Hip-Hop: Bringing Anime Into The Mainstream

Its no secret that we here over at Senpai Social Club love hip-hop/rap music. Much of our inspiration for the kinds of styles and looks we want to create, other than from anime, derive from other counter cultures such as hip-hop.

Of course if Im speaking for just myself, then I can say that I absolutely love hip-hop/rap music, and its probably a good 80% of what I listen to. That being said, through my enjoyment of hip-hop over the years, I couldn’t help but notice the increase in rappers being more open and inclusive with their love of anime within their music. Granted that number is still relatively small, but its there and its growing.

Rapper Logic has shown his love for Cowboy Bebop through his tour performances and interviews. Kanye West is a huge Akira fan. Brandun Deshay constantly uses references to anime such as the Bakemonogatari series within his music, cover art, and music videos. Lil Uzi Vert recently pulled a lot of inspiration from school slice of life anime in his music video for “P’s and Q’s”. Ugly God hasn’t been shy about his indulgence in hentai in a few interviews as well as the “Water” music video.

These are just a few of the recent instances that have occurred where I’ve seen anime creep into the hip-hop scene. Two different cultures that you wouldn’t have ever thought would mesh together 10 years ago but are now starting to slowly commingle. Hip-Hop used to be about being the coolest of the cool and showing off why you were. Anime has always been a niche nerd/geek interest. In the era of people like 50 Cent, T.I., Camron, and Jay-Z, none of that would fly.

So why the shift in attitudes? Well I think theres a lot of things that opened the doorway for anime to creep into the hip-hop scene, but I think one of the biggest contributing factors is simply, the internet. Thanks to the explosion of the internet, digital music, and the increase of music sharing sites that occurred from the 2000s and up, people are able to discover more music on their own instead of whats simply placed in front of them by major record labels. This helped open up the door for rappers like Lil B aka the based god. Current hip-hop owes a lot to Lil B. We at Senpai Social Club owe a little something to Lil B as well. Ever had to yell “WONTON SOUP” for us at a convention to get a button? Thank you based god. Lil B paved the way for internet rap by essentially becoming the first rapping meme. Songs like “Wonton Soup” and “I Cook” with off-beat flows and rhyming words that didn’t even rhyme, they highlighted the weirdo that is Lil B, and no label would ever in their right minds put out those songs, but luckily YouTube has no such standards and his music was set free onto the masses.

As the internet typically does to weird things we don't quite understand but are intrigued by, Lil B garnered a cult following. It was suddenly becoming cool to go against the typical “try hard to look cool” attitude that inhabited hip-hop, and instead was being replaced by sentiments of being yourself, being weird, and not giving a fuck. So while someone may be looked down upon or called lame by older hip-hop heads for liking anime, in the current new wave of hip-hop where being yourself and not giving a fuck reigns supreme, anime has a place to be accepted as just another part of what makes these rappers more unique, creative, or authentic to us. Its amazing for me to think that rappers like Lil Uzi Vert and Ugly God probably have more in common with the people attending anime conventions than they do the people who go to clubs to dance to their music, and I love that. Its a sign of anime and nerd culture in general growing in popularity and the new wave of internet hip-hop will help to facilitate that growing popularity.

But then again Im just a anime nerd who listens to rap, so what do I know?

I’m currently typing this while on Crunchyroll blasting Lil Yacthy.

- Daniel

A Thank You From Daniel

Sac Anime has been over for a little over a week now. I’ve been spending my time since recovering from the exhaustion, readjusting my sleep schedule and easing back in to school and work mode again. It’s kind of funny just how much of a getaway going to conventions is for me. Once it was over, I was already counting down the days to Sac Anime Winter.

Now that I’ve fully adjusted back into the “real world”, I was able to kind of take a look and meditate on just how amazing these last few cons have been for us. How fortunate we really are. I’d call us blessed, but that word just doesn’t seem to encapsulate just how lucky we really are. It started to hit me during one of our routine “business meetings” over game chat in Overwatch. In passing, we were talking about all of the people who had been posting pictures onto Instagram of themselves rocking our gear. The next day I checked out the photo feed of pictures Senpai Social Club was tagged in again just to see. It dawned onto me that less than a year ago the feed used to be full of only pictures of us modeling our stuff cause we had no one else to. Now its starting to feel like we’ll never have to model our own stuff again.

