Where did I come from?
Wait, who am I? Are you my mommy?
I think that can tell you a lot about an anime fan from what they consider to be their influences — at least in the terms that we here on the anime-internets tend to related to one another. Also, I’m waiting on my Chiko to get subbed and I’m short on original ideas at the moment. So I stole one from Riex.
My most influential anime!
1. Neon Genesis Evangelion. What did they call it, the Series that Launched A Million Fanboys? You’re looking at one. The angst, the action, the symbolism, the pretentiousness, and the all-out mindfuck couldn’t be topped. I liked anime before, but all of a sudden this insatiable appetite to consume episode after episode of marginally believable animated nonsense starring underage protagonists took over — to the point where Pokémon briefly became an somewhat-acceptable form of entertainment. Plus, it was only the second time I’d seen such blatant contempt for humanity. The first?
2. Urotsukidoji. Yeah. That one. I’m not kidding. To this day, I don’t watch hentai, but I can still appreciate the horror of this flick. Make no mistake — it’s full of sex, violence, violent sex, and sexualized violence. That makes it appropriate for almost nobody, but it’s also got a well-written story that foreshadows plots like Evangelion and Blassreiter, except with huge demonic cocks. I was taken aback by the shocking nature of Japan’s original tentacle vehicle, but also by just how surprisingly good it was.
3. Akira/Ninja Scroll/Ghost in the Shell. Why put them together? There was a day when you couldn’t mention them separately. If someone had seen one, you forced them to watch the other two because that person was an otaku on the verge. Thanks partially to frequent commenter Jason (specifically for Ninja Scroll), I hit the whole triumverate of violence, story, atmosphere and quality and that’s all she wrote. Like so many American fans, if I hadn’t seen these, I wouldn’t be here yammering on about this shit.
4. Tie: Cardcaptor Sakura/Love Hina. Weird tie, no? But I watched these two series around the same time, and they served similar purposes in my degeneration into otakudom. I had mostly seen full series on VHS and of course VHS tapes were almost all dubs. We started watching CCS to find out only the first part of it was dubbed (the parts they took out back behind the shed and beat until it became the horrific American Cardcaptors). So I saw my first profesionally subtitled anime in a perfect scenario to learn just how much better it was than the dub. Love Hina was about a week after, and it wasn’t even out in the US yet (thanks, crack dealer anime-lender friend from Hong Kong), so no dub there either.
The second reason these are here: my first marathons. You bet your sweet ass I plowed the entirety of Cardcaptor Sakura. Wow. Still my longest record. Thankfully, my (now-)wife was there, and so was booze.
Maybe more important than either of those things, both of these shows proved without a doubt that an anime didn’t need to have a heavy story, or robots, or heaps of violence to entertain the shit out of me. A screwball romantic comedy and a kids’ adventure, if done well enough, can get the job done and then some. To this day, you can’t show me a harem or a childhood friend without it all looking suspiciously like Love Hina. Also, I have a coffee mug with Kero-chan on it. Judge me, go ahead.
5. Macross aka Robotech. OGT probably puts it best: The original reason anyone loves Macross is that damnable transforming airplane, the Valkyrie. When I was a kid I could give two shits about Lynn Minmay or Shao Pai Lon (which I also think is a great song, probably a shit movie though) but I did have a Valkyrie toy. And it was somehow cooler even than the transfomers because it had three forms — I still can’t get my mind around why the Gerwalk form is needed, but watching the show as a kid you knew that even that form had a point. Anyway, regardless of how bastardized it may have been, Robotech made a mecha fan out of me early in life so I have to thank it.
6. Haruhi. Easy, right? For me, yes. After Evangelion I went berserk for a while, then tapered off after a while in favor of things like Takashi Miike and David Lynch. But Haruhi made everything better again. It doesn’t matter that Haruhi is the product of a scientific formula that’s guaranteed to be loved by otaku everywhere, it’s a great show, a time-traveling treat with a pile of laughs. I also came to the mistaken conclusion that television anime had turned a corner quality-wise. Turned out that was just one studio.
So what got you going? Inquiring minds want to know, what made you the fanboy/girl you are today?
Not surprisingly it was stuff like Dragon ball, doraemon, cardcaptor, and rurouni kenshin that got me really interested in anime. I can name a few more, but none of those impacted me the way these did.
For me it was: Grave of the Fireflies and Gundam
These shows got me into Anime but Haruhi brought me into full-time otakuism. Haruhi has that power.
I watched the dubbed version of Cardcaptors too! And I think it was this series that made me enjoy anime more as well lols. But the Japanese voice-overs are so much cuter!
Interesting post. That’s a pretty wide range of shows.
Mine was Ghibli movies and Cowboy Bebop. I watched a number of stuff after that but I remember being the most surprised and confused by Revolutionary Girl Utena. I probably shouldn’t make this comparison but it was sort of like the Evangelion experience – tons of mindfuck, pretentious symbolism and really screwed up people. Except it’s shoujo so instead of robots there’s pretty boys posing on cars.
