#personal fandom records

The funny thing about me enjoying Kpop Demon Hunters is that it feels like not too long ago, I was lamenting how maybe all my past favorite Shonen subgenres just weren't for me anymore.

"Demon hunters" is one of my favorite subgenres. From Mamono Hunter Yoko, to Buffy The Vampire Slayer, to Inuyasha, to Devil May Cry, to Claymore, to (some extent) Bleach, to (kind of) Yu Yu Hakusho, to Ushio & Tora, and numerous yokai/exorcist manga that never got anime adaptations---I've always loved the "demon hunter" subgenre. It often mashes together folklore/myth and urban fantasy. And that means a mash of magic with scifi. And then there's so much action... What's not to like?

But then in the past decade, I've felt like I fell out of love, not just with the "demon hunting" subgenre, but with the Shonen genre in general. I mean, I still liked them, but nothing new from those sub/genres seemed to get me excited. Demon Slayer Kimetsu no Yaiba turned out to be a slog for me. Dandadan equally had its perks but also turn-offs. I really thought Jujutsu Kaisen would be my new obsession, but characters got annoying after the first 3. After all the hype around Chainsaw Man, I just ended up not enjoying episode 1 enough to continue, and enjoying less, the things i heard from future plot points. I eventually dropped all those series. I hadn't stayed interested in anything from Shonen Jump in like a decade. I thought that maybe the Shonen genre, including the "demon hunter" subgenre's time for me had passed. And I was kind of sad about it.

But then I got into Wind Breaker, and that made me realize that maybe I was still interested in the Shonen genre, but maybe I was tired of Shonen Jump's/Shueisha's flavor of the Shonen genre. After all, I still also loved the Ranma 1/2 remake, a Shonen by Shogakukan. Maybe my fallacy was treating Shonen Jump as the representative of all/best for the Shonen genre.

And I feel the same thing happened again with Kpop Demon Hunters. It really reminded me how much I love action---and demon hunting, mixing magic and folklore/myth, and those "urban fantasy" elements. It reminded me how much I love action with swords and old-styled melee weapons. Sure, I had been into Wind Breaker recently, and I've always loved the martial arts genre, but those are predominantly open-handed, weaponless fight scenes. I guess I really missed swords and ancient weapons. (Back when I first started hanging my arrows on my wall, along with my swords, I remember my dad passing by and just noting how much I love ancient weaponry. lol I guess I do, without realizing it. lol) It's nice to watch fight scenes with magic melee weapons again.

Though I find a lot of these points valid, it's kind of ironic, because I enjoy the superhero movies that are repeatedly cited in this video essay as examples of bad movies (too reliant on "bathos", as per the premise of this video essay). Thor Ragnarok, Thor Love & Thunder, Guardians of the Galaxy movies, James Gunn's Superman, James Gunn's The Suicide Squad,…and I've only heard good things about James Gunn's Peacemaker series.

I wonder if this is related to the stage of media I grew up during. I was a Buffy The Vampire Slayer fan, at the time when its creator's sense of humor felt fresh and new. It was subversive in a way we were ready for at the time. I watched Coppola's Dracula and loved it. It released 5 years before the Buffy series. I didn't grow up on "Monster Squad" and I didn't get attached to Scooby Doo. I watched Dark Shadows (1991) and Forever Knight. But I also watched X-Files, Sam Rami's Hercules, Xena Warrior Princess, etc. We were not lacking in sincerity back then. So when the villains in Buffy The Vampire Slayer would break their own "aura farming" (as the kids say), to make a joke, it was genuinely funny. Maybe that's why I still find the MCU's bathos humor funny.

I loved when Thor threw that ball at the window and it bounced right back at his head. I loved when The Master switched from his speech about the signs and earthquakes pointing to the fulfillment of a prophecy that would grant him power, to asking someone's opinion on the magnitude of the earthquake.

I still like sincerity, sure. Sincere, earnest characters are one of my favorite archetypes. I love anime, manga, and all the sincerity that this video essay speaks about. But the current generation talks like they are desperate for it. Like they are oversaturated and done with anything less. But I guess they did grow up with the MCU, with Snyder's Superman movies, with so many movies trying to emulate the MCU, etc. For them, that was half their lives. For me, far less. I grew up with an endless stock of sincere media. I had room for both bathos and pathos. Maybe because I was already well stocked on exposure to pathos, I had room for bathos. I guess the kids have every right to act starved and hungry for pathos these days. Because they are.

Well, there are like 20-30 anime every season, and 4 seasons EVERY SINGLE YEAR. Plus manga. And light novels. And manhwa. And Web Toons. And Chinese comics. Is it really a loss to just drop American (superhero) movies?

That sounds like a convenient cut to a backlog to me. Especially in a world where everyone has a backlog in MULTIPLE MEDIUMS: movies, series, comics (from any country), podcasts, YouTube channels, Twitch streamers, books, videogames, etc.

She has little flowers in her hair! <3 She's like a blue version of the 15th anniversary Miku! <3 She has purples and lavenders, with blues and periwinkles! <3 She has that nice gradient shift in her hair colors! <3 And I do love blueberries. <3

I REALLY HOPE SHE WINS.

She would be the first Snow Miku I'd want to buy, since 2014. o.O