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How and when did you realize anime is important to you


Zalor

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As the title says, how and when did you realize anime was important to you. I personally have been watching anime since I was 3 or 4, (Thanks Pokemon :)/>). I also enjoyed Naruto and Inuyasha when I was an elementary school student, (although I don't like either of them now). Anime has pretty much always been in my life, but it wasn't until the second half of 7th grade that I realized anime was more to me then just another form of mere entertainment. I remember specifically the day I entered the land of Otakudom and would become a permanent resident.

My knee was injured that day and I was unable to go to school. Both my parents left for work so I had the house to myself. I spent some time playing video games to entertain myself, but I wasn't really in the mood to play them that day. So being bored and looking for something to preoccupy me, I went on the computer. At this point I already had been watching anime online for months, if not even a year. But it was mostly just stuff like One piece, Naruto and other mainstream shows. However, I was already starting to get bored of those shows. So while I was sitting in front of the computer screen and thinking of what to watch, I remembered I watched some video about Kanon 2006 on YouTube a couple days previous. While sitting in front of the screen I remembered thinking back to when I watched the video and thinking it was interesting, so I decided to watch the anime. Seeing as I had a lot of free time that day, and nothing better to do I watched 8 episodes or so, (which was actually a lot for me back then). I remembered being hooked to that anime for the rest of that week. During that week Kanon was pretty much my main focus. At school I would think about the characters, and events that happened in the most recent Kanon episode I watched; while at home I watched as many episodes as I could before my mom got back home, and I had to start my homework (which was usually 4 episodes). I also remembered crying at the end of both

Makoto's arc and Shiori's arc.

The fact that Kanon got me emotionally involved enough to cry (twice!) was what got me to realize that anime was truly a unique story telling medium. Kanon got me to realize that unlike T.V, anime focused on telling a story, not just amusing me with crappy jokes like most T.V shows did. After Kanon I went through a whole faze where I was obsessed with Kyoto Animation animes. After my Kyoto Ani phase I started researching about any anime that I thought might interest me, and then watching that. After I finished the series I would then repeat the process.

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I'm very new to the anime scene, but it was while I was watching my first "real" anime -- Sword Art Online -- and literally stood and applauded at the end of the first story arc, that I realized there was something special about anime.

Funnily enough it was this youtube clip that helped me find the words about why I was drawn so powerfully to SAO and the other shows I was watching (shows like Fate/Zero, Myself;Yourself, and more):

In short: Anime's themes are almost always really relevant to the human condition, and somehow these shows, "take these themes that hit home for every single person on this planet and make them so accessible and fun and weird."

Since then, Ryoji has guided my path to amazing shows, Steve has promised to swap Katawa Shoujo playtime for my watching Angel Beats (I finished AB, he's still holding off on KS...), and I've decided I'm never going back ; ).

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What a great question. Wow I've been an Anime fan so long its crazy to think all of the hours I've spent watching it. Its interesting you posted this today when I spent a good two hours trying to convince a friend to give it a try.

"When did you realize Anime was important to you?"

I would say that it was the first time I watched Mobile Suit Gundam. I would guess around 1981 and I was still living in Japan. I was so hypnotized by it that I just knew. I couldn't even understand a single word but I was so into the story that years later when I watched it English I remember shedding a few tears because I had known. Even not understanding Japanese at all I fell in love with the wonderful story. That was over 30 years ago. I am very proud to say I haven't looked back since and Ive now watched hundreds of hours of Anime.

I hope that answers the question. I dont think Ive ever told anyone that before. lol wow

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I can't really remember, but I've been watching anime since I was a kid. There was a channel that used to have a lots of anime in Català (a language similar to Spanish). I watched a lot of anime there (Dragon Ball, Slam Dunk, Inuyasha, Yu Yu Hakusho, Fushigi Yugi, Dr. Slump and a long etcetera) but people called this watching cartoons. Where I live, manga and anime are so unknown that a lot of people don't even know what manga and anime are.

Anyway, I've been watching anime all my life, but I didn't start to think of it as anime or manga until I watched my first anime in Japanese when I was 12 years old, I remember it like it was yesterday. My cousin came home, and he knew I liked anime (he does, too), so he downloaded Elfen Lied and brought it to my house, we started watching it, and didn't stop untill it ended. I was mind-blown, amazed, dumbstruck, whatever word you wanna use, it makes no difference. It was such a revelation watching something like this, and watching it in Japanese.