I was brought into anime with Akira, Dragonball Z (I was a major DBZ nut, I still can do the fusion dance), Kite, and a bunch of other crap, but what really hooked me was Princess Mononoke. I think I have watched that movie at least once a year since I was twelve.
On a side note, I only got into fansubs off of Naruto. I am ashamed to admit it, but yes, it was Naruto.
The more you praise Macross, the more I want to watch all the seasons.
Hehe, great read. Don’t let people tell you Amano Jyaku’s not a great anti-hero! HE HAS WHISKERS! Badassness incarnated.
I did wonder if it was pure coincidence that your site’s acronym also was S.O.S. just like S.O.S. Brigade… Now’s as good a time to ask as any, I figure.
Bow before the OVERFIEND!
Everyone else’s comments makes me feel really old.
I popped my anime cherry with Ninja Scroll. Swearing, nudity, violence, and gore? Who would’ve thought “cartoons” were like this?
Then came The Guyver. The seed of otakudom had been planted. After that, the anime flowed freely: Vampire Hunter D, Oh! My Goddess, Tenchi Muyo!, etc…
Legend of the Overfiend? All thanks to my local video store for placing it in the “General Audience” section instead of the “Adult” backroom.
Unlike otou-san, I’ve been watching hentai ever since.
I love referring to Legend of the Overfiend as “The Citizen Kane of tentacle rape hentai.”
*sigh* Ah Robotech…loved the books. I hated Akira, GITS, and NGE…as you said before “go ahead, judge me”. Gonna have to check out Cardcaptor and Love Hina now because of you.
And don’t feel too old, I’ve actually seen most of those anime you listed in your comment above. Or wait. Does that make us both old?
that probably makes us both old.
Ez - sometimes I feel like I’m the only person who didn’t watch doraemon, maybe I grew up in a small window when it wasn’t being shown in the US, or else I just missed it somehow.
jp_zer0 - I never really got into Gundam, maybe if I’d seen it at the age that Robotech hit me it’d be different. I agree that Grave of the Fireflies was a fantastic movie. Maybe overly depressing, and it made me a little uncomfortable as an American, but a great movie nonetheless.
blissmo - it was weird, at first I don’t think we noticed what was different from one episode to the next but it totally switched and I was like “hey, this show just got a lot better what the hell?”
Ibrevis - I am a little ashamed to say I’ve never seen Utena, it seemed really omnipresent for a while but I missed it. I’ll take that as a recommendation! Cowboy Bebop almost made this list, I’d never seen anything with that much style infused into everything.
JLeeson - Princess Mononoke is a great one. I somehow never did do the DB/DBZ, I was well aware of it but I dunno. There are blank period of my life with no TV, which is probably for the better.
Korasoff – Amano is badass, I don’t know if I’d call him an anti-hero though. He was doing what he thought was right. As for SOS, Kabitzin noted that the other day too and I swear I wasn’t thinking that. But if the powers of Haruhi are on my side, far be it from me to interfere…
Jason – I remember a few viewings of Vampire Hunter D and Ninja Scroll with you in the burgh. I also remember seeing the Guyver live action movie (with Mark Hamill) on TV at some point, and WOW was it shitty.
jpmeyer - Have you considered a job writing the copy on the backs of movie boxes?
Riex - I have met people before who didn’t like NGE… everyone’s entitled to their opinion, even the wrong ones
I was gonna make an old-guy joke about walking wherever uphill both ways with my dub of a laserdisc of Vampire Hunter D (featuring Chinese-made subtitles) strapped to my back because dammit we didn’t have the internet well we did but it was all text and we had to WORK for our tentacle porn you damn kids. But I’ll just say that you have a while to go before you’re “Jason-old.”
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The live action Guyver movie WAS shitty. The second one, less so, but that didn’t stop me from renting the old U.S. Renditions tapes from the nearby Blockbuster! And the latest TV series from ADV is pretty damn cool, too.
How old is “Jason-old”? Older than all the makai and jugen-kai put together!
The only thing I can really find in common here is probably Cardcaptor Sakura, to which I still consider CLAMP’s best work. And since I watched this when I was very much younger, I didn’t consider myself pedo for liking Sakura. Which I still do, of course ;P Either way, I had to sadly endure them in Malay dubs, which was horrid. I never knew what Sakura sounded like in her native tongue until I watched the movies.
Jason – “Jason-old” is slightly older than “me-old,” but still a little younger than “you-damn-kids-get-off-my-lawn-old”. Don’t worry, though. Won’t be long. I’ll bring the shotgun.
