TV news item on anime: transcription
B Jones
The following is a transcript of a news segment called
"Info Extremists" which aired on the CBC Television
program _Undercurrents_ on Saturday March 29, 1997.
(It aired previously on an unknown date.)
The item was centered toward the issue of "information
junkies", but talked solely about anime fans. I can't
tell if this was a subtle negative message by the
reporter, a convenient scapegoat, or the most obvious
example he could find. Regardless, here it is.
I edited for spoken parts ("uh, uh...") but removed
none of the content or actual words spoken. With
the exception of my descriptions, everything is
verbatim from the original program, and my I tried
to make my descriptions as accurate as possible.
If this has been transcribed and posted previously, I
apologize in advance.
Dewa,
Shunsuke
Transcription notes:
--------------------
Plain text without indentation is voiceover narration by the
reporter.
NB: Indented text with names or initials to the
left is spoken by others or is part of an
interview.
[Text with square brackets is description of video or audio
segments of the program.]
_Underlining_ is for gentle spoked emphasis or introduction of
a term, *asterisks* for a strong emphasis.
=================================================================
[In studio, Wendy Mesley narrates the introduction.]
One extreme form of obsession with technology is the information
junkie, people who are actually _in love_ with information. And
they first came to light in Japan, according to Todd Southgate.
[Opera music plays in the background as the kanji for Tokyo are
displayed; quickly the visual shifts to images of downtown Tokyo,
with pictures of light, billboards, and people as the reporter,
Todd Southgate, speaks.]
Tokyo. Bright, busy, and _very_ wired. It's no secret that
Japan has a love affair with technology, but there's a growing
subculture taking that romance to the limit.
[Hitoshi Doi's office, he sitting at his computer, facing
Southgate. Around him are pictures and small dolls of anime
characters, mostly of Sailor Moon characters.]
Hitoshi Doi: When I'm not riding the train, or when I'm not
eating, or when I'm not bathing, I'm usually
logged in and doing something with a computer.
[Film of Doi working on his computer, images of anime on the
screen.]
Hitoshi Doi is wired on information. Specifically _any_
information on Japanese animation, known as _anime_. He's one
of a growing number of data junkies called _otaku_.
[Shows Doi speaking to the reporter.]
HD: My wife always complains that I'm always on the
computer, and, well, I try not to sacrifice time
with my family, so right now I'm sacrificing
sleep. So right now, I get two or three hours
of sleep a night.
Hitoshi doesn't come across as strikingly odd, however, just get
a load of what's going on, in his _head_.
HD: I'd like to have all the information about each
character, information about the items that they
use, information about places that appear in
the stories, just about anything related to the
story...
[Street scene, William Gibson and Todd Southgate are sitting on
stools on a sidewalk.]
William Gibson: The otakus seem to me to be...as kind of a very
pure expression of hunger for information, even
if the information is essentially meaningless.
Science fiction author William Gibson has always had a curious
interest in Japan, _and_ it's intimate relationship with
technology. His latest literary journey is titled "The Idoru".
One of the novel's character's is an otaku, and he's described as
a "pathological techno-fetishist, with social deficit".
WG: There's a spectrum with that kind of behaviour,
you can have your fan, your otaku, and you can
have your homicidal stalker. They're all on the
same continuum.
[Cuts to images of Japanese television news, a man being arrested
and images of the home as police guard the scene.]
And there is one alleged homicidal stalker in Japan, a man
obsessed with pornographic anime. Some gruesome murders and his
bizarre hobby gave the media something sensational to report. A
once-quiet culture of misfits quickly became _big creepy news_.
[Cuts back to Gibson.]
WG: This is like...nerd city, big time. They're
mostly male - I've never heard of a female otaku -
and they're reputed to spend all of their time in
their bedrooms with their computers.
[Reporter on screen, speaking, as katakana and romaji of the word
otaku float around behind him on 'bluescreen', followed by
computer images.]
It was the media in Japan that labelled Hitoshi and others like
him the "otaku". Translation: shut in, fanatic, geek, people so
utterly obsessed with information that they become withdrawn from
society. It seems that information technologies have bred the
ultimate fan, and now they're starting to emerge here.
[Southgate approaches a home, and is greeted at the door.]
TS: Hi, Greg.
Greg Taylor: Hi, Todd, come on in.
TS: Great, thanks a lot.
[Inside the home, Taylor and Southgate speaking. The camera is
*literally* in Taylor's face, but it does not bother him. He
is wearing a well-worn t-shirt with Sailor Moon images, front
and back.]
