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