Anyone else think this was more an interview than a bonus episode?

I merged the two threads together. If the logic of the conversion looks a little weird that is why. -Chad

Well I don't see a thread for this episode yet so I'm making one. Listening to the episode right now and my first comment is..."Hah! I don't have an animal avatar, it's either and undead or my freaky shark demon which people people mistake for an undead!"

Heh, two threads made at the same time, Noob and I are apparently in tune with one another's actions.

But seriously, I'm enjoying the episode so far and it's interesting to hear more about the fandom everyone seems to mock. One of my best friends is a furry and I think that the person interviewed definitely seems to fit very well what I've been told about the actual fandom by my friend. Well, other than the creepy perverted ones which I'm told is the loud and annoying minority.

In addition "Calex" is the fursona that my friend takes and he did tell me that most people don't care if you portray yourself as a mythical creature but he did relay a funny story. There's apparently a well known Gryphon furry who was heading to a convention dressed as his persona and was stopped by a person in a horse costume and told he couldn't wear that costume as a gryphon wasn't a real animal. He responded along the lines of "I'm sorry, I didn't realize that a gryphon wasn't a believable animal compared to an anthropomorphic talking horse."

Nicely done. http://www.feartheboot.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=11383 posted the same minute.

Actually, a while ago Goatunit posted the abstract for an Anthropoligical paper that looked at the Furry sub culture that I would be really interested in reading again or even hearing an actual furry's opinion on.

[edit] Here's the abstract link from goatunit.

Yeah I thought “Hah! I don’t have an animal avatar!” too, but… well… hmm… woops! It’s not very furry though.

Dunno, though…does an animal spirit count?

I don't have an animal avatar. I have always kinda wondered why we had so many bears.

Because they can poop wherever they want and don't have to wear pants of course. I mean, are you going to try to tell a bear what it can and can't do?

Well, now that I've listened to the whole thing.

Furry SCAdian LARPer RIFTS player...

Wow. And I thought I had an eclectic set of hobbies.

On the discussion of Pennsic: Never been, myself. The event gets so big it gets it's own zip code, and it lasts two weeks. But from what I've heard, the rumors are true. Even the lies. Especially the lies.

On anime: *looks over at his avi* *listens to Wayne* *sighs* I can't believe I'm hearing this from a superhero comic fan of all things. Wayne, you of all people I would have thought would already be into anime in some regards.

I'll give my usual diatribe on anime. Anime is a medium. Anime is as much a genre as books or video games. I can pretty much guarantee that there is anime out there you would like.

As to the hentai cafe/theater phenomenon, it's almost a tradition, and an old one, from ages before anime was readily available and anime cons were one of the main ways to see the latest shows. There would be a dozen different showings going on at any given time. The thing is, hentai requires special attention, because you can't just let anyone in. You have to make sure that no minors are watching teh pron. So, they would usually only do one showing. This event gets kinda big, more of a matter of shock that titillation. I've been to one of these showings. Never laughed harder in my life.

As for other eroticism in anime, it's no worse than any other medium. Wonder Woman, anyone? Power Girl? How many fantasy novels feature the busty amazon woman in a chainmail bikini? It's just there. A lot of it makes for better comedy that titillation. Oftentimes, that's the point.

I'd go on more, but I'm feeling feverish and need to take a few advil. Go watch some anime, I'll probably be back later with some suggestions, though I'm sure a few of my fellow booters could come up with some good titles off the top of their heads.

I'll end by saying I'm not upset. Much like my ranting in the video game forums, this is a topic I can go on for ages about. Sorry if I'm rambling.

I thought my dislike of anime was universally known by now, but I did fully expect some backlash on it. I've been wondering why it never came until I realized today that the conversation happened on the Bonus Episode that hadn't been released yet until now.

The point I was trying to get at by mentioning it when I did was that if you were only basing your opinion of a thing on how it is presented at cons and assuming that it was all sexualized because of that then the way Anime is presented at Gencon would have the same scrutiny. Furries seem to get an unfair label when thier presence at a convention isn't any worse than other subcultures. Basically I was trying to counter the "OMG Furries are just all about sex" by pointing out that all the arguments used for that hold true for Anime but it is much more accepted.

Of course I have never actually seen a furry in person that I know of that wasn't from an Anime.

Anime is a medium and I have been told many times that there has to be something out there that I would like. So far I have not seen it though. I dislike the things I find to be sterotypical of it (big eyes, over the top reactions, weapons that are larger than the characters, etc.) while fully acknowleging that these traits are not in all animes.

It is actually my love of comics that started my dislike of Anime and Manga. I don't like the typical visual style that comes to mind when talking about Manga and in the 90s they started to integrate that into comics quite a bit. For me this was an unwelcome addition because I liked clean crisp and fairly realistic art. It felt like this outside influence was ruining a medium I was enjoying.