Beryl and Addie: Straight Outta Acen

I had the opportunity to talk with a lot of people at Acen, but none of them actually were staff members who worked behind the scenes to make the convention itself possible.  Luckily on the last day of class, who should happen to show up but the chairman of Anime Central himself, Beryl Turner, with another staff member, Addie, in tow.

 

It was great to hear the story of a lifelong otaku, from the first illuminating moment of fandom to the present day, going on twenty years or so.  He gave us a history of fandom, starting from the underground to the mainstream, which was quite interesting.  He’d been with Acen from pretty much the beginning, and told us of the way they planned and ran the convention.  I had no idea that Acen only employed unpaid volunteers, and it made me realize how committed you had to be to be a part of this convention, if you were doing it just out of love and not money.  Even better, Beryl had a lot of great stories to tell us, like the run in with the Atlanta police that made him stop cosplaying, and the hilarious story behind Sailor Bubba. 

 

One thing I found interesting was how he explained that anime had a “simplistic style” that everyone could learn to draw, as opposed to the strict “Marvel” style of American comics.  Although there are more and more experimental American graphic novels being released, I have noticed that in America, comics are usually drawn by committee, in that there are lots of people involved in the whole process, from writers to inkers to letterers to sketchers and whatever.  Whereas in Japan it’s usually just the mangaka and maybe one or two assistants to help him.  This really does suggest that creating manga is a more intimate and personal process than working on a traditional American comic.  It was great that Beryl managed to bring that up.  

 

Overall, I had a great time with these guys, and although Beryl and Addie didn’t manage to guilt me into going to next year’s Acen, I wouldn’t rule out going sometime in the future…given a proper subsidy, of course.  

     

Emi Koyama – Thoughts

Unfortunately, I was unable to attend Emi’s talks, and it’s been a few weeks so I don’t remember a terrible amount from her class visit, so primarily this is just thoughts on her website and articles and ideas, and not so much specific to her time here.  I apologize.

That said,  Emi has a ton of interesting ideas.  Her thoughts on DSD vs. intersex, for example – it’s good that she is a) putting to rest myths about what it is and b) continuing to call attention to it.  Unsurprisingly, a lot of people don’t know (or care to know) a lot about this type of thing, which makes what Emi’s doing even more important.  Her dedication is admirable – like the way she promotes changing the term to DSD even though the connotation might be troublesome, but by doing so it might draw more attention to it both within the medical community and beyond, and work to legitimize it in the eyes of the public as a serious issue.  Emi presents a lot of ideas in ways or viewpoints that are very unique and help shed new light on them, such as when dealing with the issue of children being examined at hospitals, the “sexual shaming” practices and even the surgeries.  Things like this are often seen from only one perspective, and that perspective is very often supposed to be an “objective” perspective that comes from either the medical community or the general public, but never the people with the conditions themselves.  This is perhaps what’s most important about her ideas on DSD and disability theory – she not only sheds light on these issues, but does so from the vantage point of those closest to it, which often gets lost in the mix.  And even though I’m not entirely convinced on the idea that disorders exist solely because society sees them as different (and I’m probably interpreting the notion wrong), I think it is important to note that this distinction of “differentness” is often viewed as negative (hence “disorder”), and Emi’s ideas are crucial in considering how this differentness is only negative from “normal” society’s vantage point, and needs to be considered from the “victim” side as well.

Beryl and Addie’s Discussion

I liked the discussion yesterday with Addie and Beryl Turner.  Beryl, in his discussion of his own personal history with anime and manga and how he got into the con culture, seemed to really reiterate the classic stories we’d been told through Otaku Unite and a number of readings.  I especially noticed it in his and Addie’s description of “the early days” when a bootleg VHS tape of some anime was coveted and small groups of friends huddled around televisions to watch original Japanese TV shows. 

 

I also was really interested in how Beryl got his start in the con circuit, and especially given Lily’s response (at least I think it was Lily…) that the con culture is not just about whatever the object of the con is.  In other words, ACen isn’t just about anime and manga, as Beryl said it’s about “community” and “making it a smaller world.”  There’s a community at conventions of all types, be they science-fiction, anime or gaming, and it was through this community that he managed to climb the ladder and end up chairing this year’s ACen.  I think the parallels in the different cultures of conventions are interesting (if I were in a sociology course I would probably talk about social and culture capital), and I think it was really helpful to talk to the two of them about their experiences. 

