Category: North America

Age: 26

Location: New York

When did you discover anime? I had my first brush with anime (other than whatever was on Saturday morning TV) in the 7th grade. It was about 2002 and I was a bit of an outsider at my school for standing out too much. (Partially because I was too smart for my own good and partially because I didn’t belong to the predominant demographic of students.) As a result, I often got in to fights with people and was bullied.

That eventually lead me to a small group of seemingly neutral people (since every day was a “battle”) who were really chill. Somehow we became friends and I found out they were into this thing called “anime” and the girls of the group really liked something called “yaoi“. Eventually they tried to indoctrinate me with Ranma 1/2 but I was a little weirded out. To be fair though, I was literally 12 and my reaction was “what is this?” Eventually we become pretty good friends and they managed to get me interested in anime with Yu Yu Hakusho.

What was the predominant demographic that you didn’t fit into? And does that mean that where you’re from, anime was for outsiders? My school was in a predominantly Hispanic neighborhood where most people were from the same country. If I wanted to fit in, I either had to have that shared cultural / national identity or get really in to sports. Unfortunately neither option was feasible so I encountered quite a bit of friction. I’m only half-Hispanic (but not from that country in particular) and was the first mixed-race person most of those kids had ever met. On top of that, I’ve never been interested in sports and used to be fairly clumsy. As the saying goes, “the nail that sticks up gets hammered down”.

I wouldn’t say anime was for outsiders. At the time anime wasn’t really taken in to account in the social pecking order.

What appealed to you about anime when you first discovered it? At first I was actually a bit put off because my first exposure was at the hands of die-hard fujoshi. (As the second guy in their group… the look in their eyes signaled they had dark plans.) But over time as I was exposed to different genres and different stories I started to become enamored with how exciting the plots and fights could be. Also it was so different from the cartoons I was used to seeing on TV.

Do you still know any of those fans? Do you still hang out with fans who have a sub-interest, the way fujoshi do? I lost touch with that group after I graduated middle school unfortunately. Right now I hang out with fans of all sorts and most people have a number of interests. The most common ones I see are magical girls, sports and yuri though.

What would you say was the most popular anime at the time? It might have been YuGiOh! I remember a lot of the kids would duel each other after school around that time.

What was it like to be a part of anime fandom at the time? I wasn’t really a part of the fandom then, I wound up getting in to it two or three years down the line. But at the time it was really really niche. Even the term “anime” wasn’t something most of my classmates were familiar with. And since I only had a group of three people to judge the fandom from at the time, I found it a bit jarring.

Was the Internet a part of fandom at the time? It might have been but I was too young to know. I mean… I was still getting AOL dial-up CDs in the mail.

What was your first anime purchase? My first purchase was the premium edition of Toradora Vol 2 on DVD. (I wanted to buy both volumes as a reward for getting my first real professional job but Vol 1 was sold out at the time.)

Do you remember your first convention? My first convention was New York Anime Fest (NYAF) 2009, in my freshman year of college. A friend had scored some free one-day tickets and so we went as a group for a few of hours.

It was probably one of the most significant events in my anime fandom (career?). Before then it hadn’t dawned on me the how massive the breadth and scope of anime truly was, not to mention just how many fandoms overlapped, intersected and fell under the umbrella of the anime fandom. It was also my first exposure to cosplay, stage events and convention centers in general.

It was a loud and fast blur but exhilarating. Seeing so many different people come together and be excited about the same thing while simultaneously expressing that excitement in so many different ways left me with a feeling I can’t forget. The icing on the cake though was that thing everyone was so excited about, anime, was something that I could relate to for a change. Before that the only similar unified enthusiasm I had seen for something was about sports, but I never could get in to that.

NYAF would wind up changing my destiny. It was the event that made me realize that conventions were something I wanted to be a part of some how.

Change your destiny? I wasn’t really sure how to get involved with conventions at that point. I just knew that I wanted to go to more of them. It hadn’t yet occurred to me that there were people who made conventions run, but as chance would have it, schoolwork would steer me towards convention staffing.

My final project for one of the classes I was taking that year was to build a website from scratch. I decided to build a blog about anime, music and games called leetNEET. On a whim I decided to actually host it online where one of my closest friends used to keep finding new ways to break the site. We’d go back and forth between me adding new features and him breaking things. Eventually the site became pretty decent in terms of functionality but lacking any content.

The following fall, I attended NYAF again having more time to look around and talk to people. It dawned on me that there were people who blogged about anime and conventions walking around with press badges. Since I was already a a broke college student by this point, I decided that if I wanted to go to more conventions I could try and do the same thing. (Similar to how Destructoid was originally founded so that they could get in to E3.)

