Lone Fan

You ask me what a fan is, and is supposed to be.

A fan is basically someone who has an interest (and for others, support) on a particular show, whether it be a TV series, movie, game, or (in my case) an anime series. Dictionaries can only provide the most encompassing, if not confusing, distinctions that set them apart from people who have interest in other fields.

One often has to ponder how visuals can easily make a watcher judge quickly. When one sees not-so-real people on screen, one marks it with an "cartoon" mark. I know this was one of the topics discussed before, but I can't help but wonder how the global divide fails to provide a passageway through this gap of understanding. Of course, I can forgive my 5-year-old cousin who easily told me that a "Bleach" anime is a "cartoon". Yes, I can forgive that. However, when my 14-year-old sister still tells me that I waste all my money on buying anime CD's, that's a different issue.

Here in the Philippines, we anime fans are a rare commodity. We don't have anime clubs at school like those in countries like Japan and America, so more often we took anime as one of our private interests. As stated by one post I've read on in an anime message board, anime fans are treated as weirdos, geeks, even juveniles. I can understand one of society's weak links as the indistinguishability (and probably, segregation) of those which people cannot comprehend, but incidents such as these do not need further humiliation. We do not demand respect; we simply wished to be treated equal, not special, as other men in this world.

Right now, I'm still looking for episodes for anime series that I'm keeping an eye for, especially School Rumble and Bleach.