NEWbiestm

Anime NEWbiestm Survival Guide

Do you happen to be one of the many lucky people who have just recently become aware of the coolness that is anime? Or perhaps you've been aware of it for some time, but only recently has something kicked it into the realm of an obsession? The real question is, do you find yourself somewhat mystified or puzzled by certain questions? What does this or that mean, or where to they get those...? Well if so, this page may be of interest. Comprehensive, no, but I will try and throw a few things up here that puzzled me when I was entering this very interesting community, and some of the answers I have run across. If you know better, feel free to send me email and set me straight!


Asian (??) Emoticons

If you have recently started to exchange email with another anime fan, or signed up for an anime-related mailing list (see below), you may have encountered some interesting little "faces: that do not resemble the emoticons you might be familiar with. The ones most people know are
:-) or : )
;-) or ; )
: P
: D
etc. etc.

These "smileys" were meant to be looked at sideways, to see the "face". But the anime crowd use a different set of expressions, which are written to be read without craning your head to the left:

^_^     a smile
 ^_____^     a wider (big) smile
 ^_~     a wink
 ^_^;;     smile with sweatdrops
 -_-     eyes closed
 >_<     mad or vexed
//_-     Trowa (just thought I'd see if you were awake! ^_~)

There are many more that I have seen, but hesitate to define since I have had to guess at what they represent, still your guess will likely be as good as mine:

*^_^*     smiling with eyes crinkled or starry eyes?
#^_^#     this one gets me - not sure, red cheeks?? Blue Lemming sez this one and the one above are "blushing". Thanks, Lem!
 @_@     I love this one and use it a lot, but how to define - goggle eyes?
 O.O     mouth small and eyes wide... what would you call that?
 0.o     one eye big, one small... confused?
 ^_^v     for fingers in a 'v' like 'victory'
 ^_^&     having your fingers crossed - this and the one above courtesy of Blue Lemming!

If anyone more savvy than I would like to add more, or help me define any of these, suggestions are welcome! ^__^

What is Pocky?

References to pocky come up often enough in this community and if you don't know what it is, you might be confused or curious. Pocky is a popular snack food that originates in Japan. In fact "Pocky" is a brand name from a company called Glico - there are some very similar looking snacks that have other names (like Mejii's Fran). There is a really good article defining the snack here:
http://jsnacks.com/whatispocky.shtml
And by the way Jsnacks.com or Japanesesnacks.com is a good place to buy Pocky and other cool snacks online. They aren't the only place I am sure, but I never bothered to look any place else! ^___^;;;

What are Mailing Lists?

Mailing Lists are a big part of the anime fan community and a main stay of the fan fiction writing and reading crowd. There are different agencies that provide the vehicle for these lists, but first, what are they? A Mailing List is essentially a big list of email addresses through which messages can be sent and received. They tend to be subject oriented. For example, if you like Gundam Wing, there are mailing lists you can join where people discuss the series and often post fan fiction. Lists can be small or huge, have slow traffic or unbelievable traffic. Pay attention to how many members a list has and how many messages are posted a month to have an idea what is going to happen to your mailbox when you sign up!

Also pay close attention to what the lists are for and any rules they have posted. If you want to get on a list where people post Gundam Wing fan fiction, for example, but you don't want to see yaoi (male/male relationship) type stories, find a list that does not state a welcome to yaoi, or be prepared to ignore what you don't like without complaining.

Mailing lists can open up a whole new world to you, and immerse you in a community you might never have known existed. They can also swallow your life, if you are susceptible to that sort of thing, so be forewarned!

A lot of lists can be found at http://groups.yahoo.com/ . There are other listserves (groups that serve mailing lists) around as well, I just can't think of any right now. ^__^;;;

What are Archives?

Archives are websites that archive fan fiction. They are a huge resource for the fan reader. Please note that the people who create and maintain these websites are not getting any money out of it. They usually do it in their spare time, and should be treated with respect, if not reverence. They are also usually overworked, so if you find a broken link or have a comment or critique about the site, make it polite, and include as much information as possible.

Japanese for the Fic reader

This is NOT a comprehensive list of anything, just a bunch of odds and ends I've been collecting myself for a while. Many (if not most) of the terms and definitions here originally came from the site http://www.shinigami.org, but since I see that the site is closed, I offer them simply because they were so helpful to me, but all credit goes to that site's author. She did the work, not me. Some of the others were simply added over time as words were supplied and defined by fic authors, or looked up somewhere or other by me. If you see anything here that is obviously wrong, feel free to let me know - corrections welcome.

And for a wonderful and much more useful resource for actually learning Japanese for the anime-lover, visit Reiko-chan's Japanese for Anime Lovers, and thanks to Blue Lemming for the suggestion! And here's another resource, suggested by Cassiopiea! http://homepages.ihug.com.au/~yopie/learnjapaneseforfun/main.html, "Learn Japanese 4 Fun Free E-Zine - an email magazine sent twice a week. Check it out!

Some Fanfic Conventions

Coming soon. And this is about conventions as in things that are common usage, not about actual gatherings called conventions! ^__^

Where do they get the STUFF?? - Merchandise

This is nothing more or less than a list of some of the vendors I have discovered. There are sure to be lots more out there! If you have a favorite that's not on the list, let me know and if I like 'em, I'll add. ^__^

Stuff:

Music:

Where do they get the STUFF?? - Fansubs and Other Kinds of Subs

Basically, there are three ways to acquire anime (well, four, if you count "get copies from your lovely, generous friends - wai!! ^__~):

  1. Buy a licensed copy on tape or DVD - easy if it has been licensed for sale in the US (or wherever you are).

    Cass recommends http://www.dvdplanet.com/ with these comments: "It's a good place to get officially released dvds at good prices. Just click on the Anime section, and as you can see, the prices really are discounted. ^_^"


  2. Buy a licensed copy on tape or DVD that has been released to another market - like Singapore or Hong Kong. These products often include English sub-titles along with subtitles in Chinese or what have you. This is a great option for many titles that have not been released here in the US, or if you are a purist and don't like anime dubbed into English. The problem with these little gems is that the translations can be, well, humorous or problematic, depending on how you look at it. They are translated from Japanese to Mandarin, for example, and then from Mandarin to English... ^__^;;; By lovely people who often appear to have a very tenous grasp of the latter. Also, often the characters' names are messed up or substituted. It helps if you already know who the characters are and have strong nerves, but the up side is, the quality of the visuals is often very good.

    HK and other "outside the US" DVDs are often found on eBay. Be careful and don't get into a bidding war, the vendor has more, I assure you. I met a nice vendor there who has a website he sells from direct - a lot of them do. He may not have what you want but if you'd like to go look: http://www.animeniacs.net/. Cass also suggests the following: http://www.animeart.com/, and http://www.animekrazy.com/. Be aware than in some cases the people you are dealing with are not native English speakers.


  3. Fan Subs - these are unlicensed copies of original Japanese release that have been sub-titled in English by fans and distributed for basically the price of the tape + shipping, or a sponsorship fee. Fan subs are usually better translations, make more sense. The quality can vary depending on what generation the tape is. There are also "digital" fan-subbers who release files from the internet.

    The thing about Fan-subbers is that technically, what they are doing is not incredibly legal. For that reason, and because I don't want to get anyone in trouble, I am not providing any links, but if you go searching, you can find them.

Corrections? Questions? Suggestions?

Shin Kidousenki Gundam Wing © Sunrise, Bandai, & Sotsu Agency.

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