A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.
– Jesus, John 13:34-35
Last week, as I reflected on attending my first anime convention, I mentioned in an offhand comment that what I had been searching for was an inexpensive DVD set of Haibane Renmei. Currently licensed by FUNimation, but with no recent version released, the amazing series is very expensive. What happened next moved me in how simple, surprising, and kind the gesture was:
I have an extra set of Haibane Renmei gathering dust, which you are welcome to.
Don of Zoopraxiscope sent me an email offering his copy of Haibane Renmei. I received it yesterday and I literally slept with it nearby (dork). I’m so grateful to Don, whose kindness overwhelmed me.
What I’ve found through my year or two in the anime blogosphere is that so many bloggers out there are extraordinarily kind. Some have developed close friendships and, as such, really care for one another. Others are just plain good folk, caring for those they know little or not at all.
That made me think of those in the aniblogging community that have reached out to me and for whom I am grateful. There are literally dozens of individuals that have helped me along the way and someday (Thanksgiving 2012?) I may get my act together and thank them all. But for now, I’ll just mention a few.
In the early days of finding a voice for the blog, Lauren Orsini was so encouraging. She volunteered, out of the blue, to do infographics for my Anime and Religion Survey posts, which were the birthchild of the Aniblogger Testimony series (the first of which was written by Lauren). I’m thankful for all those who contributed to that series and poured their hearts out, sometimes with a little coaxing and more than once despite some trepidation.
I’m particularly grateful to R86, my cohort, who was the first person to consistently guest blog Beneath the Tangles. He’s a wonderful friend and because of him, I thought that, “Hey, maybe a writer or two out there would be interesting in being a co-blogger.” R86 joined up immediately, along with two other wonderful writers in Murasaki Lynna and Goldy.
Mefloraine, who gave up blogging last year (boo!), was kind enough to say “okay” when this strange dude asked to guest post on her blog. I feel indebted to all those who’ve allowed me to do so in the past, despite the controversial (at least in this community) theme of my site. I’m also grateful for Aorii and Marina (who also designed the lovely banner for me!), who’ve remained friendly to me despite my dropping the ball on doing blog posts together with them. -_-‘
2DT was an early encouragement and still is – plus, he literally help give a voice to my blog. Digibro won’t remember this (or me?), but he was the first person to comment on my blog. Netto commented frequently on the blog when no one else was.
And like I wrote, there are so many others.
Anime bloggers have built a strong community, not only because of shared interests, but because of heart. And like Christians should be – it’s this love that’s the defining characteristic of the wonderful people that make up the anime blogosphere.
>>Digibro won’t remember this (or me?), but he was the first person to comment on my blog.
You’re right I had no idea :O Glad to have the honor!
Honor’s all mine. 😀
Ahh, Haibane Renmei, that elusive set. I only have 2 of the 4 discs, ones that I managed to scrounge up from used movie stands, but still have yet to grab the last ones. Like you, I’m none too pleased with the pricing for those few ones out there.
This is a wonderful post, and I’m thankful you even included me in there 🙂 Of course I wouldn’t stop communicating with you after a dropped post! I bet there are even more exciting projects to share in the future.
Haibane Renmei is certainly a gem.
And of course, the mention is as much for the beautiful banners as your graciousness. 🙂
I was really lucky to pick up this series when I heard the company was going out of business, and ended up paying about $5 each for all of the disks. It’s something that I have not regretted once. I’m glad you’ve got the series now and can enjoy it to your heart’s content!
Thanks! With this winter’s shows turning out to be relatively low quality, it seems like a good time to revisit Haibane Renmei and watch these DVDs.
BTW when I bought Haibane Renmei years ago, I was inspired by it being cheap and easily findable at the time LOL. Though I recall that by the time I was trying to get the last disk I needed towards the end of 07, it was getting more difficult to find.
I’m amazed by how prices go up when these items become rare. I have a special edition of the first two Tenchi Muyo OVAs, for instance, that would go for several hundred dollars on ebay if it was in better condition. It wasn’t until recently that I’m seeing anime as a collector’s and seller’s hobby as well as entertainment.
I just purchased the Haibane Renmei OST and just the 18-track CD cost me $35 + $10 shipping on Amazon. As much as I love Haibane Renmei (10/10 no questions asked) I don’t think I’ll actually buy it because of its animation quality. Actually no, I probably would, but I just turned 18 and I’m yet to get my credit card.
The anime community is actually much nicer than most other internet communities I’ve run into, notably the gaming community and the forum community. I think Lauren wrote a series of posts earlier in 2010 about how otaku are the nicest people around. It’s true, they’ve been warm people and even when commenting against what you’ve written in a blog post, it’s always structured to critique your writing and not you. That’s a pretty big deal for me.
Amazing soundtrack…if I was a single guy, I think I wouldn’t think much of spending that kind of money on it.
And I agree with you – the anime/aniblogger community is kinder than others from what I’ve seen as well…perhaps. My focus was on the aniblogger community because I’ve seen plenty of mean-spirited people (sometimes admins) on some of the larger anime forums. Twitter, at least, seems to gather a loving group of otaku.
I find you to be a very loving person, Charles. And that’s the most interesting thing, how you always search for the right and the good in our little speck of the Internet. I appreciate that.
Keep doing what you do, basically. 😉 Cheers.
Thank you for the kind words. 🙂