I mean, anime where I live were typical shounen like I said above, and some shoujo like Sailor Moon, but they never aired any seinen, except Cowboy Bebop, though it's totally different from Elfen Lied. From that moment on, when I discovered there existed these kind of animes, I started watching anime in the computer in Japanese, and I never stopped to this day, and I never want to stop, though I'm still an unknown creature for people from my island lol

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i would think when i first got into anime was when they aired card capture sakura in cheeseTV when i was about 7

but my uncle has loved it for years and i used to watch anime with him when i was younger than that. (just was too long ago to remember XD

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What a great question. Wow I've been an Anime fan so long its crazy to think all of the hours I've spent watching it. Its interesting you posted this today when I spent a good two hours trying to convince a friend to give it a try.

"When did you realize Anime was important to you?"

I would say that it was the first time I watched Mobile Suit Gundam. I would guess around 1981 and I was still living in Japan. I was so hypnotized by it that I just knew. I couldn't even understand a single word but I was so into the story that years later when I watched it English I remember shedding a few tears because I had known. Even not understanding Japanese at all I fell in love with the wonderful story. That was over 30 years ago. I am very proud to say I haven't looked back since and Ive now watched hundreds of hours of Anime.

I hope that answers the question. I dont think Ive ever told anyone that before. lol wow

Really nice to hear from an anime veteran like yourself. I'm certain that 30 years from now I'll still be watching anime as well. And wow has anime changed from when you first were introduced to it. How has it been following anime and all of it's changes these past decades? What are your thoughts on all the changes?

Since then, Ryoji has guided my path to amazing shows, Steve has promised to swap Katawa Shoujo playtime for my watching Angel Beats (I finished AB, he's still holding off on KS...), and I've decided I'm never going back ; ).

Lol, I made the same kind of deal with my sister. Angel Beats was the only anime my sister watched that I didn't watch, and for the past year I keep telling her it's on my to watch list, but I kept on deciding to watch something else instead. I really do want to watch it, but for the past year I have only really been in the mood for seinen anime. But in all honesty I think after a whole year I'm finally in the mood to watch it. I'm serious to, this or next week me and Angel Beats are going to spend some quality time together.

I mean, anime where I live were typical shounen like I said above, and some shoujo like Sailor Moon, but they never aired any seinen, except Cowboy Bebop, though it's totally different from Elfen Lied. From that moment on, when I discovered there existed these kind of animes, I started watching anime in the computer in Japanese, and I never stopped to this day, and I never want to stop, though I'm still an unknown creature for people from my island lol

Seinen is my favorite anime genre as well. My mind was blown when I first watched Berserk. Prior to Berserk I only had watched Kyoto Animation animes, and light hearted stuff like Lucky Start and Pani Poni Dash (which are all really good as well). But witnessing Berserk paralleled the experience of first watching Kanon. It was like a second conversion to full fledged Otakudom.

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Honestly, as much as I love anime, I don't see it as much more than another medium for story telling. That being said, it's an awesome medium for story telling.

Persona 4 The Animation really the first anime I watched (aside from crappy 4Kids! shows). I casually watched Code Geass and Death Note after. One day while reading anime reviews, I stumbled across a highly rated show called Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei. And thats the story about how Shaft Studios and I met. Anime has been a great form of entertainment for me and I'm happy that I discovered it a year and a half ago.

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That topic made me realize I haven't been around for very long. I've really been into anime since a year and a half or so.

I've watched a few when I was a kid, and I've been reading some manga since 4 or 5 years, but I only started to look up for anime adaptations of mangas I read about 2 years ago. I've watched a few and looked up randomly some other series too, but not that much...

Then last year I made a friend at school through other geek stuff (roleplaying games and stuff), who happened to be a lot into anime. He started introducing a few anime to other friends of mine, and I watched some too. AND parrallel to that I had made another friend in class, and she was into anime too. That's probably where I was sucked into it. I signed up on the same anime forum, started watching a bunch of stuff, talking about anime, looking through the internet about it...

(He's also the guy who introduced me to Type-Moon through Kara no Kyoukai and the F/SN anime, thus pulling into VNs as well after convincing to play F/SN, Tsukihime and Kara no Shoujo)

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Really nice to hear from an anime veteran like yourself. I'm certain that 30 years from now I'll still be watching anime as well. And wow has anime changed from when you first were introduced to it. How has it been following anime and all of it's changes these past decades? What are your thoughts on all the changes?

Man you ask some great questions. Haha yeah I'll say Anime has changed, As the 80's went on greats like Galaxy Express 999, Ranma ½ an Touch were so amazing to me. The animation was EPIC for the time and is still very near and dear to my heart. But as time has gone on the evolution of Anime has been pretty drastic. The Animation got steadily better. Look at Mobile Fighter G Gundam from 1994. 13 years later and so amazing. You look at anime today. Anime like the aforementioned Berserk (one of my favorite Seinen shows) Look at the animation of shows like Faze/Zero and compare it to Animation from the 80's. Its amazing how far it has come.

