By SocialMoth 1 year, 10 months ago
Its hard to interact with other people when a big part of your
identity is something they don’t really understand. Sometimes it
becomes necessary to make small-talk but conversation usually
collapses after a few forced remarks because there is just nothing to
discuss between the two of you. Conventions are important for many of
us because we are given a chance to connect to a community that we can
relate to, and one that can finally understand that part of our
identity. During Anime Expo, the Nico Nico Douga (NND) panel gave us
the opportunity to connect with our otaku brethren overseas through a
live feed on NND.
We started with a brief introduction, Nico Nico Douga is a video
hosting site similar to YouTube but with a unique comment-marquee
system where recent comments scroll across the screen directly over
the video. Though this might sound like a potential disaster, the NND
community (the so-called “nicochu”) tend to be very supportive and
eventually one learns that these comments are much of what makes NND
fun. Since you cannot watch videos without an account, creating one
blind can be a daunting prospect but we were shown that anyone can do
it armed with little more than 15 minutes and bit of common sense.
With this we were now prepared for our baptism within the ranks of
nicochu.
The preparations were complete and the projector switched to a video
of the audience as broadcast to Nico Nico Douga. We cheered wildly as
we were inundated with a storm of text filled with kanji and broken
English. They welcomed us warmly and for them we held an impromptu
talent show and cosplay contest. Buoyed by the incredible outpouring
of support from NND, the blushing talent show contestants found the
courage to perform and one could almost literally feel the love. With
the aid of the translator we learned that no valid attempt should
incite ridicule.
Panels are usually soporific affairs that involve people you can’t
hear clearly asking mostly redundant questions to industry
professionals. The Nico Nico Douga panel reminded me that anime expo
is a celebration of anime. Anime Expo connects us to other fans and
endears us to the entity that is the anime industry and in doing so,
affords us a rare opportunity to participate and engage and lets us
feel like we belong.
Douga Nico, Nico Nico Douga
need to learn how to read japanese
bleachfreak73
11 months agook, but the only problem is that some people put their two cents in and really just prove how they should have kept it