TS: So you're the ultimate fan.
GT: I don't know if I really wanna flatter myself
that way, but I am definitely obsessed with Ami
Mizuno, Sailor Mercury.
You guessed it, Greg Taylor is also a big fan of anime. More
specifically, this 20 year old university student's love is...
[Sailor Moon theme and images play in the background, where the
lyrics "Sailor Mercury!" are heard. Goes to images of Taylor's
computer screen.]
She's the lead character's sidekick in the popular children's
cartoon called Sailor Moon. He's created an online shrine for
the inked superhero, and he's constantly searching for new
information to add to it.
GT: She wears glasses, in the fourth season she
gets glasses, and also in the fourth season
when she powers up into Super Sailor Mercury,
she gets three earrings instead of just the one.
[The two prepare to leave the house.]
TS: So what are we going to see at this animation
festival today?
GT: Just animation...
[Southgate points to a small stuffed doll Taylor is placing into
his inner jacket pocket.]
TS: So what's that?
GT: Oh, it's sort of my good luck talisman, I guess.
My "Mercury plushie" I carry with me everywhere.
[Taylor and Southgate are seen watching an unidentified film
at an anime film festival, hundreds of people watching. Later
the two are in a hall as the next voiceover and conversation
take place.]
At the University of Waterloo, Greg has gotten to know other
Japanese toon fans. Although their interest may not be *quite*
as intense as Greg's, they gather periodically to watch imported
anime.
[An unidentified anime fan is talking to Greg, wearing a white
t-shirt with an image of Madoka from KOR on the front.]
Fan: We watched _all_ of Kimagure Orange Road, _all_
forty-eight episodes in one sitting...
GT: Oh, my goodness...
Fan: We watched sixty episodes of Maison Ikkoku in
one sitting...
GT: Oh, man...
[Report sits beside a computer with Sailor Moon on the screen,
while computer images of Ami and others are shown on 'bluescreen'
behind him.]
There are other anime interest groups, as well Sailor Moon fan
clubs. As a matter of fact, Greg is Sailor Mercury's _official_
representative in the Ottawa-based Sailor Moon fan club. However,
face-to-face meetings amongst these groups are pretty rare.
[In Taylor's dark dorm room, Taylor is shown working on his
computer, a text-drawing of Ami Mizuno is on screen. The image
then changes to him using a television remote, while the camera
pans his room, revealing posters of Sailor Mercury, some 6' in
height...or length.]
GT: It would probably just be an interest if it
weren't for, I guess, the cyber-community talking
with all the other people about her, finding out
all the information.
In Greg's tiny room in Ottawa, a home away from home, his
obsession is, well, hard to miss.
[The two stand in the dorm room, talking, "Sailor Mercury plushie"
in Taylor's pocket.]
GT: A character who kind of becomes her boyfriend was
named Greg and that kind of intrigued me.
TS: Now, the time you spend online getting information
about Sailor Mercury, is that something you really
want to do, or is it something you feel you need to?
GT: I suppose it's something I need to do, you know,
I want to find out more about her, and find out
the things I don't know, and the little...other...
things.
[Scene of a comic/anime shop, Soutgate and Mittler sit at a table
talking, while surrounded by Sailor Moon paraphenalia. Two pins
of Sailor Moon are on Mittler's blazer lapels.]
Steve Mittler: In the old days, the fans really had to dig to
get the information that they wanted on any
particular subject. Now, all they've gotta do
is log on, do a net search on anything, and boom,
there you go, there's your information.
[Same scene, but the camera pulls back to show a 2" tall wind-up
Sailor Moon toy walking across a table; a hand appears to make
the toy walk toward the camera. The toy then walks and falls
over, just how Usagi would.]
A die-hard fan, he's not, but Steve Mittler does have a keen
interest in anime. He organizes Sailor Moon events for a living,
so he knows the fans, and he knows their hunger for information.
[Camera goes back to a close-up of Mittler and Southgate.]
SM: ...and of course that information feeds the fuel
of their fanaticism, because the more they know,
_the more they want to know_. [last phrase is
spoken intensely]
TS: But it's just trivia; it's not gold, it's banal
information.
SM: To these people, it is very important, it's...it's
just as important as...food to them, because, for
them, it is food for that portion of their brain
that says "I must know more about Sailor Moon!"
[quoted statement spoken in mock 'mad scientist'
tone]
[Split screen images of Hitoshi Doi working on his computer and
the various anime paraphenalia around his room, including many
plush dolls and posters.]
