Haha I kind of get what you mean, but then again all people can be surprising XD Like last year for exams we had to put our phones in a box and (even though I hardly have my phone with me) I had it in my pocket and turned it in. When I went to pick it up, my teacher saw all my phone charms (now they broke off ;^;) and happened to ask if I knew Ichigo. It took me way longer than it should have to connect Ichigo with Bleach, but it was still a bit shocking to find out my teacher (mid 30s I think?) was into anime. But still, people are people, and she was a very good teacher ^.^
Master of Lists (Senior Otaku) | Posted 12/15/12 | Reply
@thencp
I was asking because my older sister is also a teacher and has a large variety of anime wallpaper on her laptop and I know Elfen Lied is definitely one of them
No, I'm not from the UK. I'm Southeast Asian! :D And it was quite a surprise for me because I always thought that teachers won't have the care for anime. Proven wrong. Haha~
- One time, I saw a notebook being sold in a store with a cover portraying a character that looks very much like Conan Edogawa. What's odd here is that it's supposed to be part of a batch of notebooks featuring a particular character, with most of which looking like original characters. I still don't get why they decided to feature Conan though as the only anime character in the batch.
- One brand of chips here in one store features an anime character portraying a young man with a white kimono, a sword, and short brown/black hair. The character reminded me of Kyoshiro from Samurai Deeper Kyo, since they looked a lot like each other.
- Various jeepneys (a type of public transportation vehicle) here in the Philippines feature anime characters in their designs. One jeepney that caught my attention because of its creativity featured a silhouette of the four primary male characters of Gundam Wing.
- A cafe sign in a hidden part of the city utilized the chibi look of Ginji in GetBackers.
- There was also a bakeshop that opened in the past which bore the name "Yakitati Bakeshop". It makes me wonder if that bakeshop got its name from Yakitate! Japan.
- In the past, I remembered seeing a bus with a back window that had an image of what looked like Kaitou Kid from Detective Conan. That was shocking since that was before Kaitou Kid even became popular in my place and before it had its own anime series. It was a shame, though, that I wasn't able to take a picture of it.
Ah, okay. Unexpected, but does make sense. I mean, if your teacher was a man in his 80s, I think I might've been super surprised O_o Not that 80-year-old men can't watch anime... it's just maybe perceived as a bit unusual... then again, I don't usually keep current with viewership demographics.
I must also give a shout-out to whoever goes to MCCC and sports a bumper sticker saying "Mustang/Hawkeye 2012" on the back of their car. Pulling out of the parking lot, it took me by surprise and I had to laugh.
Perfect example: This semester, my choir teacher Mr. Kosciesza was going down the attendance list and came across this kid's name, Ed. Mr. K says his name and then he goes, "Ed is Ed." and asked if anyone got the reference. Of course, this was a Cowboy Bebop reference but I didn't think immediately of it. He says, "Cowboy Bebop anyone?" and three-quarters of the class goes, "OH!" Being it's my favorite anime, I was like Man, this class is awesome.
Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica appears randomly in a random chinese newspaper. My friends say they did that to encourage otakus to read chinese newspaper
Anyway it's just epic cause the newspaper is given by the school for our chinese lesson and the first thing we saw in it is a Akemi Homura. (-w-)
Lombax of Earth (Otaku Eternal) | Posted 12/12/12 | Reply
Oh yeah, just remembered one: I work at my church, and we were taking in donations for a used book event, and someone had donated a Kingdom Hearts manga. Not really anime, but I was surprised to see it all the same.
Thanks for reminding me about it, Darkarax :D
Last edited by CelestialSushi at 11:06:25 AM EST on December 12, 2012.
Resident Dark Lord (Otaku Eternal) | Posted 12/12/12 | Reply
This might not be the most surprising anime encounter, but one time back in school they gave out those book order things. And one of the books in their selection was the very first volume of the Yu-Gi-Oh! manga. That's how I got volume one.
Pickle of the Year (Otaku Eternal) | Posted 12/12/12 | Reply
Pleiades's comment reminded me of the Absolut Vodka commercial that featured a clip from Akira. That probably wasn't my most out-of-place anime sighting, but it's the only one I can recall right now. ^^;
The Hero of Time (Otaku Eternal) | Posted 12/12/12 | Reply
Burger King giving out Yu Yu Hakusho toys with their kids meals...
I requested a few characters in specific, like Hiei and they're like...so that's how you pronounce it XD
very cute/cool/random.
