How did your interest in manga/anime evolve?

[kalla]

Let's share!

1. How did you to find D. Gray-Man?

2. How did you get into manga/anime? Or why/what do you like about it? Anything specific about your preferences?

3. What other manga/anime do you really enjoy?

4. What has been the most influential manga/anime for you and why?




1. Honestly...I stumbled upon it online. I don't even remember what I was doing; probably research on religions or looking for images of another series. I remember seeing some images of Allen and the Earl, started to read it and liked it so I kept going.

2. I first saw Rurouni Kenshin on Cartoon Network. I have always been fascinated by Japanese culture and samurai. (I blame my father partially for that.) I had always wanted to take Japanese, but I was taking Orchestra, French, and German so I didn't have any more electives. When I saw Rurouni Kenshin it kind of rekindled that (I had been very focused on my career) and I enrolled in Japanese classes at a local college. From there I just sort of branched out into other manga and anime.

I am a bit picky about it...I almost never watch anime in English because I can't stand the pronunciation of names and translated...suffixes/titles/honorifics/etc. I think this is mostly because I was reading/hearing/speaking Japanese before I was really reading manga and watching anime. The manga and anime became ways to improve my Japanese. (My Japanese teacher is Japanese...and always pushes me to do things like a Japanese person. She would count off on my papers if I had the wrong stroke order on kanji, but others got to slide by...I wasn't accustomed to getting papers back covered in red ink just because of stupid 何 nani. I also never learned to read romanji because she started us in ひらがな hiragana, so I hate hate HATE reading or typing in romanji.)

I love the artwork of it and I think that is one of the things that really drew me to Rurouni Kenshin other than he was a samurai. It is the only thing I seem to be able to draw. Consequently I have a lot of sketches of my favorite characters. The drawing became something I did to release emotion which became very important. I also started to talk on forums about manga/anime and from there started writing online in my livejournal, which also is quite important for me.

3.
Rurouni Kenshin
Tokyo Babylon
X
Gravitation
Yu Yu Hakusho
Cowboy Bebop
Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
Fullmetal Alchemist
Tsubasa ResVOIR Chronicles
Vampire Princess Miyu

(I'm sure I forgot something...)

4. Tokyo Babylon. (And most people have never heard of it!) It's about a boy, Subaru, who is a spirit medium whose "job" is to help people solve supernatural matters. His heart is so pure it hurts. The story is about him, his twin sister Hokuto, and their friend Seishirou. Hokuto is as loud and vivacious as Subaru is quiet and subdued, but all she really wants is for Subaru to be happy. Seishirou is a vet who is more than he appears. What happens to Subaru is finished in the manga X (which is unfinished currently).

You see a lot of good themes in stories, but Tokyo Babylon is full of them. I actually cried during parts of it. The themes and stories tend to haunt you. I can usually see symbolism in most stories, but Tokyo Babylon is immersed in it. Although I'm starting to see the same thing with some of the characters in D. Gray-Man.

[Nomnom]

Hi there ^.^
1. My brother and I found DGM by chance early last year. He used to work at a DVD store, so he always used to bring home preview discs before the store got them in stock. He just so happened to stumble on an anime DVD with one or two episodes from several animes. And DGM was one of them . But it wasn't until late last year/ early this year that my brother and I decided to watch the whole series.
I'm actually quite a newbie to DGM >.< I only watched the anime about 3 months back and have read the manga twice, and have loved it ever since x3.

2. I've been into anime for quite a while. It started when I was in year 5/6? So when I was around 10 years old xD. Originally I never knew what anime was, only watching shows in the morning before I went to school (e.g One Piece and the original Yu-Gi-Oh!) At first I just thought they were ordinary cartoons, until my brother and I got foxtel and we started watching adult swim (yes, I was only 10 and I was watching adult swim~). They began having two hours worth of anime, so me and my brother really got into it. Unfortunately, the anime base here in Australia isn't huge, so it's hard to find good anime's, and since my brother likes watching english dubs better than reading subtitles it makes it even harder =.=
I like anime/ manga because it brings you into another world that's really interesting and amazing. I've never really been a fan of anything on TV because, for me, it was just lacking in creativity, so that's why I only really ever watch anime these days.
I love watching shounen anime's, not so much shojo. But I do read a few shojo manga's. But very few. It's just a preference, probably influence from my brother?