I gathered a bunch of my friends from high school and some my new friends from college to take a stab at it. Somehow that actually worked out… I received my first press pass in 2010! Meanwhile, as I met more and more people at my school I fell in with the anime club crowd. There I learned that they had been running a small anime convention every year during spring break. I started both attending and covering that convention for my blog. Knowing a lot of the people on staff gave me the freedom I needed to get great coverage but as a result I’d also get dragged in to help resolve convention issues as they arose. By the next year I was a de facto volunteer and also writing their press releases for them

Then one day, I happened to be bumming around campus when one of the anime club’s members (who also was writing for my site at the time) passed by on his way to a con planning meeting. He told me to tag along and by the end of that meeting I was appointed to be a department head. It was then that I really got my first taste of what makes conventions tick and I was hooked.

Unfortunately, as of 2013 and 2015 respectively, both leetNEET and that convention no longer exist. I’d return to staffing conventions again eventually but in the interim I formed a panel group (Hen Tie Cake) with some of my convention friends and now we host panels and game shows at several conventions a year.

I’m still involved in staffing cons today. I’m currently on staff at both AnimeNEXT and Otakon.

For you, what’s the biggest difference between your anime fandom then and now? The biggest difference between when I first got in to anime and now is that before I used to be a passive consumer of both anime and fandom. Now, I’m in the thick of it. I attend way too many conventions. I talk to strangers about anime in real life as a panelist and online via twitter. On very rare occasions I’ll even still write about anime. I’m definitely way more involved and engaged now.

Greg can be reached on Twitter. 

Age: 27

Location: Atlanta, Georgia

When did you discover anime? As a kid I watched all the standard stuff like Pokemon, but the first show of which I was truly aware as “anime” would most likely be G-Gundam. That’s the first I remember, at least. From there I picked up Helen McCarthy and Jonathan Clements’ Anime Encyclopedia, which I found to be a valuable resource despite all the excessive and unnecessary vitriol it hurls at shows I’ve come to adore. Tech TV’s Anime Unleashed block also helped enable me, most specifically Betterman and Vandread, and STARZ would occasionally run OVAs like 3×3 Eyes and Gunsmith Cats which were just thrilling to see on my TV listings. I still love all the series I just listed, too. In my quest for variety while consuming as much anime as I could, I ended up with a somewhat different list of favorite anime that skewed just slightly older than other fans my age. It made making anime friends a little hard at first.

But eventually it worked out and now I’m wota garbage. And happy about it!

How did your interest in anime lead to your interest in idols/wota fandom? It’s Ranko Kanzaki from IDOLM@STER’s fault. I’d been peripherally aware of the idol industry for a about a decade, and somehow, I discovered that Ranko was excruciatingly adorable in exactly my sort of way. When I first saw her base art from the Cinderella Girls mobile game, I screamed and showed all my friends. This was the push I needed to dive right into the deep end of the idol industry, and now I’m quite invested in not just IDOLM@STER, but also Aikatsu, Dempagumi.inc, ’80s idols like Shizuka Kudou, and too many more for my own good.

What appealed to you about anime when you first discovered it? Western animation was (and still is, really) so limited in what it tries to do. It’s almost all comedy, and when it’s not it’s usually either a long-form toy commercial or just not very good. Even when I was 11 or so, I just wanted more than that. Animation has the potential to tell stories that are impossible with live action, and anime was (and often still is) the only segment of it that actually DOES that. It was just nice to see the creators of the shows themselves taking their work as seriously as I took it.

What would you say was the most popular anime at the time? I don’t remember that well, but I want to say Inuyasha. My own “awakening” came a bit before it even premiered (a friend of mine had even been downloading fansubs of it on Kazaa for a few months before Adult Swim got it), but I wasn’t actually all that aware of a greater anime community until the show’s American popularity was already in full swing.

What was it like to be a part of anime fandom at the time? As stated earlier, for a very long time after I got into anime my relevant activities were confined to my group of friends from school, so I don’t actually know what it was like being part of the “fandom” at the time. Honestly, I would say I’m still mostly disengaged from the Western aspect of it—I try to interact with the Japanese end of things and keep my local activities confined to my own social groups. I started going to conventions when I was twelve, but most of what I’ve always done at those pertains to my particular niche, the guests, or the merchandise.

Was the Internet a part of fandom at the time? I’m well aware that it was, but I didn’t get my own computer until a few years later and so most of my real online interaction began with, unfortunately, Gaia Online. Around the time I actually got into anime, my anime-centric internet usage was confined to downloading hentai on my friend’s computer after he fell asleep. Middle school was wild.

Was your friend aware of this? Was it a prank? Did you guys actually watch hentai? I don’t ever remember sitting down and actually watching hentai together, but if that particular friend wasn’t so possessive I’m sure he’d have at least shared a bit more of the stuff he was telling me about.  But he was possessive, and his room was nightmarishly filthy, so when he fell asleep far earlier than the term “sleepover” usually implies, I was left with nothing to do since I was most definitely not going to sleep in the flatulently-scented, heavily stained blanket he’d prepared for me.  Sometimes I’d download old Family Guy episodes and watch those, but if you give a twelve-year-old boy a magical box that offers the choice between animated comedy and animated boobs, he’s usually going to pick the latter.  I don’t think the friend ever found out, but thanks to the combined forces of boredom and puberty, I would stay up until dawn watching hentai just about every time I went to his disgusting house.

