It wasn’t too long ago that I was standing in my local Urban Outfitters looking to buy a button up shirt for a party. Walking around browsing it was hard not to notice the abundance of t-shirts displayed around the store that utilized Japanese kanji in its design. If I had to quantify it, I’d roughly estimate that about 65% of the t-shirts they were displaying followed this design pattern. That’s not a significant number by any means, but it was still well over half of the shirts up for sale.
Not too long before that H&M incorporated anime and otaku inspired clothing in their Spring collection. More recently, famed streetwear brand Supreme released a collaboration collection with Toshio Maeda, a prolific manga artist and pioneer in the hentai genre. The collection features imagery of his work plastered on various articles of clothing such as t-shirts and jackets (I’m not familiar with any of his work, but I’ll let you know as soon as clothing with Bible Black imagery on it surfaces).
So what does this all mean exactly? Well, not much to be honest. But being that we here at Senpai Social Club make anime themed and inspired clothing, it is of interest to me. Especially if this trend becomes bigger than it already is now. There is the fear of being just another drop in the tentacle and ramen filled ocean of anime inspired clothing.
Senpai Social Club "WAIFU Team" Shirt
It seems lately that the fashion trend of utilizing Japanese and Anime culture in design choices has been growing rapidly. This is not too surprising seeing as how Anime in itself is becoming more mainstream. This trend will only help to increase anime’s popularity even more, which I am all for. The problem that I do have with this trend though lies with the consumers themselves. It seems to me that being weird and standing out is what people are obsessed with these days. Everybody wants to be different. Its only natural to want to distinguish yourself as an individual. Anime inspired clothing is just niche enough to facilitate this need to wear something different but mainstream enough that people outside of the culture still have somewhat of an understanding of it. But it wasn’t so long ago that people who showed their love for anime were stigmatized for it. Matter of fact, this is still the case to this day.
If you like anime, you are considered geeky, nerdy, or dorky for the most part by the general populace. Now the look that comes from anime and otaku culture is being marketed to the general populace through mainstream clothing stores. People who have no grasp of what anime is, but like the look of it, are sure to buy these clothes. These are probably the same people that in the past would have made fun of somebody for being out in public in cosplay or for wearing their favorite shirt that they bought at their local con that features a picture of their “waifu for laifu” on it. Now I’m not so caught up in my own entitlement that I think that only people who watch anime should be allowed to wear anime inspired clothing, but I do find it bothersome that people who look down on anime fans for their interest can buy anime inspired clothing to capitalize on fashion trends just so they can feel cool or hip.
I love anime and the culture that surrounds it, and to see people reduce it to nothing more than just a means to distinguish yourself through style and then turn right around and laugh at a cosplayer who is standing in line at a Starbucks is disheartening. While I’m sure that this is something that is inevitable, I am optimistic. I love the idea of being able to buy anime inspired clothing that is more fashion conscious by just going to my local mall instead of having to search the farthest recesses of the internet for them. I love the possibility of people liking the art style in these anime inspired clothing and then being inspired themselves to go and watch anime. I love that the mainstream culture is starting to pay more attention to the cool things that anime brings.
All in all, I see the anime inspired clothing fashion trend as a good thing for the anime community. I would hope that this trend helps to alleviate the stigma that all anime fans are weirdos, dorks, or losers. I mean sure, we could be those things, but we’re also cool in our own way, and maybe the things that you think are lame can actually be cool to you too if you just gave it a chance. This is at least my hope, but hey, what do I know? I’m just a nerd with a laptop.
I’m currently typing this while I should be typing an essay for my Coms 100A class.
-Daniel