The amount of support that people have been showing us is astounding, and I feel nothing but humbled that people support us as much as they do. Whether its buying our clothes or just stopping by the table to say hi. Its all appreciated. I can’t express enough how grateful we are and I really just wanted to take this time to say thank you to everyone. You’re all awesome as fuck and we look forward to seeing you all again in the cons to come.

I’m currently typing this in class during a lecture that’s about 10 minutes longer than it really needs to be. You really could have just let us go early for the day, but you didn’t.

- Daniel

Collector’s Remorse (or how to come to terms with becoming what you hate the most) (or I’m a piece of shit and I know it)

I spent the first two years of my anime watching life perfectly content with enjoying shows and leaving it at that. I was happy with streaming shows off of apps and websites. I never felt like I was missing out on anything as an anime fan as a result of it. I was aware of all the other aspects that came with anime fandom. The anime DVD collections, the manga collections, the figures, body pillows, for whatever reason collecting Japanese snack foods is a thing, and so on and so on. I wanted nothing to do with it. I was perfectly content with just being a fan of the medium and not delving any deeper than that. That all changed in 2013 when for my birthday my friend bought me my first anime blu-ray/dvd box set. It was for the series Shakugan no Shana, a show we had both enjoyed a lot. It was a cool present, and I thought it was the perfect excuse to re-watch the show. During that time of re-watching the show, I figured I might as well finish off the series and buy the remaining seasons as well. That’s where what would become my rapid descent into full on weebness began.

After finishing off buying all the boxsets for Shakugan no Shana, it quickly became “well I might as well buy other shows that I enjoy as well”. The pace at which I started buying anime DVDs and blu-rays was both astonishing and excessively depressing. Money that could have gone to other things such as food to sustain a healthy college student or gas to put into my car started going towards buying anime. I made a list of all the shows I wanted to buy, and of course that list never shrunk. As a matter of fact, even though I was buying a lot of anime at a rapid pace, the list still managed to grow. I sit here now both contempt and ashamed of how big my anime collection is. Its something I never wanted to get involved in from the start, but I’d be lying if I said it didn’t make me happy in the nerdiest of ways.

Once I saw that the purchasing of anime wasn’t going to slow down, I figured I’d draw the line there. Just anime DVDs and blu-rays. Nothing else. I wasn’t too worried about keeping that stance. I had tried getting into manga before and it just wasn’t for me, and I just wasn't interested in any of the other things we as anime fans were expected to have, such as body pillows, doujinshi, replica swords, and all the other random cool weird shit you find at conventions. That stuff I know just isn’t for me nor do I want to spend my money on it, even at the height of my weebness. That being said, I told myself that figures were included in that grouping. I was determined that I would never buy figures because I just felt like I wouldn’t get anything out of it. I never really cared much for the idea of owning stuff purely for the purpose of display. 

Well, Fanime 2016 came and went, and low and behold among many of the other stupid things I bought at Fanime, among those was a Shakugan no Shana figure I bought on an impulse when I suddenly decided out of the blue I wanted a figure. How fitting that the show that jumpstarted my anime collection also possibly jumpstarts my anime figure habit. I’m mad at myself for once again showing no self control and crossing a line I had deliberately set for myself not to cross. I am truly a piece of shit in that sense, and I admit it. That being said, I can’t help but think how fucking cool I think this $25 plastic figure of Shana from Shakugan no Shana is, and I’ve come to accept and embrace that I am just a huge nerd who is a sucker for the things that I love. Embrace the things that make you you, even your shitty weeb trash parts.

I am currently typing this while filling out an Amazon pre-order for the Parasyte Vol. 2 Premium Edition boxset.

- Daniel

Anime Bento Vol. 1

So I’ve spent my time watching a lot of anime lately. I figured I might as well share what I’m watching with you guys. So begins the first installment of Anime Bento where I pick out 5 anime I am currently watching and or have just recently finished watching and talk about my impressions of them.

