I was at home for the Holidays on a day similar to today when one of my grandchildren asked me, "Grandpa, tell us the story again about the anime fans."
Again? Well, OK, if you like it that much. Gather around me children and I'll tell you the story of a special group of people known as anime fans. What? You say you've never heard of them? Well, that doesn't surprise me, because they've long ago disappeared. You're just too young to remember them is all. If you ask your parents about them, they might be able to tell you something about what their grandparents told them about this mysterious group of people from long ago.
Once upon a time, there was a race of humans called anime fans. They were a very special race because they were a race grouped not by the color of their skin or by the language they spoke, or other such nonsense that people used to group themselves by. Anime fans were a group of people who liked anime. What is anime you ask? Well, that doesn't matter right now. Just think of it like a special gift you get for Christmas. It's like getting your first baseball glove or that first train set or your first teddy bear. A gift that doesn't seem like much at first, but which you will treasure for the rest of your life.
Now, back then, if you were an anime fan, life could be difficult. You see, anime fans were discriminated against in those early days by regular folk because they just didn't understand them.
"How can you like that stuff?" someone would say to you.
Or "Aren't you a bit old for anime?" someone else would say.
Or sometimes, "Why can't you just be normal like the other kids?"
Regular folk just didn't understand and sometimes, their words would hurt.
But mean words never stopped this brave group of people. Nowadays, scientists found out that anime fans were just like you and me. They were all born from mommies and daddies, and they all grew up with birthday parties, tooth fairies and Christmas trees and they all went to school with everybody else in their grade, just like you do today. They were normal kids who just happened to like anime. If others thought they were "strange" or "odd," it was because the regular folk made them out to be that way.
The one thing about the anime fans that made them special was that they loved anime so much, that instead of keeping it to themselves, they wanted to share it with everybody else. Now how would they do that? Well, here is where the stories of real heroism are told.
Little known to the regular folk, anime fans lived among them all throughout America keeping the flame of anime alive. They could be found in all corners of every state, but they hid themselves, mostly, never letting anyone know that they were the followers of anime. Hiding among them was an anime hero known as the "club officer." This anime fan was very heroic! Now why is that, you say? Because he believed in the cause of anime so much, he would openly tell anyone that he was an anime fan so that the other fans in hiding would know that they were not alone and that someone would be willing to do something for their cause. But the regular folk, they didn't like his kind, no sir.
"He's wasting his life with that anime thing!"
"He's the leader of a band of geeks!"
"He should get a life!"
If you were a "club officer," these are some of the mean things the regular folk might say behind your back! Lord Almighty, being a "club officer" was a difficult thing to be!
Now you'd think that the club officer would hate and try to avoid the regular folk, but rather than be discouraged, the club officer knew in his heart of hearts that the regular folk didn't hate him, they just didn't understand what a wonderful thing anime was. So, instead of running away from his enemy, he ran toward them! Don't laugh, because it's true! He ran toward the regular folk his arms loaded up with anime!
"Here! Look at this!" he would shout, "I want to share my anime with you! Come to my meetings and commune with anime! And buy my T-shirts, while you're at it!"
Now, you have to admit that it takes a pretty brave person to do what the club officer did. Do any of you think you could be that brave?
The club officer did a lot to help the cause of anime. By making friends with fellow anime fans and by reaching out to the regular folk, he did a lot to put anime out to the people.
When the club officer had done about as much as he could do in his town, there emerged a new anime hero who could take the work of the club officer farther. This new anime hero was known as the "convention volunteer."
Like the club officer before him, the convention volunteer was teased with the same taunts by the regular folk. And they found a few new ones too!
"Is this what you really want to do with your life?"
"When are you going to start on a real career?"
"Do you really think anime will change the world?"
Oh, it was horrible, let me tell you, being teased like that! But the convention volunteer didn't hear these mean words. He knew that when the regular folk finally understood anime, they would accept it, so the convention volunteer kept spreading the word by organizing larger meetings where anime fans from all over the country could come and display their strength in numbers.
"We'll conquer the world!" was the battle cry of the convention volunteer as well as "Thank you and please pre-register for next year!"
It might sound that the convention volunteer was another noble anime hero, pure of heart and fighting for truth, justice and the anime way. But in the early days, the convention volunteers fought among themselves in something known as the Con Wars. This was an ugly time when convention volunteers accused each other of not being true to the spirit of anime and hurting the cause. The Con Wars got so bad that the valiant anime heroes fought against themselves and killed each other off! When it was all over, some of the remaining convention volunteers had lost faith and given up, while others became even more dedicated. Now, aren't you happy you're too young to remember that?
There were a few other, lesser anime heroes you kids should know about. They were the "industry insider" and the "web site homesteader."
The web site homesteader was a techie anime hero. He spread the word and fought for the anime cause on the Internet. That's not what we call it anymore, but back then, only computers were connected together and anyone without a computer was either poor or too stupid to know any better! It didn't matter if his web site only got a few hundred hits per year, this anime fan was pure like the club officer and posted his site out of pure love for anime. When you look at the early days of the Internet, anime was there from its beginning. And it's amazing that even in those days, there were hundreds, if not thousands of anime web sites.
And there was also the "industry insider" who was an anime fan that worked in the animation, television or other entertainment industries who tried to push anime in his branch of the industry. This led to what scientists now call "anime creep" where obscure anime references would creep into a mainstream show.
And that's the story of the lost race of anime fans. So, did you like it?
"Finish the story, Grandpa!"
Oh all right, I see I can't cheat you guys out of a happy ending. Do you want to know what happened to the lost race of anime fans? You do? Well, they're right here sitting next to you! Yes, that's right, anime fans of the past evolved into you! Don't believe it? Do you want to know how? It's because of those anime heroes of long ago. Back then, anime was "different," but today the world's so small, everything has all blended together and everything you see has a little bit of what we used to call anime in it. Except that today, you don't think anything of it. It's all "normal" to you now. One day, not that long ago, the world became so tiny that a little bit of everything went into everything else and nothing was really "different" anymore. When that happened, there was no need for anime fans or for anime heroes, and so they, too, blended into everyone else. They were finally accepted by the regular folk and as a result, weren't needed anymore so they disappeared from the face of the earth. And then they had children and their children had children and pretty soon, there you are—the children of anime.
Personal note: I'd like to extend my warm thanks to everyone who has read my articles and kept up with me here at EX. As a gift, I've had RIAP create four animated e-greetings available free for download from http://www.riap.com/. It's my way of saying thanks to all the anime fans out there who are also RIAP fans. Happy Holidays to you all.

David Ho runs RIAP, an American animation studio that takes anime as its primary influence. Visit http://www.riap.com to learn more.