Also, would love to hear more about Gaia Online. What did you do there? How did anime fans use the service? This is embarrassing to admit, but I started off doing some roleplaying there, though eventually I became more active in the “Clubs” section where a lot of anime-centric discussion took place. More specifically, I mostly frequented a yuri club and a Guilty Gear club. I was disillusioned with the place pretty quickly after that, though – some of the grossest people I’ve ever encountered were from Gaia – so when I was fourteen I just took to tricking people out of their accounts for fun until I finally quit. I have almost no fond memories of Gaia, but it was a large presence in my life for a year or two.

Do you remember your first convention? My first convention was Anime Weekend Atlanta 9 in 2003, and not knowing what it really was, my brother, our friend, and I were dropped off on Sunday at around noon. Just about everything was closing, but I was given money to burn so the dealer’s room really blew me away. The most memorable part of my time there was a Decipher, Inc. employee desperately trying to sell us on the just-released .hack card game that obviously never took off. We each bought a pack; I still have the cards in my drawer. Anyway, despite a very minimal convention experience, we were so excited that we all went back the next year for much longer. I’ve actually been to every AWA since then.

What were your favorite parts or some interesting moments? I really don’t remember much from my first convention. Since then I’ve typically attended with either friends from school or friends met at previous conventions. There are far too many memories to go into much detail, but I can give a few. I’ve hosted a Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure posing panel a few times, blown hundreds of dollars in the dealers’ room, met some Japanese guests, and even worked with some as an interpreter. My brother and I used to hold unofficial Cereal Parties late at night at our regular conventions, too. They’re exactly what they sound like; we just bring a bunch of cereal and eat it with friends and passing strangers. So, if I had to give one favourite thing, I guess I’d say conventions have allowed me to expand my social circle beyond what my normal surroundings would allow.

For you personally, what’s the biggest difference between anime fandom then and now? I’d definitely have to say the availability of the material.  What was popular then was what was being shown on American T.V.  As a middle school kid with very little spending money, I simply didn’t have the means or even the chance to get into fansubs.  What I saw in those days amounted to whatever was on Cartoon Network or TechTV, along with the occasional rental from Blockbuster or Hollywood Video.  I remember my aforementioned slovenly friend telling me about Inuyasha before Cartoon Network picked it up, but he never did actually show it to me, so beyond hentai he wasn’t much of a resource.  These days, though, I can watch any anime I want almost instantly.  For older series a lack of torrent seeds is sometimes an issue, but even then, most things can be found streaming somewhere, often instantly after broadcast in the case of newer shows.  A few times I’ve even seen a new episode of something before my brother in Japan has, which to my middle school self would sound impossible.  Additionally, I’m someone who prefers to own physical copies of things, so the fact that I’m now able to get just about any anime or related thing from Japan and have it sent to my house is pretty incredible.

Victor can be reached on Twitter. 

Age: 34

Location: Orlando, Florida

When did you discover anime? I’m sure a lot of people have the same old story of “I was watching anime before I knew it was anime” type of stories that involved shows like Voltron and Robotech. While that applies to me as well, my first encounter with something I KNEW was anime was the Tenchi Universe TV series. It was around 1997 or 1998 when my best friend borrowed the first VHS volume and had me come over and watch it. I was so enamored with it that I watched all four episodes AGAIN later that night. That opened the door for other popular series at the time like Ranma 1/2, Evangelion, Slayers, and Dragon Ball Z to consume my free time… and my wallet.

How much did anime cost back then? How did you afford it and where did you buy it? Anime VHS tapes varied depending on what you were buying. If it was a fansub on VHS, the average price was around $15-20 per tape. You’d only find these tapes at a dealer at a local convention or if you were lucky, an Asian hobby store like Florida Oriental Trading here in Orlando. Official releases varied on if you bought English dubbed or English Subtitled. Dubs tended to range from $20-25 while subs were around the $30-35 range. And sadly, you would only get two episodes of content for a TV series or an OVA.

As for money, anytime I had some extra cash it would go towards the hobby. I was fortunate to have a small, monthly allowance from my Dad. At other times, I would save lunch money for the week and use that towards a new volume of Ranma 1/2, Tenchi Muyo, Slayers, etc… Needless to say, I had a decent VHS collection at the time.

What appealed to you about anime when you first discovered it? If I had to sum it up to one thing, it had to be the barriers that it broke through that was prevalent in domestic animated series and films in the U.S. I’d rarely seen anything in animated form have stories and characters that felt three dimensional or the mature content it tackled. Once I got a taste of it I had to see more.

What would you say was the most popular anime at the time? If we’re talking mainstream, and I mean stuff that was on TV, it had to be DBZ or Sailor Moon. If we’re talking fans who actual bought VHS tapes my answer would have to be Evangelion.