More often than not, you can expect to see a random assortment of shows that which make up this rundown. Hopefully you can get some interesting opinion on shows you’ve already seen or maybe get some insight into shows you haven’t seen. I cannot stress enough that these are not reviews, just my impressions/thoughts on a show. Although this will involve critique, it will not be anything critical or even objective. Oh, and I don’t read manga, so don’t expect me to draw on any of that when referring to shows that are an adaptation of a manga. With that being said, let’s get into it.

Tokyo Ghoul (Dub) Final Impression:

I decided to blind buy this show on a whim. I mean, I know that the show is incredibly popular, but nothing really drove me to watch it until it came out on blu- ray and I saw it for sale for a relatively low price. Overall, I can say I was surprised at how interested in the show I actually became while watching it. The show by no means is a masterpiece, but I did enjoy it quite a bit. Maybe it has to do with how much I enjoy the idea of “enemies hiding in plain sight”, which is an aspect that I enjoyed very much about Parasyte. Of course, there are a lot of parallels between this show and Parasyte…..I mean a lot, but I do think that while both shows are very similar in the ideas they implement, I think Tokyo Ghoul manages to stand out on its own. I will say that I do think Tokyo Ghoul’s story misses a lot of opportunities to be a better show by not being as dark in it’s “darker” moments as it could have been. I found the lead up to a lot of the tense moments in the show to be promising, but only to have an anti-climactic resolution. While the show left me underwhelmed a lot of the time, I still did find the show enjoyable and would recommend it to people as a casual watch.

Available for stream on Funimation

Tokyo Ghoul √A (Dub) Final Impression:

So directly after finishing Tokyo Ghoul season one, I jumped right into season two, which is a good thing cause the first two episodes of this season are what can be considered the actual conclusion to the first season instead of the cliff hanger ending that it actually had. It felt a little off starting off a new season with essentially the conclusion of the previous one, but hey, I’m not a director, so what do I know? Continuing on from that, the show for me honestly loses all the momentum it had from the first season. A lot of the characters that you watched develop and got to know in the previous season, play lesser roles or are just quiet overall, while new characters are introduced and they themselves don’t do that much either. It’s typical sequel syndrome. The show tries to do a lot more on a bigger scale than what the first season did, but in essentially fewer episodes. It introduced new plot points that honestly didn’t even need to be there. Once the show reached its conclusion, I really couldn’t will myself to care about anything that was happening nor about any of the characters really. That being said, I do think the final scenes of the show are brilliant, just not the build up.

Available for stream on Funimation

Prince of Stride: Alternative (Sub) 1st Impression:

Within this last year, I’ve been getting pretty into sports anime. Well, thats kind of a lie. I’ve been enjoying specific sports anime in particular that are warming me up to the idea of watching more sports anime is a more accurate statement. Namely, Ping Pong The Animation and Haikyu!! have gotten me pretty hype. I should say I have seen and enjoyed Air Gear and Big Windup! in the past, but have never been inspired to check out more sports anime since. So when I saw a show about parkour, I jumped, all pun intended, at the opportunity to get excited about another sports show. After watching the first episode, this show definitely gives me the same kind of vibe that I got from Haikyu!!, which is exactly what I was hoping for. While I still haven’t exactly wrapped my head around how the show’s alternative relay race STRIDE works just yet, I’m sure just like every other sports show out there, there will be plenty of opportunities where the show explains the sport to me. I originally watched the first episode subbed, but since the show is being simulcast dubbed, I decided to wait till the series is finished and watch it that way.

Available for stream on Funimation

Haikyu!! 2nd Season (Sub) Final Impression:

Speaking of Haikyu!!, I could not wait to start the second season when it initially started airing. I absolutely loved the first season, so it was hard to hold back from watching the second season as it was airing since I knew I would run right through it. I wanted to wait till it was finished and I was not disappointed. The show continues to do an excellent job of showing the trials and challenges of growing together as a team, and shows that just having talent alone is not enough if you want to be the best. With all the initial major relationships having been formed in the first season, the second season wastes no time in getting right to the meat of the show, its volleyball matches. Just when you thought the team was at its best at the end of last season, at the start of the second season you see just how weak and underdeveloped they really are in the bigger scale of things. The journey of seeing them correct their mistakes from the first season and becoming an even stronger team is inspiring at times, and at others grueling. Its a tough battle, but I loved every second of it. If you have any or even the slightest interest in this show, I highly recommend you check it out.

