Through no real deliberate intent on my part, I seem to have drifted away from what I suppose could be broadly called "the anime blogging community". I suppose I'm technically still a part of this "community", in that I am blogging anime, and thus I can be considered to be part of the anime blogging community by default. And yet, I don't actually participate in any of the activities that would make me a Part Of The Community beyond that which is conferred merely by existing.

I suspect that a part of it is due to Real Life. The pace has either stepped up, or my brain has stepped down; both possibilities are equally plausible and disturbing. Apart from the obvious side effect of leaving me with less time to enjoy my hobbies, anime watching and blogging being among them, it does mean that I cannot quite eke out the mental fortitude to engage in the spirited volleys that passes for conversation among fandom.

Very few blogs, this one included sometimes, actually want to engage in discussion. Most of the time, it's just a venue to air our viewpoints, however we see fit to do so. In many occasions I've tried to be patient and rational in a debate with someone who is clearly not interested in dialogue, a fact which is borne out when the other party says in effect "actually I don't care what you or anyone else says, I'm just venting". I have no inherent objections against venting if it is made clear that the rant is not a topic to be discussed in depth. Otherwise, the failure in communication just wastes time.

This gets even worse when it comes to the statement of opinions. One thing I learned to do is to make sure that when it comes to touchy topics, it is abundantly clear which parts of what I am saying is fact, and which parts are opinion. The rule of thumb is that if it's not firm enough to be printed as a reputable source (ie "go to press"), then it's opinion. It's a little like that quote about journalists calling murderers "the alleged murderer" and the King of England "the alleged King of England" to avoid defamation suits.

What it all boils down to is that I have the option of Participating In The Anime Blogging Community by sparring with the people involved, or staying out of it all and spending my time watching anime instead. I simply do not have the Copious Free Time or emotional willpower to engage in both activities at once on a regular basis. It's difficult enough to come to terms with my own unpopular opinions, such as with the run of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya's "Endless Eight" (summary: I really liked it), but when I see another post bashing it (fine) with incorrect language (not fine), I have to hold my figurative tongue rather than get into an argument I know I cannot finish.

So it goes.

There are times when it is best to avoid certain parts of the Internet, specifically the locales populated by the more excitable features of fandom. Like a gathering storm, one might be able to see the dark clouds in the distance, forming an eldritch vortex centered around the site of momentous events, often enshrined in a multi-stage boss fight with pseudo-Latinate choirs. The wisest course of action in these cases is to Be Somewhere Else.

I feel oddly detached from what has been described as Kyoto Animation's "god-level trolling". I am entirely satisfied with the first and thus far only season of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, being a fairly complete story of reasonable quality. The rumours of a second season are welcome, but not essential, like the much-touted need for New Fans, or Fans Who Need To Keep Their Interest Up. Personally, I believe that if a show is good, then it is good, and does not require constant infusions of new content to be enjoyable. This is not a MMORPG, paid for monthly; it is a regular game, paid for once (with a rather larger amount of cash) and done. Theoretically, at least: the endless stream of patches most games go through are a worrying sign of the times, and the analogy breaks down somewhat, since by the time you get to pay for an anime (putting aside digital distribution), it has already been "patched" to a final-ish version with the animation corrections on the DVDs.

My blase attitude could be due to my self-identification, among others, as a gamer: if I were affected intensely by every delay and cancellation, I would not be able to see the humour in the developer definition of "soon". I know I am not alone in this, as I've heard Haruhi S2 described as anime's Duke Nukem Forever, with some wondering if it would turn into a Starcraft Ghost.

Comments about "leaving the franchise to die" are equally misguided, as my favourite anime of all time bar none is Card Captor Sakura, now coming on to a decade of existence, and I certainly don't believe that it has been abandoned. My love of the show is not ephemeral and weak. When I named The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya as my second favourite anime, it will remain my second favourite anime until something even better comes along, but it will not lose any of its lustre with age.

Besides, I'm still busy with the side project of genderswapping the characters, so I will be in the fandom for a very long time to come.

