June 2008 Fangirl of the Month: Veronica Hoffman

Profile by Teresa Jusino

I met Veronica Hoffman about three years ago…but I use the term “met” loosely.  You see, I’ve never met her in person.  Let it never be said that geeks are anti-social!  I’ve met several people I consider friends online, and I met Vee through another friend on the wondrous (and yes, still operational despite questions to the contrary!) LiveJournal.  What struck me most about her, in addition to her intelligence and writing skill, is the sheer breadth of her geeky knowledge.  Like Jessica Pepper from last month, I chose Vee as this month’s Fangirl of the Month based on her breadth of geeky knowledge!  From anime to J-Pop to RPGs like D&D or MMORPGs like World of Warcraft to slash about….Band of Brothers (???), Vee can wax poetic about any number of geeky pursuits, though I had to limit the number for the purposes of this interview!  Without further ado, here’s Vee!

Photo by Maboroshi of www.risingsun.net

Teresa Jusino: First of all, just to get the “boring” stuff out of the way, what do you do when you’re not geeking out?    Tell us a little about yourself!

Veronica Hoffman: Amazingly, people seem to have this misconception that I lead a storied and interesting life. This is an outright lie. Between work (at a concept store for a very large chain of booksellers which may or may not rhyme with “Horders”), sleep, and shopping, I can usually be found geeking out. If you’d call keeping up with all your friends geeking out, which in my case I’m sure you can. You see, all my friends have moved out of the town where we grew up together, and other friends are those I’ve made online. Without my internet connection I probably wouldn’t have a social life, which is both depressing and sort of inspiring. I’m riding the wave of the future, or at least I like to think so. I do love movies, books, and music – it’s sort of what I do for a living, after all. Of course, up until now I’ve forgotten to mention my favorite hobby, which is dancing. I self-taught myself ballet for well nigh ten years and, thanks to fandom (the J-Pop one, specifically), I’m actually going full-force back into my old love affair with dance.  

TJ: What do you geek out about?  What are your favorite genres, fandoms, etc?

VH: Most days I can be found geeking out to any of the following: Prince of Tennis (a ridiculous little sports manga/anime that is neither ridiculous nor little when you get past the seemingly boring premise. To paraphrase several friends I’ve sucked in: after you get past episode ten, it suddenly becomes the greatest thing ever and you can’t even explain why), Hello!Project (a Japanese pop idol group likened to Menudo, in that its members have “cycled out” since 1999. At its largest, the group had 15 girls. At its smallest, 5. Right now there are 9 girls and I’ve learned to love them all in their own way, which means the line-up will change any moment), Ayumi Hamasaki (more about her later), or Band of Brothers (I don’t even know how to explain this one so I won’t even try).

TJ: Explain to me why I should care about Ayumi Hamasaki.

VH: I’m really glad you asked this question. More people should care. Ayumi started making music in 1999, as just another part of the Japanese Pop Idol machine, but by the time she was a superstar in 2001, she was writing and composing her own music. Now 29 and deaf in one ear, Ayumi is no doubt one of the most multi-faceted, spectacular, and endearing pop artists out there. A good number of her songs border on epic, and her ear for pop composition is flawless. The interactions with her band, singers, and dancers (which has remained largely the same since 2001) make me wish I could have an extended family like that. Ayumi isn’t just the over-exposed media juggernaut many people think she is. Comparisons have been made to Madonna, who is one of Ayumi’s primary idols. I can’t help but agree. The shifts she makes in looks, musical style, and personal style are hypnotically Madonna-esque, but she is definitely an artist unto her own. Despite some atrocious costume choices that can only be attributed to Japanese style concepts, she is also fiercely fashionable. I view her as a role model in artistry, feminine strength, and ambition. Quite simply, I’ve never had a female artist speak to me the way she has, and it’s not even been in my own language!

TJ: So, I know next to nothing about J-Pop (except what I’ve read on your blog)…where should I go to find out more about it?  What should I be listening to, as a first-timer?

VH: Ohh, ohh, I know this one! Your first stop should be International Wota, which was founded last year by my friend and colleague Ray Mescallado. He endeavored to have a portal for all the J-Pop blogs out there. By just browsing around, I think you’ll get a good handle on what sort of groups you might like – several blogs tend to share music, since it’s difficult to obtain J-Pop without insane import prices attached. I’d recommend YesAsia for an ordering service, though. Unfortunately, there aren’t any “start guides” for J-Pop that I know of, but the folks on IntlWota are rife with Top Ten Lists and the like. Here, I’ll make one for you! 