What was it like to be a part of anime fandom at the time? It was the ultimate secret club. I felt like I was apart of something underground and exclusive. If you ever met someone else who was into anime at the time and knew the “secret handshake” so-to-speak, you had the chance to make a new friend. Hell, I still have a few friends from high school like that. We bonded over anime. Started up a club after school and would watch everything from official VHS releases to a new fansub someone had acquired.

Tell me about the club! Where did you meet? Did you have a teacher supervisor? Do you still know anyone from then? My old high school anime club came around when I saw a flier posted around school. I was really excited that I would get to meet new people who shared in what felt like a small, secret fandom. I quickly bonded with most of the club and still have a few people I consider dear friends to this day. We had a few teacher sponsors who allowed us access to a classroom after school on Wednesdays. I was the VP and unofficial “tape guy.” No matter what, I always had a tape ready to go watch. In year two, I had to move away due to family issues. But it had tripled in size from the original dozen who started it. From what I was told, the club slowly evolved into a place where people would congregate to play Pokemon and YuGiOh! card games. It was almost like a bridge from ’90s anime fandom to the boom of the 2000s in that regard.

Was the Internet a part of fandom at the time? Yes, even in the old dial-up internet days I consumed as much content as possible. I was a frequent visitor to the old Anime Web Turnpike and various “web rings” for all my favorite shows. Fanfiction was also a great avenue to get more of your favorite shows when you had to wait months on end in between tape purchases. Old message boards like rec.arts.anime were the norm. I even listened to old Real Audio internet radio shows. These things predated podcasts. I even still have a few on an old external hard drive. They have not aged well.

Can you tell me about Real Audio internet radio shows? What did they cover? How did you listen to them? I did NOT know about these! I was obsessed with getting as much information as I could about anime and the fandom in general in ’97-98. I would be online daily checking out the Anime Web Turnpike for webrings and anything I could find on my favorite shows. I don’t remember exactly HOW I came upon this, but I remember listening to an “internet radio show” that I’d stream through the Real Audio player simply called “Otaku Radio.” Original title, right? Hosted by guys named “Tirkiman” and “Stratos” would talk about whatever they were watching at the time. I think they had over 50+ episodes. From what I recall, they lived in Atlanta. Anime Weekend Atlanta was a common topic of conversation. I believe there was an episode dedicated to time travel differences between Dragon Ball Z and Kimagure Orange Road. But one in particular I remember was right around the debut of DBZ and Gundam Wing on Toonami. It was not kind to the rise of anime popularity with girls at all. Lots of “boys treehouse club” talk is the kindest way I would describe it. Listening to it again in 2017 was really odd.

Sounds like a time capsule! Where can I listen to it? That old show is LONG GONE from the internet. HOWEVER, I do have an old episode I converted and uploaded to my soundcloud. This episode was recorded around 2000 sometime.

Here’s the link to it:

Do you remember your first convention? I was a frequent attendee at Megacon in Orlando in the late ’90s. It was a catch all convention that had everything, including anime. My first “anime only” con had to be the first Anime Festival Orlando back in 1999 or 2000. AFO started small. Had a dealer’s room that had a ton of stuff I wanted at the time. Wendi Lee was the marquee guest. Overall, I remember it most for hanging out with friends at the time.

For you personally, what’s the biggest difference between anime fandom back then and now? The biggest difference by far is how many more casual fans there are in 2017. Back in 1996, finding someone else who liked anime was like finding a unicorn. if you found someone who liked anime you became instant friends. You had to be hardcore to like anime. You had to have the zeal to hunt down and learn as much as possible. Going to conventions that had an anime viewing room was a big deal because you may get to see something you’ve never seen before. In 2017, it’s insane how much access you have to everything. What’s nuts to me, there’s currently a fourth Tenchi Muyo OVA series being released and almost no one is talking about it. That would have blown my mind in 1997. There are so many other examples I could give. Just the idea of being able to watch almost every single new series from Japan literally an hour after it airs on TV for $7 a month has me flabbergasted. I have a lot of nostalgia for the early days of my anime fandom, but I love what it’s become today. Anime is still a minority in the world of fandom, but it’s no longer invisible like it was twenty years ago.

You mentioned you were in the army after you finished school, and I’d love to hear some stories about anime fandom in the military. 

