I’ve been promising this for awhile.

Season’s Greetings, and a Happy New Year.

I have survived Christmas quite nicely. I gave and received some nice presents. I visited my family – mom, dad, my two brothers, a nice selection of aunts, uncles, and cousins, my surviving grandparents, and my nephew. All and all I had a very good time.

With that out of the way I have, of late, been thinking about how I became a fan of anime. I’m not really sure when I first heard about anime. I’m guessing it was likely in the late 1980s probably while I was in junior high (middle school if you prefer). My first exposure to anime came almost exclusively through movies. A showing of Vampire Hunter D I randomly ran across on cable is very likely the first anime I ever watched (or at least the first anime I ever watched that I consciously knew was anime). In high school, and through my first year or so in college I made a small effort to track down some more anime. I watched Ghost in the Shell, Akira, Ninja Scroll, and The Professional: Golgo 13 to name a few, or more accurately to name the ones that I can remember. I know there were a few other movies, but they were all pretty bad, and I remember little beyond them being pretty bad.

The first series I ever watched was Sailor Moon (yes even before I knew what it was I had a weakness for shōjo). Interesting thing about Sailor Moon, to this day I would swear to you that I watched Sailor Moon (1st season, and the first part of the 2nd season) while I was in high school, on Wednesdays, at my grandparent’s house, on the USA Network, while waiting to go to CCD (also know as catechism). However every bit of information I could find about the North American broadcast history of Sailor Moon would say I am dead wrong. Apparently the show didn’t air in North America until August of 1995. In August 1995 I was getting ready for my second year of college. And apparently the show didn’t appear on the USA Network until 1997. All of this leads me to wonder just when did I watch this show, because I know I had watched most of the first season (and the first part of season 2) before it started airing on the Cartoon Network in 1998. Ultimately it doesn’t matter when and where I watched it, only that I did.

A little side note here. CCD, or Confraternity of Christian Doctrine (until I looked that up today on Wikipedia I didn’t know what it stood for either) is basically Roman Catholic Sunday school, expect in my home town at least, it takes place on Wednesdays during the school year (I think this may be true of all of South Dakota, but who knows). From 1st through 6th after classes let out every grade every school kid who was being raised catholic would make their way from the elementary school over to the local Catholic Church for one hour of religious lessons. CCD would start about 30 minutes after school ended. The 7th – 12th graders had CCD in the evening (at 7pm if I recall correctly).

The first real blossoming of my interest can be traced to Cartoon Network (first Toonami, and later Adult Swim), and my friend Tim. In the late 1990s as Cartoon Network’s Toonami transitioned from showing old Hanna-Barbera action cartoons (and the like) to more anime my interest grew with the increased offerings. I started taking note of things like Outlaw Star, Big O, and even Dragon Ball Z. For me the thing that really sealed my fate was the 2001 premier of Adult Swim in general and Cowboy Bebop in particular.

A second side note: Cowboy Bebop is an excellent series to use when introducing somebody to anime. The show just looks great with excellent production values, and wonderful animation. Its characters and stories are interesting. The soundtrack is quite amazing. Perhaps the best feature to recommend using it as an introductory anime is the fact its English dub is really very good. Subtitles can take a person awhile to get used to, and even longer to appreciate, and the English dubs of most anime runs from serviceable to questionable, to downright bad, which makes Cowboy Bebop’s English dub stand out all the more.

A third side note: Late 2001, early January of 2002 marks the time I obtained the Big Eyes, Small Mouth RPG. In addition to remaining one of my all time favorite RPGs the book is the first anime/manga related merchandise I ever bought. The list of sample anime with genre contained within also provided the impetus for my first purchase of any anime which was the Ah My Goddess! OVAs (still the only anime I ever purchased on VHS).

With Cartoon Network stoking the fires what I really needed was a large source of anime I could watch. Enter my friend Tim. Tim is a firm believer in spreading the joy of things he likes from Babylon 5 to anime. As luck would have it Tim was ready to start showing another group of newbies some anime, just as I was a newbie in search of some anime. He started us off with Fushigi Yuugi, then moved on to (not sure of the exact order) Neon Genesis Evangelion, Trigun, Bastard!!, and Dual! Parallel Trouble Adventure. From here I start purchasing both anime and manga with some regularity.

The years of 2002 and 2003 saw a gradual, but steady growth in both my anime and manga collections. I continued to watch Adult Swim, and also slowly started the process of learning how to track down information about anime on my own. Either 2002 or 2003 also saw the founding of an anime club at the local university by a guy I was gaming with. I had been out of school since 1999, and my work schedule kept me from attending with much regularity, but the little I did attend resulted in me being introduced to two things: fansubs in general, and Azumanga Daioh in particular. This introduction to Azumanga was in fact a bit of serendipity because the club was scheduled to start showing Love Hina (I had been buying the manga and wanted to see how the anime compared), but for whatever reason I got Azumanga Daioh instead.

