Fannish History
This post is partially inspired by the latest episode of /report, (which is a podcast everyone should listen to, srsly) but one that I was also planning to do for quite a while now. This is how I got into fandom:
At the age of - actually, no, let's not talk about how old I was <.<'' - I bought my first Manga. I'm pretty sure it was the first issue of Meitantei Conan (Detektiv Conan in German and Case Closed in America, I think.). One of the last few pages advertised a German anime fan site - rather THE German Anime fan site, honestly. I haven't been there in ages, but I'm pretty sure it's still where most of the German-language Anime and Manga fandom has settled down.
Anyway. I got myself an account and it was pretty much the coolest thing ever - like-minded people, fan art, fanfiction and doujinshi. I started reading...well, mostly horribly cheesy Mary-Sue stuff, but that's where everyone starts, right? Eventually, I read my first slash fic. I'm pretty sure it must have been in Digimon fandom (Yamato/Taichi, fuck yeah!:D), but for the life of me, I neither remember what the fic was about, nor what my reaction to it was. This actually frustrates me, because I'd find that really interesting in retrospect. But apparently I just liked it a lot and moved on to the next one. ^^''
So that's how I got into slash (or yaoi, I guess). It also introduced me to BL/yaoi manga, though I didn't really start reading those until I was well into my lj-phase.
After a few years (3, actually. I wrote it down at some point) on that site, I must have found a link to ff.net, where I eventually started reading fanfic in english, because there was just so much more of it. Improving my English through reading was just a bonus, really. :) Another year of reading both on ff.net and the German site (all anime, all the time) passed until I got into Western fandom. Thinking about it now, I remember it surprisingly well. I read thehoyden's* fic on ff.net and clicked on the link to her website on her profile there, and then, out of curiosity, came upon her due South fic, which I adored immensely even without a clue about who those people were.
It took me a while to discover that most of Western fandom could be found on lj, but when I did I also found SGA fandom, which even now has a very special place in my heart. Still, I only opened this journal in 2009, so I must have spent a year or two lurking around prior to that. During that time, I got into several new fandoms a week, most notably bandom and, more recently, Inception. (Though I never fell quite as hard for them as was the case with SGA, sadly.)
And now I have been more or less active in fandom for two years. But even when I was just lurking, fandom got me through some pretty tough times. Not only that, It helped me learn a lot, both about the world and myself. I got to get to know some really great people. It helped me to become who I am today, as cheesy as that sounds, and I'm pretty damn happy with who that is.
Thank you, fandom. <3
* Oh god, I just realized she's the reason I discovered lj fandom in the first place and I never even commented on one of her fics. >.<''' Fail.
At the age of - actually, no, let's not talk about how old I was <.<'' - I bought my first Manga. I'm pretty sure it was the first issue of Meitantei Conan (Detektiv Conan in German and Case Closed in America, I think.). One of the last few pages advertised a German anime fan site - rather THE German Anime fan site, honestly. I haven't been there in ages, but I'm pretty sure it's still where most of the German-language Anime and Manga fandom has settled down.
Anyway. I got myself an account and it was pretty much the coolest thing ever - like-minded people, fan art, fanfiction and doujinshi. I started reading...well, mostly horribly cheesy Mary-Sue stuff, but that's where everyone starts, right? Eventually, I read my first slash fic. I'm pretty sure it must have been in Digimon fandom (Yamato/Taichi, fuck yeah!:D), but for the life of me, I neither remember what the fic was about, nor what my reaction to it was. This actually frustrates me, because I'd find that really interesting in retrospect. But apparently I just liked it a lot and moved on to the next one. ^^''
So that's how I got into slash (or yaoi, I guess). It also introduced me to BL/yaoi manga, though I didn't really start reading those until I was well into my lj-phase.
After a few years (3, actually. I wrote it down at some point) on that site, I must have found a link to ff.net, where I eventually started reading fanfic in english, because there was just so much more of it. Improving my English through reading was just a bonus, really. :) Another year of reading both on ff.net and the German site (all anime, all the time) passed until I got into Western fandom. Thinking about it now, I remember it surprisingly well. I read thehoyden's* fic on ff.net and clicked on the link to her website on her profile there, and then, out of curiosity, came upon her due South fic, which I adored immensely even without a clue about who those people were.
It took me a while to discover that most of Western fandom could be found on lj, but when I did I also found SGA fandom, which even now has a very special place in my heart. Still, I only opened this journal in 2009, so I must have spent a year or two lurking around prior to that. During that time, I got into several new fandoms a week, most notably bandom and, more recently, Inception. (Though I never fell quite as hard for them as was the case with SGA, sadly.)
And now I have been more or less active in fandom for two years. But even when I was just lurking, fandom got me through some pretty tough times. Not only that, It helped me learn a lot, both about the world and myself. I got to get to know some really great people. It helped me to become who I am today, as cheesy as that sounds, and I'm pretty damn happy with who that is.
Thank you, fandom. <3
* Oh god, I just realized she's the reason I discovered lj fandom in the first place and I never even commented on one of her fics. >.<''' Fail.