Oct 21, 2015 7:00 AM
My Anime Story
Anime Relations:
Toradora!
My first anime was Juubee Ninpuuchou (aka Ninja Scroll Movie) which I received as a gift in the late '90's. I didn't get around to watching it for several months maybe even a year; when I did watch it I found it entertaining but not exceptionally so. Also, some of the R+ content was a bit off-putting. I did like the historical aspect (medieval Japan) and did a search for something similar (though there was no such thing as MAL back then). Anyway, the Rurouni Kenshin TV series was most mentioned. Sometime around 2000/2001 I ended up buying the Rurouni Kenshin premium box set of the TV series plus the Trust & Betrayal & Reflection DVD's. Trust & Betrayal is still one of my favorite anime stories of all time.
Sporadically over the next five or six years I followed up with more chanbara (samurai themed) works like the Ninja Scroll TV series, Peacemaker and Otogizhoshi. As one can see by the few titles over the several years time-span, watching anime was only a secondary interest for me and an expensive one since I was unaware of online sources. After buying the 6th and final Otogizhoshi DVD in 2005 I began a long hiatus from anime altogether.
Eight or nine years passed until late 2014 when, as an active World of Tanks player, I heard about Girls und Panzer through in-game chat. Curious, I did some internet searching and watched the show on crunchyroll. Well, I was extremely impressed and must've re-watched GuP four or five times in the space of a few weeks. Wanting more, I joined MAL and using the Recommendations tab for GuP followed up with Strike Witches, Sky Girls and Saki.
I branched out into romcoms/slice of life with Toradora (after reading favorable reviews on MAL). Not only did ToraDora blow me away but Rie Kugimiya's Taiga character so impressed me that I did a specific search for anime titles that had characters voiced by Rie. I ended up watching all of the Shakugan no Shana seasons, all of the Zero no Tsukaima seasons, Hidan no Aria and Hayate no Gotoku. I also followed up on most of the ToraDora recommendations: Kimi ni Todoki, Lovely Complex, Sakurasou no Pet na Kanojo, Bokura wa Minna Kawaisou and Golden Time all of which I found very enjoyable.
TLDR: Ninja Scroll and Rurouni Kenshin got me started, Girls & Panzer got me back. Toradora broadened my horizons.
BTW, I watched my earliest anime titles dubbed (back then I purchased everything) but on the "comeback" it's been subtitles all the way. Japanese voice acting is simply amazing!
Two quick notes about manga:
(1) I'm an "anime first" guy meaning if a manga has been adapted into an anime I'll simply watch the anime and very rarely bother with the manga. The only exception so far has been the Maria-sama ga Miteru manga and light novel.
(2) Probably 90% (maybe more) of my manga entries are shoujo-ai or yuri (now called Girls Love by MAL). This is due to the paucity of that genre in anime.
Advice/observatiion: you never know what personal Top 10 anime you might have in your PTW. Nodame Cantabile was one of the last romcoms I watched that were in my PTW and it instantly become a top 10 for me.
Similarly, Maria-sama ga Miteru languished for ages in my PTW until one day it finally reached my screen. Result was "discovering" the anime that ultimately become my #1, opened up a whole new genre for me (shoujo-ai/yuri aka "Girls Love") and made me finally take a look at manga (after running out of GL anime).
Ijou! :)
Sporadically over the next five or six years I followed up with more chanbara (samurai themed) works like the Ninja Scroll TV series, Peacemaker and Otogizhoshi. As one can see by the few titles over the several years time-span, watching anime was only a secondary interest for me and an expensive one since I was unaware of online sources. After buying the 6th and final Otogizhoshi DVD in 2005 I began a long hiatus from anime altogether.
Eight or nine years passed until late 2014 when, as an active World of Tanks player, I heard about Girls und Panzer through in-game chat. Curious, I did some internet searching and watched the show on crunchyroll. Well, I was extremely impressed and must've re-watched GuP four or five times in the space of a few weeks. Wanting more, I joined MAL and using the Recommendations tab for GuP followed up with Strike Witches, Sky Girls and Saki.
I branched out into romcoms/slice of life with Toradora (after reading favorable reviews on MAL). Not only did ToraDora blow me away but Rie Kugimiya's Taiga character so impressed me that I did a specific search for anime titles that had characters voiced by Rie. I ended up watching all of the Shakugan no Shana seasons, all of the Zero no Tsukaima seasons, Hidan no Aria and Hayate no Gotoku. I also followed up on most of the ToraDora recommendations: Kimi ni Todoki, Lovely Complex, Sakurasou no Pet na Kanojo, Bokura wa Minna Kawaisou and Golden Time all of which I found very enjoyable.
TLDR: Ninja Scroll and Rurouni Kenshin got me started, Girls & Panzer got me back. Toradora broadened my horizons.
BTW, I watched my earliest anime titles dubbed (back then I purchased everything) but on the "comeback" it's been subtitles all the way. Japanese voice acting is simply amazing!
Two quick notes about manga:
(1) I'm an "anime first" guy meaning if a manga has been adapted into an anime I'll simply watch the anime and very rarely bother with the manga. The only exception so far has been the Maria-sama ga Miteru manga and light novel.
(2) Probably 90% (maybe more) of my manga entries are shoujo-ai or yuri (now called Girls Love by MAL). This is due to the paucity of that genre in anime.
Advice/observatiion: you never know what personal Top 10 anime you might have in your PTW. Nodame Cantabile was one of the last romcoms I watched that were in my PTW and it instantly become a top 10 for me.
Similarly, Maria-sama ga Miteru languished for ages in my PTW until one day it finally reached my screen. Result was "discovering" the anime that ultimately become my #1, opened up a whole new genre for me (shoujo-ai/yuri aka "Girls Love") and made me finally take a look at manga (after running out of GL anime).
Ijou! :)
Posted by
8oomer
| Oct 21, 2015 7:00 AM |
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