Fansubs, short for fan-subtitled, are copies of a foreign language movie, TV show, or OVA that have been subtitled into another language by a group of fans. Generally speaking fansubs are most closely associated with anime. It is also worth noting fansubs are anyway you look at it illegal. Fansub groups are distributing copyrighted material without the consent of the copyright holder. Many if not most fansubbers follow a basic set of ethics which include don’t sell or rent fansubs for a profit, only fansub and distribute titles that aren’t licensed for domestic distribution, cease distributing a fansub once it becomes licensed, and if you like a title purchase it once it becomes domestically available. For whatever it is worth my experienced with Azumanga Daioh worked exactly as intended I purchased both the anime and the manga as they became available.

In the fall of 2004 I was introduced to Dan. He was one of my upstairs neighbors in the duplex I was living in at the time. He also took over the reigns of the local anime club. Before I even knew him all that well he started dropping off whatever anime the club had watched the previous week for my viewing enjoyment, this lead to me venturing up stairs to visit him and watch more anime, all of which lead to what I like to refer to as the CLAMPathon. Courtesy of Dan and the anime club I had just finished watching Chobits, Dan and I had started in on Card Captor Sakura, and while we paused for Dan to purchase more of Card Captor, we consumed Angelic Layer. We started Angelic Layer on a Sunday evening, I sure Dan only intended to watch a few episodes, 16 episodes and 6+ hours later I stumbled back downstairs cursing the fact I had to be at work at 6:30am the next day. We ripped through the final 10 episodes the next day (despite plans to again only watch a few episodes a night until finished). We finished Card Captor Sakura in pretty short order once Dan returned from winter break (having purchased the remaining disks). Card Captor Sakura marks the first, but certainly not the only, series that I watched with Dan only to go on and buy for myself.

The end of 2004 also saw an important development in my evolution as an anime fanboy. I made the seemingly spontaneous switch from preferring to watch anime dubbed, to preferring to watch anime subtitled. I cannot really point to any event leading to the switch; it was more of an epiphany. I really only disliked subtitles at the very beginning of my anime watching experience, I pretty quickly learned not to mind them, and generally when watching anime with other people I went with whatever they liked, but when watching anime by myself I’d go with the English dub. Well around the time of the CLAMPathon (probably while watching Chobits, or at least some anime club title loaned to me by Dan) I found myself watching some anime by myself when I realized I’d been watching it subtitled. So I switched over to the English dub, but didn’t make it through three lines of dialogue, before switching back to the subtitle. I started thinking about it, and I realized I’d been watching the subtitles for all of the titles that Dan had loaned me. I did some experimentation, and put in some random anime I owned switching back and forth between the English dub, and the original Japanese track with subtitles. It didn’t take long to realize I preferred the subtitled version. In addition from sparing me from the sometimes painful world of English dubs, this had the effect of temporarily “doubling” my anime collection as I started the process of watching the subtitled version of almost every anime I owned.

Throughout 2005 I naturally continued to watch anime both on my own, and with Dan. I continued expanding my collection of anime and manga. I even managed (but only rarely) to introduce Dan to a title or two. I also followed the logical fanboy progression and started buying and listening to anime soundtracks. Anime related merchandise (posters, wall scrolls, and the like) quickly followed on the heels of the soundtracks.

The final piece of the puzzle came at the end of summer in 2006 when I purchased a computer. I got the computer in August, and spent that month getting it set up the way I like it. And my anime related activities with it were basically limited to the obscene amounts of anime wallpapers I downloaded. September and October were given over mainly to City of Heroes (although ripping my CDs onto the computer, and playing with iTunes occupied a fair amount of time as well). By November I was done playing around and ready to start using my computer (and broadband connection) to feed my anime habit. And thus fansubs reenter the picture. Fansubs hadn’t really ever left the picture, it’s just that prior to owning my own computer, I needed somebody to burn the fansub onto a CD, loan that CD to me, then I needed to make a trip to a computer lab on campus, and remember to bring the fansub, and remember to bring some headphones. That is how I watched most of the Azumanga Daioh fansubs (except for the episodes I watched at anime club), the first season of Negima, and a few episodes of a number of other series, but generally it was an event that didn’t happen very frequently. I was now able to obtain my own copies of fansubs, and watch them from the convenience of my own home. I haven’t looked back (as evident by recent entries in this blog).

