I was lurking about Walmart's magazine department today and ended up buying the latest copy of "NEWTYPE".
It was the usual, endless mantra of; cosplayers, cosplayers and more cosplayers...Check out these bizzare stuffed pandas.....prove you're a social life lacking nit-wit, give you're relatives Pocky for the next holiday...cosplayer...blah...blah..blah...ramen...blah..blah.blah...

Somewhere in this brain melting attack of bright colors, I noticed an itsy bitsy...tiny, little ad. Announcing that TokyoPop will start publishing translations of The Gothic and Lolita Bible. Okay, so that piece of news failed to send me rushing to the computer, eyes glazed, credit card in a one handed death grip. In fact I probably would have forgotten by now that the ad was there at all, if it wasn't for this description:
-watch out for interviews with well-dressed stars like J-pop idol Nana Kitade and singer Mana-

Dear lord..says my tiny recluse of a brain, am I really so out of the loop with the visual scene nowadays, that there are two fau-satin covered harbingers of doom, currently using that name? The answer of course is no, the people at NewType simply are, as they have always been: a bunch of Ill informed dip-shits.
This whole train of thought did get me contemplating something though. Namely, Mana and by proxy, Mana fans. They are a scary bunch, aren't they?

Of course I'm not referring to the everyday, know who he is, listened to some of his music, would probably ask for an autograph if they ran into him on the subway, kind of fan. I have no problem with that kind of fan. In fact, I know a couple of them and I'm rather fond of them.
No, I mean the gung-ho, get down on your spiderweb print nylon, covered knees and pray to your heathen god , because you want to have his mutant babies, kind of fans.

Why do they scare me? Its not for the reasons you probably think.
Oh sure, its bothers me a little when they start showing off pictures of their bedrooms, with the wall to wall, bubble jet print outs of that blue lipped Nancy. Yes, I'm a little weirded out when they get together and start comparing how many times, they've watched their Merveilles DVD that week.

But the thing that truly boggles my mind? They seem to actually think that Mana, always acts like...well like...Mana. Most fans aren't like that. You don't see the Dir en Grey fans, going around, insisting that Kyo sits around at night and scratches himself with safety pins, for kicks. But the Mana fangirls, do just that.
The rest of us are aware that theres this thing called a "stage persona" and at the end of the day, that guy goes home and just like any other testosterone possessing being, sits around in his sweat pants, drinking and scratching his crotch, in a very un-ladylike manner.

But just you try and tell a Mana fangirl that. No really, try it. Just have your rubbing alcohol ready, for the moment when they tackle you and gouge at your eyes, with their four inch, black nails.

Now I'd better go and hide. Just in case I've got anybody like that on my friends list, that I don't know about.