There are some negatives though. I love a good ecchi Anime every once in a while, but Anime nowadays seems to have a bit too much for my tastes. Or, let me reiterate, there are far to many shows that depend on it now. But there are also many new and different types of Anime that I would never have gotten back in the day. Shows like Sakurasou no Pet na Kanojo and AKB0048. Sure there was slice of life and idol shows but nothing like what we get now. That and the variety is significantly better.

I could seriously write for hours about this. About the shows that have impacted me the most over the years. Hell if enough people ask I might be convinced to do so now that my mind is starting to clear from changing my meds. Ill just say that as Anime continues to progress, there are a lot more people growing to love the greatness that is Anime because of how much its changed over the years. Then again, Anime is Anime. Its awesome and I believe everyone should at least watch it once.

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I could seriously write for hours about this. About the shows that have impacted me the most over the years. Hell if enough people ask I might be convinced to do so now that my mind is starting to clear from changing my meds

That might be me being a history freak, but I'd read it.

Even more because recently I had a urge to watch old anime (old means for me before I was born, might not be the same definition as yours =p) and I'm curious about those animes not a lot of people review, because not a lot of people watched them.

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Man you ask some great questions. Haha yeah I'll say Anime has changed, As the 80's went on greats like Galaxy Express 999, Ranma ½ an Touch were so amazing to me. The animation was EPIC for the time and is still very near and dear to my heart. But as time has gone on the evolution of Anime has been pretty drastic. The Animation got steadily better. Look at Mobile Fighter G Gundam from 1994. 13 years later and so amazing. You look at anime today. Anime like the aforementioned Berserk (one of my favorite Seinen shows) Look at the animation of shows like Faze/Zero and compare it to Animation from the 80's. Its amazing how far it has come.

There are some negatives though. I love a good ecchi Anime every once in a while, but Anime nowadays seems to have a bit too much for my tastes. Or, let me reiterate, there are far to many shows that depend on it now. But there are also many new and different types of Anime that I would never have gotten back in the day. Shows like Sakurasou no Pet na Kanojo and AKB0048. Sure there was slice of life and idol shows but nothing like what we get now. That and the variety is significantly better.

I'm not too happy with the recent trend of Ecchi and moe anime either. But yeah animation has definitely improved ALOT. While I think for the most part that quality in terms of story telling is currently at a down trend in anime, I have to give them credit for very fluid animation. That said, I also miss the hand drawn art style of 90's anime. While Berserk's animation and movement pales in comparison with more contemporary works, Berserk still has the most beautiful art I've ever seen done in an any anime.

That might be me being a history freak, but I'd read it.

Even more because recently I had a urge to watch old anime (old means for me before I was born, might not be the same definition as yours =p) and I'm curious about those animes not a lot of people review, because not a lot of people watched them.

I second this. Ryoji, I would love to read about what you have to say about the impact anime has had on you, and culture in general. There aren't many people that live in the West that can say they've been an anime fan since the 80's. Which is why since you are one of the few people, it would be very interesting to hear what you have to say considering all your experience.

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What an awesome topic. My husband (Ryoji) is the reason why I'm such a true Anime fan. Heck its hard not to be a fan since its such a huge part of who he is.

I guess for me it was Ginga Sengoku Yuuden Rai. It was the first complete series that I had watched that made me completely immersed in the story and lives of the characters. I have been an Animeholic ever since. Now Anime is a vital part of my life. Ryoji and I are dedicated and watch it daily. Its funny because when I married Ryoji his collection was pretty big. I didn't understand how he could spend so much money (anime was expensive back then) on Anime. Now, its our collection and I buy more then he does, although i use his money :)

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this quote makes me feel poor. i still think it's expensive.

It absolutely is. However the media was very hard to get back then. So shipping costs and fees alone added quite a bit to the price.

Its still expensive today but since its so much easier to get, i.e. free shipping, better media sources (BD and DVD's) its way cheaper. LaserDisks and VHS tapes cost a lot!! I know weird right?

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this quote makes me feel poor. i still think it's expensive.

Well, I think that kind of "back then" means that internet wasn't as developed as it is now and people had to, you know, actually pay for their anime.

Now it's more like you have the choice between 'free' or 'rather expensive'.

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Well, I think that kind of "back then" means that internet wasn't as developed as it is now and people had to, you know, actually pay for their anime.

Now it's more like you have the choice between 'free' or 'rather expensive'.

Exactly. You didn't have a choice back then. If you wanted to own Anime (which we did..A LOT) you had to pay for it.

