I bet you’re thinking, wait, what the heck is this? History with anime? Why should I care about your history of anime? Just write something for pete’s sake! Well, I checked my subscription list and noticed Valence wrote a post about his history of anime. I then clicked the link and saw he got the idea from Nopy, and since there are others doing this, I might as well join in. My history of anime isn’t all that complex, so I made it complex! If you have the time, you all might as well join in too!

My History With Anime

I think, without question, the first anime I had watched was Betterman.

Ok, let me rephrase that–it was the first anime I had watched knowing it was anime. Before that, I was a young kid growing up in New York, going to school and suffering with homework on a daily basis. Around this time the Pokemon Boom started, and of course I got sucked in. Shows like Digimon and eventually Yu-Gi-Oh and Dragonball Z came on my watch radar. But at that point, I lumped them with shows like Dexter’s Laboratory and Bugs Bunny.

In other words, they were cartoons and nothing more.

I was enamored because they were different from the average cartoon but nothing really told me they were called anime. I just watched and consumed, watched and consumed, and got info from everyone around me in school. Then around 2002, while on a channel called TechTV (still miss that channel BTW), I saw a commercial where familiar styles of animation appeared, so I was like, ”More cartoons!” Then the title of the block showed up. “Anime Unleashed? Anime? What was anime?” I believe I was in 6th grade at the time. That’s when I suddenly became interested in learning what this Anime was.

In a way, it’s led me to the light and dark sides of the medium I love.

I obviously of course know what Anime is now, but thanks to the advancement of technology and anime conventions, I realized everything. I realized that anime can be just about anything, whether it’s a high school romance or a basketball drama. I realized that it’s a popular form of entertainment in Japan. I realized that what I was watching on WB, or Cartoon Network, or Fox those early Saturday mornings or weekdays after school was anime. And that’s far from the half of it!

Anime has become a fixture all around the world, which as history dictates, was not supposed to be the case–after all, the only time anime was available was on VHS or stripped down to CD or whatever possible way it could be. Of course, the anime trend started when Pokemon (The gotta catch em all version) first hit American soil, and evolved when Dragonball Z (or at least the funimation version) and Sailor Moon (Thankfully not the Saban version) showed up on our TV screens. Around 2000 to I’d guess 2005 or 2006, anime really took off, so shows like Dragonball, Rurouni Kenshin, Yu Yu Hakusho, Fushigi Yugi, Inuyasha, and others became increasingly popular in the states.

This discovery of anime also has led to my current infaution with manga. Manga is something that I had never known until about 2003 or 2004. I still remember the first few manga I had brought–One Piece, Psychic Academy, and D.N Angel Vol 1. You’ll have to guess which ones I threw away years ago and which series I kept when all of a sudden I started getting more books that weren’t manga. Anyways, my manga addiction didn’t start until a few years ago, when I began to learn the process of what goes into making a manga. And also learning that most animes didn’t end like the creator intended it to. Well, ok I had resisted buying manga then, but since I wanted to learn the basics, that’s when it started–I bought Negima and Rosario + Vampire. Since then, I probably have way too manga–I’m certain I’ve spent between $500 to 1000 on manga alone (I’d rather not estimate how much I actually spent, but I know I’ve spent a lot!). And yet, I really don’t regret doing so.

Another discovery is anime conventions. Before that, I only had a few friends who even knew what anime was or cared to talk about it. Finding animes was pretty hard as the only stores that had them was Suncoast (which went bye-bye) and FYE at the Newport Mall in Jersey. Most times animes was just on my TV. But I went to New York Comic Con in 2006 on Sunday with my mom. It was…it was actually overwhelming at some point. It was my first time at a convention, and I had literally no idea what to do. I also don’t remember much of that day because I neglected to bring my camera. But from seeing cosplayers, to seeing those huge posters, to tables littered with merchandise that was exotic and stunning, and seeing all those people there–people who liked the same thing I did–that was memorable to me. And since then, I try not to miss any convention that’s nearby.