And, nobody knows that better than Hitoshi Doi. His web site is
jammed with visitors.
[Doi sits talking to Southgate again.]
HD: I've been taking stats on my web site, and right
now I'm getting over, uh, one million per month,
so I think the number of otaku is growing because
of the internet.
[Cuts back to the street interview with William Gibson.]
WG: I don't think we'd have the otaku without...
without the digital world. I can't imagine it
because you can work in absolute solitude, you
can work in physical solitude, and that seems to
be a big part of it.
[Cuts back to Greg Taylor's dorm room, doll in his collared
shirt's pocket.]
TS: Do you feel you're missing anything in your life
because you're spending so much time retrieving
information about Sailor Mercury?
GS: Tough call...in a way, it's preventing me from
keeping in contact with some people, because I'm
devoting so much time to her, but in the other
respect, I'm meeting people and going out and...
to social gatherings and such because of her, so
it's kind of a toss-up.
[Cuts to a black screen of katanana spelling otaku, then romaji,
and more images of Taylor's dark dorm and Sailor Mercury as
Southgate speaks.]
So are the otaku, and folks like Greg, a fad, or a foreshadowing?
Are we all susceptible to the lure of information as our access
to it becomes unlimited?
[Cuts back to the street interview.]
WG: I think that probably accounts for our interest
in the otaku is an underlying suspicion that
we're becoming "them".
TS: What will that do to a culture in general if you
have more and more people going the route of the
otaku, isolating themselves from anything else,
and just sort of playing in virtual communities?
WG: Look at how much time we spend as a culture
watching television. That's not an interaction
with any other human being, you're having a
virtual experience, and we've gotten used to
that, we take it for granted. No one really
feels too guilty about being a couch potato.
[During Gibson's last sentence, the picture cuts back to Taylor's
dorm room, and dark, foreboding music plays in the background.]
=================================================================
--
"Mrs. Wormwood, can we discuss the merits of
cannibalism on the basis that it's less wasteful?"
- Calvin,
"Calvin and Hobbes"
Paul Cordeiro
On 31 Mar 1997 17:38:21 -0800, ae...@pgfn.bc.ca (B Jones) wrote:
>The following is a transcript of a news segment called
>"Info Extremists" which aired on the CBC Television
>program _Undercurrents_ on Saturday March 29, 1997.
>(It aired previously on an unknown date.)
November or December, I think.
>The item was centered toward the issue of "information
>junkies", but talked solely about anime fans. I can't
>tell if this was a subtle negative message by the
>reporter, a convenient scapegoat, or the most obvious
>example he could find. Regardless, here it is.
I'd say the message was negative, but not as negative as it could
have been. Rather than concentrate on anime itself, they attacked
the otaku. The exact same segment could have been done on science
fiction or football with similar results.
>If this has been transcribed and posted previously, I
>apologize in advance.
To my knowledge, it hasn't.
On a side note, I recorded the segment when it first aired and showed
it at the anime club I attend. Rather than being offended, everyone
was ROTFL. ^_^
****Madoka*Ayukawa***Setsuna*Meiou****Linna*Yamazaki***Kiyone*Makibi****
* *
* / PAUL CORDEIRO, juunanasai. \ An anime fan from Edmonton, Canada. *
* \ "Oh yeah, that's the goods!" / E-mail: shi...@icrossroads.com *
* *
****Kanuka*Clancy***Natsumi*Tsujimoto****Arisa*Mitaka***Ukyou*Kuonji****
Karl Nikolai Zaryski
ae...@pgfn.bc.ca (B Jones) wrote:
>[An unidentified anime fan is talking to Greg, wearing a white
>t-shirt with an image of Madoka from KOR on the front.]
>
>Fan: We watched _all_ of Kimagure Orange Road, _all_
> forty-eight episodes in one sitting...
>
>GT: Oh, my goodness...
>
>Fan: We watched sixty episodes of Maison Ikkoku in
> one sitting...
>
>GT: Oh, man...
If anyone cares, I can identify the fan in question as UW student Mark Visser,
a friend and housemate-to-be of mine. His statements are accurate to my
knowledge.
--
Karl Nikolai Zaryski aka knza...@csclub.uwaterloo.ca
Anime (P=X) * KITH * Jhereg * HHGTTG * Just a regular Miyazaki no Otaku
Sailor Moon Page of Infamy: http://www.csclub.uwaterloo.ca/u/knzarysk/