The Top Ten J-Pop Artists That A First-Timer Should Listen To:

1. Garnet Crow (for pop/rock fans – an all-around unbeatable group)

2. Shena Ringo (for experimental pop/rock fans – she’s the Mad Scientist of J-Music)

3. Morning Musume (for pop fans – any generation of MM will do…)

4. Ayumi Hamasaki (for pop/singer-songwriter fans – start with her ‘I am…’ album)

5. Koda Kumi (for R&B/pop fans – but avoid her ballads)

6. w-inds. (for R&B/rap fans – these guys can dance, too!)

7. Namie Amuro (for R&B fans – Namie is the Queen of Hip-Pop)

8. Bump of Chicken (for folk rock/singer-songwriter fans – Bump of Chicken brings me to tears sometimes)

9. Buono! (for pop fans – a fairly new trio that is already rocking my world)

10. Date Kouji (for rock fans – he’s sort of like a tiny little Japanese Bruce Springsteen and I absolutely love the little snuggle-muffin).

TJ: Now, you’re kind of a Goddess of Slash on the internet.    Explain your fascination with writing about guy-on-guy action.  Why do you think slash is so popular, as opposed to just regular old fan fiction?      

VH: I’ve always wanted to be a goddess! Do I get a harem? Where are my human sacrifices? Hm…oh, yeah, you were talking about slash. I’ve been over this bridge so many times, but by now I have a pretty fair grasp on what to say. A lot of it starts off as fantasy-projection, sure (even Madonna once said that there is nothing more erotic than watching two men kiss!), and it’s a very common fantasy. But you asking this question is like asking anyone “why do people like chocolate ice cream?” There are the aestheticists, who really enjoy the romanticizing of men, and this is usually where you’ll find the androgynous approach to slash. Then there are those of us who are just slightly pervy writers who like to explore the possibilities of homosexual relationships, and also writing in our male voices, while also throwing in something that is very titillating to us as sexual beings. It goes beyond sexual identity, though – there is nothing that seems to link any particular type of person to slash, whether it be female, male, young, old, homosexual, heterosexual, bisexual, non-sexual…and that’s how I’ve known the slash culture to be for the just over ten years I’ve been a part of it. The simple truth is that it’s a “hip” thing now (I was appalled at how many yaoi – that’s slashy manga – titles are for sale at my bookstore! These darn kids have it so easy!), and lots of people want to get in on the “fads”. It’s an interesting paradigm shift, though. Hopefully soon we’ll see legitimate homosexual relationships in more mainstream genres now that there’s a “market” (eww). However, that’s a double-edged sword. 99% of the fun in slash is the “what if?” factor, and when something becomes “canon” it instantly loses a lot of its original flavor. Most of what fandom draws its lust for “pairings” or “shipping” from is the abundance of subtext in genre, especially anime/manga. The relationships between male characters, the way they’re written…it tends to border on romantic, sometimes. And, well, as slashers, we go with that. 

TJ: What are your convention favorites?  Favorite con?  Favorite character to cosplay?  Favorite convention story?

VH: My favorite convention by far is Anime South, which premiered in 2005 and threatened to close down forever after 2007 due to lack of funds. But it’s back for 2009, and I’m so happy. I’ve met tons of great people through Anime South, and I would recommend that anyone come down to Destin, Florida in January for the coolest, geekiest weekend at the beach you’ll ever have. 

As for my favorite character to cosplay, it has to be Atobe Keigo from Prince of Tennis. I haven’t actually “publicly” debuted my Atobe iterations (I have four at the moment, but I’m shooting for more…for instance, his ridiculous frilly purple pajamas are tempting…), but I act enough like him already that he’s won a very special place in my heart – enough to make multiple costumes, apparently! 

