[merylsilverburg]

Today at school, I had an unfortunate encounter with this guy at lunch. I was drawing when he walked by and saw my picture and just sat down in awe and asked me questions about it. He then asked if I watch a lot of anime and if I was a die-hard fan. I thought about it for a minute and decided to say 'yes' because I know that I go to extreme lengths to find out any information about any new anime and I just go all obsessive. He was all happy with me and everything and then he began to say to me that he is also a die-hard anime fan since he watches all the stuff on Cartoon Network and then he went off and began to talk to me about DBZ. I listened to him for a while and then I began to ask him if he's seen Cowboy Bebop, Trigun, Evangelion, and Rurouni Kenshin. He said he's seen CB but didn't like it that much and that he's never seen or heard of Trigun, Evangelion, or Rurouni Kenshin. What he said next nearly made me faint: "That's probably because they're not very popular". I was all like and I began to explain to him that those animes are, in fact, extremely popular and if you're a fan, you would definitely would've watched at least one episode. Then he argued with me that if they were so popular, how come they don't run on Cartoon Network or anything like that...he said how do the companies expect for everyone to watch every anime, so of course they put the most popular ones on Cartoon Network where everyone will see it. Now...I was just sittting there completely dumbfounded, because I always seem to encounter people like this who say they're "die-hard fans" but only seen the ones that are shown or are mostly mainstream anime. I'm not saying that no one is a fan if they don't see anything else except those, because I know about lack of money or some other reason, but when someone says they're a "die-hard fan" I except them to be a "die-hard fan". But, that never seems to be the case! I always encounter people like this and they see me as fools because I suggest or name off an anime that they've never even heard of before. So, now....what do you guys make of this? Do you think that everyone's view of a "die-hard fan" is completey different? Like this guy...he considers himself a "dhf" because he sees only those and thinks they're the most popular so he's a major fan...would that just be acceptable or is it better to say that in order to be a major fan, you have to watch many, many, many animes? And lastly...what do you guys consider yourselves?