How did you meet other anime fans in the army? Meeting other anime fans in the army basically always happened by someone either seeing me watching or talking about anime. When you live on post and reside in the barracks, you end up with a duty known as “CQ” where you basically work the front desk of the building checking IDs, allowing food deliveries to go up, visitors, etc. While on said duty, you basically spend 24 hours straight watching TV and playing video games. I used this opportunity to watch anime on the government’s dime. Every so often someone would notice Cowboy Bebop or Dragon Ball Z on the TV and strike up conversation about it. That sometimes led to me recommending other shows and vice versa. One time I met an anime fan on Fort Bragg through MySpace of all things. Dude was literally half a mile from where I lived. He was really into Go Nagai and giant robot shows, which was really amazing considering that it was early to mid-2000s and I didn’t know too many people like that outside of the internet. One my favorite stories I like to tell is a guy who once asked me if I had “L.A. Blue Girl”—he pronounced it like the city and not “la.” Sadly for him I did not possess a copy. Funny side note to that, I heard a local mom and pop video store was closing down and selling old VHS. I went in to see if they had any anime. and SURE ENOUGH, a random copy of LA Blue Girl volume 4 was in the porn section. Later that week, I surprised him and presented him with it. He smiled and thanked me. I truly felt I had made a difference in someone’s life that day. Doing a little more digging online I actually found a local anime club called the East Coast Anime Society that had been around for a while. Met some more cool people who actually made fanzines from the early to mid-90s. Most of the group contributed to Animazement for many years too.

Life changes when it becomes known that you’re the “anime guy” in the unit. I’ve had numerous people knock on my door on different bases around the world, most whom I didn’t even know, asking me if I had anything from Naruto to Full Metal Panic Fumoffu. I felt like I was a local drug dealer. “Hey man, you got the animes?” was a regular question asked. I was even put on the spot by a superior to, and I’m not kidding when I say this, recite a monologue from an anime. I was given 24 hours to come up with something. I went with a few lines from one of my favorite series Giant Robo. Kenji Kurusame’s famous dub line of “I’m just an immortal kind of guy” went over very well with the good staff sergeant. I know it sounds weird, but that’s how we killed time during a deployment to Afghanistan.

During my last month in Afghanistan, I was on guard duty for our camp on Bagram Air Base. We had just started hiring local Afghan security forces to assist us working the gate. Basically I was in charge and got to stay in the shack while they handled the work outside. I had a few volumes of manga for such situations. While reading one volume of Densha Otoko aka Train Man, I had flipped to a page where the female lead was taking a shower and was clearly nude. The Afghan guard that was sitting next to me at the time noticed and his eyes widened in surprise. His interest in my reading material had increased ten fold and then asked if he could “borrow” it so he could practice reading English. He swore up and down that he’d get it back to me a week later. I politely declined knowing that had I lent it out I would never get it back, and also, if he got caught with it and got in trouble for whatever reason I KNEW it would get back to me somehow. I was so relieved when that shift ended.

How did you acquire new anime while you were in the army? This answer is going to be fun. At first I would go around Fayetteville, NC checking every brick and mortar store I could find for DVDs. FYE, Best Buy, and a few other nameless movie/CD stores were regular destinations. Believe it or not, the Babbages at the mall was notorious for breaking street dates for new anime releases. Got them five days early. Always loved getting the new volume of Yu Yu Hakusho that way. The PX on Fort Bragg was like that too sometimes. What was even better was that a lot of those mid-2000s perfect collections that ADV would release would also be on the shelf at ridiculous fire sale prices. I’m talking MSRP $60-70 would be on sale for as low as $30. But the best place by far was a little known comic shop known as Phantasy Central.

Let me tell you, I have never been so lucky in my life than to have been stationed at Fort Bragg, North Carolina and to have discovered this lost hidden gem for anime fans…

By chance I had gotten into a conversation with someone at the aforementioned Babbages about anime I liked and went on how I wish there was some sort of place to get more anime. I was told to go to this little place in Spring Lake just outside of Fort Bragg. I hopped in a cab and headed straight over. As soon as I opened the door I was blown away by a gigantic VHS collection of anime. Dubbed, subtitled, fansubs… all for rent. I was in heaven. You name ANY anime commercially released in the US on VHS it was there. I was able to finally check out shows I only heard about. Imagine if Crunchyroll was a physical store where you could check out anime. It was that amazing. I watched all of Kimagure Orange Road over the period of a month. My worst mistake was watching the first KOR movie during my lunch break and went back to work holding back tears. I was asked if everything was OK multiple times the rest of the day. Sadly, the store had to close their doors a few years later. But that place was a regular hangout for me at the time and one I will never forget.

Was anime popular among soldiers? Why do you think that might have been? The easy answer is Dragon Ball Z. It was the hot show at the time came on TV right around when most soldiers were released for the day. It had a lot of action and over the top characters. I remember one time when deployed in Afghanistan, I brought my entire anime collection with me in about four large CD binders. When it was discovered I had Dragon Ball Z I was asked many times to borrow a few here and there. One guy even asked me to rip all 70+ DVDs and upload them to our shared media server we used to watch movies and TV shows. Needless to say, I did not have the time or the ability to accomplish such a task.

Sean can be reached on Twitter.

Age: 30

Location: United States

When did you discover anime? S Depends on the definition of “discover,” as I was exposed to Voltron, Battle of the Planets, Speed Racer, and others so early on they are formative memories. I thought about them in the same way that I thought about Transformers, G.I. Joe, Looney Tunes, or anything else on television—cartoons that I liked.

