Shameful Otaku Secret!

I started watching anime the way most people my age did: with usually-crappy English adaptations of classic series like Mazinger Z, Macross, Golion, and Yamato (except we called them Tranzor Z, Robotech, Voltron, and Star Blazers and gave the characters names like Rick Hunter in dubs where mostly people yelled a lot).

I gained my fandom the same way other people did as well: through movies like Ninja Scroll, Ghost In The Shell, Akira, and Vampire Hunter D. That led to other OVAs by Oshii and Kawajiri.

I became a complete dork the way plenty of others did, too: When tits and blood just wasn’t enough anymore, along came angst, Jungian psychology, and gnostic symbolism in the form of a 26-episode cartoon that started with robots and ended with pencils. They call Neon Genesis Evangelion the “show that made a million fanboys,” and I guess that makes a million and one.

I fell off the wagon sometime after Love Hina, the first series I ever watched on DVD (and consequently, one of the first commercially subtitled series I ever saw). But a couple years ago, a show called The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya reminded me that I really love this shit.

As much as I love sarcasm and don’t mind hating on things every once in a while, know this, anime: it’s because I love you and expect something good. There are people out there who are cynical just because of fandoms, but Haruhi was magical for me and Evangelion is an inextricable part of who I am as a fan, and I will not be swayed by such bullshit.

Anyway. Long story short: I’m just a guy writing a blog about cartoons.