Are there many fans in your proximity?

[Stanton21]

Hi everyone. Are there a lot of anime fans who live in your city or town? Do you ever get to interact with those who live in your immediate area?

I live in California and for the most part, there are quite a few of them who you can see hanging out on a college campus or at the mall (the most common stores are usually at a Borders or Suncoast). I don't really know much fans, aside from spotting them through their T-shirts or overhear their conversations. I mostly interact with people I've known for a while and are a bit casual in their liking of anime.

[smartyetstupud]

I really don't know. I mean... there's an anime club at the university I go to, but other than that, I don't know of any people...

[ShiroiHikari]

In my state? There are some fans, yeah. In my immediate area? If there are any besides the people I already know (a very small group), they're quite good at keeping themselves well-hidden. :\

[Tsukuyomi]

I think there's a few here and there, but not too many ^__^

[Purplefire]

I don't know of any fans in my area other than my sister, then again I'm usually the quiet type around people. I see people reading manga in my local bookstore, but I don't go and strike up a conversation.

[Shao Feng-Li]

None that I know of.

[animeantics]

No, not really. Everyone here is like "what's anime?!!" Gah, it's annoying.

[Elycien]

There are plenty in the area, I think, but in my school the number is quite small. There might be a few underclassmen who are anime fans and slipped under my radar, but I'm pretty sure that nearly all of the anime fans at my school are part of my circle of friends. XDDD

We used to have an anime club, which was basically just an excuse to hang out, but it kinda dissolved last year when most of us were in the school play and this year our attempts to restart it have failed. ^^; Oh well. It was fun while it lasted, and I discovered some great stuff through that.

It's actually really awesome how many different kinds of anime fans are represented in such a small number of people ^^ There's every sort from the fangirl to the shonen enthusiast (who's female xD) to the serious fan who watches the latest fansubbed series as they come out and is keeping up on at least a dozen anime at once (and you'd never peg him as an otaku just talking to him). Between all of them, I rarely have to buy manga or anime these days... lending is win. =D

[mechana2015]

So. Cal, usually less than an hours drive from AX. TONS of anime fans.

[Whitefang]

The only friend I had who would watch anime with me graduated last semester and got a job far away.

My brother enjoys anime, though, so that's cool.

[animeantics]

I don't know of any fans in my area other than my sister, then again I'm usually the quiet type around people. I see people reading manga in my local bookstore, but I don't go and strike up a conversation.

Yeah, I see people at the bookstore buying manga, but I never go up and say "Hey, you like manga? What kind?" It's never happened to me, either.

[Roy Mustang]

Georgia is full of them, but most are from the Atlanta area.

Which is why AWA con is the biggest con in the southeast.

[font="Book Antiqua"][color="Red"]Col. Roy Mustang[/color][/font]

[RidleyofZebes]

I know a few. Most of them are close friends. There's like, a handful that I've met recently.

Although, I'm STILL the only one who's hardcore enough to know about Haruhi. XD

Edit: Reminds me, we went to a renaissance faire recently and there were anime cosplayers there in addition to the period dressers. One of the more notable ones was a Black Mage. XD A red mage came with him the year before, but used a different costume this year.

[ADXC]

I mean I have been to Animazement(Our state convetion) and there'd be over 5000 people there, but I don't really know any people besides myself and a few select people that really know what anime is. It's quite depressing.

[GeneD]

A good number of my close friends and my brother and sister like anime, most of whom I converted. My cousins also like anime. Other than that I don't know many fans in my area, but our local annual anime convention is growing each year, which is awesome.

[That Dude]

Where I used to live there were quite a lot of anime fans...But since I've moved from Colorado to a bible camp in the middle of Nebraska, well there just aren't that many fans around.

[oro!]

Georgia is full of them, but most are from the Atlanta area.

Which is why AWA con is the biggest con in the southeast.

[font="Book Antiqua"][color="Red"]Col. Roy Mustang[/color][/font]

This is very true. Of course, I have phases of liking anime, so I don't normally hang out with other anime fans unless I knew them from somewhere else. We do have a large club here, but I have deigned to go for one reason or another.

[Stanton21]

Yeah, I see people at the bookstore buying manga, but I never go up and say "Hey, you like manga? What kind?" It's never happened to me, either.

So many middle school and high school students in my area love to hang out at the Borders just to read manga. It is a little annoying sometimes that they would usually sit and read in the aisles, but I guess it takes some getting used to. At least I know that I'm not the only person in the area who likes manga.