Something that might happen in a dream
Last edited by wallpaperotaku at 1:53:57 AM EST on December 12, 2012.
I remember watching MuchMusic, the Canadian equivalent to MTV, some time ago and caught a video by Squarepusher. While it was playing I thought to myself, "that video that she's watching...is that...Akira?" You can't see it but only hear it, yet if you've watched the original subbed version many times, you should recognize the dialoge and scene!
A grocery store had CardCaptor Sakura staffs in the toy aisle. They were green and stuff, not pink, but the picture on the package was Sakura. The temptation to buy one was awful.
I remember seeing One Piece air fresheners inside a Pep Boys. Also a LOOONG time ago, I found a Yu Yu Hakusho figure (Kurama) inside a Kmart. Totally bought it too haha That's not exactly a "random" place, but it was odd at the time.
My class was watching a video in Introduction to Criminal Justice when I was completely shocked to see 45 seconds of DBZ and Yu-Gi-Oh! in the commercials before the video started. I completely geeked out and yelled DBZ!!! XD
Master of Lists (Senior Otaku) | Posted 12/11/12 | Reply
I usually create surprise anime encounters by playing Anime music full power on the way to work in the car. At the moment it's the Fairy Tail soundtrack with a couple of obscure themes from Gokudo, Rune Soldier & Angelic Layer
I'm taking a class on the history of Tokyo. One day, my teacher plays Akira. That isn't the surprising part. After class, I overhear these two guys, who are the textbook definition of preppy jocks, talking about watching Deathnote. Maybe you would have to meet them, but it surprised me.
When my friends and I were on the freeway coming back from AX. The car in front of us had the window sprayed "Honk if you're going to AX!" I thought that was pretty cool and funny. It's the first time I ever seen something like that.
Lombax of Earth (Otaku Eternal) | Posted 12/11/12 | Reply
What drives me crazy is when you get those random advertisements that feature anime characters... I saw one recently that had some of the chibi pictures from the Azumanga Daioh manga... and Tomo was featured on it twice (they probably thought she was two different characters because her hair was two different lengths). What irks me is that it doesn't seem likely they got permission to use those images (granted, I'm just assuming here...) >_<
Okay, it wasn't a completely unexpected place, but I didn't expect to see such a blatant use of intellectual property.
I know there have been other places I've seen them but I can't exactly think of them at the moment. But I know I've been surprised by anime in weird places before!
Last edited by CelestialSushi at 1:46:44 PM EST on December 11, 2012.
littlepooch
Patchwork Rabbit (Otaku Eternal) | Posted 12/15/12 | Reply
@thencp:
Haha I kind of get what you mean, but then again all people can be surprising XD Like last year for exams we had to put our phones in a box and (even though I hardly have my phone with me) I had it in my pocket and turned it in. When I went to pick it up, my teacher saw all my phone charms (now they broke off ;^;) and happened to ask if I knew Ichigo. It took me way longer than it should have to connect Ichigo with Bleach, but it was still a bit shocking to find out my teacher (mid 30s I think?) was into anime. But still, people are people, and she was a very good teacher ^.^
Dranzerstorm
Master of Lists (Senior Otaku) | Posted 12/15/12 | Reply
@thencp
I was asking because my older sister is also a teacher and has a large variety of anime wallpaper on her laptop and I know Elfen Lied is definitely one of them
thencp
Otakuite | Posted 12/15/12 | Reply
@Dranzerstorm:
No, I'm not from the UK. I'm Southeast Asian! :D And it was quite a surprise for me because I always thought that teachers won't have the care for anime. Proven wrong. Haha~
Dranzerstorm
Master of Lists (Senior Otaku) | Posted 12/14/12 | Reply
@thencp
Wait a minute. Elfen Lied wallpaper, in her 20s. Nah couldn't be unless you're from the UK.
nimbusoak
Senior Otaku | Posted 12/14/12 | Reply
I'm not sure this counts, but I learned a few months ago that my grandmother is quite a big anime fan.
The Mask
Detective Mask (Otaku Eternal) | Posted 12/14/12 | Reply
Well, there's a lot of them:
- One time, I saw a notebook being sold in a store with a cover portraying a character that looks very much like Conan Edogawa. What's odd here is that it's supposed to be part of a batch of notebooks featuring a particular character, with most of which looking like original characters. I still don't get why they decided to feature Conan though as the only anime character in the batch.
