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What drew you towards anime?


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The Lost Prophet



Joined: 16 Feb 2012
Posts: 46
Location: Australia, Adelaide
PostPosted: Tue Sep 11, 2012 8:59 am Reply with quote
I'm idealistic, and I draw motivation from perfection. Like, when I watched Death Note during my school days, I wanted to be the perfect student like Light with epic intelligence (and ended up with great scores because of it Very Happy). Or after watching Gurren Lagann, Kamina's godlike manliness was just inpiring. Bunny Drop was the latest one, more towards the realistic side of things, he worked his ass off and was a great parent to the perfect child. This goes all the way back to Dragon Ball Z, where I ended up building an impressive amount of muscle when I saw him training under gravity in space. I can't believe I once had a 6 pack Laughing

There are shows that aren't anime that do the same thing, like House, but I never really found many of them that inspired me to the extent that anime has. I don't even watch any non-anime shows anymore, apart from how I met your mother and big bang theory. That perfection is usually present in movies though, often appealing to people's pride.

I'm sure other people have interesting reasons for watching anime, but I have a feeling my reason is common.
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Keonyn
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Joined: 25 May 2005
Posts: 5567
Location: Coon Rapids, MN
PostPosted: Tue Sep 11, 2012 11:04 am Reply with quote
What got me in to anime is basically that it's another medium to enjoy. I like entertainment in all forms from across the globe. I enjoy films, television, animation, literature, and so on from everywhere that offers it, both domestic and abroad. I've found that in spite of what fans generally say, they all have something to offer and they all have their quirks, tropes, cliches, etc that make them uniquely their own (some good, some not so much).

Anime is a large medium with a lot to offer that spans numerous genres and has a huge production base. So it naturally drew me in because of the diversity in the medium (though lately that diversity has been lacking, but that's another discussion for another day). I don't really believe anime is superior; but it's a unique medium that has its own flavor and offerings that are its own. I'm a very open-minded individual, particularly in an artistic aspect, and as such I've found there are many mediums across the globe that present material to enjoy (and plenty of crap too; yes, even in anime).
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Alan45
Village Elder



Joined: 25 Aug 2010
Posts: 10004
Location: Virginia
PostPosted: Tue Sep 11, 2012 11:14 am Reply with quote
Pure chance.

Back in the mid 90s I was on CompuServe (anyone remeber them) and went to the graphics forum to look for wall paper. I downloaded a file labled "anime" and liked the graphic files I found in it. A couple years later I was in a comic shop and saw a graphic style I recognized on a VHS cover. I bought the first tape of the series (the Oh! My Goddess OAV from AnimEigo) and liked it. My general impression was that this was different from anything I had seen before.

The funny thing is that I'm basically a reader not a watcher. I don't watch TV for entertainment except for my anime disks. I don't go to the movies much. I still watch anime though.
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HikariMike



Joined: 11 Sep 2012
Posts: 9
Location: Melbourne, Australia
PostPosted: Tue Sep 11, 2012 11:21 am Reply with quote
Being fairly new to the game, the thing that got me hooked on the whole anime scene was 4 years ago when my sister gave me a bunch of Ghibli dvd's and the Key games. I swear that moment changed my life, 'cause before then i never really knew i could connect with media in the way i did with the stories in the above. I remember sitting and watching those movies one after another, at first skeptical but then falling in love with them. Everything was perfect, the characters, the art, the story. Then it just snowballed from there.

I guess it's just having a connection with something thats special to me, none of my friends watch anime, (or rather think it's all amateur pornography or some nonsense). I honestly think the stories told though manga/anime are more meaningful or emotional than anything you could watch on TV (Kanon, Howl's Moving, Fate/stay).

Also i have a soft spot for Rom Coms Anime hyper
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getchman
He started it



Joined: 07 Apr 2012
Posts: 9134
Location: New Hampshire
PostPosted: Tue Sep 11, 2012 11:37 am Reply with quote
i was 8 and Sailor Moon looked pretty damn cool
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Tony K.
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Joined: 18 Nov 2003
Posts: 11437
Location: Frisco, TX
PostPosted: Tue Sep 11, 2012 12:19 pm Reply with quote
As a 10 year-old kid, I was drawn to anime by it's very peculiar art style. That was back in 1993, so at most, the extent of my "more mature animated titles" were probably limited to Batman: The Animated Series, X-Men, and Spider-Man. The anime that drew me, specifically, were the Guyver and Vampire Hunter D OVAs and the movies Akira and Ninja Scroll.

Aside from being way more gory and violent than any kind of animation I'd ever seen in my life up to that point, the overall coloring, character designs, and outlining gave each of these a very distinct and gritty look, which completely amazed me with it's technical prowess and presentation. Of course, the content of said anime were also a lot more mature than anything I'd seen as well, but the art thing is really what drew me first. Being just 10, I didn't really get the stories, but it was damn cool to look at.
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EireformContinent



Joined: 30 May 2009
Posts: 977
Location: Łódź/Poland (The Promised Land)
PostPosted: Tue Sep 11, 2012 1:23 pm Reply with quote
I had an ironing to do. A lots of 100% cotton shirts and there was Oban Star Racers marathon on TV. I started to look for the informations, found an anime forum that looked neat and friendly and started to remind other things I watched as a child. And I stayed.
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Riddley



Joined: 14 May 2011
Posts: 536
Location: Ireland
PostPosted: Tue Sep 11, 2012 2:26 pm Reply with quote
When I was a young kid my sister and I saw Naussica and that was that. I mean, that's the master right there.

I loved the art style, I loved the stories, I loved the animation. Eventually I tried Sailor Moon but couldn't get into it (imagine that.) Partially because I was too old at the time, but also cus I was concerned about the social implications for me. Where I lived it wasn't exactly seen as cool.

