Part IV: Otaku War Journal: Tuesday Night Anime

Location Bravo, Somewhere in the Arabian Desert – This is my fourth installment of the Otaku War Journal. If you want to read the other posts, click here.

In the sands of the desert, my old school otaku social behaviors resurfaced again. (Is that an oxymoron “social otaku”?)

After talking to other people at the base, I discovered a small cluster of anime fans. I thought that it might be a good idea to set-up a series of weekly anime showings. The idea harkens back to old anime clubs which usually consists of one fan with a huge cache of anime organizing regular local screenings. In my case, I brought a sizable amount of anime with me to the war.

Before I could begin event planning, I needed to choose a name for my little endeavor. I originally wanted to call it “Friday Night Anime”. It was reference to an old 80s television show called “Friday Night Videos”, a program that showcased a two hour block of music videos on NBC.

I tried to schedule “Friday Night Anime” in the local projection tent. I found out that Friday nights were booked solid, and it was impossible to reserve. Tuesday Nights were the only open block of time. So, I had to change the name from “Friday Night Anime” to “Tuesday Night Anime”. Hence, the name…

Your results may vary. I never established any consistent number of people. It was difficult attracting a regular audience.

The full feature anime movies attracted the largest audiences (e.g. Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust (バンパイアハンターD), Tokyo Godfathers (東京ゴッドファーザーズ), and Fullmetal Alchemist the Movie: Conqueror of Shamballa (劇場版「鋼の錬金術師　シャンバラを征く者」)). Movies are easier for non-anime fans to watch. They don’t require any background knowledge or prior character development, and they are mostly standalone narratives.


The largest number of people showed up for my screening of Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (風の谷のナウシカ). Hayao Miyazaki (宮崎 駿) always seems to draw the biggest crowds. It was an English dub which also helped non-hardcore anime fans.

Any viewers that I gained from the Nausicaä screening were quickly lost when I showed Cromartie High School (魁!!クロマティ高校) the following week. Most of the audience walked out completely baffled. The worst received anime were: Cromartie High, Spirit of Wonder (スピリットオブワンダー), Mind Game (マインド・ゲーム), and Nerima Daikon Brothers (おろしたてミュージカル 練馬大根ブラザーズ).

I had a few regulars. They were mostly ardent anime fans prior to the war and familiar with some of the shows that I was screening. I met some people who you wouldn’t suspect of being an anime fan. Others were even more surprised that there was even an anime fan group in a warzone. After my tour was over, I even managed to pass on the Tuesday Anime Night event to two viewers to host.

In the end, I enjoyed hosting Tuesday Anime Night. It kept me occupied on my down time and gave me something to “look forward to” every week. Regardless of the daily stress of living in a warzone, I could always say to myself: “Tuesday Night Anime is only a few days away.”

Part III: Otaku War Journal: Hadji Versus Hajji

Location Bravo, Somewhere in the Arabian Desert – I was airdropped by military helicopter into my permanent station.

After a few days of getting settled into my tent, I started to scope out the camp. The place is laid out kind of haphazardly. I got lost a few times. I decided to survey the entire camp and draw a map on a piece of 6” X 10” note paper from my appointment book. The map really helped me navigate this bizarre desert camp.

At the end of my third week, I started to get comfortable at the camp. I explored the small stores around the area. There were many “hajji shops” or local Arab vendors. We call all the local Arab vendors and store keeps “hajji’s”. Therefore, their stores were called “hajji shops”. I guess it’s supposed to be a derogatory ethnic slur for the local Arabs like the term “gook” during the Vietnam War.

I originally thought “hajji” came from the Jonny Quest cartoon series. Jonny’s adopted Indian brother was named “Hadji”. Therefore, my otaku brain thought the ethnic slur originated from the cartoon. According to Wikipedia, hajji is, “an honorific title given to a Muslim person who has successfully completed the Hajj to Mecca.” I guess I was wrong…


Source: military.com
The hajji shops had all sorts of bootleg DVDs. They even had bootleg anime DVDs. I didn’t want to buy bootleg copies of Anime, so I just browsed their selection. They have all the popular titles like Full Metal Panic (フルメタル·パニック!), Blood Plus (ブラッドプラス), Yu-Gi-Oh (遊☆戯☆王), Dragon Ball Z (ドラゴンボール), Appleseed OVA (アップルシ－ド), and Gotham Knight (バットマン: ゴッサムナイト).

The local PX (Post Exchange) was pretty small. It was more like a gas station store. It had only the bare essentials, and its DVD selection was almost non-existent. On rare occasions, they stocked some Shonen Jump Magazine issues. Overall, it was pretty weak.

