My History With Anime

As suggested by TRazor, I’m making a post for Nopy’s History With Anime project. For anyone who’s read my “About Riyoga” page, this will be pretty much the same content that was in the “How I Got Into Anime” section. However, I’ll be adding a few details here and there, and adding a few extra things completely.

Heh, I love telling this story.

Anyways, just like most people I know, the first anime show I was ever introduced to was Pokémon. Of course I didn’t know it was an anime or what anime even was at the time, but Pokémon was is still awesome. DBZ followed shortly after, which I followed religiously on Toonami. I also watched an episode occasionally of the other shows that were on Toonami.

At one point (I think I was 8 or so at the time) I also watched Sailor Moon whenever it was on and giggled like a little girl at the transformation scenes. I remember one time I had a friend over and was watching the show. The conversation went a bit like this:
Friend: “So… why are we watching this?”
Me: “You’ll see.”
*Transformation Sequence Happens*
Friend: “…Oooooooooh.”
Me: “Boobies!”

Good times…

I also got into Naruto when that started, though I didn’t follow it religiously. I eventually got bored of it after realizing how terrible it was and that it was never going to end.

I watched a few episodes of Bleach when that started on Adult Swim, but I never really cared to follow it carefully. I remember the reason I watched it the first time was because the TV Guide said “Bleach,” and I thought it was an infomercial trying to sell me laundry products. I wanted a good laugh, so I switched to the channel. Next thing I knew, SWORDS EVERYWHERE.

I entered my, “Anime is for dumb losers. Naruto sucks, but I have yet to realize that other shows such as Pokémon and DBZ are also anime,” stage around Junior High. Then in my second year of High School, I became close friends with an Elementary School classmate again. I found out later that he watched anime, and I stopped hating anime so blindly. I still didn’t care enough to watch it, but I didn’t care when other people did.

Then came that fateful day. I wanted to engage in some… extracurricular activities, and I tried to google up some hentai (because I was in the mood for it). What I actually ended up getting linked to, was the first episode of To LOVE-Ru. I sat through the whole thing, and I thought the bathtub scene was going to lead into what I was watching for, but it didn’t. I kept watching a few episodes, wondering where my hentai was at. When I realized I wasn’t getting anywhere, I sent the link to my anime friend and told him, “Lol this is the worst hentai ever.” He then told me it wasn’t hentai, just an ecchi anime.

“…You mean there’s anime that isn’t hentai or Naruto?”

I was curious at that point, and started looking up a few shows on the streaming site I was at. While I didn’t really care that much about the shows that I watched (To LOVE-Ru and Kimikiss, I think), I was still curious. I then stumbled across Elfen Lied and Inukami!, the former which I found quite intriguing, and the latter which was hilarious.

Shortly after that, it happened.
I watched Shakugan no Shana. And it was amazing.

Shakugan no Shana was the first show I genuinely loved, and it still holds a big place in my heart to this day. After watching it, I became completely absorbed into the anime universe, and a few years later, it led to this blog.

It’s not even that Shakugan no Shana was that objectively good (EXCEPT IT IS), but it was just so imaginative and handled things in a way I had never seen before in a live-action form.

From then on, I mainly jumped between streaming sites and watched whatever people recommended there (most of the sites had a shoutbox of some kind). I don’t remember all of the shows I watched, but the last one I watched on a streaming site was Gantz. I hated Gantz. From then on, I didn’t want any more recommendations from them.

After that, I kept my eyes on Veoh (I know, still a streaming site, but it’s not dedicated to anime, so it doesn’t count) and managed to stick with a few shows that came out for a season or two. Afterwards, I found out about MyAnimeList and made an account there. I then managed to find new shows that were airing through the site by randomly clicking around. Again, I used Veoh to watch them.

Later, I got into torrenting my shows, and around the same time, also found out about seasonal charts. It’s also pretty much the stage I’m currently at now.

Currently, I just check out a seasonal chart, and will watch any shows that I have even the slightest interest in. You never know when a show could turn out to be really good, and you can always drop a show if it bores you, so checking out multiple shows at once never bothers me.

I don’t really have a favorite genre at the this time, I really just watch anime because I find it to be really damn entertaining. I’ll continue to watch anime until the mindset changes, which might never happen. Heck, I’ve even gotten a few friends to check out anime ever since I became interested in it.

I feel like I should end this with my current mindset considering anime: “It’s not so much “do you like anime or not,” so much as it’s about finding the right anime that compliment your interests.”

…But yes, I got into anime from a mishap of trying to find hentai.

And I regret nothing.

---