Recently I was getting all nostalgic with my Twitter followers about how things have changed for anime fans over the years. Some were surprised to hear there was a time when the idea of anime products being commercially available in stores was unimaginable, and I’ll never forget my shock at seeing the fledgeling anime corner in Tower Records back in 1991. Another big — and very welcome — change has been the Rise of the Fangirl. Back in the 80s and early 90s, anime conventions were male-dominated affairs, and the idea of seeing awesome and fun females who were interested in nerdy things like manga, anime and games was a distant fantasy…yet these days about half the fans at anime conventions are female. I’d trace the rise of the fangirl as a social phenomenon to the popularity of Sailor Moon, which taught a generation of girls that was okay to obsess over 2D characters, get excited about cosplaying and so on. Now fangirl culture has gone mainstream, as fujoshi (female anime fans) shop for yaoi/BL or “otome” games (girl centric dating-sims that are very popular) in their very own part of Tokyo, the Otome Road shopping district in Ikebukuro. And people-watching at anime conventions is a lot more fun than it used to be, thanks to all the awesome fangirls!
I’m a big fan of anime fangirls, which used to be extremely rare.