It wasn’t until I caught Demon City Shinjuku on Sci Fi Channel’s Saturday Anime (I was, what, 8? Maybe 9?) that I became aware of these things as a separate category of animation. It was a feeling similar to when you think, “Oh, I guess I haven’t eaten,” and then you realize you are famished. I began taping Saturday Anime religiously, scouring my grandparents’ TV Guide and newspaper for any sign of airings at strange hours, and renting out everything my local Blockbuster stocked.

Did you live with your grandparents? What did they think about your interest in anime? I was raised by a single mother so I often spent nights, weekends, or entire summers with my grandparents. They took no interest in my anime watching habits as they set up a spare TV for me to watch when I was over. This meant I had free reign, so I took every opportunity to ingest anime, kaiju movies, martial arts movies, and anything else I could find. There was a very real, tactile joy to poring over newspapers and/or Reader’s Digest and trying to find this stuff to watch and record later.

What appealed to you about anime when you first discovered it? Anime was playing with a completely different toolbox of genre tropes than I was used to, had a cinematic visual language unlike anything I had seen in American animation, and the level of detail communicated to me that these creators cared as much about animation as I did.

And, well, let’s be real—it had blood and kewl robots and lasers and did you see that dude’s head explode?!

What would you say was the most popular anime at the time? In a word: all. It was incredibly difficult to find, and finding other fans was similarly difficult. After a few failed initial attempts at getting some friends into it, I realized that what I thought was mana from heaven was apparently bizarre to some others. So when I did find other anime fans, we mostly just sat around watching each others’ collections and freaking out about it.

We saw anime as a monolithic pillar, and we loved all of it. Certain titles came up more often than others due to access (like Blockbuster) but until Toonami hit we didn’t really think in those terms. Anime still felt small, whether it really was or we were just dispersed.

What was it like to be a part of anime fandom at the time? Like being in a cult. Or, maybe like being in a cult inside of a cult, since even finding other “general” nerds was tough back then. Geek was not chic in those days—it would be decades before spandex-clad heroes would rake in billions at the box office.

Still, we loved it, it was like having a secret language. We could communicate in a way that no one else really “got” (whether they cared to was another matter).

Since people were quiet about liking anime, how did you find fellow fans? A careful mixture of tactics. The most obvious was asking others if they were fans outright or trying to bring it up casually in conversation (which was not at all casual given my social awkwardness at the time). This may seem strange, but a safe route was keeping my eyes peeled for people who drew a lot. Anime seemed to attract people who either could draw or desperately wished they could (I was/am in the latter category). But often people doodled in class or had art on their trapper keepers (if they were brave enough) and if it was in the “anime” style that was one way to spot new potential friends. Another route was attempting to show people anime that meshed well with existing fandoms like sci fi or fantasy; Bubblegum Crisis and Record of Lodoss War were great litmus tests in this regard. But overall I did anything I could to find new fans without sliding even further down the social ladder.

Where did you mostly hang out with these people? Did you introduce them to shows, or did they introduce you? The schoolyard mostly, and then later at one another’s houses if our parents would let us. We were too nervous to risk bringing tapes to school, so sleepover nights became mad dashes to show all of your favorites to one another and make copies if you had spare tapes. So it was a healthy mixture of both once that initial hurdle had been leapt.

You also mentioned failed attempts to get friends into it. Did you lose friends because of anime? I wouldn’t say I ever lost friends over anime, but my fandom certainly made me drift apart from others that either did not like it or lost interest over time. Though now that I think about it I may have subconsciously shut someone out at one point. I recall a former friend who I never really spent much time with after I showed him the Area 88 OVA and he bad-mouthed it the entire time.

Was the Internet a part of fandom at the time? If yes, how? If no, how did you connect with other fans? No, not until much later. Even when the internet appeared, it took a while for enough of us to have home computers and internet access to really even consider searching out fandom online.

Word of mouth, mainly.

Tell me about those early days after you finally did log on.  A lot of Geocities and Angelfire, and a lot of shrines [fan sites to specific anime or characters]. I used to pore over episode and film descriptions, having no clue whether it was accurate or not. I had become pretty skeptical of random nerd information at this point (such as video game rumors about ‘hidden levels’ or ‘secret moves’ that you spent hours trying to uncover, only to find they were a schoolyard lie… it hardens a child), so I was always reading with one eyebrow perched. Still, I voraciously consumed anything and everything I could find, much of it little more than a few words and some still images.

Mostly it started with Robotech, Battle for the Planets/G Force, Star Blazers, Voltron, and Japanese Transformers episodes, but soon it spiraled outwards into whatever else I would come across. I knew of many shows and films by reputation but never really ventured into trying to download entire episodes, and I’m not sure if such a concept even crossed my mind until late high school/college. Forums also helped a lot (I missed the usenet days entirely), but even there information could get dodgy. It was all very hodgepodge, often embellished or fabricated for the sake of making the speaker appear to be king/queen nerd. A lot of this information gathering was fun, but it required a lot of effort. Because of this I often spent a lot of time re-watching my favorite shows over and over while digging deeper into those specific fandoms. It was a safer return on my time investment than trying to find new things, a habit I am still trying to break decades later.

