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Editor in Chief Charles McCarter
Production Manager
Organizational Consultant
Copy Editors
Staff Writers
Production &
Contributors
SPJA Site Administrator
Special Thanks To:
Contacting EX EX: The Online World of Anime & Manga © 1996-2000 EX, The Society for the Promotion of Japanese Animation. All Rights Reserved. |
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Last issue, I made anime fans the subject of my editorial. In the interest of fairness, I think it's only fair to point out that nobody's perfect, even the personalities and celebrities we admire so much. So anime fans, sit back, as it's the celebrities' turn in the hotseat. One of the interesting things about doing something like EX
is meeting the creative talent behind many of the most popular shows. I've been doing this
for a few years now, and I've had the opportunity to meet a lot of incredibly talented people
who are idolized by anime fans.Of course, living as I do in the L.A. area (and up
until very recently in the heart of Hollywood), I've also had the opportunity to see and
sometimes even interact with famous people just out and about on occasion. It's always
an interesting experience. It makes for interesting anecdotes. I can say "I had sushi at
this restaurant the other night, and sitting right there at the table next to me was
VOYAGER's Seven of Nine!" It makes life interesting.And, I have to say that, most of the time, when I meet these people, they
are polite and usually friendly. Of course, they may not really want to be bothered,
but they still try and act polite to their fans. And, though everyone has heard the
stories of celebrities being rude and generally unappreciative, it had never
happened to me until a few months ago. Perhaps the oddest thing, though, was that
the rudest "celebrity" I've met was actually someone in the anime industry!I'm not one to name names, so I won't divulge this person's identity. But
suffice it to say that it left a bad taste in my mouth. Of course, I understand that
these people are human too, and they have good and bad days like the rest of us, but
it just seems that some of them have stopped trying to even pretend to treat the
"lesser people" with any smidgen of respect.But what happens when you meet someone whose work you think highly of and
they turn out to be less than amiable? For some, nothing. Others form a lasting
hatred of the person and all the things this person has done or is associated with.
I know people who refuse to see certain movies because "So and so didn't give me
their autograph when I ran up to them at a restaurant." And me? What do I do? I use
it as grist for the mill in one of my EX editorials...So what exactly did this person do? Well, nothing really. And that was the
problem. When I was introduced to the person, they looked at me as if it were painful
for them to look at me. I may not be Ricky Martin, but then again, I'm not Quasimodo.
Clearly, this person had no interest in speaking to me, and after several minutes of
trying to be polite, I gave up and moved on to something else. But the attitude of
this person stuck with me, until I thought to myself that he really wasn't any better
than I was. Suddenly, I had a flash of Patsy and Edina from ABFAB.
"A Cartoon?" they said disdainfully as they laughed in the face of the scriptwriter
whose visionary work had changed hands again and was now going to be animated. And it
made me realize that like so much else in life, it's all relative.I know I'm probably ruining it for you by not telling who it is, but the
truth is that I really don't want to hurt this person. It just seems to me that people
need to remember that, no matter who they are, they really are no better than anyone
else. And if they don't, then maybe next time, I'll name names.Ex animo,
Charles McCarter |
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