I discovered anime on TV. I used to record onto VHS too.

A reply to a post by bateszi.

Yes, I know that The Land Before Time isn’t an anime. Bear with me.

It all started with afternoon cartoons. I started watching cartoons at a very young age. The first animated movie I watched was The Land Before Time. I vaguely remember the first time I watched it since I was only 3 years old. However, relatives say that I watched it over and over again.

And cried every single time Littlefoot’s mother dies.

Eventually, I branched out to Disney movies such as The Little Mermaid and Aladdin. I never liked Snow White. Her voice irritated me. Then I started watching cartoons on television such as Looney Tunes and Jonny Quest (which, coincidentally, my mom enjoyed in her childhood as well) and Scooby Doo. After a while, I discovered anime.

Sarah

At that time I didn’t know of the concept of anime nor was I even aware that the cartoons I was watching was from Japan. Among these series were Princess Sarah and Anne of Green Gables. Neither did I realize this while watching Voltes V and Daimos(the first time at least). It was Sailor Moon that formally introduced me to anime, around grade 3 or 4.

I was an avid fan. I collected figures (toys to me back then), cards (which someone stole) and others (including a magnetized dress-up doll…thing). My illustration style also reflected how much I liked the series. I would sketch Sailor Moon over and over again until I could draw her from memory. To me they were pretty good illustrations (until I revisited them in high school).

However, it was only after watching Gundam Wing in 1997 that I became an anime fan. I started watching more. I watched any and (just about) every series aired on local TV. This included Magic Knight Rayearth, YuuYuu Hakusho (known in the Philippines as Ghost Fighter) and Rurouni Kenshin (Samurai X).

Then came AXN: Fushigi Yuugi, You’re Under Arrest, Ranma 1/2, etc.

I wasn’t very fond of dubbed anime (and still am not) so I rejoiced when they aired subtitled anime. They would eventually revert to English dubs but by then, anime was available in VHS then VCD format. I didn’t have the money to acquire these so I just watched with a friend who had them. We would spend afternoons and rainy days watching Card Captor Sakura and Record of Lodoss War (OAV/OVA), among others.

The LaserDisc cover of the 1991 OAV/OVA

Oh, I forgot to mention. Sometime between Sailor Moon and Gundam Wing I also watched anime on Laser Disc format. The two series I watched were Gall Force and Blue Sonnet. Mermaid Forest was also available but I depended on my parents to rent the LDs so asking them to rent a cartoon with a naked woman on the cover was out of the question.

I graduated from high school in 2004, around the time that Naruto was gaining popularity. I watched it from the beginning but eventually lost interest. That and I also lost my source of anime: my high school best friend. It was not until a couple of years ago that I started collecting on my own. In the meantime, I was busy with my first year of university and didn’t watch much anime anymore.

That changed when I moved to Canada and was introduced to Honey and Clover. Nostalgia swept me away and I was hooked to this series, constantly asking for new episodes from a new friend. It was after this that I decided to obtain my own copies and stop relying on others for my anime. Currently I have a long list of anime that I’m watching and planning to watch. I believe Kannagi is the only series from this season that I am currently following. I was really excited about Ga-Rei Zero but dropped it after the third or fourth episode.

So there you go, the “how” in the history of my being an anime fan. As for “why”, I’ll tackle that in another post. This one’s long enough.