For you, what’s the biggest difference between fandom then and fandom now? It feels like we won the war in a way. It’s all here now—we can access basically every single bit of anime that is (and nearly all that was). Anime fandom feels like less of a struggle to get/see the shows, and more like a struggle to sift through the mounds of content and find what is worthwhile. It is not just a problem for young fans, either. I once worked an entire summer to save up the $150+tax for the complete set of six Record of Lodoss War tapes, but these days even I perk a brow at a $10 subscription fee for streaming content including hundreds of titles. Times change but the times also change us, I suppose.

Grant can be reached on Twitter.

Age: 24

Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada

When did you discover anime? My first experience with anime is one of my oldest memories, back when I watched mostly the public service broadcaster TVOntario, and my favourite book was The Little Engine That Could. I have vague recollections of that time of the little blonde haired kid who lived in space and went on adventures down on Earth by catching a ride on a comet by hooking one in a fishing net. Some 20 years later I discover the title of that show was Adventures of the Little Prince, which was part of the World Masterpiece Theatre franchise, adapting well-regarded global novels into children’s anime.

After that is a period where anime was always around, mixed in among my other cartoon entertainment. I remember watching Sailor Moon and Garfield most mornings before catching the school bus (Dragon Ball Z was on just before this, but was too early for me to catch). Pokemon and Digimon made big splashes with me and my brother, and everything that looked like them was nicknamed “-mon” on the schoolyard (“Yugimanz,” etc…).

The first time I made the connection that, “Oh all these shows are part of the same category,” was when I discovered Fullmetal Alchemist at age 12. My mother took us along for her friend’s wedding, sending us back to the hotel when it was time for the reception. So there we are flipping through channels late at night to amuse ourselves. We land on Adult Swim and the Phantom Thief episode is showing. The premise of the story and plot of the episode interested me, but the thing that struck me most at the time was the first accidental groping I had ever seen. Of course my hormone-riddled 12-year-old brain said “Yes, more of this please”. Google led me to a site that hosted the episodes and that linked to other series, and the rest is history.

I googled “Yugimanz” but I still don’t get it. Why did this meme get popular? I’d say from people only passingly familiar (maybe they can name Pikachu), and a little disdainful. It’s another proxy battle show with monsters, so it must follow the naming pattern, right? Add in a bit of leetspeak and it deforms farther.

What appealed to you about anime when you first discovered it? Everything anime did was big. Big emotions, big fights, big stupid idiots, big monsters, big worlds, big grandiose music, big flashy villains. But also stories like FMA that were quieter that told more intense stories with darker consequences than I was used to. It also appealed to my nerdiness: “This power works like this, and interacts with this other power because of such-and-such scientific property.”

What would you say was the most popular anime at the time? I was big into YuGiOh!, so as far as I’m concerned that was the most popular. Most anything on the FoxBox or Kids WB was A-list material in my book (Shaman King, Ultimate Muscle, Kirby, etc…). I think I just missed the Inuyasha bubble, and got in just as Death Note was hitting. The Big 3 Shonen Jump shows were around, but I wasn’t aware of them then.

What were the big three? Why weren’t you aware of them? I’m speaking of One Piece, Naruto, and Bleach. The latter two anime were only on cable and satellite, which I didn’t have, so I wasn’t exposed to them until later. One Piece was on Fox, but it wasn’t a big deal like it became. Shonen Jump magazine was ongoing, but I only ever saw one issue of that, which my aunt got for me because Yugi was on the cover.

What was it like to be a part of anime fandom at the time? My sphere of fandom initially was basically just me and my brother, watching our favourite Saturday Morning Cartoons, reading magazines off the rack at the grocery store. After that, a couple schoolyard friends who’d bring their flashy toys (Trading Cards, Digivices, etc.). A lot of playing pretend and battles of the imagination happening during recess.

Was the Internet a part of fandom at the time? The first anime forum I joined was a YuGiOh! one, fronted by a simple generator that let you create cards. I was there for the card game, but there was an Anime and Manga section. I learned a whole bunch of things for the first time. Things like the word “anime,” and that it doesn’t rhyme with “lime.”

Everyone had anime avatars/signatures, many leading me to new shows to watch. One time I was asked over MSN what my thoughts were on Bleach and I replied, “Like the cleaning liquid?” It was full of cool people, and troublemakers. People who could write, draw, role play, edit photos and videos, critique creations, and play the card game, of course.

