Yes, everybody’s favorite time of year, Kentmas*, is upon us yet again. Don your Kentmas hats and get ready to celebrate.
For the first day of this joyous occasion, I’m going to recount the shows that hooked me on anime.
For those of you who know me personally, you know that I have a thing for Japanese cartoons. I’m even started taking classes to learn the language. I thought it would be nice to tell you how I got into this. Also, I saw this at wqoq.com and decided, hey I can steal that idea. So here goes:
The first show I saw that was anime would probably be Dragonball Z:
This was on the Cartoon Network, dubbed in English. Of course, at the time I didn’t realize it was anime. All I knew was that it was bad. The characters all acted like they were constipated and fights would span multiple episodes. Still, due to the soap opera nature of the show and recurring story line, I was hooked and kept on watching.
Around this time, I vaguely recall also watching Speed Racer and Voltron:
In and after high school, I learned that these shows were called anime and weren’t made here in good ol North America. I heard about Akira and Ghost in the Shell at this time but didn’t watch them just yet.
Also, I remember one day when watching satellite tv (the big dish) and catching the end of a show where a woman was shot and thrown into a body of water and it showed her floating to the bottom. Kind of disturbing. I’m not sure but this could have been Neon Genesis Evangelion but I don’t think so. This was really the first time that I realized that cartoons didn’t have to be kiddy and this medium could be used to tell complex stories for an older audience.
Fast forward to college. I finally got around to watching a show in the orginal Japanese. This show was Cowboy Bebop. It was glorious:
I really only picked it because I was intrigued by the name. This show follows the exploits of Spike Spiegel and his ragtag crew of bounty hunters as they try to eke out a living in the universe. To this day, it remains one of my favorite shows.
Next up was FLCL. A teenage boy is sitting there minding his own business when suddenly, a pink hair girl on a Vespa drives by and hits him on the head with a gas powered guitar. Two robots sprout from the resulting bump and start to fight each other. And then things get weird.
That’s one of the things I like about anime, the variety. There’s shows about pirates, space westerns, and even competitive bread making.
For the next couple of years I only dabbled a little in anime. I saw the dub of Akira (TETSUO! KANEDA! TETSUO!), and got into some of Studio Ghibli stuff. I know I watched a few other shows in this time but can’t remember what they are off hand.
Then I met Bob-sempai (Bob from Work). He lent me Ranma 1/2 and City Hunter and this really put me on the path to being a full blown Otaku.
City Hunter. If you get a chance, I highly recommend watching both of these shows.
So that’s how I became an Anime geek. Tomorrow I’ll share with you the console that got me hooked into video games
Happy Kentmas
Later Bloggies
* Brief history lesson on Kentmas. One year ago, the powers that be doth proclaimed that the joyous celebration and feasting experienced on Kentcer’s day of birth shall not be limited to one day. It came to pass that Kentmas, as the holiday is now known,
shall be celebrated the entire week leading up to and including Kentcer’s birthday, Halloween.
** Yes, I’m a narcissist with too much time on his hands. Hey, if mothers also get Mother’s Day, fathers get Father’s day, secretaries get Secretaries day, and groundhogs get Groundhog’s day, why shouldn’t I be able to get more than one day? (without getting knocked up).
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