Once I got into my twenties I ended up seeing DBZ and Tenchi Muyo. I like DBZ until the never-ending battles crap killed it for me. But Tenchi was what really stoked the fires for me. Particularly because of Ryoko.

If I'd never gave anime another shot after DBZ and chanced Tenchi I don't think I'd be a fan right now.
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EricJ



Joined: 03 Sep 2009
Posts: 876
PostPosted: Tue Sep 11, 2012 2:36 pm Reply with quote
Back when nobody had heard of it (except for mentions of Akira as a cultural trend on MTV), showing off, basically, and the promise of babes you wouldn't see on US toons (back in the days when Cheetara was as good as it ever got). Razz
But when I caught my first looks at UY and Dirty Pair at a fan booth that was probably going to show Akira later, I found I liked the fact that Japan takes goofiness, embarrassment, chaos and general oddity for granted (in a country where they're outwardly terrified of it happening), as a part of life.

As opposed to the goofiness of 60's US fantasy-premise sitcoms like Bewitched or My Favorite Martian, where the "normal" characters always scrambled about like village idiots on speed to keep anyone from finding out things weren't "normal", and sweep it all under the rug:
For all the separated-at-birth parallels between Lum from UY and Jeannie, I was first amazed that there was no Dr. Bellows equivalent in Tomobiki--Everyone, including "authority" figure Onsen-mark, KNOWS Lum (and Ran, ftm) is an alien; it was all over the news, and she has no reason to go out of her way to hide it. In fact, daily life at Tomobiki High is so crazy even without her, she's the most "normal" one there. (Qv. the episode where new teacher Mr. Hanawa dimly tries to delve Lum's "secret", and the class keeps saying "Look, we just told you!")
That, of course, led to A-ko, and Ranma, then Tenchi, then Slayers...When large parts of the city are blown up in the course of an average episode, it's pretty hard to start making alibis.

I liked that approach to the world. It's better to expect embarrassment, goofiness, and crippling personal obsession-quirks as a part of daily life, and then be surprised when it doesn't happen. Very Happy
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Aylinn



Joined: 18 Nov 2006
Posts: 1684
PostPosted: Tue Sep 11, 2012 2:45 pm Reply with quote
Ten years ago I was reading a lot of fantasy books: Tolkien, McKillip Patricia A., Andre Norton, Le Guin, Pratchett, etc. So I was drawn to series that were airing at that time, mainly to Slayers, Magic Knight Rayearth, Records of Lodoss War, and The Vision of Escaflowne. More or less I liked them all and I searched for some information about them on the Internet and because of that I got interested in Serial Experiment Lain, which impressed me a lot because it was so different from anything I had seen before.

Another reason was that I liked it how it was easier for me to care about characters than in American cartoons, which I have never liked. It's not criticism. Simply, American cartoons and comics have never been my cup of tea. Even in my childhood I preferred the works made in Japan or Europe, because they tended to have a stronger plot while American cartoons are more episodic. And I have really fond memories of watching the Mysterious Cities of Gold with my whole family.


Last edited by Aylinn on Wed Sep 12, 2012 2:29 pm; edited 2 times in total
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walw6pK4Alo



Joined: 12 Mar 2008
Posts: 9322
PostPosted: Tue Sep 11, 2012 2:52 pm Reply with quote
Violence and nudity, stuff that western cartoons couldn't do. Yeah there's also the general aesthetic of color palettes and design that made them seem more enticing and mature, but I'll still fall back on my ultraviolence and toplessness even now.
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Riddley



Joined: 14 May 2011
Posts: 536
Location: Ireland
PostPosted: Tue Sep 11, 2012 3:10 pm Reply with quote
walw6pK4Alo wrote:
Violence and nudity, stuff that western cartoons couldn't do. Yeah there's also the general aesthetic of color palettes and design that made them seem more enticing and mature, but I'll still fall back on my ultraviolence and toplessness even now.


You're nothing if not brutally honest...fair play. Unfortunately (or fortunately perhaps) animed breasts and sex do nothing for me. I could only imagine having to explain a hentai collection lol
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Pixelationist



Joined: 12 Jun 2012
Posts: 111
Location: London, UK
PostPosted: Tue Sep 11, 2012 3:59 pm Reply with quote
walw6pK4Alo wrote:
Violence and nudity, stuff that western cartoons couldn't do. Yeah there's also the general aesthetic of color palettes and design that made them seem more enticing and mature, but I'll still fall back on my ultraviolence and toplessness even now.

Totally. There was a time when anime was this crazy dangerous sexy thing that just never failed to blow my mind at every turn, quite different to what it is today. Where are the Kazuo Koike's and the Yoshiaki Kawajiri's of the world these days?
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danilo07



Joined: 25 Dec 2011
Posts: 1580
PostPosted: Tue Sep 11, 2012 4:03 pm Reply with quote
Pixelationist wrote:
walw6pK4Alo wrote:
Violence and nudity, stuff that western cartoons couldn't do. Yeah there's also the general aesthetic of color palettes and design that made them seem more enticing and mature, but I'll still fall back on my ultraviolence and toplessness even now.

Totally. There was a time when anime was this crazy dangerous sexy thing that just never failed to blow my mind at every turn, quite different to what it is today. Where are the Kazuo Koike's and the Yoshiaki Kawajiri's of the world these days?

I think Kazuo Koike is planning on writing a new manga inspired by Puella Magica Madoka Magica.
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Pixelationist



Joined: 12 Jun 2012
Posts: 111
Location: London, UK
PostPosted: Tue Sep 11, 2012 4:10 pm Reply with quote
danilo07 wrote:
I think Kazuo Koike is planning on writing a new manga inspired by Puella Magica Madoka Magica.

WTF? That sounds all sorts of weird...
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