It's funny you would bring up Hot Topic. I'm not American, but from what I've heard Hot Topic was an online store for a few years. Now it's gotten really mainstream, to the point where it's Cool to shop there, instead of what used to be an actual statement.
I've been watching Manga turn mainstream for years. Even back in the days when Toonami and Adult Swim were showing the first Trigun, Tenchi Muyo, etc, things there getting funneled out into the main stream.
Until recently, the last 2,3,4 years, Manga and Anime were found in very select comic book stores, or in a tiny corner in a video store. It's grown recently as exponentially as a fad, and when you break it down, each Anime has a very short term with a fanbase before the media points their cameras at something newer and bigger.
i agree anime is life and will be life 4ever,if ur really s2pid u drop out of it and go 2 somthin better, which is gay,i've soo been ther 4 it and with it
I think all the dubb-kiddies with short attention spans will get tired, drop out of it, and things will die down in what could be months, or years. But I don't think the media can keep raping this 'fad'. Being a 'Sk8ter' or even some of the dying trend of being a Gangter Pimp sunk low and out of popularity, the mainstream anime/manga market is liable to as well.
But there will always be the diehard fanbase. People like myself that make a self-satifying life out of sucking on the dregs of the culture.