There is, I have found, a difference between being a fan, being part of a fandom, and simply liking something. An excellent illustration can be seen with the Fallout games: there is the fan-ness of being a fan of the games, and there is the fan-ness of liking the games. These are not mutually inclusive, as is the status of being in the Fandom. As an example, I like the games, and I will be happy to discourse upon them with any others holding the same view, but since I like Fallout 3 a great deal more than Fallout 2 (I have not played Fallout 1 or Fallout Tactics yet), I have been firmly told that I am not a "true fan", and therefore I am forevermore barred from being in the Fandom.

This is not a new position for me. Throughout my years of being in Internet fandoms, I have been in the general vicinity of American comics fandoms, but apart from Astro City, I have yet to really delve into the foetid depths of the convoluted histories of the various popular comics characters. I realize that life in comics is not all about Marvel and DC, but considering what the stores here actually stock, I have to wonder sometimes. And so, when I joined the community at the American Superhero Comics Inspired MMORPG City of Heroes, I have been shunned by some for not coming to the game from the viewpoint of a comics fan. I mean, I really like Astro City, but apparently that is not enough.

Yes, I understand that this is a minority view, and I have been given a sort of pass on the basis that I like CoH/V due to my anime-esque ideas. Apart from my well-known constant requests for More Magical Girl Costume Options, I still await the advent of Paper Control, partly because I can make my own Read or Die Paper Master, and partly because the ofuda-slinging Combat Miko is a common staple in supernatural-oriented anime.

In any case, since this is an anime blog, I have to tie this in to anime. The obvious link here is in the reputation fans have, due to the fandom they may or may not be a part of: if you should feel favourably inclined towards, say, The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, you may call yourself a Haruhiist, or you may not, depending on how much a part of the fandom you are. There is no shame in being a fan but not being in the fandom: gods know I'm perfectly happy to put a great deal of distance between my being a Fallout fan, even if not a True Fan, and the Fallout fandom, who I would imagine know what constitutes being a True Fan, ie not me.

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A psychiatrically-minded (pun unintended) reader might infer from my frequent rants about the Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha Original Character creation community that I have some sort of grudge against certain people. I don't remember if I've said it before, but to be safe, I shall reiterate: I am but one side of this multifaceted story. Others may have different viewpoints, and several are probably more convincing than mine.

In short, the obvious: don't take just my word for it.

I don't actually have any grudge per se, at least consciously. My primary distaste is with the habit of forceful arguments, using loaded words and condescending dismissals; it gives me an actual physical headache, possibly through some psychosomatic influence. There is the unnerving feeling that the debate is not being conducted logically; the participants are not playing fair.

This also explains my decreased presence in the AnimeSuki thread. The rules of the forum state that there is one, and only one, thread per topic, and "Original Characters In The Nanoha-verse" counts as one topic. So if I encounter friction with other regulars of that thread, or at least their debating technique, there's not exactly anywhere else I can go other than "away".

I also have no illusions that this post will make me in any way popular with the community. So it goes.

In such an emotionally-charged situation, possibly no other collection of three words can cause as much ill feeling as "suspension of disbelief". We all know that the Nanoha-verse is not a place with especially stringent physical laws, at least as we understand them in Real Life. While endless entertainment can be had in speculating whether characters would act in a way claimed by a fanfic, human behaviour being somewhat unpredictable, natural laws are supposed to be marginally consistent. (On a macro level, as a rule of thumb, and several other disclaimers to satisfy the nitpicky out there.) The Nanoha-verse, however, asks one question first and foremost: is it cool?

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So I've been busy these past few weeks with preparations for and the actual celebration of Chinese New Year, as well as my sister and her husband visiting from the US. That's right, not only do you, gentle readers, get an improbably weak excuse for my lack of anything truly substantial, but there will be an accompanying pointless ramble to fill the blank white space on your screen with Big Words of Little Consequence. These may even be sesquipedalian.

Also, some random picture(s) from an imageboard or other. This is a blog about moe, after all.

Now, I will be raising various seemingly unrelated points, and then joining them together into what I hope would be a vaguely coherent whole by the end of the post. Therefore, do please bear with me while I jump from topic to topic.

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