Anyway, I thought I'd just talk about something and do what I do best: ramble! So I can easily post something via app. I'm due for an anime related post, so I thought why not talk about where it all started?? This sure makes for an interesting post.
I have been into anime for as far back as I can remember. It truly feels like I've been into it my entire life. Some of my earliest memories include watching Sailor Moon. I was hugely into Sailor Moon as a kid in the 90s. It was on the old Toonami back in the day, I watched Toonami all the time every single day. I didn't know what anime was back then but I loved these cartoons. Sailor Moon was typically on at 4:00 PM on the week days, I'm pretty sure Dragon Ball Z was on before it. Tenchi in Tokyo was on after, because I LOVED watching my Tenchi after Sailor Moon.
My bus always dropped me off at the bus stop around 4:00 and depending on how fast you go, it's a 5-10 minute walk from there to my house. Every day I would run home (often tripping and tumbling down the hill that my street is on) in order to catch my beloved Sailor Moon. My grandmother always watched me, since my parents were at work. So when I got home I would then have to battle with her for control of the TV because her "stories" (soap operas) were on at the same time.
It was such a special show for me. It was the one show where the girls were the heroes and saved the men instead. (this is also why I loved Powerpuff Girls). I loved seeing all of their transformations and watch them kick some ass! I had some of the dolls and this transformation brooch toy. The button inside of the middle played music.
I played with them like crazy. I also had a few of the comic books (not manga, actual comic book from MIXX) and videos. I
I also was very into Pokemon when it first became popular in the US. Back when you weren't cool (not that I ever was) if you weren't trading Pokemon cards. I of course collected the cards, had videos and other various toys. From there I got into Digimon, Cardcaptors and Yu Yu Hakusho.
My anime love faded a bit over the years until I met a friend that shared a bond with me: a mutual love for Sailor Moon (you can read about this in my last Sailor Moon post, I will link it when I can!). During our Sailor Moon obsession revival we got into other animes and then into manga. At this point anime wasn't all that popular. We were seen as pretty geeky, being obsessed with this show that had been off of the air for years. Not that we cared at all though. I started reading the Fruits Basket manga and various other random ones that my town's library had. They literally had the most random volumes of series like Ah My Goddess, Fruits Basket, Azumanga Daioh and Chobits.
My best friend and I got really into a series called Hot Gimmick. My friend was convinced she was Hatsumi from that series. I was totally obsessed with Inuyasha and was hoping I would fall down a well and meet a sexy half dog demon man. All of my birthday and Christmas money went towards buying manga and over priced anime at Borders. Every weekend I would beg my dad to go to Borders and try to get him to buy me manga xD.
Then Naruto premiered on Toonami...and it was everywhere! A lot of people watched it and for some reason, manga became popular. My middle school started a manga section and it was so popular! We often had to fight with each other over who would check out which book. People that weren't even into it were reading manga. Eventually all of us manga/anime people found each other and would talk/hang out in study hall. We were all into Naruto so then I decided it would be cool to start a Naruto club. It was the dorkiest yet coolest thing. Now I just find it hilarious. We all chose characters to role play...I ended up being Sakura (before she irritated me). I was interchangably called Heather-sensei and Sakura-sensei.
I was the leader of the club, so I was made squad leader. And Kakashi was my husband...I was even obsessed with him back then! Every single day I would wear these ridiculous wristbands (the terry cloth, sweat collecting gross kind) that had these metal plates with the leaf village logo on them. I hardly ever took them off for like a year and people thought I was the weirdest individual ever. I also wore Naruto dog tags every single day....I even insisted on wearing them in a school photo (of which will not be seeing the light of day). I was quite the tomboy.
Here is a drawing I did in middle school from my Naruto club notebook (I still have it!!! ). Clearly, Kakashi was labeled as my man (back off bitches!) xD and apparently he "rox!". Luckily my artistic skills have vastly improved.
We studied jutsus from the manga and anime and would sit in study hall practicing the hand symbols. We all even made little "Ninja ID" cards for the club that we carried around. We had a damn Chunin exam! I legit wrote up a test for everyone....they actually seriously took it and I graded it. Then we had a "combat" part of the test. Everyone had fake battles with fake cardboard shurkiken and kunai. Then one stupid girl took it too seriously and tried to fight people for real. That's when I ended the club because this one person kept getting carried away. I wasn't about to get in trouble because of them!
