@deftoned Wow! Thanks!! ^_^ I’m sure that if I knew what anime was way back when I was first exposed to it, I wouldn’t even be a “Joe Anime Fan”, but with only Cartoon Network and 4Kids as my source, I only watched stuff like Shaman King, InuYasha, Yu-gi-oh!, Pokemon, DragonBall, and the like without even considering trying new stuff. I just watched what other people were watching, and even with that, there were rarely people who I could talk with in school… -_-’

But the internet and it’s community satisfied that desire and I can get out what I been wanting to say out of my system!! And with a blog, I can write about whatever I feel like!! ^_^

What’s interesting is that when I first started getting in to anime back in 1999, I was actually around a handful of people who were into it, and at the time, there really wasn’t a “Joe anime fan” because anime was even more niche then than it is now. A friend at the time let me watch some fansbus of Evangelion and I watched all of it in 2 days. He was a tape watcher who just started downloading, so I picked up a lot of things from him.

I never really went through the joe anime fan per se because I’ve just watched anime on television; however, for awhile I did watch only what others told me to watch (though what I got was based on stuff I liked–romantic comedies, bishoujo stuff). I was on dialup for the longest time, so obtaining stuff myself was out of the question then. But like I’ve mentioned to you before, even early on, I followed seiyuus, some music, and other stuff (though I wasn’t much of a manga reader). This friend also had a roommate who was into cpop and kpop idols, so he had videos of so jpop and seiyuu performances as well. so my seeds were planted so to speak.

It was spring 2005 when I started getting more serious with things (thanks to Tsubasa Chronicle and Negima). I watched a ridiculous amount of stuff (similar to what you did) between spring and fall of that year and there was no turning back. I guess for me, I was thrown into the fire from the get go. Sailormoon, CCS, Gunmdan Wing, Tenchi, and others were on television at the time i started watching anime, but my friend and I opted to watch the fansubs instead. so a lot of what i do now, is “second nature” to me.

i had no idea that your “turn” was so recent! i give you a lot of credit because never once have i seen you as a casual fan and hold your opinions in high regard!

But seriously, its quite interesting reading on how people ‘evolve’ in anime. Maybe I’ll start writing my own story sometime.