- One brand of chips here in one store features an anime character portraying a young man with a white kimono, a sword, and short brown/black hair. The character reminded me of Kyoshiro from Samurai Deeper Kyo, since they looked a lot like each other.
- Various jeepneys (a type of public transportation vehicle) here in the Philippines feature anime characters in their designs. One jeepney that caught my attention because of its creativity featured a silhouette of the four primary male characters of Gundam Wing.
- A cafe sign in a hidden part of the city utilized the chibi look of Ginji in GetBackers.
- There was also a bakeshop that opened in the past which bore the name "Yakitati Bakeshop". It makes me wonder if that bakeshop got its name from Yakitate! Japan.
- In the past, I remembered seeing a bus with a back window that had an image of what looked like Kaitou Kid from Detective Conan. That was shocking since that was before Kaitou Kid even became popular in my place and before it had its own anime series. It was a shame, though, that I wasn't able to take a picture of it.
"Students, be ambitious!"
CelestialSushi
Lombax of Earth (Otaku Eternal) | Posted 12/13/12 | Reply
@thencp:
Ah, okay. Unexpected, but does make sense. I mean, if your teacher was a man in his 80s, I think I might've been super surprised O_o Not that 80-year-old men can't watch anime... it's just maybe perceived as a bit unusual... then again, I don't usually keep current with viewership demographics.
Hisaishi
News Correspondent (Otaku Eternal) | Posted 12/13/12 | Reply
I must also give a shout-out to whoever goes to MCCC and sports a bumper sticker saying "Mustang/Hawkeye 2012" on the back of their car. Pulling out of the parking lot, it took me by surprise and I had to laugh.
thencp
Otakuite | Posted 12/13/12 | Reply
@CelestialSushi:
Well, she was a new teacher. Young, I think in her 20s.
I found it pretty cool that her wallpaper was Elfen Lied. >:D
Hisaishi
News Correspondent (Otaku Eternal) | Posted 12/12/12 | Reply
Perfect example: This semester, my choir teacher Mr. Kosciesza was going down the attendance list and came across this kid's name, Ed. Mr. K says his name and then he goes, "Ed is Ed." and asked if anyone got the reference. Of course, this was a Cowboy Bebop reference but I didn't think immediately of it. He says, "Cowboy Bebop anyone?" and three-quarters of the class goes, "OH!" Being it's my favorite anime, I was like Man, this class is awesome.
CelestialSushi
Lombax of Earth (Otaku Eternal) | Posted 12/12/12 | Reply
@thencp:
Demographically-speaking, how would you describe this teacher? Young, middle-aged, old, male, female, etc.?
thencp
Otakuite | Posted 12/12/12 | Reply
My former teacher's laptop. o_o
HaiNe00
Otakuite | Posted 12/12/12 | Reply
Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica appears randomly in a random chinese newspaper.
My friends say they did that to encourage otakus to read chinese newspaperAnyway it's just epic cause the newspaper is given by the school for our chinese lesson and the first thing we saw in it is a Akemi Homura. (-w-)
CelestialSushi
Lombax of Earth (Otaku Eternal) | Posted 12/12/12 | Reply
Oh yeah, just remembered one: I work at my church, and we were taking in donations for a used book event, and someone had donated a Kingdom Hearts manga. Not really anime, but I was surprised to see it all the same.
Thanks for reminding me about it, Darkarax :D
Last edited by CelestialSushi at 11:06:25 AM EST on December 12, 2012.
Darkarax
Resident Dark Lord (Otaku Eternal) | Posted 12/12/12 | Reply
This might not be the most surprising anime encounter, but one time back in school they gave out those book order things. And one of the books in their selection was the very first volume of the Yu-Gi-Oh! manga. That's how I got volume one.
The greatest fear is that of the unknown.
CelestialSushi
Lombax of Earth (Otaku Eternal) | Posted 12/12/12 | Reply
@Dranzerstorm:
The first ending theme for Angelic Layer is fantastic :D
bellpickle
Pickle of the Year (Otaku Eternal) | Posted 12/12/12 | Reply
Pleiades's comment reminded me of the Absolut Vodka commercial that featured a clip from Akira. That probably wasn't my most out-of-place anime sighting, but it's the only one I can recall right now. ^^;
wallpaperotaku
The Hero of Time (Otaku Eternal) | Posted 12/12/12 | Reply
Burger King giving out Yu Yu Hakusho toys with their kids meals...
