NOT freaks! We are ordinary people who are huge manga and anime fans. We all go to school, work daily, and have our own lives. There’s the occasional fan who is so geeky that they don’t live a normal life, but they are happy with who they are. We enjoy manga because it can make us laugh at ourselves, escape our problems, cry when we want to, and rejoice in the world that the writers and artists create. It’s like reading a book where the illustrations tell the story as much as the dialog and captions. Plus, people don’t complain about the words as much. So Al Kahn, manga doesn’t technically count as reading. But from your interview with ANN we figured that you were a bonehead anyway. Maybe you should read Watership Down to expand your tiny brain. |
| Past Misc. / Rants |
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