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Anime-niacs: Lebanon’s Japanese subculture

March 20, 2014 12:27 AM

By India Stoughton

The Daily Star

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BEIRUT: For many Lebanese children growing up in the 1970s and ’80s, during the Civil War, the ultimate heroic figure was a giant robot. An animated Japense series – or anime, as it is known in Japan – “Grendizer” was dubbed into classical Arabic and screened across the region, enchanting a generation of children. “I call it the glue that holds the Arab world together,” illustrator and animator Fadi Baki explains, “because there’s very little that we share, except that everyone knew ‘Grendizer.’ Anyone that grew up in the ’70s used to watch it.”

Voiced in Arabic by actor Jihad al-Atrash, “Grendizer” followed the adventures of a giant robot from the planet Veda, as he battled against ruthless aliens seeking to invade planet earth.

“There was fighting outside,” Baki says, recalling the show’s popularity. “We were all kids, and this was pretty much using the same pan-Arab language – fighting off the invaders that were coming – but on TV, the good guys win.”

“Grendizer” and other Japanese series dubbed into Arabic and screened during the ’70s and ’80s, such as “Treasure Island,” transformed a generation of young Arabs into unwitting anime fans. Baki had no idea that “Grendizer” was Japanese, he recalls, he just knew that it was different from Western cartoons aimed at children such as “Tom and Jerry.”

Today, Lebanon has a thriving subculture addicted to anime series and to the comic books that usually precede them, known as manga. Although anime is no longer dubbed into Arabic and screened locally, Lebanese fans can access it online. Series are uploaded hours after their release in Japan with English or French “fansubs” – unofficial subtitling done by fans.

Manga and anime are produced for people of all ages and have a distinctive style, featuring characters with enormous eyes and spiky hair. There are hundreds of genres and thousands of series, Baki explains – something for everyone.

What truly differentiates anime from Western cartoons is the drama, he adds. “Sometimes the plots just sort of get thrown out of the window,” he laughs, “but they do drama like no one else. ... Whether that means more violence or more sexual tension or more action, you’ll find it all across the board. ... You can’t find these emotions in other cartoons.”

An avid fan of manga and anime, Khaled Salloum founded the Social Anime Rejects, a group for otaku – people addicted to the Japanese series – seven years ago. There are now more than 300 members.

Meetings are held weekly for attendees to share and discuss manga and anime. “I have the biggest collection,” Salloum says, “so I distribute to others, and I’m in charge of getting everything new. We talk about manga, Japanese culture and of course we have our events. At least once a year, we have a cosplay event, where we dress up as our favorite characters and ... go and have fun and eat some place.”

Cosplay events usually attract around 100 people, he says. Public reactions are mixed.

“People who are into anime are usually like: ‘Oh my God, I’ve seen that. They’re dressed as them!’ Other people are a bit freaked out,” Salloum laughs. “Especially because usually in anime, if you’re not well-armed with swords or guns or whatever, you’re basically half-naked. ... So we get awkward reactions from some people, but most of all they welcome us. It’s a refreshing sight.”

The group also organizes nights where they play traditional Japanese games, such as batsu. “Batsu basically means punishment,” Salloum explains, “and there’s a game show there where if you laugh, you get punished. So my job is to make these contestants laugh as much as possible so they can be beaten [with a cardboard packing tube] as much as possible. ... We’ve done it twice already, and it was a huge success. Painful but in a good way.”

Because anime

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