Thirty Days of Anime - Day 1 - Very First Anime
Okay I'm still working on the topic list ( suggestions are still welcome here) but I want to get started on this. :)
So, my first anime? I guess the question is which first anime? The first anime I saw without knowing it was anime? The first anime I saw in Japanese? The first anime I bought?
Ah, heck with it, I'll answer all three. :)
The Anime I didn't recognise as such: Robotech.
I suspect that the first anime I actually followed would have been Robotech in late high school / early university.
I started noticing it on Channel 7 in Perth and soon started noticing something new to me for television: continuity. If it happened, it was important and not forgotten.
There has been a lot of criticism levelled at Robotech, particularly of some of the censorship, that overlooks how much they did get past the radar. This is a kids show (bearing in mind the animation age ghetto) where characters die, and the deaths matter.
For all the changes that were made, the core of Macross was preserved and linked into a multi generation saga that works remarkably well as a coherent story. The overall arc does have problems, but at least it is there.
The first anime in Japanese: Gall Force
Sometime later there was an introduction to some anime at a friends house. This would have been in the late eighties and I think it involved an unsubtitled episode of Gall Force, possibly Rhea Gall Force.
That was a strange experience but there was...something about the storytelling, the pacing that drew my attention. The presence of female action heroines (plural, most of the cast in fact) would also have been unusual enough to draw my attention.
From there I drifted in to looking for this stuff more and more.
The first anime I bought: Vampire Princess Miyu
It wasn’t too long before JAFWA started up in a church hall with one VCR feeding poor quality copies to three televisions.
Sometimes there were synopses. If we were lucky there were fan subtitles of...varying quality.
Somewhere in there I saw a fan subtitle of the Vampire Princess Miyu OAVs and that must have been the moment when I was hooked for good.
To quote from my review some time back: Possibly the best aspect about this series is that you aren't spoonfed with answers. Drowned in questions perhaps, with the few answers provided spawning only more questions.
The Vampire Princess Miyu OAVs were probably the first Laser Disc I bought (and I certainly bought the discs before I had the player for them), and I’ve never regretted it. More here.
Day 1 - Very first anime: Robotech, Gall Force, Vampire Princess Miyu.
Day 2 - Favorite TV series
Day 3 - Your anime crush
Day 4 - Favourite Film
Day 5 - Anime character you feel you are most like (or wish you were)
Day 6 - Most annoying anime character
Day 7 - Character you’d most like to slap
Day 8 - Most epic scene ever
Day 9 - Saddest anime scene
Day 10 - Favorite slice of life anime
Day 11 - Favorite mech series
Day 12 - Best instalment of a franchise you don’t like
Day 13 - Worst instalment of a franchise you do like.
Day 14 - Current (or most recent) anime wallpaper
Day 15 - A reality check for a genre you like
Day 16 - An anime classic that simply doesn’t work for you.
Day 17 - Best Background Music
Day 18 - Best Five-team (?)
Day 19 - Change you’d like to make to any one anime
Day 20 - Favorite shoujo anime (?)Most ambiguous anime character
Day 21 - Favourite OAV Series
Day 22 - Animation studio you'd most like to slap.
Day 23 - Anime you think had the best, or most intriguing art
Day 24 - Favorite anime hero or heroine
Day 25 - Best anime villain
Day 26 - Your favorite harem anime
Day 27 - Favorite anime opening theme song
Day 28 - Favorite pokemon (?)
Day 29 - Best Anime Music Video
Day 30 - Favorite anime ending theme
So, my first anime? I guess the question is which first anime? The first anime I saw without knowing it was anime? The first anime I saw in Japanese? The first anime I bought?
Ah, heck with it, I'll answer all three. :)
The Anime I didn't recognise as such: Robotech.
I suspect that the first anime I actually followed would have been Robotech in late high school / early university.
I started noticing it on Channel 7 in Perth and soon started noticing something new to me for television: continuity. If it happened, it was important and not forgotten.
There has been a lot of criticism levelled at Robotech, particularly of some of the censorship, that overlooks how much they did get past the radar. This is a kids show (bearing in mind the animation age ghetto) where characters die, and the deaths matter.
For all the changes that were made, the core of Macross was preserved and linked into a multi generation saga that works remarkably well as a coherent story. The overall arc does have problems, but at least it is there.
The first anime in Japanese: Gall Force
Sometime later there was an introduction to some anime at a friends house. This would have been in the late eighties and I think it involved an unsubtitled episode of Gall Force, possibly Rhea Gall Force.
That was a strange experience but there was...something about the storytelling, the pacing that drew my attention. The presence of female action heroines (plural, most of the cast in fact) would also have been unusual enough to draw my attention.
From there I drifted in to looking for this stuff more and more.
The first anime I bought: Vampire Princess Miyu
It wasn’t too long before JAFWA started up in a church hall with one VCR feeding poor quality copies to three televisions.
Sometimes there were synopses. If we were lucky there were fan subtitles of...varying quality.
Somewhere in there I saw a fan subtitle of the Vampire Princess Miyu OAVs and that must have been the moment when I was hooked for good.
To quote from my review some time back: Possibly the best aspect about this series is that you aren't spoonfed with answers. Drowned in questions perhaps, with the few answers provided spawning only more questions.
The Vampire Princess Miyu OAVs were probably the first Laser Disc I bought (and I certainly bought the discs before I had the player for them), and I’ve never regretted it. More here.
Day 1 - Very first anime: Robotech, Gall Force, Vampire Princess Miyu.
Day 2 - Favorite TV series
Day 3 - Your anime crush
Day 4 - Favourite Film
Day 5 - Anime character you feel you are most like (or wish you were)
Day 6 - Most annoying anime character
Day 7 - Character you’d most like to slap
Day 8 - Most epic scene ever
Day 9 - Saddest anime scene
Day 10 - Favorite slice of life anime
Day 11 - Favorite mech series
Day 12 - Best instalment of a franchise you don’t like
Day 13 - Worst instalment of a franchise you do like.
Day 14 - Current (or most recent) anime wallpaper
Day 15 - A reality check for a genre you like
Day 16 - An anime classic that simply doesn’t work for you.
Day 17 - Best Background Music
Day 18 - Best Five-team (?)
Day 19 - Change you’d like to make to any one anime
Day 20 - Favorite shoujo anime (?)Most ambiguous anime character
Day 21 - Favourite OAV Series
Day 22 - Animation studio you'd most like to slap.
Day 23 - Anime you think had the best, or most intriguing art
Day 24 - Favorite anime hero or heroine
Day 25 - Best anime villain
Day 26 - Your favorite harem anime
Day 27 - Favorite anime opening theme song
Day 28 - Favorite pokemon (?)
Day 29 - Best Anime Music Video
Day 30 - Favorite anime ending theme