My Personal Anime History

[I forget the topic, but on the Archie Comics Fan Forum, they were discussing how people got interested in Anime.  I tapped this out, and thought I'd repost it here.]

Since some others here have mentioned how they got into anime, I thought I’d do the same. I remember watching Speed Racer (wow, was I shocked when that became popular again thanks to Will Smith and MTV in the 80’s), Battle of the Planets, and Starblazers (I even saw the third series on TV, though few believe that it was ever really on in English) as a child in the 70’s, but I doubt it ever occurred to me that they came from Japan.

It was a Saturday morning in the mid-80’s that I became interested in anime thanks to a 90 minute special called Codename: Robotech. In a word, compared to cartoons I had seen before, mind-blowing. Thereafter, I faithfully watched and recorded the show every weekday. I discovered the word “anime” thanks to a big, glossy book named Robotech Art 1. In addition to character sketches, an episode guide, and a production history, there was a whole chapter on anime and manga. You mean there’s more of this stuff out there! To quote Igor from Dork Tower, “It must be mine!”

Lucky for me, there on the border in El Paso, Texas, I had access to comic book shop owned by an Asian fellow from California. Not that he stocked much Japanese stuff, but I had a supplier. After Robotech came out, a few independent publishers tentatively put out a few titles. Hard to imagine now, but one could actually collect every Japanese comic published in the US at the time without going broke. I limited myself (or rather my meager funds limited) to getting Area 88, Mai the Psychic Girl, Battle Angel Alita, Appleseed, the Robotech comics (which was not actually produced in Japan), and a few, precious movie books from Japan, in lieu of actually being able to see them.

I have to make a special mention of a couple of manga. Akira was originally published by Marvel (Epic imprint) and was in color. I mean glorious, eye-poping animation cell-like color. Few manga would look good colorized, but the finely detailed lines here worked perfectly. It is a crying shame that this version hasn’t been reprinted. You seriously have no idea what you missed. (I no longer have mine, don’t ask.) The other is Adam Warren’s Dirty Pair. Incredibly, there was no manga version of the Lovely Angels at that time (only novels and anime). How a couple of Americans got the license is inexplicable. “Plague of Angels,” “Sim Hell,” and especially “Fatal, But Not Serious” are masterpieces of Sci-Fi and social satire in graphic novel form.

Strangely, the best source of anime I had was a Juarez station. They showed quite a bit of interesting stuff, such as Millennium Princess, Sailor Moon (unedited, Japanese version, where the girls actually died), Saint Seiya, and a slate of older movies. Anime on videotape was only a rumor to me at the time. I got more up to date information from magazines like Protoculture Addicts and Animag.

I guess Pokemon is credited with actually getting anime to stick in the US. I’ve never actually seen it. When I moved a little further north to Las Cruces, New Mexico in the 90’s, anime was now available everywhere. I rented or bought Evangelion, Ranma, Crusher Joe, Kimagure Orange Road, Macross Plus, Ninja Scroll, Ghost in the Shell, and many others. Information (though not streaming videos) could be found on the Internet (thank you especially to Ex.org, Rest In Peace). I even managed to get several volumes of the Kimagure Orange Road manga and actually understood them thanks to a saintly person posting a full translation guide on the Internet.

Later in the DVD era, I’d buy Robotech (to replace my over-watched tapes), Evangelion (again), Cowboy Bebop, and Martian Successor Nadesco. I got plenty of information thanks to Newtype USA (I had few copies of the Japanese version, it was nice to able to read the articles) and the Internet. I hung out at the college’s anime night and watched several movies (like Evangelion and Utena) and series (like DNA^2 and Berserk).

Anime had become fairly mainstream and manga finally found the right format and venue and exploded. In short, I couldn’t keep up with it anymore, or perhaps didn’t want to. I don’t blame Evangelion (the series or movie). That show actually spiked my interest. In spite of my complaints about the end, it was very entertaining up to that point.

I typically credit Witchhunter Robin with ending my active interest in anime. The promotion in Newtype looked very cool and had a great premise. When finally got to see the first four episodes, I was shocked by how flat it fell in actual viewing. Call it the “Evangelion Effect.” I’d noticed a recurring theme in several shows, where the producers had apparently decided to try and capitalize on Rei’s popularity by making their characters emotionally numb. I, apparently, had seen that motif repeated one too many times. Anime was no longer fun and I gave up.

This isn’t fair to Robin. I’m told it gets better about halfway through. Certainly Macross Zero and Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex (sorry, again, apparently the two episodes I watched were not indicative of the rest of the show) disappointed me just as badly. Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon, which I found on Youtube, may have also played a part. This was a live-action version of the cartoon and was produced with so much warmth, comedy, and drama, it actually overshadowed the other versions I’d seen.

The last new anime I saw was last year on SyFy. It was one of the Gundams, and I’m too lazy to look up which one, but I’d really enjoyed it, even with its questionable premise, deus ex machina, all-too-abrupt ending, and death to all the main characters (though they get better in the sequel). So, I’m still a fan. Rei, Madoka (a Japanese Veronica from Kimagure Orange Road), and Dirty Pair posters are still on the wall. And I still think Robotech is awesome.