What Whitney's Watching

Last year, I had the pleasure of going to my first anime convention. It was an incredible experience with amazing cosplay everywhere, panels with new and interesting content, and so many different creators that I nearly burned through all of the money I had. It was honestly one of the best days of my life but the most beautiful part, was the community I found. Everywhere I looked there was a woman who looked like me having the time of her life. Whether she was buying merch at the artist alley, or dancing to anime openings at a sing along panel, or posing for pictures in her bomb cosplay, they were there and then it hit me- even though these are expensive women, specifically black women, that like anime or manga or K-pop or whatever NEED to be going to these conventions. Period!! Now, I understand the hesitation, I really do. The idea of going to a con is very unappealing upon first thought. Many of us are introverted and shy and while there is nothing wrong with that, it does ma...

Do you ever find yourself desperately thirsting over that hot teacher you met at that overrated beer garden last Saturday? You ever zone out watching the same BTS Jimin fancam performance for the 36th time? Held eye contact with a human male for longer than three seconds? If the answer is yes to any of these questions then guess what... you might be a little thirsty and you need to get some help for that. "But Whit, how in the hell do I stop being so thirsty? As every new moon passes during this dry spell my strength wanes and I feel my life force draining!" Well,... first of all...yikes that sounds really painful and I'm sorry about your life force and everything but you really shouldn't worry about it too much. "Why wouldn't I worry about something so pressing?! What about my loins!!!?" Truly I don't know how to respond to that but if you're an avid anime or manga consumer then thankfully, there is a very effective and safe solution ...

Just like a great album can be the soundtrack to a point in our lives, great opening music is the soundtrack for any anime and sets the tone of the entire arc. The same way that, if you are going through something difficult or traumatic, listening to sad music will ultimately make it sadder and solidify that time in your life as tragic. On the flip side, if you’re experiencing a raggedy or boring summer, a good album or soundtrack will give you something about that summer to remember fondly and improve the recollection you have about that summer. It’s the reason your locals are still going on and on about summer ‘16 as if it was a damn movie and not just the summer after Kanye's last viable album was released. With this being said, you would think more emphasis would be placed on anime opening music. Or that at least more spaces would be dedicated to anime openings on the various fan ran YouTube channels and forum. But there isn’t and it’s crazy and I h...

Nothing is quite as annoying as finding an anime, watching it all the way through, falling absolutely in love with, then going on twitter to see someone you like or respect absolutely ripping it to shreds. Absolutely going in on the story-telling, the dialogue, the characters and of course, the stupid droolery, sheep who enjoy it. The fake anime posers who dared to like something that isn’t the niche, high art that only the most intelligent anime fans consume. An example of this would be the not so subtle backlash that has followed around specific (read: women) fans of Boku no Hero Academia for almost 2 years. More often than I’d like to see or actually bothered to write down, the response to women who like BNHA is usually this: “You only like it because the guys are cute!” “If the fanart wasn’t so sexualized you wouldn’t watch it!” “Stop trying to impress guys by lying and saying you watch it. Girls don’t like shonen!” “It’s not even a real anime!” There...