Shin – In the US, they took the first few eps, chopped the story out until it was nothing but action, made the “story” focus on Li instead of Sakura, and slapped a god-awful dub onto it. It was way worse than anything Robotech did to Macross. Unsurprisingly kids in America hated it, and I don’t even think it lasted a full season. I have to thank mai waifu for seeing the potential in that because I was the opposite of impressed. But the real thing, that was good stuff, as is the manga, and I’d recommend a re-watch because the voice acting is actually very good in the Japanese.
You may think me a newb, but the first thing I ever watched in its complete glory was FLCL, and, let me tell you, best thing ever.
Next, I watched all of Samurai Champloo, which is actually pretty damn good. The first half is like (meh) but the second half is pretty sweet. They all should have died at the end, but that would have been depressing and awesome, so they lived.
I buzzed(?) through all of Cowboy Bebop, which, despite your tenacity in damning all episodic content forever (and ever), is still one of the best pieces I’ve ever witnessed. The ending of Bebop is probably the classiest thing ever. I dare you to find something more classy.
Next, I gnardled(?) through Eva, because obv, and I heard about it from a friend, who called it “pure sex.” It was.
With those four shows, I eventually succumbed to Haruhi, and there’s been no turning back
NO TURNING BACK!
PS: Welcome to the NHK is frakkin’ amazing.
[...] August 9, 2008 at 12:21 am | In anime, musings | Well, I don’t know about you, but reading otousan’s post on this topic, the similar top-10 post he linked to (you know, the one that wasn’t me), and [...]
The first thing I ever saw was the original Guyver and that had me instantly hooked.
The usual suspects followed such as Akira, Ninja Scroll and they further cemented my love of anime. I don’t include NGE because I only saw it a few years back and I couldn’t stand it.
Then came Legend of the Overfiend gave me the serious wiggins *shudder*.
And then I sort of lost track of anime. I was busy with my degree and working, relationships.
Then I got married, moved to another country and found I had a lot of free time on my hands until I got my work permit and permanent resident status.
I discovered InuYasha and have been hopelessly addicted to anime ever since. I followed up with Rurouni Kenshin, Gundam Wing, Robotech/Macross, Cowboy Beebop. Pretty much I watched anything that was on AS and then started checking out what else was out there.
My current obsession is Macross Frontier and god help Hubby-sama’s wallet when I can find the VF-25’s for a decent price!
Ted – FLCL is one of my absolute favorites, but I’m not sure how I’d feel if it was the first thing I ever saw. To me, it worked even better because I was an Eva fan, not to mention it’s so disorienting and crazy. Worst of all, I think my expectations for every subsequent anime would have been unrealistically high. The rest of your list are all great too, Watanabe is one of my favorites.
DJ – Interesting path you took, but I suppose my revival with Haruhi post-marriage is a similar thing. And Adult Swim really had a big impact on me too: Bebop and Champloo, Eureka 7, FLCL, Wolf’s Rain — they’ve had a lot of great stuff. Incidentally, everyone thinks they need to find themselves an otaku girl, but female + anime merchandise = drained bank! (j/k)
Man, I think it’s depressing that the first Anime crush I had was for Misty from Pokemon. Freakin’ MISTY for crying out loud. I thought she was huggable, but this was before I found out about Sakaki from Azumanga Daioh, which was one of the first shows I watched for both the plot and the women, because usually you didn’t get both in the one show. Dragonball Z is an example of this, but this was before I saw the first Evangelion episode. I think the Read or Die OVA cemented the glasses girl complex I have, but only too late did I realise I’d never meet a girl like Yomiko because… I was actually a less superpowered version of Yomiko in a dude’s body… I think the first time I really started taking notice of Anime was when I watched Kimba the White Lion, in my “Osamu Tezuka is TEH WIN” phase. So basically my Anime watching schedule is the story of my unrequited loves and inspiring hopes and dreams.
Tsukihime gave rise to my type-moon fanboy side.
Evangelion to my EVA fanboy side.
Haruhi was just plain awesome.
And EVA was also awesome because Anno had the balls to put his death threat letters in End of EVA.
Off the top of my head, Sailormoon/Voltes V/Daimos was my introduction into anime, Gundam Wing/Evangelion/Rayearth/Rurouni Kenshin (SamuraiX whatttt?), among others, made me a fangirl. Naruto signaled the almost-end of my otaku-ness (it wasn’t Naruto’s fault) but Honey and Clover reeled me back in. ^^
OMG UROTSUKIDOJI!
I can’t say it influenced me – but I was indeed awed and dumbstruck by it. Goodness me. I saw it when I was in graduate school, when a friend showed it to me and we were watching it with his girlfriend. It was… uncomfortable to say the least.
Haruhi was also a great experience, especially it was one of the anime i picked up by myself. I knew there was a lot of buzz about it, but I never paid attention as I wasn’t reading blogs yet (around February this year, yeah that long ago). I can’t say it was influential because I was already devouring so much anime at that time.
Akira kind of went over my head even though I’ve seen it a couple of times.
And I hate you for having a cooler valkryie toy than I had (even though mine sharpened pencils too).
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