I could go on with the positives, but I think I’ll end it with this last thing I learned: the Japanese.

It was this medium that got me intrigued with Japanese culture, their ways and methods, and how they act. I have learned far more than I would have thought years ago, from the language to the time zone difference (hey, I was young!), to the backwards thinking (after all, we read manga right to left?). And from some manga, I’ve learned their history after World War II, how comics became their escape, and other various things. And of course, I have correctly learned how to pronounce Ah-ni-me and ma-n-ga as opposed to Ani-me and Man-ga. Anime has influenced me in many ways, and I will continue to stick with it for as long as I live.

I can’t speak about the light side without exploring the dark side, and well, just like there’s a lot of light there’s a lot of dark too. Anime is an medium that as I grew up, I thought would take off and be recognized alongside regular TV shows and continue its popularity. But I couldn’t have been more wrong. I realized that anime was a business. Whenever an anime was shown but never finished I could not understand why it was gone. But as I grew older, I realized that anime was a business–and usually, businesses need to make money in order to survive. So when a show like Case Closed disappears off Adult Swim, I’m like, “Why?” or when Yu-Yu Hakusho gets placed on Adult Swim, gets moved to a Saturday night, then gets moved to 5 AM in the morning, I can’t help but complain about it. Then, as the years go by, I start to realize the anime on TV content dwindles.

Today, there are only a handful of channels that devote time to anime–and unless it’s the Funimation Channel or TheAnimeNetwork, Syfy, DisneyXD, or Adult Swim barely crack the ratings code. Now everything is online. While most people don’t mind watching things online, I do–well, for the most part. I still would prefer watching anime on TV as opposed to my laptop. The only way that’ll happen is if I buy a DVD and watch it on TV.

But that’s another problem in of itself–the lack of anime. Even though it was a struggle back around 2002-2005, at least I knew I could still go to a store and buy anime. That’s hardly the case anymore as most stores don’t carry Anime DVDs. Stores that did have closed (Suncoast and Circuit City). And when there is anime to buy, it’s really expensive–most dvds cost around the $29.99-$50.00 range with only a handful of eps and very little to no extras. And now most are complete sets which, again, drive the price even further. Again, the best way is to get it online. In a way, since the Japanese can get it by going to a store where they live, it annoys me.

Speaking of online, online has led to a lot of discoveries. The first discovery is the fansubbing. You can make the case it started with Youtube, when I noticed lots of stuff was uploaded, and I was like, ”For free? Sign me up!” I of course didn’t realize it cost companies money until they started taking videos down. Then in 2007, the recession hit. Everything went downhill in every profession, so for the anime industry, sites like onemanga and zomganime were like the death sentence in many ways–at least, that’s how companies looked at it as they hounded scanlation sites and have publicly decried it. Of course, it has gone both ways, leading to a spat that will not result with any side actually winning, and will continue until no side actually wins.

The second discovery: more anime!

But as you can see, not in the very good way! Anime should be a medium that can actually be taken seriously–in some ways, it has not been. A good portion of the blame is expectations: in America, if it’s a cartoon, it has to be geared towards kids. That’s how it was when Anime started its beginning, and well, that’s how it’s been viewed in many circles today. It’s also viewed in another way: the above picture states all. Now of course, porn is viewed as entertainment in many circles, but the level that is taken in Japan can range from normal to strange to  

OHMYFU****GODICAN’TTELLANYONEWITHINARADIUSOFME–

And while freedom of expression is good, what exactly can you be expressing by drawing a child getting raped? It’s stuff like this that–by the way, I don’t agree with what happened–got Christopher Handley arrested for even possessing it.

Conclusion: So my history of anime has had a lot of up and downs, frustrations and changes, etc, etc. But I have to live with all the negatives of anime because I like anime. There’s a lot else I could add, but I think this is quite enough. All I know is that the future of anime will be pretty interesting–and I’ve certainly learned a lot at this point.