Do you remember your first convention? Anime North 2011 in Toronto. The first summer after moving away from home for university. It was an exciting time: I had joined in the anime club, had been exposed to many more anime titles, and had a much better idea of what I liked. I don’t recall any events or guests that year, but my traveling companions pointed me to the big ones, like Anime Hell. I have some photos of the time, mostly cosplayers of Fairy Tail and One Piece, as well as a tentacle monster carrying a blow-up doll, and a Morning Rescue cosplayer from Madoka Magica. I spent big in the dealer’s hall, adding to my modest collection of DVDs and merch. And had my first experience meeting an internet celebrity and bumbling in front of them. I made a friend or two, and had plenty of polite conversation, but it was the next year that I made some real connections and stayed in contact with people.

What was the biggest thing you bought? How much was it? That first year, must’ve been the 10 manga volumes of Fullmetal Alchemist which I spent about $40 on.

Who was that internet celebrity you met? It was Arkada of Glass Reflections fame.

Tell me about the following year and making real connections! That following year, Anime 2012, I decided to try cosplaying for the first time. Pretty simple, Sanji from One Piece, just my one good suit and a blonde wig. Went around the photoshoots taking pictures. Funny thing happens when I go to the Fairy Tail one. Because I look like a character from that show (Leo), and get roped into the shoot and I play it off in character as Sanji sneaking in to get close to the pretty FT girls. After that weekend, I go looking around for pictures from the shoot and someone’s started a group chat on Facebook for cosplayers at that shoot. Seems I’d made a memorable impression. The 20 or so of us get talking and knowing each other better, soon we’re throwing holiday parties and hanging out on weekends the play boardgames.

Jackson can be reached on Twitter. 

Age: 24

Location: Baton Rouge

When did you discover anime?  I watched Pokemon as a kid, mainly just because I was a fan of the game franchise. I wasn’t so interested in the shonen action anime on Toonami, but I was somewhat interested in Spirited Away and other movies I saw at Blockbuster. I finally watched Spirited Away on Toonami in 2006 and saw Ponyo at the theater in 2009. During the summer of 2011, I was trying to get into more diverse cinema, so I made a point to watch the rest of Miyazaki’s films. I spent some of that next year watching other notable films like Akira and The Girl Who Leapt Through Time before deciding to watch some series. I referred to IGN’s Top 100 Animated Series list. Cowboy Bebop was #14, Evangelion was #10. I started with Cowboy Bebop because a friend had already suggested it, then FLCL because I saw it on Adult Swim and it looked interesting, then Eva.

Is that still up and if so, can I have a link? It is!  I actually thought it had been taken down, but it seems to be back in a new format.  The list is for all animated series, not anime specifically, and only shows that aired on American television were eligible.  For instance, The Simpsons was #1.  I started with Cowboy Bebop (#14) and moved to Evangelion (#10) partly because they were the highest ranking anime on the list and partly because they were the only anime on the list that I had never heard of.  The list also features Gundam Wing, Naruto, Dragon Ball Z, and Death Note, shows that were popular on Toonami with my middle school friends.  I had some preconceived notions about the kinds of shows that aired on Toonami and was trying to avoid anything too popular, so I skipped past those.

What appealed to you about anime when you first discovered it? Anime seemed to be hitting a middle ground between “cartoons for kids” and “cartoons for adults” that American animation wasn’t attempting. I liked, with Eva in particular, that anime was being used to tell long-form stories with intimate character focus and was using film language in interesting ways. I also liked, for FLCL in particular, that anime could be “pervy” without being vulgar or crass the way a lot of Adult Swim’s original programming often is.

Can you elaborate with an example? I sort of regret my choice of words there, but what I meant is that, in Family Guy and other Western animated series for adult audiences, sex and sexuality mostly seemed to be used to set up crass humor. When FLCL and Evangelion dealt with sexual themes, they did so with what felt like a great deal more sensitivity and understanding. That may not be a fair comparison, but that was one of the more noticeable difference between the shows I watched before getting into anime and the shows I was discovering as I was getting into anime.

What would you say was the most popular anime at the time? I wasn’t paying much attention to what was popular at the time, but Sword Art Online was the new big simulcast in mid-2012.

What was it like to be a part of anime fandom at the time? It was daunting discovering an entire medium and trying to learn everything I could about it. Also, I got into anime around the time that Bandai USA was dying, so it was very easy to find their licenses on YouTube.

Was the Internet a part of fandom at the time? I made no attempt to connect to other fans on the Internet for the first several years of my fandom. I mostly just listened to what critics were saying.

Which critics? I discovered Jacob Chapman‘s videos very early into my fandom.  Those videos helped me navigate an intimidating amount of content in order to find some gems.  I also enjoyed reading Anime News Network reviews by Carl Kimlinger and now read pretty much anything Nick Creamer writes.

Do you remember your first convention?  I went to a tiny convention called BayouCon in Lake Charles. I only went on the Sunday, and it was basically dead. The vendors were closing up shop, and the floor was quiet. The few people there were at a panel with an actor from Star Trek Voyager. There was a room showing episodes of a show I would later find out was Shiki.