Cartoons are for kids’ — is a phrase that every anime fan would have heard, yet anime or cartoons made in Japan, have gained an audience all around the world.
So is the case with many in Chennai proclaiming themselves as an otakus (someone obsessed with anime and manga). With a wide variety of content ranging from slice-of-life stories to high fantasy adventures, these shows are primarily adapted from Japanese comics called manga, hence encouraging the otakus to read the original source of their favourite shows.
The sudden popularity of Shinchan memes shows the potential of anime to capture audience attention here, but it’s just the tip of the iceberg. For the uninitiated, anime is divided into five groups — shonen, seinen, shojo, kodomomuke and josei. These five categories are demographic with shonen shows focusing on action and adventure aimed at teenage boys; seinen shows with highly mature content aimed at adults; shojo shows targeting young girls portraying interpersonal relationships; kodomomuke shows directed at children to teach morals and josei shows aimed at adult women discussing realistic interpersonal relationships along with dark subjects like rape and infidelity.
Even though there is no telecast of anime shows on television except for some popular ones like the Dragonball series, Doraemon, Shinchan etc., the internet has helped otakus to discover niche anime and define their personal taste. Interestingly, various WhatsApp groups and online forums have been formed for otakus to discuss and recommend anime to others.
“A friend asked me to watch Death Note, and after finishing the series, I went full otaku! I turn to the internet and my friends for references,” says Allen Joseph, a longtime otaku. In fact, the craze is so high in Chennai that various Facebook fan pages are being made and memes are being produced about anime using scenes from popular Tamil movies.
“The anime fandom here in Chennai is ever growing and anime posts are welcomed by our followers. Popular anime like Death Note, Dragonball and Naruto receive huge response while other anime like Code Geass, FMA, Tokyo Ghoul and Attack on Titan don’t go unnoticed,” says Ebin Thomas, one of the admins of FuC, a popular Facebook page. Among all the manga, One Piece, which has been running for the past 20 years seems to have a cult following with fans getting hyped for every weekly release and postulating their own theories about it.
The most surprising element is the appreciation of Japanese culture by fans, with some of them even picking up certain words and phrases like Arigatou Gozaimasu, which means thank you and Senpai, a term used to address an elder with respect. The lack of Comic Con, merchandise or highly expensive online shopping doesn’t seem to hold back the trend in the city, as the fandom here shows no signs of slowing down.
