Whelp, i write a ton of things with the 'About Me' tag so often, i should really consider making some sort of notepad document so i could copy and paste this speal
Let us see... i'll start obvious. I am human, male, who exhibits the age of twenty. i have the height of 6 feet and seven inches, accompanied by a modest weight of 155 lbs. A skinny build with tall length, and generally no facial hair.
As an anime enthusiast, or at this point, an Otaku, i have many things to speak about that (and honestly, it is the only thing you'll care about)
Let us start with Anime, and work to Manga, then Visual Novels and finally Light Novels (so that we can mirror how i went)
I started Anime, technically, when most of us did. When the Pokemon show came out in America (dubbed of course) and aired on Cartoon Network, and this was during my 1st - 2nd years of elementary school. I'll admit, this show was abysmal, and lame... but it was targeted to my age group, and it was doing it's job well. I would soon buy the games and etc and be part of the poke culture spreading around America like AIDs in Africa.
Well, then i would move from Sacramento up to a northern California town named 'Redding', where i live to this day (begrudgingly). Up here i would continue my education and, later, my roots of becoming an Otaku. By the time third grade rolled around, two things happened.
1) I knew i wanted to be a game programmer when i grew up (long story)
2) Dragon Ball Z aired on Toonami
For those who don't know, Toonami was a block (actually, it got resurrected not to long ago...) on Cartoon Network that had a strong showing of Cartoons and Anime targeted more so to Teens. Dragon Ball Z was case & point.
The show sucked. Looking back on it, that is the best description i have for it. But at the time, this show was the reason i looked forward to when coming home from school. It had violence, action and over the top powers. Sure it was loaded with Filler and shiz, but it wasn't as bogged down as say, Naruto.
Well, i loved that show and later some Gundam show that found it's way on Toonami (to which, i watched the entire season of it and can't figure out which one it was, to this day).
But once i left 5th grade, or should i say, Elementary school, i left anime. I wouldn't pick the bug back up till about Sophmore or Freshman year of highschool.There, for better or worse, i was watching two animes with enough frequency
1) Naruto
2) Sonic X
Looking back on it, and at some points during the viewing of both, they sucked horribly. Naruto was DBZ with so much more filler and an emphasis on useless plots. Sonic X however... well ... sucked. 'nuff said. If you ever watched it, you know why
So, this was something that let me enjoy anime, as those shows were mindless as holy heck. But i wasn't into anime yet... that wouldn't be till the tail end of Sophmore year. When i caught the pilot episode to a particularly good anime on Adult Swim one night.
Adult Swim, like Toonami, was a Cartoon Network block of programming (or more accurately, still is) and was targeted to a more 18 + age group audience, and not for terms of sex and such... but more mature themes. Hence, why....
FullMetal Alchemist: Brotherhood was on it. it was the first episode too, so that was like a bonus. I got to see an episode that summarized all the fun and excitement of DBZ (for me) in a single episode, and then carried it for another 63.
I was enthralled, WHAT WAS THIS. i couldn't help bu ask myself. I showed my brother, and the two of us watched the entirety of it. I finished in about two nights, and then re-watched the vast majority with him. I was now done... but i didn't want to be... i had tasted something so sweet and wanted more of it
I didn't care from where, so i hopped on Netflix and found some more (dubbed of course) and watched Darker than Black and Soul Eater (to name but two i watched), and well i enjoyed DtB, Soul Eater was miffy for me. But i was starting to get more and more into this culture, to the point where i was able to for an opinion about which ones i thought were good and which ones weren't ... rather than just watching the popular ones
I would then jump to Hulu to watch more anime... dubbed as well... But this wasn't enough. Nothing was getting as good as FullMetal Alchemist (the 2003 version) for me, as i watched it right after Brotherhood and felt it to be the pinnacle of anime (hence why i rate it a 10. Looking back on it, it might not be a 10... but it stays there out of respect for what it did to me)
Well... then i found some online streamers of anime, loaded with libraries of entire seasons of anime... but what was this, they aren't dubbed? I have to read subtitles?
That... had me sold. I've always loved subtitles being on, and like this i was able to watch and read (to fuel my ADHD). I would later learn that this also meant that there wasn't unnecessary censoring going on... which was cool, i guess
SO i watched... and i watched anime (just look at my list) but soon i was getting tired of sitting in my desk chair and watching entire seasons in a night, as it seemed to be a massive waste of time. I wanted to speed this up
I did
Manga is the name of this medium. I was introduced to it by asking friends what they did during the down time of waiting for seasons to be dubbed. They said to try reading manga... i was skeptical at first, as they looked pretty childish
(By the time i read Ibitsu, i can assure you they are nothing of the sort (Ableit, childish manga does exist))
I gave it a shot, and read some manga... i fell in love with this too. I started with Mirari Nikki (Which is way to damn popular right now) and i loved it. So much that even though i tried to stop several times during the night i read it, so i could save some for tomorrow... i would ultimately read the whole thing in one night.
