Autobiography of How I Became an Anime Fan (2009 edition): chapter 3

Chapter 3 of my newly revised anime autobiography…

As I mentioned before, I did not have cable TV when I was growing up, and would not actually get it until 2005. So during the early 2000s, when Internet fansubs were just starting out, and most fans my age watched anime on Cartoon Network via Toonami and Adult Swim, I was still stuck with being able to watch only watered-down kiddy anime on local channels, such as the many “monster collecting” series that sprang up in Pokemon’s wake. And before I got into high school, Jessica from my “poke-years” was still the only friend I had who shared my growing interest in anime.

Before I discuss my time in high school, which was where my anime obsession truly took off, I first want to discuss anime I got into during my Pokemon obsession, when I had finally discovered what anime is, but before I started high school.

Autobiography of How I Became an Anime Fan

Chapter 3 – The Door to Fandom is Opened

Digimon Digimon was the first anime, besides Pokemon, that I watched after finally finding out what anime is. With so many monster anime popping up during the Pokemon craze, a lot of them were dispensable. However, Digimon was, and still is, one of the better ones.

The cast of the first Digimon series, Digimon Adventure

I was reluctant to watch Digimon at first because of the rumors I heard that it was just a Pokemon rip-off. But after seeing it for myself, I realized that this wasn’t true. Even though the two share the theme of “battling monsters,” the story, the characters, and just about everything else is different. They aren’t more alike than any other anime in the same genre. Although it wasn’t as heavily edited as other local channel anime, I wouldn’t find out about the edits in the Digimon dub until years later.

Princess Mononoke – My First Ghibli Movie After the first Pokemon movie, Princess Mononoke was the first anime movie I watched, and thus my first Studio Ghibli movie. It was also the first really mature work of animation I had ever seen that was not afraid to show blood or other horrifying images, and to discuss disturbing, upsetting themes.

San and Ashitaka

I remember, upon a recommendation from Jessica, I bought the movie dubbed on VHS for a good price. It totally blew me away when I saw it, and I realized that anime is much more than just the kiddy stuff I’ve been watching until that point. I still have that VHS today, and Mononoke still remains my favorite Ghibli movie.

Jubei-chan – My First “Mature” Anime Also recommended to me by Jessica was the action/comedy sword-fighting series Jubei-chan.

Jubei and the cast of villains

Jubei-chan was the first anime series I watched that was not for kids (it’s for teenagers or young adults I presume). Again, Jessica and I watched it dubbed on VHS. And just to note, the Jubei-chan ending song, “Forever,” was the first Japanese song I fell in love with.

Cardcaptor Sakura – My First Anime in Japanese At this point, Pokemon and Digimon were still the only anime I was watching on local channels, but I was always on the lookout for more. In the latter half of 2000, I saw a commercial on channel 5 for an upcoming anime called Cardcaptors (on the late Kids’WB block). I eagerly watched the first episode when it started airing, but I could tell that something was not quite right about it; that episode did not seem like the first episode at all. But despite my initial confusion, I continued to watch Cardcaptors and it steadily grew on me. But I knew something was missing.

By now I still had only watched dubbed anime, and the thought of watching entire episodes in Japanese with subtitles didn’t even cross my mind yet. I didn’t learn about fansubs until a few years later, and would not be able to download them on my own until years after that. I believe official VHS copies of anime in Japanese were just starting to become available in the early 2000s. One day, while browsing in a local anime store called Anime Plus, I saw VHS tapes of Cardcaptor Sakura episodes in Japanese with subtitles. I knew it was the same show as Cardcaptors, and the thought of watching it uncut in Japanese was enticing, so I bought the first couple of tapes with episodes 1 through 8. Thus, episode 1 of Cardcaptor Sakura was the very first anime episode I watched in Japanese.

Sakura and Kero

Although it’s not as much of a problem nowadays because anime is barely on American TV anymore, but back in the day, the censoring and Americanization of older TV anime like Cardcaptors was a big issue for fans. After watching more of the Japanese episodes, and doing some research on the Internet, I found out what happened in changing Cardcaptor Sakura into the English dub Cardcaptors; the first seven and other episodes were skipped, scenes were cut out, and much of the dialogue was changed. I wrote more details about how the show was edited when I finally bought the entire series on DVD in 2006.

I continued to buy Cardcaptor Sakura on VHS and watch Cardcaptors occasionally just to see the new episodes, though eventually the heavy editing got to me. Now I was much more aware of how anime can suffer in translation, especially back in those days.

High School – Where it Really Begins As I mentioned in chapter 2, none of my classmates in middle school shared my interest in Pokemon and anime. I only had a couple of friends with which to share my new-found hobby. But I decided that things will be different when I started high school. Compared to my small, snobby middle school of less than 800 students, my public high school had over 4,000! I knew at least some of them had to be anime fans like me. I remember I told myself I wasn’t going to be shy about my hobby anymore and I boldly covered my notebook with anime pictures upon attending my first day of high school.

And gratefully, things did turn out as I wanted. During my first year, I met my good friend Amanda. She was in the same P.E. class as me and I noticed her because she had a Pokemon folder in her notebook. As we got to know each other better, I was thrilled because not only did she live less than a block away from my house, but she was also a Pokemon and anime fan. Amanda, as well as subsequent friends I made in high school, introduced me to many new anime (I’ll discuss them further in chapter 4).

My First Anime Club After thinking myself an oddball for liking anime, when I first heard about the anime club at my high school, I couldn’t believe it! I’ll never forget how happy I felt when I attended that first club meeting. That was the first time in a long while when I was surrounded by people who shared the same interest as me. Seeing people my age with Pokemon and Sailor Moon T-shirts, talking and laughing with each other about Pokemon, Digimon, Cardcaptor Sakura, and the other anime I was into at that time made me realize that I wasn’t as weird as I thought and that anime really was a growing genre among young people.

Unfortunately, my 9th grade anime club hardly had any meetings. However, my 10th, 11th, and 12th grade clubs were much better. We had meetings almost every week, and over the course of those three years, we watched many different series, from Di-Gi-Charat and Excel Saga, to Cowboy Bebop, Full Metal Panic!, Hellsing, and others.

Since I didn’t have cable yet, I got my first look at Cowboy Bebop in anime club

I sometimes brought my own anime videos from home in case the president and the rest of the club members forgot to. I was even able to get discounts at Anime Plus with my club membership card. Even though the anime club was a bit disorganized at times (we didn’t watch any series in its entirety), it was definitely one of my high school highlights.

Next time I’ll discuss my six most influential high school anime, as well as more details about how impacting my high school experience was for my anime fandom.

Click here to return to chapter 2.

Click here to go on to chapter 4.