3. Death Note
Fullmetal Alchemist
Naruto
Darker Than Black
Soul Eater
D. Gray-Man (obviously)
Fairy Tail
Gundam Seed
...and many more, but that's just at the top of my head.

4. The most influential anime I've watched would probably be FMA (the 2003 adaption), because it really started my love for anime and manga. And also the Studio Ghibli movies. They pretty much introduced me to the anime, so yeah x3.

[kalla]

Ah yes, Studio Ghibli. ^_^ Oh, did you ever see Hotaru no Haka....Grave of Fireflies? It's about WWII. You'll cry, but it's such a good movie.

[Nomnom]

No, I haven't yet D:
It's definitely on the list though

[shonen]

Dang it kalla, you always cause me to have mile long replies haha. But it is really odd you would put this up, because I was actually thinking of this topic today before I saw your thread. So hear goes...

1. I came across DGM while I was on an anime benge, thanks to Netflix. And after the first couple episodes I was hooked. I watched the entire thing and was really upset that it just left off in China. Thats when I went to Funimation and found out they only had the rights to dub the first two seasons. I left it for a while then came back and watched the subs of the non-licencened episodes online and got really caught up again. That's when I went to the manga. I read it from start to finish in a couple days. It was so intense, and I was so anxious to know more that I joined this site just to talk about it with people. I'm not usually one to participate in forums but this series is just too interesting not to share with others.

2. I first came across anime when I was really young, possibly 3 or 4. There was some saturday morning kids program on some channel that doesn't even exist anymore (all I remember was that it was produced by DIC, which also, doesn't really exist anymore) and they were playing episodes of Dragonball. And I loved it! I didn't know it was japanese, all I knew was that it was awesome. As I got older I was into all the anime trends, I liked Pokemon, DBZ, etc. But I loved to watch Toonami. I remember watching it from an early age and continueing until Toonami was cancelled for good, well past the age that most of my friends stopped paying attention to it. I remember watching DBZ, the Gundam series, Zoids, The Big O, Outlaw Star, the Tenchi Muyo series, and so many more. I also watched a sunday morning anime program on ABC Family for a while, before our cable provider stopped giving it to us. It played Digimon, Cardcaptors, and a couple other shows. But needless to say, I was hooked and I've been watching anime ever since to one extreme or the other.

I just recently got into reading manga. I'm not sure why I didn't start sooner. I had only read a half dozen or so before reading DGM.

To be honest, I'm not sure why I love anime/manga so much. I tend to be absorbed with fantastical subjects. The majority of the books I read for fun tend to be fantasty and sci-fi books. As well as alot of the movies I prefer. I also get great enjoyment about being completely absorbed in a series. I love to learn all the little details about characters and events. Theres a certain sense of accomplishment from having to really invest yourself, to research and discuss a topic, to know all the little tid-bits and obscure facts and details that most people glance over. When it comes down to it, I guess I have an intellectual addiction. The lure of knowledge and information, even if its just in reference to a pretend world, sucks me in completely.

And through anime/manga I have gained an interest and appreciation for the japanese language and culture. I have looked into learning katakana and hiragana, but due to my inappituded for foreign languages, lack of time, and impatience, I have only been able to pick up enough to know how and what to search for when I come across something unknown in a manga. I would love to know more but I get overwhelmed sometimes with the complexities of the language.

3. Its hard to say really, cause I don't know if I've ever really hated a series, just some I wouldn't watch or read again.