I requested a few characters in specific, like Hiei and they're like...so that's how you pronounce it XD
very cute/cool/random.
Something that might happen in a dream
Last edited by wallpaperotaku at 1:53:57 AM EST on December 12, 2012.
Pleiades Rising
Otaku Idol (Otaku Eternal) | Posted 12/12/12 | Reply
I remember watching MuchMusic, the Canadian equivalent to MTV, some time ago and caught a video by Squarepusher. While it was playing I thought to myself, "that video that she's watching...is that...Akira?" You can't see it but only hear it, yet if you've watched the original subbed version many times, you should recognize the dialoge and scene!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4UAicXgT6AU
cougarsama
LDS Fangirl! (Otaku Eternal) | Posted 12/11/12 | Reply
A grocery store had CardCaptor Sakura staffs in the toy aisle. They were green and stuff, not pink, but the picture on the package was Sakura. The temptation to buy one was awful.
ChibiHanyou
Ochibi~ (Otaku Eternal) | Posted 12/11/12 | Reply
I remember seeing One Piece air fresheners inside a Pep Boys. Also a LOOONG time ago, I found a Yu Yu Hakusho figure (Kurama) inside a Kmart. Totally bought it too haha That's not exactly a "random" place, but it was odd at the time.
silvershriek
Otaku Legend | Posted 12/11/12 | Reply
My class was watching a video in Introduction to Criminal Justice when I was completely shocked to see 45 seconds of DBZ and Yu-Gi-Oh! in the commercials before the video started. I completely geeked out and yelled DBZ!!! XD
Dranzerstorm
Master of Lists (Senior Otaku) | Posted 12/11/12 | Reply
I usually create surprise anime encounters by playing Anime music full power on the way to work in the car. At the moment it's the Fairy Tail soundtrack with a couple of obscure themes from Gokudo, Rune Soldier & Angelic Layer
Rageon
Senior Otaku+ | Posted 12/11/12 | Reply
I'm taking a class on the history of Tokyo. One day, my teacher plays Akira. That isn't the surprising part. After class, I overhear these two guys, who are the textbook definition of preppy jocks, talking about watching Deathnote. Maybe you would have to meet them, but it surprised me.
Dark Flame 3479
Infiltrator (Otaku Eternal) | Posted 12/11/12 | Reply
There's this dude at my college who has a giant decal of Haruhi Suzumiya on the driver side door of his car. I always face palm when I see it.
"Some people never go crazy. What truly horrible lives they must lead."
Sakaira
Otaku Eternal | Posted 12/11/12 | Reply
When my friends and I were on the freeway coming back from AX. The car in front of us had the window sprayed "Honk if you're going to AX!" I thought that was pretty cool and funny. It's the first time I ever seen something like that.
mirahsan2
Otakuite+ | Posted 12/11/12 | Reply
For me it's been people wearing shirts or having a sticker or something on their car. When I'm going to whatever, the mall, car show, library, etc.
edisshort
State Alchemist (Otaku Eternal) | Posted 12/11/12 | Reply
At CWPrice (place where I work) we sell Ojamajo DoReMi scrubs. Yes, scrubs. If I was a nurse, I'd rock those.
CelestialSushi
Lombax of Earth (Otaku Eternal) | Posted 12/11/12 | Reply
What drives me crazy is when you get those random advertisements that feature anime characters... I saw one recently that had some of the chibi pictures from the Azumanga Daioh manga... and Tomo was featured on it twice (they probably thought she was two different characters because her hair was two different lengths). What irks me is that it doesn't seem likely they got permission to use those images (granted, I'm just assuming here...) >_<
Okay, it wasn't a completely unexpected place, but I didn't expect to see such a blatant use of intellectual property.
I know there have been other places I've seen them but I can't exactly think of them at the moment. But I know I've been surprised by anime in weird places before!
Last edited by CelestialSushi at 1:46:44 PM EST on December 11, 2012.
KeenHavoc
Grand Otaku | Posted 12/11/12 | Reply
A few weeks back, Bob's Burgers had the coolest shout out to My Neighbor Totoro:
tumblr_1
tumblr_2
Last edited by KeenHavoc at 1:20:44 PM EST on December 11, 2012.
aminesick
D (Otaku Eternal) | Posted 12/11/12 | Reply
The Dollar Tree has/had Rurouni Kenshin pictured on the packaging of a very cheaply made plastic sword.. lol