How rapid the development of LOVE LIVE! is in your location？

[Chocofreak13]

@capt, exa: i disagree, given the show seems to be described as half and half on some sites ("Music is integral part to almost every Macross title by having significances in a series' antagonists behavior towards it. Music idols also play a central role to various Macross stories. Often, the protagonist will be involved in a love triangle with a series' music idol; most notably, Lynn Minmay." - Wikipedia). given the mech nature and the age, i'm willing to bet that most people who remember the classic series are guys, who remember it for the robots. but the idols played a pretty big role too. (most of the material i've seen related to Macross has to do with the idols, actually. )

besides, as the first series to actually FEATURE an "idol".....

@sleepy: i figured it'd catch on more in cali, but do you think that has to do with a larger pool of anime being imported there, or a higher population of asian people? (why do i get the sinking feeling someone's going to call me racist for saying that)

[SleepyD]

@sleepy: i figured it'd catch on more in cali, but do you think that has to do with a larger pool of anime being imported there, or a higher population of asian people?

That's probably part of it, but when you say "import", you have to imagine not just importation of physical goods, but of information as well. (on a tangential note, lots of players of tanto cuore and weiss schwarz card games around here)  Many people I know have direct contacts with fans, creators, and expats in Japan (or are expats themselves).

As far as having more Asians here, that's probably a reasonable question to pose--it's more likely that an Asian person will have access to information and people that are more well-tuned to the goings-on of Japan than their western counterparts. These people then introduce stuff to friends and their friends and it spreads from there. When news of the Love Live English App broke, those who were already playing started spreading it to their other friends to get them into it, where the Japanese language barrier and app region locks were a big hindrance prior to it.

Still, everything above can be done with an internet connection and some language knowledge--that's not special to California.

What I think is an even bigger factor is the sheer numbers of fans here, regardless of their ethnicity. With such a high concentration of otaku-minded fans in the cities, it will pretty much ensure that you can easily find fans of nearly every niche anime/game/someotherotakuthing somewhere in this state. Consequences of that are there's enough people for Japanese and home-grown otaku-minded businesses to open locations here, enough for big impromptu meetups outside of a con/event, and even enough for decently sized cons of sub-interests of the otaku scene--Yaoicon was just this past weekend in the Bay Area, and Touhoucon will have its inaugural year this upcoming weekend in Anaheim.

I think things spread quickly with the internet, but it has more staying power if you can share these experiences, in meatspace, with your friends, whenever you like. You probably heard of Love Live at some point, but without other people you know who are into it, you'd probably just pass it over. I didn't get into it until a friend of mine told me to just install and try the game. And I knew enough people that liked LL that I could share my experiences with more than one person, so it was definitely worth a shot. Now I've watched the first season of LL and have put a fairly decent number of hours in the game. (I still suck at rhythm games though--I know so many people who just wreck the higher difficulties of these games so easily)

Also, I totally ship NicoMaki and NozoEri

[Chocofreak13]

that IS an excellent point; nerd fandoms tend to spread like wildfire due to word of mouth. everyone here's really into Attack on Titan (i'm not, but then, not many people here are into vintage stuff), and i think it mostly got that way because "____ is into it, i should get into it too!". it's kind of a juvenile mentality when i put it like that, but s'what seems to be the logic behind it (outside of the show having a decent concept and what looks to be nice animation. i've heard the character development sucks though, and the plot is lacking).