[Purplefire]

Yeah, I see people at the bookstore buying manga, but I never go up and say "Hey, you like manga? What kind?" It's never happened to me, either.

I've had others come up to me and start asking, "Hey, I saw you in the manga section. Do you read or watch Naruto? Or Bleach? Or (insert title here)?" It's a little unnerving, but I talk for a little bit about the various series I have or have not read. Still, on the flip side, it's nice to know there are others in the area who like manga and anime.

[Fish and Chips]

Yeah, I see people at the bookstore buying manga, but I never go up and say "Hey, you like manga? What kind?" It's never happened to me, either.

I only ever did this once, and it was at a bookstore outside a convention, so the Manga section was packed. Only time in my entire life I've been so conversational with strangers.

There are a couple Anime fans on my campus and back in my hometown.

[ChristianKitsune]

lol not really, and the few that are are kind of annoying but then again I'm probably just as annoying XD.

[ADXC]

Now wait, I just remembered of a freak chance occurence. It was at Best Buy and I was just looking through the anime selection when I picked up a DN dvd and a guy came up and asked me about it. Now here's where it's weird, we talk about anime for like 10 minutes and have never met each other in our entire lives. It was just like we were old friends.

It's amazing how anime brings total strangers together.

[Sanderson]

I live in SoCal, around 15 minutes away from Disney Land. There's alot of anime fans around. Just about everyone in my posse likes anime / watched some anime and enjoyed it. When I was in school, I overheard people talking about anime, saw people with DBZ silk shirts on, etc. I rarely go to book stores, but when I do there's always a good group of people at the manga section.

[TriezGamer]

I know quite a few in my area. Unfortunately, the only female ones are married.

[ashfire]

Living around Wash DC there are many fans. As for clubs I can only think of one big club that is active.
I had been a member of a club connected with a community college in Southern, Maryland before it folded because there were not any new students joining to keep it going. Someone told me there is another club there now but it has to have students that attend the college and they meet during the week where our club met on Sundays in the afternoon until the evenings.
I have contacts with two of the old club members who attend cons with me.
I have run into a couple others from the old club. One at a con and the other who buys his manga and comics from the same comic book shop.
Acourse any stores in this area has a anime or manga section if there are people who want them and one hotel nearby always host a anime con twice a year.
I attend one of them if I have the time and I attend Otakon and Neko Con.
I work Attendee Management Service at Neko Con and one of the old club members rides with me to the con and also works as a volunteer staff member during the con. That way we both attend the staff dinner that follows the end of the con.

[minakichan]

I'm in Boston, so we have AnimeBoston and some college clubs around here. My school's club actually used to be the most active (we have the largest private collection of anime in the United States, supposedly), but its numbers have dwindled.

Unfortunately, the dwindling student membership means that currently our student/non-student levels are about equal... which could be OK, since a lot of our non-student members are awesome, but we have... quite a few old and REALLY socially awkward attendees that literally end up scaring away potential students. Which sucks because like, everyone and their mom on campus at least knows of anime, and half of these people watch it in their dark rooms while pretending to pset.

[KhakiBlueSocks]

[font="Trebuchet MS"][SIZE="4"][color="RoyalBlue"]In Louisiana as a whole, I know there are a few good anime fans out there, but in the capital city, Baton Rouge, we're pretty few and far between. I do believe I'm the lone member of the Louisiana branch of the Risembool Rangers and the Miniskirt Army...[/color][/SIZE][/font]

[animechica]

I live in a small town near Chicago, IL. Most of the anime fans I know are either friends to whom I introduced anime, or people I'm vaguely aware of who mainly watch the more popular, dubbed shows. Most of them aren't Christian, so it's difficult making friendships based on fandom, and I don't really watch many popular shows anyway, haha.

That said, a couple of my guy friends at church like anime, and my boyfriend (of course :b).

Kinda depressing, I feel like there's people around here who I need to be meeting. I think I might just camp out in Barnes and Noble one day and get random peoples' contact info when they walk into the manga section, haha.

[Song_of_Storms]

As a whole state, I would suppose yes. I mean, the Mobicon does advertise as for Otaku also.

I'm only aware of about three casual anime watchers in my entire school, and they only watch what they can get on Cartoon Network. >.> So basically, I'm all alone. ;~;

[the_wolfs_howl]

I don't know of any fans in particular in the Kansas City area, where I am right now. But I've seen people hanging out in the manga section of bookstores, talking about Naruto or Fruits Basket or something. And I recently discovered that there's an anime club that meets monthly at the public library. I haven't been able to go yet, but I'm hoping to find some time to do so.