Feeling Minnesota

Just a brief post tonight:
I am now officially a Minnesotan. Or at least I now have a valid Minnesota Driver's License. Honestly I've been a Minnesotan for some time, aside from three summers and one spring, I've lived in Minnesota since the fall of 1994, I've been paying Minnesota income tax since then, I've been voting in Minnesota since 1996 (to be fair I could have voted in Minnesota in 1994, but I cast an absentee ballot in my native South Dakota, because my father was running for a county office – he didn't win), and I haven't been a college student since 1999. So at the vary least I think you have to give me credit for being a Minnesotan since the second half of 1999, but now I feel all bureaucratically correct. I guess if I want to match the stereotype I'll have to start being nicer to people now.
I’m sure you are not surprised to hear I’ve been watching lots of anime, but I'm feeling a bit tired tonight so that will have to wait for another post. However I'll say this much. I finally caved in and watched Eureka Seven from where Adult Swim is at on through to the end. I lasted three maybe four weeks before doing so, not too bad on my part. Just tonight I started doing the same thing with Trinity Blood. On the advice of a friend (rather belatedly taken, but taken never the less) I watched Karin. I started it Sunday night after I got home from work, and I didn't stop until I had finished all 24 episodes. I seem to have a weakness for romantic comedy anime.
After a delay of two months, I've finally responded to Erik's most recent move.

30.   Bb3      Re2

31.   Bc4      Rc2

32.   Rac1     ...

I got a little shōjo in my shōnen

Since I obviously haven't been watching enough anime for the last month and a half this week I started four more series. The first of these new series I watched is Black Blood Brothers. It's a fun little 12 episode series about vampires. It is lighter in tone then Hellsing (or Trinity Blood for that matter). It tells a decent story, and balances a satisfactory ending with leaving itself logical avenues for another season or a sequel. I don't really have anything bad to say about it, there just wasn't anything particularly special about it either.

The second new series I started watching is Busō Renkin. This series is still on going of the planned 26 episodes ten have aired in Japan of which I've watched fansubs of the first 9. This series reminds me a lot of Bleach as it balances a fairly dark story with slapstick comedy. The setup is also similar to Bleach with a high school boy being thrust into a secret world of monster fighting after encountering a mysterious girl. All and all pretty fun and interesting enough that I'll keep watching.

The next two series I thought were real gems. I’ll start with Ouran High School Host Club. I found this show to be witty, funny, well animated, and just plain entertaining. I know I called it pure shōjo bliss in one e-mail I sent to a friend regarding it. I devoured all 26 episodes of this show in two sittings and quite possibly all within a 24 hour span.

Fujioka Haruhi (pictured above), the main heroine of the story, is a lower-middle class first-year student who is able to attend Ouran Private Academy through an academic scholarship. The school is home to the children of some of Japan’s post prestigious and wealthy families, and is so expensive the Haruhi cannot even afford to buy a school uniform. While not actively trying to pass as a boy, Haruhi does dress in a fairly androgynous manner and doesn’t feel any need to correct peoples assumptions when she is taken for a boy. Shortly after her arrival at Ouran she accidentally break a vase belonging to the Host Club worth 8 million yen. The Host Club, who like (presumably) everybody else in school still thinks she is a boy, puts her to work as a gofer to pay off the debt. However upon seeing her without her glasses on they realize she is quite good looking, so Suō Tamaki (sometimes spelled Suou or Suoh), the Host Club president, promotes her to rookie host and the club provides her with contacts and a school uniform (of course since they think she is a boy it is a male uniform). Throughout the first episode each member of the Host Club comes to realize Haruhi is actually a girl, but since Haruhi doesn’t mind being taken for a boy, and because it’s easier to work off her debt as a host they agree to keep her secret (not that Haruhi ever really actively tries to disguise her gender).

The final new series I started and finished this week is The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya. This 14 episode series is difficult to explain without giving away the plot. It covers a pretty wide range of genres: comedy, supernatural, science fiction, psychological, philosophical, and why not through in postmodern for good measure. More impressively it does justice to each genre is touches upon. One interesting thing about the anime is it isn’t shown in chronologic order, only rarely does the action of an episode directly follow the preceding episode (the events of episode three directly follow episode two, and the events of episode fourteen directly follow episode thirteen). I really cannot say enough good things about this anime it is beautifully animated, the plot is well crafted and intricate, the main characters are all interesting, it is thought provoking, and it invites and rewards repeat viewing. I will say the first episode may seem a little odd especially since if shown chronologically it would likely have been episode 11, but stick with this series and you will be very quickly rewarded.

Just so you don't think I'm ignoring all those other anime I'm happy to report I'm up to episode 136 of Prince of Tennis.

A long pause and new wheels

Ah. . . Well it’s been awhile hasn’t it? Oops. So what was I up to during the month of November? I can sum that up pretty quickly. I was watching anime, and my car died. Let’s start with the latter even though that episode only occupies the final week on November (and the first few days of December).