The internet here also sucked. In order to get a private connection on your laptop, the hajji stores would charge $85 per month for a weak ass Wi-Fi signal. It was so frustrating. The wireless router would drop the signal every five minutes. I would try to read some e-mails or download a podcast, and my connection would suddenly drop out. I had to suffer and wait until the signal would reconnect my laptop to the router. I had very little free time, and I would waste the most of it waiting for the wireless signal to connect. Damn, what a rip off.

I’m glad I brought two CD wallets filled with DVDs from my personal collection. It would have been a difficult deployment without any entertainment. I would be completely bored with the lack of a good DVD stores and a decent internet connection.

Related Links:

• In Iraq, Counterfeit Items Sold at Exchanges

Part II: Otaku War Journal: We Have Wormsign the Likes of Which Even God Has Never Seen.

Location Alpha, Somewhere in the Arabian Desert – I’ve finally reached the Arabian Desert. The summer temperatures here averaged over 130 degrees Fahrenheit during the day. I used to think Florida was friggin’ hot. They’ve got it easy.

On particularly hot days, I swear I could feel my boot starting to slowly melt and stick to the ground.

Oh… sunglasses are a must in this desert. Most of the indigenous people have cataracts and are partially blind because of heavy sun exposure. Yet, they still are allowed to drive cars into military check points.

One late afternoon, I was walking to my tent, and a really bad sandstorm blew through the camp. It was my first full force sandstorm. I’ve been through some harsh wind and sand, but this was different. The blast of sand was so thick that the evening twilight sun was blacked out. Everything suddenly went dark, and grains of sand pelted my whole body. I could only see the first few inches in front of me. I stumbled from tent to tent. My vision was worthless. I tried to remember how far my tent was from my position current position.


I was lucky enough to bump into my friend from the Public Affairs Office (PAO). We were staying in the same tent, and he was standing just outside of the entrance. The crazy bastard was trying to take photographs in the sandstorm. I told him that it was useless, but my warning was an epic failure. As I opened my mouth to yell at him, sand quickly began to fly into my mouth and fill it. I gave up and fought my way into the tent. I finally removed my sand covered sunglasses and found my body covered in sand from head to toe. Sand filled every crack and crevice in my clothing. I began a rapid fire barrage of spitting to get all the sand out of my mouth. I removed my clothes to shake off all the sand trapped in them. The PAO officer finally gave up his pursuit of a sandstorm picture and returned to the tent. I spent the rest of the night in the tent.


Regarding the Manga and Anime availability, it was pretty bad. The PX (Post Exchange) is even smaller than the one near Roswell. They had only two manga titles. One was Death Note (デスノート), and the other one was Vagabond (バガボンド). I couldn’t find much anime here. However, I did find a single issue of Otaku USA. The shrink wrap was already opened, and it looked like someone already flipped through it. I bought it anyway. Slim Pickens. Hey, beggars can’t be choosers.

Part I: Otaku War Journal: Did you find any Xilians today?

Somewhere Near ROSWELL – After much consideration, I’ve decided to blog about my military deployment abroad. However, I am only going to write about my experiences in relation to my geeky otaku lifestyle (see disclaimer at the end of post).

With the ground rules set, let’s begin…

Regarding the Manga and Anime availability, it was okay. The PX (Post Exchange) is the military’s version of Wal-mart. It’s a department store that sells all types of products for inexpensive prices. I perused the magazine and book section for any manga. The selection is small. They had several anime and manga related magazines like Anime Insider and Shonen Jump. The PX also carried some of the more popular manga titles like Death Note (デスノート), Naruto (ナルト), and Vagabond (バガボンド). The video section carried more interesting stuff like Serial Experiments Lain (シリアルエクスペリメンツレイン) and Gunslinger Girl (ガンスリンガー•ガール). I’ve seen most of that stuff already, and the other stuff didn’t interest me.

Although we did not train with them, the Japanese Ground Self-defense Force (JGSDF) lived down the road from me. You know the army that tries to repel Godzilla in every kaiju movie since the beginning of time. I always ran into them at the DFAC (military lingo for cafeteria), and I had the opportunity to meet some of them. They were really cool cats. I later realized that we were not too far from Area 51. I wanted to ask them if they were looking for the Xilians, but my Japanese is horrible. Damn it, I missed so many good opportunities because of my weak ass Japanese. By the way, how does one say, “Did you find any Xilians today?” in Japanese?


Source: www.defenseimagery.mil
For the Gov-Spooks: This blog is mostly about Asian pop culture. It does NOT contain anything regarding operations or intelligence. It does NOT have specific locations, units, names, or times. It does NOT have any sensitive photographs from any government installation. All posts are published well after the conclusion of their happening in order to mask actual dates and reduce the risk to operational security.