Available for stream on Crunchyroll

The Disappearance of Nagato Yuki-chan (Dub) 1st Impression:

The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya will forever be a show I hold in high regards. It was one of the earlier anime I ever watched and also is a show that is just quintessentially anime through and through. Even more so though than that, I loved the movie The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya. To me, that movie was the perfect way to end a series like Haruhi Suzumiya and it did it in such a way that didn’t play to the lowest common denominator like a lot of other anime series movies tend to do. That being said, I approached the spin-off series, The Disappearance of Nagato Yuki-chan, with a level of skepticism. The series takes place in the alternate universe that was introduced in the Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya, but completely misses the mark on what the significance of that alternate universe was in the cannon of the show. The show basically seems to disregard anything connecting it to the original series/movie besides the use of characters and location in favor of making a conventional slice of life romantic comedy. Granted, the show is enjoyable and the returning cast members on the dub end of the show reprising their roles is awesome, it just loses anything that it had going into the show that separated it from the status quo. The show loses the brilliance it gained from the original introduction of the Nagato Yuki in the movie, and instead gives us a Nagato Yuki who feels just like any other reluctant shy girl from a slice of life romantic comedy anime. That’s not exactly the worst thing ever, but in the big scheme of things, there really isn't anything here that resembles what made the original series and movie so great.

Available for stream on Funimation

I’m currently typing this while I should be preparing a debate for my argumentation class

- Daniel

High School [Anime] Never Ends

It’s a question I ask myself more often than I’d like to admit as a dedicated anime fan. I lament the thought of even asking myself such question for I know it suggests the future possibility of letting go of something I don’t want to, though the question still finds ways into creeping into my psyche. Ten years from now, will I still love anime the way I do now? Part of me says “yeah, no duh, it shouldn’t even be a question”, but another part of me recognizes that I’m only getting older, and anime characters? Well they’re about as stuck in high school as my old classmate Justin. Well, until he eventually dropped out after his third semester as a super senior. Point is, as the years go by, my ability to relate or even remember how to relate to a majority of anime characters in most anime shows will start to fade.

As high school kids in real life start to more and more resemble toddlers to me, so do the matters of high school kids in anime seem more trivial to me. Sure I can relate to the angst and uncertainty these characters feel, but I can also see the stupidity and naivety just as easily. The struggles that these characters experience feels less and less real or compelling because the real life you is smarter and more cynical. Sorry, I might be projecting just a bit. 

While I can confidently say I still enjoy anime set in high school settings such as shows like Clannad, Full Metal Panic!, Angel Beats, and School Rumble just to randomly name a few, I do find myself tending to enjoy shows more often when they handle more young adult matters. Not because they’re more mature per say, but because I find them just more relatable. This is to be expected as this is where I currently find myself in life. Some shows I really enjoyed, that partially had to do with their more older setting, include Golden Time, Wagnaria!!, and Servant x Service. 

All three shows are fairly silly and comedic, but to me they have a certain relatable charm that capture where I’m at in life. Yeah Golden Time is still a romantic comedy anime, but it focuses more heavily on the quality of the relationships as opposed to the idea of just getting into a relationship for the sake of being in one. Like how Golden Time is in a college setting, that was the main difference I noticed in the relationships I formed while in college as opposed to the ones I had in high school. In terms of Wagnaria!! and Servant x Service, both anime deal with joining the work force. While these shows do feature high school kids, the main drive of the shows is very much becoming an adult and working. No silly high school shenanigans, just silly work shenanigans. The humor is the same, but at the same time not, cause it’s not set in high school. It sounds silly, but it’s also really all there is to it. If a show can keep away from the boundaries of a high school, then it’s less likely for people like myself to project their disdain for the immaturity of high school onto the show itself. Everyone can relate to a character maybe being stupid, but high school stupid is a time sensitive experience we will all outgrow. Except for Justin. Justin just dropped out of it. 

