OTW Guest Post: Antonia
| Interviews by Fans | |
|---|---|
| Title: | OTW Guest Post: Antonia |
| Interviewer: | Claudia Rebaza |
| Interviewee: | Antonia |
| Date(s): | December 11, 2016 |
| Medium: | online |
| Fandom(s): | |
| External Links: | OTW Guest Post: Antonia – Organization for Transformative Works, Archived version |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
OTW Guest Post: Antonia is a 2016 interview done as part of a series. See OTW Guest Post.
"Although juggling her PhD research and full-time work at two different institutions, Antonia nevertheless finds time to both attend and volunteer at fanzine events around Tokyo. Her current research interests include time travel themes in contemporary manga and “miritarii” dōjinshi fandom. Today, Antonia talks about what it’s like to volunteer for Comiket, a major dōjinshi convention held in Japan."
Some Excerpts
How did you first get into fandom and fanworks?
Gosh, it depends on what you mean by fandom and fan works, but I guess it all starts with being drawn to (and gradually infatuated with) one or several original texts. For me those “texts” were Tezuka’s Astro Boy, TV Tokyo’s little known series Samurai Pizza Cats and ThunderCats. I guess I had a thing for androids and “animaloids.”
Like most kids, I enjoyed watching these shows, but you know, sometimes you reach a point when you feel like something in the original text is missing — that’s when you start searching for alternative interpretations or wind up creating them yourself. In my case, I was exposed to a bunch of cartoons and anime series and was fortunate enough to live pretty close to the only comic shop in my town so I got my hands on a lot of Marvel stuff too. So with all these different stories running through my head, I started doodling my own derivative works for fun from the age of nine or so. I hadn’t really thought about why I did it until now. I guess that this kind of fannish activity stems from not being 100% satisfied with a particular source text and wanting something “your way.”
How did you become a volunteer for Comiket?
I think the event that triggered it was Otaku Summit in 2014. After having listened to discussions on the otaku industries in the Otaku Expo symposium and academic symposium, I thought “Wow! We’re all part of this big thing,” but at the same time I felt like I wasn’t doing enough to keep the wheels turning. I realised that until now I was only “taking.” That is, as a regular attendee to Comiket and other fanzine events, I was simply consuming and giving very little back to the otaku industries. I thought, “Hey, they probably need some English speaking volunteers” so I approached the guys at the international help desk and it all started from there! It’ll be a while before I reach “veteran” rank but it’s something I think I’ll keep doing since it makes me feel like I’m giving back to the ota-community.
What fandom things have inspired you the most?
I think the lengths which Japanese fans will go to to either get the items they want or produce something that simply does not exist. And it’s not just the incredible amounts of money they invest on acquiring or producing different things, it’s time, effort and dedication. Some of them sacrifice their jobs or neglect their health and familial obligations all in the name of fandom. It’s all about making sacrifices and giving it your all until the end — which is very much a part of Japanese culture.