I got my car during my senior year in high school (I really don’t remember exactly when I got it, but it was probably towards the beginning of the school year so that would have been 1993). It was a 1991 Ford Mustang two-door hatchback silver in color (I always personally felt it was more grey in color but whatever). It was nice enough when I got it, and stayed pretty nice throughout the first half of my college years. In the summer of 1996 I was rear-ended by a significantly larger vehicle (like a Ford Bronco or a Chevy Tahoe, but I don't really remember the make and model). In all reality that should have been the end of my Mustang, but it was rebuilt and after a few months I was once again behind the wheel. From there the Mustang underwent a slow but steady decline as the years and miles crept up on it. To be fair I really didn’t take the best care of it either.

I think the most annoying thing I’ll remember about my Mustang was the door handles. They were plastic, and had a tendency to break during the winter. This would render the door the handle was attached to impossible to open from the outside. Usually it was only the driver’s side door handle that would break, but there was at least one time where both of the outside handles broke, and the only way into the car was though the hatchback (unless I left a window open). I’ve lost count of the number of times I had those handles replaced, and it is one thing about my Mustang I won’t miss.

My fondest memory of my Mustang happened fairly late in its life, in-other-words once it was pretty much a piece of junk. About two maybe three summers ago I was at work, and during my lunch break I drove up to the local co-op to get some food. In the parking lot there was a mother talking to one of the service station personnel, and her child was riding around the parking lot on a bicycle. The kid was around eight or so, but other then making sure I paid attention to where he was so I didn’t hit him, I really didn’t pay too much attention to either. I got my food, came back out to my car, and got in ready to drive back to work. However the kid was now riding his bike in a big circle very close to where I was parked, so I sat in my car for a bit waiting for him to ride away so I could back out without running over him. The kid seemed to have different plans as he just kept circling around behind my car, coming closer to me with each loop, until he finally had to stop before he ran into the side of my car. This got his mother’s attention, and she came over to him and started yelling. I expected her to say something about not playing around cars, but instead she admonished her child thusly, “Hey! Don’t you never never never never never ever hit a Mustang!” I did manage to drive away before I broke out into laughter.

Thanksgiving is what did my Mustang in. I made it home to my parents alright (basically a four hour drive), but on the return trip about six miles from home my car overheated, then as I was pulling over started losing power, and finally died. I let it cool down for a bit, and then opened the radiator (honestly not the smartest thing to do in a situation like that, I could have been burned pretty badly) and once the steam and boiling contents were finished spewing out I filled the radiator back up with antifreeze. I then tried to start my car, but no such luck. The engine would turn over, but it wouldn’t start. Fortunately a coworker happened to drive by and gave me a ride home. I had the car towed in the next day, and Wednesday morning (11/29) I found out it was probably a cracked head (or the head gasket). My mechanic estimated $600 – 700 dollars to repair in the best case scenario, significantly more if they found other things wrong with it once they started tearing into it. Since it was highly unlikely that my Mustang was still worth $600 I opted not to have it fixed, and instead purchased a new car. As you can probably guess my new car is pictured above. For those of you who care about such things it is a 1999 Pontiac Bonneville. My Bonneville is much nicer then my Mustang ever was, I’m just not used to it being mine yet. I still think of it like it’s a car I borrowed from somebody.

Okay that’s enough about my car, both old and new.

So have I ever been watching some anime. I’ve been on a bit of a shōnen kick through all of November and the first full week of December I’ve watched around 90 episodes of Bleach, 80 episodes of Naruto, and 90 episodes of Prince of Tennis. I’ve watched other anime as well, the first five episodes of Death Note (which seems to be classified as shōnen on Wikipedia, but I’m not sure if I agree with that, although the manga was published in Weekly Shonen Jump), the first 8 or so episodes of Jigoku Shoujo, the first 15 episodes of Higurashi no Naku Koro ni, all 24 episodes of Oruchuban Ebichu, the first 8 episodes of Eureka Seven, the first episode of The Rose of Versailles, and the first episode of Space Symphony Maetel.

I had watched some episodes of Naruto, and Prince of Tennis before in English (probably about 8 episodes or so each), and I’d watched how ever much of Bleach and Eureka Seven in English as had been aired on Adult Swim by the end of October (probably about 10 episodes of Bleach and around 30 episodes of Eureka Seven). I don’t have any particular problem with English dubs, granted sometimes they can be down right painful, but usually I find them more or less tolerable. Then again when I went back and started watching these shows in the original Japanese I’m forced to wonder just why it took me so long to realize watching anime subtitled is so much more enjoyable.