 

I, as did many other I see, really liked the notion of the “mundanes” as opposed to the otaku, and I liked how JK Rowling co-opted and extended its meaning to become “muggles.”  I’m not really a Harry Potter fan, but I like seeing how aspects of these seemingly fringe social groups become mainstream.

Beryl & Addie – Thoughts

It was great to have Beryl and Addie come visit our class.  For some reason I didn’t expect such enthusiasm on their parts, but I guess it makes sense – if you love something enough, talking to others about it isn’t so much work as it is fun.  And he must definitely love doing it; I can’t imagine working as chairperson of such a huge convention for free!  It’s amazing that nobody gets paid to do any of that, it really adds a whole new dimension to the fan-driven aspect.  It was nice to talk to people involved with ACen’s production, and it was great to have Addie there too – I hadn’t really thought about artist communities here in Chicago involved in anime and manga.  I think the best part about talking to them, though, was to confirm what I initially discovered when attending ACen: the normalcy of the “otaku”.  Beryl has no qualms about labeling himself as such, and he’s just a really cool, outgoing guy, not at all the introverted socially-awkward supernerd that the academics paint the otaku as.  It was funny hearing him talk about his issues with the label at first, because he knew he wasn’t like that kind of person either, even though he was really into manga and anime and conventions.  It’s just strange how there are so many different levels of misunderstanding and how this one identity can mean so many different things to so many people.  You have the academics who see them as like another species, choosing the worst stereotypes to represent an entire community.  You have the general public (the “mundanes”) who just don’t get it, like Beryl’s mom.  And then you have the fans themselves, who seem more often than not to be completely normal, outgoing, fun people, who just happen to enjoy manga and anime.  It’s very strange the levels of disconnect between so many people.  But it was great to have Beryl and Addie there, not only from an “academic” perspective, but just because they’re cool guys and it was fun talking with them.

Prototype World Citizen

Given the increasingly global presence of anime/manga, especially in America, I had to ask week 10’s guest Beryl Turner—the head of ACEN, anime/manga aficionado and historian extraordinaire—whether he sees anime and manga in America losing its Japanese connection and become totally subsumed into mainstream American pop culture. His answer? Absolutely. According to Beryl Turner anime and manga will be a prototype for what globalization is touted to do in the best sense—create a sort of world citizenry. He believes that manga and anime as an art form will eventually lose its nationality, and I am inclined to agree. The one issue, however, is the nature of anime/manga fans in America in the past and at present. Even Beryl acknowledged, giving this breakdown of the road map to mainstream status—innovation/discovery, dissemination through the underground as a fringe movement, (re)discovery and tentative investment from Big Business and the explosion—that anime and manga has its roots in the underground. Furthermore, considering that anime/manga fans while extremely inclusive of fans of other genres such as science fiction, still refer to the collective other as “mundanes.” It is hard to see this group of people forgetting the history behind their beloved art form.

I suppose then, that the key to transforming anime/manga into a global commodity sans national boundaries, lies in the unwitting masses who never touch the underground and never make it to a convention like ACEN, those who flip to Cartoon Network and get their first glimpse of Bleach, then head to a bookstore like Barnes and Nobles or Borders and pick up a copy of the manga along with a title by an American author and never bother to dig further. Is this positive? Negative? I can’t say. I am all for the more prevalent exposure of anime and manga in the West and around the world, but then I am also one of those people who likes to stick to the facts, and for me one of the facts here is that manga is Japanese. Still, I would hate to see an authenticity debate rear its head in this quarter. Maybe I should say manga was Japanese, but today and in the future it can and will go in whatever direction its progressively more global fans pull.