Convention story? You want a convention story? All right! This is probably tame compared to a lot of what I could be talking about, but I want to keep it PG-13 at least. At Anime South 2007, I was psyched that Yaya Han of www.angelicstar.net would be not only visiting, but judging the cosplay contest. I’d spent months hand-sewing and crafting (down to the littlest details!) an Ayumi Hamasaki cosplay, and Yaya Han was the most amazing Ayumi Hamasaki cosplayer I’d seen online (one of the ONLY I’d seen online, to be honest). Understandably, I was excited and also nervous as Hell. Well, in the Dealer’s Room I saw a beautiful, petite lady dressed as Mima from Perfect Blue, and I went over to talk to her. I took some pictures, we chatted, complimented each others’ costumes, and I had to cut it short because she had a panel to go host. It was a make-up panel, she said. She asked if my hetero-lifemate Ashkta and I would come and “ask lots of questions so the panel wasn’t a disaster”. I said yes, if she would come to my J-Pop panel later that night and do the same. We laughed, and I went off to drop some swag off in my room before attending the panel. As we walked to the room, Ashkta mentioned that she hadn’t imagined Yaya was so short. I sort of stopped in my tracks and blanched. “You didn’t know that was Yaya, did you?” she chuckled. “NO!” I responded, the blanched look being replaced by a full-body blush. Seriously, though, she’s really short. She strikes an Amazonian presence in her photos. It never clicked. Now I feel like a complete idiot. But it makes for fun anecdote time.

TJ:  If you had to choose one character from any of your fandoms as your favorite, who would it be and why? 

VH: I’d have to say it’s Atobe Keigo from Prince of Tennis. When you first meet him in the series, he comes off as this rich, entitled, better-than-thou bastard. And…that really never changes. But as the story progresses, he shows himself as a fallible creature, and even an honorable one. The lengths he goes to for his friends are inspiring, even though the jerk never admits he’s being nice just to be nice. It seems like he has everything handed to him on a gilded platter, Atobe does, but when you see him working his perfect ass off to become a more skilled player – both for himself and for his team – you really can’t help but sort of love him. Oodles of loyalty and ambition hidden by an Annoying Monster Ego That Ate Tokyo? Yeah, it’s been said that we resemble one another (only I’m not rich or attractive). The fact that I consider it a great compliment probably says more about me than anything else I’ve mentioned here. 

I would have answered Kenzo Tenma, from the unimaginably perfect anime/manga Monster, but that would’ve taken a few reams of e-paper.

TJ: So…you’re locked in a room with Robert Downey Jr.  What character is he, how did you get there, and what do you (or any male character you like) do to him?

VH: Without a doubt, he’s Harry Lockhart (from Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, one of the most underrated comedies of the last decade). Most likely, we’re hiding from the angry mob of thugs or mobsters or murder-accompli he attracted by being, as D&D geeks like me would put it, “a perfect chaotic neutral”.  First we’d have an angry volley of whispers, then we’d try to calm down and think rationally, then we’d realize we are both neither calm nor rational. Then it’s back to the angry whispers, which would culminate in a mutual tearing-off of clothes and…well, you can sort of imagine it from there, can’t you? Since this is a fantasy, I also happen to look and act and sound just like Gay Perry (Val Kilmer’s character, so you know). 

TJ: Anything you’ve got online that you want to brag about?  Where should we look for you on the intarwebz?

VH: I’m unduly proud of the work I’ve done for Pink Wota, where I rant and rave and snark about J-Pop by and large. I’ve also carved a little niche over at my writing journal, PinkBlot (can you see a trend, here?), with what I affectionately refer to as “my gay serial killer A/U”. It’s called Empire City and it’s an extremely NC-17 reimagining of Prince of Tennis, even though the link is tenuous by now. I’m about to finish the whole thing up and I’m quite pumped to start the sequel.

Last month’s FOTM, Jessica Pepper, will be receiving a copy of Volumes 1 & 2 of Blood, the manga adaptation of the successful anime courtesy of Dark Horse Comics!  

**DO YOU, OR ANYONE YOU KNOW, QUALIFY AS A “CAREER GEEK”, OR TAKE FANGIRLING TO A WHOLE NEW LEVEL? IF SO, WRITE TO ME AT teresajusino@pinkraygun.com.  PLEASE INCLUDE THE NAME OF THE NOMINATED GEEK, CONTACT INFO, YOUR/THEIR FANDOMS, AND WHY YOU/THEY SHOULD BE OUR “FANGIRL OF THE MONTH” IN 100 WORDS OR LESS.  IF YOU’RE GEEKY ENOUGH, YOU’LL BE SPOTLIGHTED IN OUR MONTHLY COLUMN!**

TERESA JUSINO was born on the same day that Skylab fell. Coincidence? She doesn’t think so.  As a writer, her work has appeared in Elmont Life newspaper, and on the sadly defunct website, CentralBooking.com. She is currently at work on a collection of short stories. As a geek, Teresa loves Star Trek, Lost, comics, and anything Joss Whedon ever touched. Also, she has a fangirl *squee-ing* crush on Brian K. Vaughan, which is now being rivaled by her burgeoning crush on Robert Downey Jr. in his Iron Man suit.

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