One of the actual grading sheets....crossed out for some reason. I hope you guys are enjoying this hilarity as much as I am.
But seriously...can I have a guy on my doorstep like that? Hahaha. With my luck it would be a creep with ill intentions.
Then one saturday night in 2011 I happened to be browsing on Facebook and one of my friends was freaking out. "Put it on Adult Swim, they're playing old anime". So I did and low and behold, as that year's April Fool's Day prank, Adult Swim had Toonami. I immedietly got on twitter and started talking about it. I was freaking out. I stayed up that entire night watching the shows until 6 am. Partly because I wanted to watch all of my old favorites, partly because I was waiting for Sailor Moon. I had such a blast watching them and tweeting with people discussing it. All night, a lot of people as well as myself talked about trying to do something to bring Toonami back.
And so the bring back Toonami movement began! From that night, up until Adult Swim announced its return I tweeted like crazy campaigning with so many others to bring it back. Along the way I met so many kind, amazing people working hard towards the same thing. When Toonami premiered on the first night of it's comeback during memorial day weekend of 2012 I felt a huge sense of victory to say the least. I began staying up all night every Saturday night watching anime and talking with people, making new friends and sharing bonds over anime. From there I got super obsessed with it, more than I have ever been. I found myself watching mostly anime. I also found myself with mostly anime fan followers, in the center of ani-twitter (anime twitter). I soon discovered that slowly a lot of the band posters were being replaced with anime ones.
So here I am now! Anime has done so much for me. It has been there to distract me during the darkest times in my life. It has helped me to meet some amazing people and make so many friendships. Especially Toonami. I wouldn't have some of the awesome people offline and online that I call friends if it weren't for the existance of Toonami and anime. It helps me and one of my closest friends (also a major otaku) stay in touch and bond. We often meet up to discuss anime/cosplay. I am so very thankful for that. I have made so many bonds and strengthened bonds because of anime. It has made me not feel so alone and gives me something to be passionate about.
Anime helped me to show others my talent with makeup through cosplay and it helps to give me a creative outlet. It has allowed me to expand my portfolio in ways I couldn't have otherwise. So I am forever grateful for the existence of anime.
Although most of my family refers to anime as "stupid Japanese shit" and various other crude terms, I actually have two younger cousins that are into anime as well. Their mutual interest has helped me to become closer to them. One cousin is 15, her and her parents moved away to Georgia when we were kids. I hadn't seen her for years until a few years ago. When I saw her again, I learned that she was really into anime. She was into Black Butler and cosplaying as Ciel before I even saw the show! When we got talking about the subject it was like she never left. When she was younger, we were close. She was like my little duckling always following me around.
My other cousin is 12. I see her ever once in a while, my mom and I make a point to get together with my aunt and her at least once a month. My cousin looks up to me a lot and always wants to hang out with me. We usually didn't have much to talk about except her friends and school with our age difference. She recently got very much into Pokemon and Yugioh. So every time I see her we talk about anime! :D. I've turned her into quite the otaku, I'm proud. She's already watching subbed anime...and she got to it on her own! I showed her some clips on youtube of Sailor Moon and she really wants to watch it. The last time I saw her she said she was reading manga from the library and asked me to reccomend some series. She saw my Sword Art Online button on my bag and wanted to try reading the book. She also wants to read some Sailor Moon manga. It makes me so glad that I'm passing this wonderfulness onto someone. I'm hoping one of these days I can have her over and just show her a bunch of shows....I hope I can figure out what would be appropriate xD.
Do any of you know of popular animes that would be appropriate for her age? I sure as hell can't show her Hellsing.
That was really long but I hope you all enjoyed it! This took me hours to write last night because I've been so tired and just have no energy ;___; .
So now I want to know readers, what was your first anime and how did you become an otaku (if you are one)? What does anime mean to you? Comment and let me know! I love conversing with you all in the comments and hearing your points of view ^__^
Xoxo
Moon prism power, makeup!
Wow, all that sounds cute. heh heh I was never an "Otaku" since I don't like the word. I just started watching stuff.
ReplyDeleteKids? Try any Saturday Morning Shonen. Those cartoons that may just exist to sell stuff. No sure really. She's 12. So not sure.
Ahh see the word Otaku doesn't bother me at all. I'm thinking of maybe showing her some Naruto, maybe One Piece, Sailor Moon (of course) but I'm lost on what else may be age appropriate. I don't want my aunt to get pissed at me! Hahaha.
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