Gateway Drugs. Or How I Got To Know Anime.

Probably about 1995 to 1996, the YTV network started to show pretty old anime series, such as your Dragonball Z, your Sailor Moon, and your Samurai Pizza Cats. This was well, what, grade six? I basically got some of my 'dose' from that, and it stick to me for a while. Come 1999, I never really cared much for the whole Pokemon craze, despite it being a huge marketing success branching in toys and shows and you-name-it. I remember some time where the SPACE channel had their anime showing late Friday nights. I think Venus Wars was one of the very first anime movies I've seen. Holy crap, how could animation be this good? I thought to myself. Now, that movie didn't age so good, if I recall correctly, but at that time, seeing something that was so smooth and carried a more mature theme than your Disney movies was a real treat.

Later on in highschool, one of my friends brought her VHS tapes to me to just check out, since I mentioned that I'm interested in anime. The tapes were, GITS movie, Dirty Pair Flash, and the Patlabor movies. I found DPR pretty dry, but the Oshii films cativated me once again. This was probably back in 2000/2001. I started heading to Blockbuster/Rogers Video to rent whatever anime I could find. At that time, there wasn't even an anime section - it was under "foreign interests" or something like that. The first few animes were Akira (because after reading that it was so lengendary) and some other series that I can't recall. I don’t think I had constant access to internet at this time, so I just went to the library and got a book listing all the different anime series (very old book) and just picked through and saw what was interesting.

I also remember attending the first anime convention at the university. It’s laughably tiny compared to the big stuff you get in Toronto or the US, but still, it was basically one of the best days of venturing into a mini anime land. So many series I’ve never even heard of and so many CDs, Gunpla, OSTs, T shirts, DVDs, movies, toys, trading cards, you name it. Damn, I wish I had a job then.

Around 2002 or 2003, I think that's where I got a few more series through Kazaa or something like that. This was the first instance of finally getting my dose of anime through the Internet. Of course since I didn't get hi-speed service, downloading could take days to just get an episode. Later in university, I didn't watch much anime since I had other interests in mind, namely video games. So this basically brings us to now where I get most of my anime updates from this forum and with the magic of the Internet, I’ve basically watched most of the series that I’ve wanted to check out.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Originally Posted by Incredible Mexican

Patlabor

WHAT. How could you not have posted more in my beloved Patlabor thread. ;__;

Also, yeah, another Silent Mobius fan. Too bad it's a sucky series now that I think about it.

How ya doing, buddy?

The TV series is a bit better, but craptastic "animation" if you can call it that. It gives more back ground detail to Giglief's summon of the barrier to block out the Lucifer Folk, but it ultimately fails. The ending is pretty inconclusive as well. Very catchy OP theme though. Kinda no Pansee, if I remember correctly. Did you see the Patlabor movies/OVA/TV series, what? I'm more interested in you seeing that.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

The Patlabor movies are generally aimed at a more mature audience and focuses on quite a bit of detail to yield the full enjoyment of the movie. Still, the TV series is not to be missed, at all. Shit, I just wish DDD had them instock since they're selling pretty cheap.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Quote:

wake up at like six in the morning to watch shows like Sailor Moon, Dragonball Z, and Samurai Pizza Cats

You guys got shitty time slots for those shows. YTV had them in what called "The Zone" from around 4:00 pm to 6:00 pm with some other shows. Of course probably this was before the TV stations thought of this as a "huge viewer market" and put it in crap time slots to add to their repertoire of various cartoons and place American productions during the prime time.

I was speaking idiomatically.