My main point out of all of this is that anime relies heavily on the high school setting when I don’t think it has to. Sure, it’s what the market demands, but I also believe there is a largely almost untouched young adult market that is looking for more shows that speak to them. Anime doesn’t need to be set in high school to keep its charm. At this point, its become almost absurd how many shows utilize the high school setting. It in of itself has become almost a joke within the anime community along with the obligatory hot springs and beach day episodes. All I ask is for a larger recognition from anime studios that the older anime community is only going to continue to grow and that there is a lot of room to thrive in a market that doesn’t appeal to just teen angst and up skirt panty shot fetishes. Anime set in high school should never disappear, but it also shouldn’t be more than half of the shows coming out every season, but what do I know? I’m just a nerd with a laptop.

I’m currently typing this while marathoning an anime set in high school.

- Daniel

Senpai Social Sounds Vol. 4

I know I know. Another late Senpai Social Sounds post. However there was a good reason for that! We've been hard at work and have began planning our ideas for the rest of the year. All I can say is we're pretty excited with what we have slated and can't wait to roll it all out. Until then feel free to speculate about what's to come over this playlist

Senpai Social Sounds Vol. 3

Last Saturday we were suppose to put up Vol. 3 of our bi-weekly playlist but were unable to do so due to lack of free wifi at SacAnime (boo Sheraton boo). Without further ado, we present to you...

SENPAI SOCIAL SOUNDS VOL. 3

Better late than never right? Hope you all had a great new year because we sure did.

2016 bitches!

-Matthew

Senpai Social Sounds Vol. 2

And Another One! Here is Vol. 2 of our bi-weekly playlist called "Senpai Social Sounds". Senpai Social Sounds returns in 2016 on January 2nd!

SENPAI SOCIAL SOUNDS VOL. 2

Hope you all have a good weekend and happy holidays you plebs!

- Matthew

Analyzing Romance Anime And The Boner In Your Heart

We were at a small diner pretty early in the evening getting some dinner. It was pretty much empty excluding the staff. Just the two of us. She looked amazing. Gorgeous. Top 3, one of the most beautiful women I have ever seen outside of a computer screen.

She hasn’t said a word to me all night, but her quiet laughter and shy smiles were all that I needed. I could talk to her all night without ever getting an audible response and it’d still be an amazing first date. As we were leaving the diner, she grabbed my hand and we ran to the car. Driving in the night, I sang along to all the songs that played while she just laughed and smiled. Comforting. We stopped at the park to watch a fireworks display that was going on. It was a truly beautiful sight. Not the type of beautiful in the overused meager kind of way that most people describe visually stimulating things, but actually beautiful. Just like she was. Perfect. As the fireworks went off, she turned to look at me. She pulled me in closer, and as the colors lit up the sky, we kissed. That too was beautiful. Cinematic. The type of clichéd scene in a movie that’d win best romantic comedy. I could live in this moment forever. As she pulled away from me, she looked in my eyes and started to speak. That's when everything went wrong. I couldn't understand a word she was saying. She was speaking to me in Japanese. My brain stuttered in a confused panic and quickly started to fill me in with what she was saying via subtitles. But before I could read what she had said, I woke up. 

It was one of the best dreams I’ve ever had, but I couldn’t help but feel a little bit cheated. What could have caused this sudden turn of events? Maybe it was binge watching the last 8 episodes of Ao Haru Ride (Blue Spring Ride) all of last night. Maybe it was also finishing all 38 episodes of Kimi Ni Todoke the previous week, and all of Tonari no Kaibutsu-kun (My Little Monster) and Golden Time the week before that. I was on a romance anime kick, and much like how much money a year you spend on dakimakuras, it was starting to become a problem. It was at the point where I couldn’t even escape the feels in my sleep. My most inelegant, maladroit, and graceless state of being. The polar opposite of the way romance anime is meant to make you feel. 