It gave me a few things, but really it gave me two things in full
1) My love for Yandere's.. even though i think Gasai Yuno is a pretty weak one
2) a love for Manga, and how a story can be conveyed through that medium
I soon read a shiz ton of them and learned the one curse of manga... they tend to be on going... so when you catch up... you have nothing to do but rape the refresh button and hope to god a new chapter comes up....
That didn't solve this dilemma... so i found more and more mangas... and now i have a massive slew of them that i am 'reading' but waiting for them to update. Right now, Kikou Shoujo wa Kizutsukanai is my absolute favorite... just saying
Well... then i needed something else to do, not yet realizing i was an Otaku. I asked an Asian friend i had, and he said that he finds Visual Novels to be stimulating and fun, namely cause you get to force the path that goes on... which i liked, as i rarely agree with the girl the protagonist takes (to name an example)
I just finished (at the time) watching the anime 'Shuffle!', and i liked it enough... well ... enough to torrent the Visual novel for it. Which i did, and which i played. I would complete every path but the one that was portrayed in the Anime, since no need to repeat something i just say and no need to pick the girl i cared for perhaps the least of all
With this done, i was now a man who enjoyed his Visual Novels. I wish this site had a way for me to keep track of them as well... but at the end of this bio, i'll be sure to put down which VN's i've done.
But now i had a game world to live in, and fall in love with said characters... this was enough for me... for some time. Watch an anime, read a couple manga, play a little VN... rinse, wash, repeat
Soon i was a little tired of Anime for now, and i didn't want to start the eleventity billion manga for my list... and VN's take so much time... so i mindlessly read through this site (myanimelist.net) for something to do... for really no reason
I found out about Light Novels... again, but still wasn't sure if i wanted to do that. I mean, can simple words spark the same emotions as an anime/manga/vn? i didn't think so, so when i finally did read one, i realized how wrong i was
I started with Infinite Stratos, cause the site i found (baka-tsuki.org) had the entirety of it translated... and i liked the anime enough, i guess. I loved light novels now, for if you can read fast enough, you can read a huge distance of story in less time than it would take in a manga
To say that another way, when i found out about Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai's light novel, and read them, i realized how far back the anime was in comparison with what is written. I am now about a season and a half ahead of where the anime is... and even more so with what the manga has translated in english
With this admittance though, i finally knew what i was. I was an Otaku, in heart and soul. I would go to 4chan boards and read /c/, /a/, /jp/ with relentless ease... i check Vn's all the time... i have a manga site (
http://www.batoto.net/) saved on my task bar... and i watch anime enough.... This was all the accumulation of a couple years of slowly rolling down this mountain and collecting a love for this culture
Do i regret it?
NO. there is no way i could ever. I have shared so many emotions with fictional characters, to the point where admitting that doesn't even embarress me. I have fallen in love with girls that will never exist, dreamed of world that can't be real, and had friends who are nothing more than computer generated code. Does that sound pitiful, maybe? But i sure as hell don't regret it.
I am Steven 'ZiGeNaToR' Ziegler, and i am an otaku
>>Visual Novel<<
> Shuffle!. 5 runs out of 6. Done for me
> Stein's Gate. 3 runs.... called a quits as i got bored of seeing a cell phone
> Cross Channel. 100% that game... and had all the FEELS ripped out of my heart. Still... frick'n loved it to death
> School Days. 1 run, plan on doing several more
> Kamidori Alchemy Meister. Currently running ... so no completion. That being said, really fun game. i am just a lazy f*ck
> YANDERE-CHAN. An american made VN, by some awesome dude. Really small and cute, completed it 100% in about an hour and a half. To all those curious enough to play it
(
http://higurashiparodyfandub.blogspot.com.au/2012/06/yandere-chan-visual-novel-now-available.html)
> Katawa Shoujo. ha... finished the first run the DAY AFTER doing Cross Channel. I have NO RESPECT for those FEELS. chose Ikezawa Hanako, and i don't even regret it. <3 her with so damn much heart
> Hoshizora -Wish Upon a Star-... 100% finished. Took forever, namely cause i finished the girl i liked, then i had about 3 more runs to do to complete it... and i really wasn't into it. Anywhoodle, its fun for the first few runs... then you get tired with the first identical half, and the different second half is only so much fun... ~sigh~
All Comments (1) Comments