Having recently been watching through Sora no Manimani (currently episode 6), last night I was compelled to do something I hadn’t contemplated doing before in a substantial amount of time – I gazed at the stars. I was standing outside my lit room, and generally I was quite close to sources of light, so I couldn’t see all that brilliantly. Couple that with the fact that the sky in my backyard is covered mostly by trees, and it was certainly not the best conditions to go stargazing. However, I was very thankful for it. I hadn’t really noticed the stars in the night sky before for a very long time before that, and I spent most of my time in my lit room, never even contemplating it. I felt a little bit like Oyagi Saku in that regard. It’s odd that there is something so beautiful and captivating right in front of us, but we never seem to really notice it most of the time. But, if they are so captivating, why is it that we never seem to notice them? Anyway, enough of that. Through the six episodes I have seen so far, Sora no Manimani is one of the best examples I have seen of hobby-related anime.
I feel that a good hobby anime compels you to participate in said hobby. Beck: Mongolian Chop Squad was excellent in that regard, in that watching the show made me incredibly motivated in learning guitar and furthered my interest in rock’n'roll.. It’s a great hobby show for rock music as it is an enjoyable viewing experience for both rock fans and music lovers as well as outsiders who would like to learn more about the hobby. Beck constantly references rock culture, bands and terminology, but in a way that will appeal to rock fans while not impeding on understanding what everyone’s going on about for beginners..
In my opinion, K-ON failed as a hobby anime, in that it was not really about music. I had originally assumed that K-ON would be a show about four girls forming a rock band and their experiences as musicians. However, that was not really the case. K-ON was really about moe girls doing moe things, with the music-related element only the backdrop to the story. Sure, there were music references and all at various points, but there was not really enough to create a genuine interest in the music element. Most fans of K-ON do not seem to have that much interest in the music element, and choose to love the show because of it’s moe girls. Yes, I know that they went on a frenzy to buy the instruments that the main characters use in the series and so on, but they only did so because their moe goddesses played them. K-ON, although failing in many aspects, was not all that bad of a show, it just wasn’t really what it probably should have been.
Initial D, on the other hand, is too much of an enthusiast show. It’s probably awesome for hardcore car fans, but it leaves outsiders in the dust. It doesn’t really leave anything else for non car-enthusiasts, with a fairly plain story, cast of characters and art style. The driving force of the series is the cars themselves, and when you don’t have much of an interest in them, you’re missing the point of the whole show. I mean, the characters would be going “OH MY GOD! HE’S USING THAT ENGINE?!”, or “NO WAY! THAT’S THE
I feel that Sora no Manimani is a very good example of a hobby-related anime, as I have almost no knowledge of astronomy at all, yet watching it makes me want to become involved in it. There are many astronomical references (Alpha Centauri, the summer triangle and all that) but it doesn’t hinder my viewing experience at all, while in the same time being able to please enthusiasts who understand said references. I, someone with no previous knowledge in astronomy, may have found a potential interest, and [ExecutiveOtaku] of THAT Animeblog rekindled his existing interest in the subject (final paragraph). In my mind, a good hobby show should:
Create an interest in the hobby with newcomers, and further an existing enthusiast’s interest.
With all that being said, I still haven’t seen many popular examples of the hobby anime genre, such as Saki, Kaiji, and many sporting anime like Touch or Hajime no Ippo. However, this is my judgement from most of what I’ve seen.
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