The fantasy portrayed in romance anime is that of the worst kind. The kind that teases you with its perfection and plausibility, but ultimately ends with the realization that nothing will ever be as pure and ideal as whats being presented to you. Even romance anime that portrays more realistic relationships (such as Golden Time) with flaws and work that has to be put into them, they still project some sense of fantasy, because in the end that is what they are. Fantasy.

Why I think romance anime is so great, is because of this fantasy. It brings out the best in the clichéd ideas we all have about this confusing thing called love. Sure, none of my romances in the past have ever been anything close to the romances portrayed in anime, and they more than likely never will be, but at least there’s the hope and goal of a kind of relationship to strive for. These are the actual types of things that the hashtag #goals should actually be used for.

Romance anime appeals to the inherent want of an ideal companionship most people search for in this world. As a hetero-male, there are all sorts of expectations of masculinity that reject things like emotions and warm feelings. There’s always a certain apprehensiveness I see in guys when the topic of romance anime comes up. They either play their man card and proclaim to only watch shōnen shows like Dragonball Z and Bleach or they are all in and will spend two hours talking to you about the subtle complexities of Nisekoi when you really just want to hurry up and go out because this is not how you wanted to spend your first Saturday night off in 4 months. It’s usually the former rather than the latter. But in the end, things like emotions and feelings are things we all experience. At least I hope so. The cynic in me will always get annoyed when I feel people are being way too obnoxious with their affections for each other out in public, but I wont deny the warm feelings I get when I see some kid pull off some elaborate ass plan to ask the person they like to prom. Or videos of people from the military coming back home and surprising their loved ones with their presence. Those ones always fucking get me.

When it comes to anime, I like to refer to these feelings as heart boners. It’s those moments that give you that warm fuzzy feeling and tug at your heart strings and possibly turn you into an emotional mess, whether it’s because you're happy for what just transpired or because you just realized that your life is shit compared to this moment right now. When two characters who I’ve watched for countless hours go back and forth with their feelings until it finally culminates in that confession or kiss, it gets to me. I care. I can relate to that anxiety filled struggle. I can relate to doing those subtly cute things to get the girl. Maybe more than anything, its a sense of nostalgia for an innocence a lot of us long for in love.

Obviously, people are different and interpret things differently. I know people who didn’t have the same tear jerking reaction to the end of Clannad as I did. Heartless. Romance anime just isn’t for everybody. I get that. What I would hope for to come out of this, is for people to not approach romance anime with the pretense of them being the anime equivalent of a “chick flick”. There’s more to a lot of these shows than just that. While a lot of the shows do overlap in their themes, I do find that there are genuinely good shows that have brought up some interesting moments regarding relationships and how they function. The Pet Girl of Sakurasou, Toradora!, Ano Natsu de Matteru (Waiting In The Summer), and Anohana just to name a few that I didn’t already mention above. There’s also shows that aren’t romance anime outright, but do feature romance as a prominent theme within their plot, such as Eureka Seven, BECK: Mongolian Chop Squad, and Full Metal Panic!. Either way, I do hope this encourages some to give romance anime a try if they haven’t already, or if you already do watch romance anime, help to give some perspective on to maybe what you like about it. But what do I know? I’m just a nerd with a laptop.

I’m currently typing this while catching up on all the Fallout 4 I’ve missed because of college.

- Daniel

Senpai Social Sounds Vol. 1

The only thing that influences our content more than anime and nerd culture is music. Every time I'm working on a design there's music blasting in the background. Every time I'm thinking of concepts for a photo shoot or video I have a song in mind that I build around. It may not seem like it but music is what really brings everything we do together. That being said we present to you, Senpai Social Sounds

Senpai Social Sounds is a 12 song playlist we'll be presenting bi-weekly (haha bi) on Spotify. The playlist will feature artists that we feel represent and inspire us. We both have pretty broad tastes in music so we hope to bring you something that's diverse and interesting. Who knows, maybe you'll hear a song that inspires you as well. Whether you're inspired to create or twerk is your call, we just wanna vibe with you.

SENPAI SOCIAL SOUNDS Vol. 1

Hope you all have a good weekend bumping our playlist. Check back in a couple of weeks for Volume 2 and be sure to follow us on Spotify to hear it first!

Party on Plebs

- Matthew