How did it start? How and when did I start watching anime? How did I get addicted?
Haha, it's pretty short at the beginning, but then it becomes long in the middle.
I don't remember when did I start watching anime but what I do know is that I was not so into it because the anime my local television aired on TV was dubbed into Malay. I watched Sailor Moon, Dragon Ball, Doraemon, Crayon Shin-chan, the old type of anime, basically. Then there was also Pokemon in English and Digimon in Malay. I was just like, "Oh, it's just a common TV show." I often see new animes back then coming out on TV like Cardcaptor Sakura, Bleach, Fullmetal Alchemist, etc.. But then, when I turned 14, the world of anime came to me, and I ran into it's light.
It all started last year when a friend of mine, who I call, Vegi, transferred out of my school asked if I want to watch this new anime, one day when I went to visit him at his house. The anime was the now famous, Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle. I actually did not want it but I took it anyway because I did not want to upset a friend who I won't see for a long time. I had no homework, so when I got home, after my shower, I watched the DVD Vegi lend to me. For the first episode, I was not entertained, but when I got to the next, I was getting interested. I watched the show the whole afternoon till evening that I forgot to cook dinner. My mom scolded me but she did the cooking, so went back to watching the show. I finished the whole season in 2 days and returned the DVD a few days later because Vegi was not home that few times. When I returned the DVD, Vegi lend me the second season of Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle. But my DVD player wont play it because the second season's disks was meant for computers and my computer was totally busted. I disappointingly returned the disks.
After a few weeks later, my cousin who's studying in Australia phoned me and told me that he bought me a new computer for use because before he left, he helped to fix and upgrade my old computer. I was high in cloud nine! I was like flying over the rainbow and jumping into a pit of gold. I was excited and could not wait for the computer to arrive.
After a month, the computer reached my doorstep (my dad actually picked it up from some place where large mail is received). I set up the computer and got it starting. After all the intro things and the registration confirmations, I got in. Yippy!
I went back to Vegi's house to borrow the disks and I brought it home to watch, and in that whole afternoon, I finished half the season. I started feeling excitement in the show and notice how it is similar to CSI and the cartoons I watched back then. After finishing the whole season the next day, I downloaded the episodes into the computer and returned the disks, this way, I can watch the anime over and over again. Unfortunately, I can't download the first season because of some protection programme. Through Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle I started learning the Japanese language and started singing Japanese songs. I did not have the Internet connection back then so I was still watching Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle season 2 over and over again. I also bought the soundtracks to listen to the songs.
A few months later, my parents got me the Internet connection. I was a bloody shit noob so I only got Internet help from my friend Joshua. He told me about Wikipedia, some Bionicle sites, YouTube and how to use MSN. I slowly learned my way through and found more animes from Wikipedia. I wanted to find more animes and watch them in Japanese but YouTube mostly had them in English dubs, so I searched and searched until I found, Crunchyroll and later on, Megavideo.
Usually I hang out in Wikipedia and look at Pokemon, the new ones that appears in Pokemon: Diamond and Pearl were the ones that amazed me the most because it was not announced in Malaysia yet. Then I went into looking for anime in Crunchyroll, the second anime I watched was Bamboo Blade. I saw an article in the papers about it being released just recently (at that time) and I watched it with joy and I was interested in kendo. I learned a few basic moves but of course, without a proper trainer and gear, I suck. Then, Eyeshield 21 caught my eye. I became interested in American football (I started playing this year because my friend had a ball). Through the "What Others Liked" section next to the playing screen in Crunchyroll, I watched another famous favorite, Yakitate!! Japan. I was glad I found this anime because I liked bread and did not know about all the different types of bread other than the normal dinner bread, wholemeal bread, French bread, sausage buns, pita, and coffee bread or what we call Mexican bun.
Soon, I watched more and more animes, I have a whole list of animes I finished and animes in my "To Watch" list. A few of those I have finished are, Hand Maid May, Otome wa Boku ni Koishiteru, Tonagura, Chobits, Nagasarete Airantou, Lucky Star, Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuutsu, Amaenaideyo!!, Bokusastu Tenshi Dokuro-chan, Futakoi, Happy Seven, and more. Currently I'm watching a new anime that just got released, Strike Witches, and also Bleach, Eyeshield 21 and Animal Yokocho.
There are a few animes I "abandon" because,
1) Boring (Ginban Kaleidoscope)
2) Too long, a scene lasts a few episodes (Naruto, Naruto Shippuden)
3) Pointless-like (Demashita! Powerpuff Girls Z)
4) Too many episodes, so I finish the short ones first (One Piece, Digimon, Pokemon)
5) Watch this some other time... (Kashimashi: Girl Meets Girl)
6) Lost the link to the anime because Crunchyroll does not have it (Yamato Nadeshiko Shichi Henge)
I found Gendou this year and downloaded a bunch of songs I heard from the animes I've watched (goodbye to buying soundtracks~) and heard (my sister also picked up the anime fever and she watches some animes I don't watch). I have also got into the world of JDrama, I've watched Nodame Cantabile and Proposal Daisakusen.
So, now that Japanese had invaded my life, I started learning more and more about the Japanese language. Now I'm even included mangas and now working on a doujinshi or fanga or fan art of Bleach, finding that Tite Kubo had an excellent idea and I like it.
With a few friends who also love animes and mangas, I belive I am one step closer to going to Japan.
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