Animé

Since before Christmas I have been stalked by this 10th grader who wants to start an animé club after school. He is insistent about an animé club. If I'm out walking around, he'll catch me and ask me when animé can start. He has it all figured out...how they can watch the animé. "I'll need an external hard drive only, my friend will bring a computer, don't worry, 'my friend' has a girlfriend and I know that he wouldn't look at anything bad. I'll download all of the episodes and preview them for content before hand. I know at least 7-8 people who will come to animé club." When I asked about whether or not they might read the animé he reminded me that manga is very different and those kids could sit in a different part of the classroom if they wanted to come to animé club. Last week he waited for me in the library so he could talk to me about animé, which was when I told the principal that we had to make a decision about animé club because I didn't want to be stalked anymore. I was then given the directive to "meet with these kids and figure out what they want to do."

I'm not against animé for any reason. The club poses some copyright and content issues since nearly every site is blocked by the county server and students would have to download the episodes, "I assure you Ms. Thompson, everything is legal" and bring them in on their computer to watch. Students, being students don't quite get that just because you download it doesn't mean you aren't necessarily breaking copyright laws. There's also the question of the content, since it seems a bit fishy, as we're just downloading stuff and who knows what could be on there. Nevertheless, my stalker showed up today with 5 of his bestest buddies to watch animé. He had downloaded it to a computer (all legally of course, previewed for content as promised on said friend with girlfriend's porn free computer) but we had technical difficulites which forced everyone in animé to blink with wide eyes, we had the discussion about ratings for animé. One young man explained to me that Japanese animé has different ratings than in the USA, like how here PG "means parental guidance." (Really, he said it as if I didn't know. They also told me when and where to click on the computer as if I'm 500 years old.) He then explained to me the Japanese word "p ______ku" (I've forgotten it already, and I should not have) because as he explained, it is the Japanese words specific for panty shot. At this point my exact thoughts in my head were "do not laugh, do not laugh, do not laugh." I considered recording the conversation and giving the reason that the principal was going to require it, but I was trying too hard to not laugh to get that worked out. Then I told my stalker that I was going to go talk to the principal. He wanted to go with me. I politely declined because I like this principal too much to get him a stalker too.

In the end, I did not figure out how we are going to deal with the copyright/content issues, but I did realize that I do not get animé or its point, nor am I interested in exploring it further. I will not be hosting animé club in my room. I am glad to know that Japanese has a name for panty shot. That seems quite useful. Tomorrow I'm going to try to find the Japanese expression for "hiding from my stalker."