October 22nd, 2023
One Man's Anime beginning
Anime Relations: Ranma ½
As a teenager in the 90's, VHS was our best entertainment option, as computers were barely a thing and were quite limited, and frankly were not the solo point of entertainment they are today.
So, pre job/car/drivers license, you could go as far as you could petal your BMX. For me, that was a gas station with a few Arcade games, free fountain drink refills, and gummies for 1cent each. And a huge but cozy family owned video store, with lazyboys and big screen tv's (back then on a CRT TV, 40 inches was BIG) The employees would pick what was playing on the TV's (or else people would probably spend hours there, and never rent anything), and the store was well sectioned off. They had different rooms for 18+ of course, but also Foreign, and even tighter broken down in to European, Chinese, Japanese, and Anime had its own area. It was even well decorated with some old Anime merch, it had its own personality.
As I was peeking into this area that I normally did not go into, I was looking for a title called 'seven samurai' that I heard someone talking about, there was an Anime playing where a guy fell into a puddle of water and came out as a pissed off red head girl. My first though was 'wtf?!' but I still sat down and watched. I normally am a dude who laughs internally most of the time, but this show had me laughing out loud. I didn't even notice the employee who was behind me until he said 'So you like Ranma 1/2?"
It was such a weird title (to me, at the time) I had no clue what he was asking me at first. And I decide to rent the first tape.
I had to hide this from my friends because... well we would make fun of each other for EVERYTHING.... kinda kept each other in line? I dunno kids are jerks. But I started watching, and needed more. What I didn't know at the time that my first fav Anime girl was Shampoo, I guess that's a Wifu, but I will never call it that. That's a different topic, but I guess I am a normie who had several girlfriends in school, and now have a wife and my own anime watching kiddo's. And calling an anime chick that seems like a betrayal to all of them. So I will just call them 'best 2d girls'
Back then, you could not 'skip ad' without a bit of effort, so normally you would just watch them. And the adds worked, hooking me into new anime, Inuyasha, Cowboy Bebop, and from there I was offically an Anime fan. I do think however, my first anime was probably one that was Aired on afterschool cartoons. (back then you had to be in front of a TV at a certain time to see the shows you wanted to watch... crazy I know! somehow we made it through) I think maybe Robotech, or Infinite Ryvius... it was a mecha where one of the aspects that I though was cool was people controlling these little shields with roller balls to block incoming attacks. regardless, watching that I didn't even know what Anime was, so to me it doesnt count.
So, pre job/car/drivers license, you could go as far as you could petal your BMX. For me, that was a gas station with a few Arcade games, free fountain drink refills, and gummies for 1cent each. And a huge but cozy family owned video store, with lazyboys and big screen tv's (back then on a CRT TV, 40 inches was BIG) The employees would pick what was playing on the TV's (or else people would probably spend hours there, and never rent anything), and the store was well sectioned off. They had different rooms for 18+ of course, but also Foreign, and even tighter broken down in to European, Chinese, Japanese, and Anime had its own area. It was even well decorated with some old Anime merch, it had its own personality.
As I was peeking into this area that I normally did not go into, I was looking for a title called 'seven samurai' that I heard someone talking about, there was an Anime playing where a guy fell into a puddle of water and came out as a pissed off red head girl. My first though was 'wtf?!' but I still sat down and watched. I normally am a dude who laughs internally most of the time, but this show had me laughing out loud. I didn't even notice the employee who was behind me until he said 'So you like Ranma 1/2?"
It was such a weird title (to me, at the time) I had no clue what he was asking me at first. And I decide to rent the first tape.
I had to hide this from my friends because... well we would make fun of each other for EVERYTHING.... kinda kept each other in line? I dunno kids are jerks. But I started watching, and needed more. What I didn't know at the time that my first fav Anime girl was Shampoo, I guess that's a Wifu, but I will never call it that. That's a different topic, but I guess I am a normie who had several girlfriends in school, and now have a wife and my own anime watching kiddo's. And calling an anime chick that seems like a betrayal to all of them. So I will just call them 'best 2d girls'
Back then, you could not 'skip ad' without a bit of effort, so normally you would just watch them. And the adds worked, hooking me into new anime, Inuyasha, Cowboy Bebop, and from there I was offically an Anime fan. I do think however, my first anime was probably one that was Aired on afterschool cartoons. (back then you had to be in front of a TV at a certain time to see the shows you wanted to watch... crazy I know! somehow we made it through) I think maybe Robotech, or Infinite Ryvius... it was a mecha where one of the aspects that I though was cool was people controlling these little shields with roller balls to block incoming attacks. regardless, watching that I didn't even know what Anime was, so to me it doesnt count.
Posted by fmort | Oct 22, 2023 10:32 AM | 0 comments