◆ 海外のオタク

　オタク（アニメオタク）は、日本にいるだけじゃない。海外にもたくさんいる。そのことは、しばしば話題になる。
　そこで、「あなたどうしてアニメオタクなの？」と質問してみた。　──

"Why do you love Japanese animation so much?"

It's because animation is viewed in a much more respectful light in Japan than it is...well, everywhere else. It's the same with comic books too; if it's animated, it MUST be for kids and it can't possibly have any kind of interesting story or character developments or anything. Animation is a much more free art medium because basically, if you can imagine something, you can draw and animate it. I know I'm guilty of enjoying more than my fair share of "guilty pleasure" anime series, but there are some incredible gems out there as well, better than most live action movies I've seen at times (Nodame Cantabile, Fullmetal Alchemist, Monster, pretty much anything by Hayao Miyazaki). Think about the Academy Awards. There's so many different categories, but just one general "Best Animated Feature". It's all lumped together and there is so much stigma that almost nothing besides some childish Disney "Circle of Life, Power of my Friends!" junk will ever win or get an recognition. Even when something more avant garde DOES win, it won't be anything that has a really deep, mature plot (Spirited Away being a recent example).

　上の話を読んでもらえば明らかだが、簡単に大意を言えば、こうだ。
　「ディズニーみたいなお子様向けの幼稚なアニメじゃなくて、大人の鑑賞に堪える作品だから」
　こういう話はしばしば聞きますね。実際、そういうわけで、この人は「風の谷のナウシカ」が好きなんだって。
　だけど、その隣にいたアメリカ人は「ケロロ軍曹」が好きで、その人は何も言いませんでした。　 (^^);