This might seem like a strange topic but I thought I might explain how I got into anime and why it appeals to me.
To start off, it is important to state that I have always adored animation. As a child, I grew up watching Disney, Pixar and Don Bluth movies and they had a strong impact on me, showing me complicated themes and evoking powerful emotions in a visually pleasing package.
As I continued to grow up, it is no surprise that I got interested in Pokemon (the whole world pretty much was at the time) but I also became interested in Digimon, Beyblades, Medabots and Cardcaptors (the dubbed version of Cardcaptor Sakura). At the time I didn’t know that what I was watching was anime but style of animation appealed strongly to me and I would think back on those shows for years to come.
By the time I entered secondary school (a fusion of middle school and high school essentially), I had felt pressure from friends and society to give up my interest in animation but I instead began my research into adult animation. It was during this time that I discovered series such as Beavis and Butt-Head, King of the Hill, South Park and American Dad. These shows showed me that animation could be aimed at adults but I lamented the fact that all I could find were comedies.
Around transition year, I came across a girl who was a friend of one of my friends and she spoke of her interest in anime. After some discussion, I realized that many of the shows I had watched when I was young were anime and that many of them were targeted at older audiences.
I quickly began collecting Studio Ghibli movies, watching anime classics such as Ghost in the Shell and Akira and quickly realized that this was the medium that I had been searching for the entire time.
Since then, western animation has seen a dramatic rise in quality with shows such as The Legend of Korra, Rick and Morty and My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic ushering in new fandoms and showing how powerful this medium could be. However, as great as all of this content is, I remain a strong anime fan and am constantly amazed at the worlds it reveals.
Hopefully you have found this article interesting and informative and, if you wish to seek any of the works I mentioned, don’t hesitate to use amazon.co.uk or amazon.com for all of your needs!
I grew up watching Pokemon, Cardcaptors, Flint the Time Detective and other 4kids dubbed anime. Although at the time i didn’t really know what anime was, I knew tht they were distinctly different from other western cartoons I watched at the time. Then Dragonball Z and anime became a massive part of my life. I felt so lucky to be around when Toonami had it’ own channel, running home from school to catch the latest episode of DBZ, Outlaw Star and Cowboy Bebop before my bed time haha
I never got the chance to experience that Toonami era. I would’ve liked to have experienced those shows on TV back then.