Photos with Beryl and Addie

Addie & Beryl

Today’s discussion with Addie and Beryl was pretty interesting, and brought to light a number of things that I wouldn’t have guessed. For instance, that all of the staff and volunteers at ACen, including those who would probably be considered “higher-ups”, were unpaid volunteers; Anime Central, then, is most definitely a labor of love (or obsession/addiction, haha. But I like to think of it as love. ^^). Though I think that the only difference in atmosphere that I felt at ACen vs. Anime Expo, a commercially sponsored Con, was mainly in the dealers room, where there would be HUGE booths for each sponsoring company, as well as the number of panels on “what’s coming up for [company name] in anime” type things, as well as a larger number of advertisements in general (programming booklet etc.). However, the fan interaction, I found is this pretty much the same, which is somewhat reassuring (of the fact that an increased sense of commercialism in the exhibit hall does not equal a different kind of fan-base.)

ACEN! Beryl!

I really enjoyed talking to Beryl today. He was a fun person to talk to and it was awesome to get a behind the scenes look at the con. Addie was awesome, too, and his artwork was great.

It was funny when someone asked Beryl if he considered himself an otaku, he responded with a “DAMN STRAIGHT!” It really reinforced the idea that in America, cons and otaku are all about community. I could really sense a strong sense of community at ACEN.

I had no idea ACEN could draw around 12,000~14,000 people. That number is INSANE. It really put things into perspective about the popularity of manga and anime today. It was also interesting that Beryl mentioned how science fiction cons that have existed for over 10 years cannot match the attendance rate at ACEN. To be fair, I think a lot more young people are into manga/anime than science fiction today, which could be a reason for their mass appeal.

All in all, Beryl’s visit was fun and he was really friendly. ACEN was lucky to have him as the chairperson this year!

WOw!!

Beryl the ACen Chairman and his artist friend visited us today in class. Beryl was a very enthusiastic guest to have! It was great to see how much he and his colleague were both very excited about talking to us about Acen. It was interesting to hear about what went on behind the scenes. I’m so suprised that they do everything as volunteers. That is some dedication. I thought that maybe some of the higher level staff actually ran the Acen as their full time job, but I guess I was wrong. It’s amazing that such a huge (12,000+!) convention can be run by purely volunteers. That shows how much passion and devotion these fans have for anime/manga/games. I think it’s a great philosophy that they stick to, run by fans, for fans!

They showed us interesting pictures from ACen and Beryl told us many funny stories from past Acen’s. His story about how he had to sit on the shoplifter was really interesting. It was also amazing that his cosplay costume was one too realistic (it had weapons) so the police/security had to come and tell them to disarm themselves!

Wow, Got Soap? That is an amazing campaign. It is odd that they must remind people to shower everyday! Nevertheless it’s very creative. I really liked the way Beryl defined Acen. He stated that Acen will always be “a celebration of culture”. I really think it’s great to bring a mix diverse group of people to one place to celebrate their appreciation for culture. I also was really intrigued by the word “mundane” that anime fans use to describe people like us, that are not part of that world. It is really suprising that J.K. Rowling got the inspiration of “muggles” for her Harry Potter books from overhearing the word Mundane. I guess anime is an inspiration for many different media. It is also interesting that they are branching out to Jpop, and trying to attract various kinds of people that all have some type of Japanese pop culture to share. I enjoyed today’s class, and their special visit. I really thought the artist’s Chibbie Chubbies(sp?) was super cute! However I still felt a bit overwhelmed whenever Beryl and his friend started talking about specific anime series. I guess that’s just somethin I will not understand until I myself start reading anime as Beryl suggested.

Thank you for coming to our class !

- Miho

On the growing anime fan base – a conversation with Beryl Turner

We were honored to have Beryl Turner, head organizer of Acen in class today. I was half expecting a shy, sun-starved otaku initially, so I was surprised to meet Beryl who was tough, friendly, funny and still an otaku. While Beryl is very much an otaku, he was also very much the expert organizer. He was also very observant on how the scene in the USA had changed over the years, hence we were treated to numerous insights on how anime was introduced into American pop culture. On my question about the presence of so many people in video game cosplay at ACen, his reply was that it was the easiest way in for people into the culture, especially with Final Fantasy. Being unfamiliar with the scene in the US, this was of course an interesting glimpse into the otaku here, and could possibly explain why so many fans here are familiar with both the games and the anime. It was also a great point to reflect upon – are video gams the entry points into Japansese culture abroad? Why video games? Is that how distributors of Japanese culture intended it to be?

Overall, it was a very insightful coversation with a man who has seen the various people turning up at the anime conventions over the past 10 years.

- Brian O