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Exactly. You didn't have a choice back then. If you wanted to own Anime (which we did..A LOT) you had to pay for it.

Just quoting because Taeyeon! <3

First off, I don't count watching anything on 4Kids or anything ported over as watching anime (So yeah Pokemon, Digimon, Yugioh, etc etc aren't what I consider to be first anime experiences). I guess I'd say the first anime experience would be back in 2010 (trying to sound more old school but really I've only been into anime for about a year and a half) when I watched both the Girls Bravo Seasons and Kiss x Sis. Obviously, at this point in time, I hadn't considered anime as anything other than a means of entertainment. Ah those pubescent years... Anyway, I started playing League of Legends during the summer of 2011 which I will forever attribute to be the main reason I got into anime. I really liked the game so I poked around youtube for videos until I had finally found this:

I loved the song when I heard it and went to find where it came from. After researching, I went and watched the first episode of Clannad. I quickly got hooked, and marathoned Clannad until I finished. The sheer amount of tears I shed throughout the entire show, and complete shift on my outlook with regards to life (after I watched Clannad After Story) made me realize that anime was the only thing that made me experience such things. Hungry for more, I went and looked at other works which Jun Maeda contributed to (Air, Kanon(2006), Angel Beats) and the rest was history from there. I knew I'd be watching anime for the rest of my life. I knew I had to keep looking for this.

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  • 5 weeks later...

Interesting topic so I'm bumping this.

Though watching anime is quite normal as they are shown in our local channels, the anime that really got my attention is Toradora!. Though I am not really a fan of Taiga, I really like how the story developed. So from there I tried watching more.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Great topic! I grew up in Hong Kong, which aired anime, so I've been watching them since Minky Momo, Candy Candy, etc. Always enjoyed it. Attended conventions all the way, etc. Then, back in uni, I got a freelance job that revolved around writing about anime, etc. That turned watching into a job. I got sick of it. After leaving that role, I stopped watching anime for a few years. Then, my bro recommended Madoka to me. I watched it, loved it and started to watch anime again. Perhaps that was when I realized it's something I'll hopefully be involved with for life :).

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  • 3 months later...

So, pretty much the topic is similar to "How does anime affect in your life", i assume?

I realized anime is important to me after i watch Seitokai no Ichizon, which greatly affect my school life(i was in middle school during that time). I was a hikikomori and really unsociable person, hell i can't even have a normal conversation properly with anyone(which i'd like to say i'm pretty similar to Tomoki in Watamote during that time). I really enjoyed the show and thought myself of being like Sugisaki Ken, the sole male member in the Student Representative Council of Hekiyou Gakuen and living in his harem seitokai life or something like that. Coincidentally, my school was having Student Representative Council election during that time. With the encouragement from the anime itself, i tried giving it a shot. It was a real crazy deal, i don't really have friends at that time so i campaign everything by myself. During the manifesto, i couldn't remember how scared i was, i couldn't even give a proper speech to the students. But it was worth a shot, and somehow thanks to my high-grades and nice reputation and appearance i've given, i got myself pretty good votes to be one of the SRC member.

I have to say, anime is really important to me. Probably it's the turning point of my life. If i haven't give it a shot, i would still be really quiet, and having problems with my conversations, or probably a lot worse. Good thing it changed me to be better.

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For me it goes way back. When a show called Robotech showed on my TV screen. It was a bit different then the current shows I was watching, Ninja Turtles and He-Man. It was a time when I didn't know the show was actually Japanese. It felt different, like a movie... more like watching a real thing. I cared for love between characters more then I cared for robots, even though that was the first reason the show hooked me up. It was shocking to see that good guys actually die. Aah, I cried a lot...

Then the war started in my country and we didn't have any channels anymore but thankfully I had first 15+ episodes on my tape. Since my dad sold all of my toys for bread (dark times they were...) I had to imagine a lot of stuff and just play with my hands. And I always dreamed on how the series actually finished, and that one day I'll somehow watch the rest of it. And to cut this short, after the war when I started the so-colled school, I asked around and luck would have it that I found people who had other tapes of similar shows. I borrowed some and began to be attached to anything that has big head and huge eyes. Then I learned that it was made by Japanese and so on. Later came Sailor Moon and few other shows that slowly shaped my childhood. My family member were always telling me that I'll outgrow them, but hey, the joke is on them. My link with anime has never been stronger. :P

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My anime watching was always very irregular- sometimes I watch 10-15 animes per season, sometimes I just completely skipped a season or even a year of anime. I realized it was very important to me when I was in the house of one of my friends and we were drinking and watching Clannad After Story (Ironically, I dropped the VN, even if I reeeeeally liked the anime). It is an embarassing and funny memory.

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