Now that the first issue of PiQ has come and gone and everybody’s had their chance to chime in, I’d like to talk about one particular criticism that I’ve heard several times. While I anticipated it, I had hoped that the article content itself would deflect such criticism, since I wrote it specifically for the skeptical viewer.

I am referring, of course, to the Avatar: The Last Airbender feature.

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To commemorate today’s historic DVD release of Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! Season 1, here’s an extended version of our interview from issue 2, currently on every decent newsstand across the fruited plain:

In 2006, Variety called Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim’s crudely animated cult hit Tom Goes To The Mayor “put simply, one of the weirdest series on television.” A year later, the duo launched the anarchic sketch show Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! and caused many a head to explode. Add Tim and Eric Nite Live, the unhinged internet series they host for Super Deluxe, to the pile and you’ve got an entertainment empire like none other. And while their comic sensibilities inspire uncontrollable laughter in some and uncontrollable vomiting in others, few can deny that they are among modern comedy’s most influential and inimitable voices.

PiQ: Where are you guys in terms of work right now?

Tim: We’re getting ready for a tour and in the middle of shooting and editing season 3, plus we’re doing Tim & Eric Nite Live every week, so just too much stuff.

PiQ: How long are you going to do Tim & Eric Nite Live?

Tim: Until they stop giving us money! We’re addicted to it pretty much. We’re doing blocks of 12 episodes at a time.

PiQ: Did being in an incredibly self-serious environment like film school drive you guys to become comedians?

Eric: That was definitely my experience. We both wanted to be mega-serious, Stanley Kubrick art film directors, and once you get into that environment and see all the bad professors who are washed-up directors it makes you laugh at the whole system in general. We made a bunch of short films that were totally anti-film school, and that was kind of a springboard to what we do now. You think you’re so special and then you see these hundreds of other kids doing the same thing as you. It’s really daunting. We came out to L.A. to intern on film shoots and music videos and both came out saying, “Holy s***, this ladder is so long, how do you move up this thing?” We came back to the East Coast a little defeated trying to find another way in.
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…they suck me back in.

Seriously, though, as one of the more inveterate, irredeemable nerds around here, I was thinking about what it was that got me back into anime. See, back when I lived in the Japanese countryside (everybody should do the JET Program) I sort of had to keep my nerdhood on the down-low, lest people think I was even weirder than I already was.

And by the time I returned to the friendly shores of the United States, I had nearly forgotten that I was supposed to be an anime nerd. However, there were three anime series that, like carefully-placed shape-charges, blasted away the thin glazing of “normalcy” I had so carefully constructed, leaving my abiding otaku nature bare for all to see.

“What were they?” You undoubtedly clamor to know what animated entertainment could possibly be so potent as to override my ever-present desire to appear normal to my peers! Steady, friends, and I shall tell you. In order I viewed them:

• Planetes. Oh, Planetes. This show had the bad luck to be coming out right around the same time Fullmetal Alchemist was hitting it big, and even if it hadn’t been overshadowed by the huge hit that was FMA, its hard SF trappings and corporate politics arc plot aren’t exactly guarantors of mainstream success. But oh, readers, how it hit me! Its realistic sense of international politics along with its intense personal drama and lovingly detailed depiction of life in orbit seemed tailor-made to demand my attention. I nearly blew a translation deadline thanks to Planetes — and I’d do it all over again.
• The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya. I’m always irritated when I see Haruhi dismissively referred to as a “fan favorite.” Yeah, it’s a fan favorite — because it’s completely brilliant. The writing fairly crackles with wit, the voice performances (in both Japanese and English!) are spot-on, and the animation and art direction never misses a step. And despite all its critical distance, the cool eye with which it regards common anime themes, it manages, in the end, to be remarkably affecting and moving. Kyon is a personal hero of mine.
• Genshiken. Manga artist Kio Shimoku’s depiction of life in a college anime club is rightfully acclaimed as pitch-perfect, and the anime version doesn’t break the tradition. With perfect casting choices for all the voices, a ridiculously catchy opening theme, and a warm (yet unflinching) depiction of the otaku life and the weirdos who lead it, Genshiken is probably the greatest of the recent glut of anime-about-anime-fans. It even approaches the heights of Otaku no Video, and that’s saying something.

So — did you ever drop out of a fandom, only to be sucked back in? What did the trick?