So how did you get otaku-ized?

[JennRose]

(Pokes her head in after Loooooong absense due to general state of chaos in life)

Well, while I have to opt out of calling m'self an "otaku", I do think I'm a fan of anime soooo...

Let's see, I doubt I was too aware of the origins of shows like Marine Boy, Astro Boy, or Speed Racer, back in the late 60's/early 70's when I first saw them as a kid. However, by 78/79 when Star Blazers 1st aired over here (MD), it was a massive breath of fresh air and despite being 12 or 13. I gobbled up anything connected to it immediately. Sadly that mainly amounts to a few small model kits and the SB photo-novels. By the time Robotech aired I was primed and ready. Another splurge of single-show buying ensued, followed by the discovery of other anime at Sci-Fi & Star Trek conventions. (At this time there were no anime conventions and you had to hope for a video room in the larger Sci-Fi cons - Dealers were moving mainly pirate tapes and Books Nippon was about the only real east coast source for import tapes... at $75-200+ each )

Anywhich, SB led to Robotech, Harlock, Lensman (which led me back to America and the classic Lensmen Novels by EE "Doc" Smith), Urusei Yatsura, GUNDAM, etc, etc.... Spending some time in the AF led to connecting with better sources oddly enough. ^_^;

Shade & Sweetwater,
Jennifer ^_^

[Sataro]

You were missed Jenn, see?
http://www.the-nextlevel.com/board/s...?threadid=5821

[JennRose]

Originally posted by Sataro
You were missed Jenn, see?
http://www.the-nextlevel.com/board/s...?threadid=5821

All I can say is Wow! Thanks for the support guys. ^_^ I've ironed out most of the kinks in my life and have a functional PC now with access to the net again. (Working day shift now though (how odd to walk in the sunlight... ^_^ Also, I have Trillian on board now so IMs seem to be working better or at least I'm not restricted to only one IM service.

BTW, Anyone know if I can retrive my old posts here? I've settled in enough now to be looking at the possibility of starting a web page for my reviews so they can offend sensibilities constantly rather than just so long as they float near the top of the recent posts. ^_-

(Oh, and Snatcher was indeed the bomb. Loved the support for the old justifier gun. ^_^)

Shade & Sweetwater,
Jennifer ^_^

[Ashen Victor]

welcome back Jenn! like sataro pointed out, a lot of us missed you and STILL hang on to your akira review/comparison dearly. not to put a downer on things, but i'd assume that getting those posts back are going to be hard. sucks too cuz you put some great effort into them. but yea... welcome back!

[alan_fatima]

Yeah, the boards went down a time or two or three, so the odds aren't looking good.

You aught to give Finch a holler, Jenn. He'd be happy to hear from you. IM me and I'll send you his addy, if you haven't got it already.

[OmegaFlareX]

I wouldn't call myself an avid anime fan (I'd rather spend my limited spare cash on video games), but I've always been quite fond of it. The first anime I can ever remember watching was Belle & Sebastian in the mid-80's (I was 5 or 6). I'm not even sure that's an anime or not. Around the same time, Voltron and Thundercats were on the air. Later came some pretty stupid kiddy shit, like Maya The Bee, Adventures of the Little Koala, and Noozles, courtesy of Nick Jr. This is proof of the alluring power of anime. The shows were pretty much crap (AOTLK was decent), but I watched them anyway.

Many years later, I caught a few episodes of Dragon Ball. I thought they were downright hilarious, always making fun of themelves and the producers/directors of the show. Then, one summer during middle school... I decided to watch a new show on Paramount's afternoon lineup called "Ronin Warriors". I think I was 13 or 14, I can't remember, but I do remember the show completely blowing me away, especially the latter episodes of the series. I think Captain N and Ryo had the same voice actor. I loved how it was like a cartoon and video game in one. "Rage of Inferno!!!" Anyway, that show got me back into watching whatever anime came on.

There was another series that came after Ronin Warriors, but before Sailor Moon first aired... it was sci-fi... lots of mech battles and stuff... and in the last episode, the hero walked off into a sandstorm. WHAT THE HELL WAS IT CALLED??? This has been bugging me for literally years now. I just want the name of the series.

I never got into Pokemon or Digimon or any of the other pet-fighting series, nor did I think much of Dragon Ball Z. Like a thread further down in this forum, I find that I perfer sappy drama/comedy anime than action-oriented stuff. I'm currently exploring the Love Hina series. I swear, Keitaro is like an exact replica of myself, although I'm not much of an artist and my glasses are smaller than his. =P

Edit: I forgot to mention that for a while in the spring of '99, I stayed up until 3am every Saturday (er... technically it was Sunday, I guess) to watch the anime movies on the Sci-Fi channel. Although it was obviously edited for TV, some of the stuff I saw was really great. Gall Force: Enternal Story, Demon City Shinjuku, and Iria: Zenaim the Animation (I think that's what it was called), just to name a few.

[Josh]

During grade school I used to sprint home from school so I could catch the last 20 mins of Robotech. Also watched Voltron (the lions, not the bootleg one) and Transformers. Later I saw Akira. I signed up for the columbia house anime club and they sent me a whole bunch of tapes. Including Ninja Scroll!

In college my roommate was a bit of an anime nut. He had (among others) Riding Bean, Violence Jack, and Urotsukidoji(which is damn good... I don't care what the nay-sayers say.)

Since my current job gets me 25% of all DVDs my anime collection has grown almost to the point of absurdity. Actually... it has reached the point of absurdity.

[Fujisawa Sensei]

It started about 11 years ago when I saw some unedited anime on the Japanese Channel on cable. I liked the art style and the action. I can't quite remember what the anime was though. Then a few years later my a local tv channel started showing Yu Yu Hakusho and a few other classic animes and I got hooked.