Age: 22
Location: New York
When did you discover anime? Share as much as you remember.
I discovered anime through Toonami when I was four or five. My first show was Dragon Ball Z. I was hooked ever since.
What appealed to you about anime when you first discovered it? The cool fights and art.
What about the art specifically appealed to you? I think the biggest reason I liked the art was because of how detailed and kind of angular it was, in comparison to the regular American cartoons at least.
What would you say was the most popular anime at the time? Dragon Ball Z or Pokemon.
What was it like to be a part of anime fandom at the time? Basically every kid at school was watching shows after school so it didn’t really feel special.
Why didn’t it feel special? It was kind of mainstream, lots of kids had Dragon Ball and Pokemon stationary. Maybe if I was older and had access to shows not on TV I’d feel weird about sharing my interest in anime with people, but not the way things were then when everyone was into it.
Do you remember the first time you connected with other fans, in person or online? Besides talking to kids at school about power levels and such I think the first time I really talked about anime outside was waiting on line to buy Pokemon Platinum, there were so many anime fans at Nintendo World, I almost felt obligated to join in a conversation. The first time I really connected with fans online though was probably in 2013 when I started using Twitter a lot more. Before then I’d look at anime forums for download links but never post anything, heh.
What made you stick with anime even after you were done with DBZ? Toonami continued to show more stuff that caught my interest and then I got access to DVDs coming out and a international channel that aired some shows in Japanese without subtitles, like Detective Conan.
Could you tell me about your first anime con? I’ve never been to an anime convention, but with Anime NYC coming up, I might change that.
What’s the biggest contrast between anime fandom when you got into it and now? How many different types of anime fans there are now from the sakuga crowd, to the people that only love certain studios, and those that follow certain directors. It doesn’t feel strange but I think it should.
Why should it feel strange? I mean I get how anime became bigger and different people like it for different reasons but when I think about how it was marketed at least, it should feel weird to me that people follow anime for certain directors, voice actors, or studios .
How was it marketed? I think I mean when I used watch to commercials for new shows, they would focus on the genre or subject. Now people who don’t care about that stuff in a show might still watch it if their favorite director was directing it or a certain voice actor was in it. Fans get invested today not only because of who the show is marketed for, but because they care about the production behind it.
Alexander can be reached on Twitter.