I just had an interesting little article from CNET sent to me. According to this article, being an Otaku, or a least the type of anime fan that always has to watch the newest shows, may be partially genetic. Sayeth said article:

Researchers say the enzyme is “significantly associated with higher scores of novelty-seeking”, the story said.

The Nomura Research Institute supported the researchers’ findings, mentioning a cross-section of ‘otaku’, or comic book and anime fans. Like those suffering from the ‘gotta have gadgets’ disorder, there were some otaku who would always buy the newest comic or anime release — no matter what the cost, the story said.

The full article by Nicole Girard is available at http://news.cnet.co.uk/gadgets/0,39029672,49281973,00.htm

One idea that I had for a long time was to write an article on the U.S. in anime for the fourth of July. I suppose I’m sort of doing it, but a combination of real-life and other factors prevented me from putting everything I wanted to into this. More importantly though, I’m currently disinclined to think that it’s even a good idea.

There are passing references to the United States in many anime, of course. In Evangelion, we are a holdout against a global conspiracy, albeit for economic reasons, when Gendo Ikari describes America as allergic to unemployment. In FLCL, the U.S. is merely used as an “elsewhere” for an unseen character. In the somewhat lower-budget Z-Mind, the U.S. is a source for a military budget and perspective. None of these is particularly insightful to either the U.S. or Japan’s view of it. However, this should not be terribly surprising, as many anime aren’t even all that insightful about Japan.