How we come into fandoms
Every [normal] person's life is divided into phases, when we're little kids our lives is dictated in great part by our object of fascination, being Teletubbies, Power Rangers, Barney or some other shit. In my case and most of my generation who had cable in the 80's there was anime (like Robotech, Candy Candy, Mazinger, Voltron and a dozen more) and other american cartoons like My Little Pony, Rainbow Brite, Jem, Thundercats, Silver Hawks and Ninja Turtles.
And of course, when one becomes fan of anime since little, that infatuation over well written alternative universes (animated or not) doesn't go easily, it evolves into something deeper and bigger (there isn't many anime fans who don't like Star Wars, or Matrix or similar). Here in Argentina -and many latin and not latin countries in America- the first japanese wave started with Saint Seiya in 1995 -brought by the channel Magic Kids (now sadly deceased)-, making loads and loads of anime craving fans like me very, very happy and creating many others.
The next wave came with Sailor Moon, one of my favorites anime of all time. Imagine my delight when I discovered LAZER magazine in June '97 with the editor's cite inside, "we're like those who tape Sailor Moon at 1:00 a.m.". It's my fav reading since then! Oh, how I loved that series, I still do! Is the anime that made me laugh the most! Then Dragon Ball replaced Saint Seiya and well, that's other story. By then I was in anime heaven and consumed anything Japan related. Animes like Ranma, Magic Knight Rayearth, Escaflowne, Ruroini Kenshin and some others I don't remember now became the flavor of those wonderful years, when any fan could buy anything until the devaluation of the peso threw everything to hell.
But nothing compared to when I became an X-Files fan, I don't think I've never been so... enamored with something as much as this series. I loved everything about it, I knew all the episodes titles of nine seasons, who worked with whom and when (like those nerds who read the credits in every episode), I spent hours thinking about or trying to resolve the many mysteries in the plot, there wasn't a single day that passed without watching at least one episode (I taped all of them), I was totally in love with Scully (yes, her and not Mulder, though he was a god on earth for me)... anyway, I was completely into it. X-Files was also the one that introduced me to fandoms in general, that made me discover all that make fans, well, fans, in Internet. Oh how I love this series... :::smooches & pets series:::
Then X-Files was canceled and it was time to move on to the next phase: Buffy and later, Angel. There's not much that I can say about this that I didn't say already. The best thing about being fan of Buffy was, of course, fanfiction. I really have no words that can describe the way I felt those first months I spent discovering the many, many *brilliant* things about BtVS fics, and the years after that, years that reinforced my belief that Buffy fanfiction is TRULY an institution on the web.
Then Buffy ended, followed by Angel (I still cry with that fade out in the final episode), time to move on to the next phase: Harry Potter and the next japanese wave. But that's other story.
And of course, when one becomes fan of anime since little, that infatuation over well written alternative universes (animated or not) doesn't go easily, it evolves into something deeper and bigger (there isn't many anime fans who don't like Star Wars, or Matrix or similar). Here in Argentina -and many latin and not latin countries in America- the first japanese wave started with Saint Seiya in 1995 -brought by the channel Magic Kids (now sadly deceased)-, making loads and loads of anime craving fans like me very, very happy and creating many others.
The next wave came with Sailor Moon, one of my favorites anime of all time. Imagine my delight when I discovered LAZER magazine in June '97 with the editor's cite inside, "we're like those who tape Sailor Moon at 1:00 a.m.". It's my fav reading since then! Oh, how I loved that series, I still do! Is the anime that made me laugh the most! Then Dragon Ball replaced Saint Seiya and well, that's other story. By then I was in anime heaven and consumed anything Japan related. Animes like Ranma, Magic Knight Rayearth, Escaflowne, Ruroini Kenshin and some others I don't remember now became the flavor of those wonderful years, when any fan could buy anything until the devaluation of the peso threw everything to hell.
But nothing compared to when I became an X-Files fan, I don't think I've never been so... enamored with something as much as this series. I loved everything about it, I knew all the episodes titles of nine seasons, who worked with whom and when (like those nerds who read the credits in every episode), I spent hours thinking about or trying to resolve the many mysteries in the plot, there wasn't a single day that passed without watching at least one episode (I taped all of them), I was totally in love with Scully (yes, her and not Mulder, though he was a god on earth for me)... anyway, I was completely into it. X-Files was also the one that introduced me to fandoms in general, that made me discover all that make fans, well, fans, in Internet. Oh how I love this series... :::smooches & pets series:::
Then X-Files was canceled and it was time to move on to the next phase: Buffy and later, Angel. There's not much that I can say about this that I didn't say already. The best thing about being fan of Buffy was, of course, fanfiction. I really have no words that can describe the way I felt those first months I spent discovering the many, many *brilliant* things about BtVS fics, and the years after that, years that reinforced my belief that Buffy fanfiction is TRULY an institution on the web.
Then Buffy ended, followed by Angel (I still cry with that fade out in the final episode), time to move on to the next phase: Harry Potter and the next japanese wave. But that's other story.