DGM
Dragonball, Z (i know what some of you are thinking but I do find it interesting and it holds some nastalgia for me)
Fullmetal Alchemist
Gundam Wing
Cowboy Bebop
Trigun
Darker Than Black
Outlaw Star

I need to dig deeper into the anime/manga world, I just don't have a lot of time during the semester or money. So I pretty much only get to watch or read what I find online nowadays. So any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

4. Cowboy Bebop combines two of my big interests. Anime and music. Everything from the plot line, scores, tragic characters, you name it, I loved it. And of course, the Dragonball series will always hold a place close to my heart.

But two series I just couldn't get into very well were Death Note and Neon Genesis Evangelion. Though I must admit, I haven't read the manga for Death Note, so I can't count it out completely. But those dicussions would probably need their own threads haha.

[kalla]

Hehe, great minds think alike! My evil plan is working...muahaha!! People shall talk! *cough* Ehem. Besides, there's other good manga/anime out there and sometimes it's hard to find depending on where you live, so I thought this might be a nice way to start conversations about it. More threads would be cool, although I don't know much about Death Note or Neon Gensis Evangelion.

I remember DIC...that kinda of dates me doesn't it? The other day I was talking to someone about when I had braces and realized it was TWENTY years ago lol. Anyway~

I had forgotten about Big O...I never saw the end of it though. But yeah, the music in Cowboy Bebop is worth it alone and Spike's story especially is good. And I fell in love with Corgis because of Ein! I'm the same way with watching/reading online...I don't have TV or anything so it's mostly via computer. Suggestions...Tokyo Babylon is only 7 volumes of the manga and you might be able to find the few anime episodes online to see if you like it. It's crawling with spoilers though so be careful. You might be able to find the follow up, X or X/1999, online. I know you can watch it online, but the manga is unfinished so the anime starts to veer off quite a bit towards the end.

Tsubasa ReseVOIR Chronicles is also by CLAMP and good and I know you can read that online. A lot of people say to read XXXholic with it because the stories cross. (I obviously didn't--I didn't know that and never got much into XXXholic.) CLAMP has some beautiful artwork, usually good music, but they are evil. And usually very graphic--which is why I prefer the manga. (And don't watch it in English...the voice acting isn't in line well with the original Japanese personalities.) Kenshin and GitS:SAC might be hard to find online. Stand Alone Complex has some really good music in the anime though. Wow, reading that I sound kind of freakish...hrm...

Re: Languages It's easier the more languages you study...and you actually learn more about your own language. A lot of people think they know their native language and find out they really don't know it as well as they thought once they start studying another one. If there's ever something I can do to help you learn/translate/research or something let me know! いつか日本で住みたいので、日本語が上手うになりたいです。だから、よく勉強しなければ行けませんよ！(i tsuka nihon de sumitai node, nihongo ga jyouzuu ni naritai desu. dakara, yoku benkyou shinakereba ikemasen yo!) I am always ready to practice, so don't hesitate! ^_^

[shonen]

Thanks, I need some new manga to read since it could be awhile before the next DGM is out. And I did a quick check and the OVA's for Tokyo Babylon aren't available on Netflix, but X is. I haven't watched any anime in a while, I've been trying to expand my manga repetoire so I'll be a bit more knowledgable. And while I do like the original animes, it can be a bit daunting at times because I have to be completely focussed on what I'm watching since I have to read the subs. And then theres always the issue of find quality subs. So most of the time I go dub if its available because its just so much more convenient. This is why I wish I could just download the japanese language into my brain. I need to know i now! haha.

I was trying to learn katakana because I was told its a good place for beginners to start to gain a quick grasp, but my memory is so poor that I just lost motivation and became sidetracked. It also didn't help that I started with exams approaching. Oh the joys of procrastination, something that I'm truely a pro at. I mean seriously, who needs to understand how many pertaining diffusion coefficients there are in gas chromatography when I could be learning kanji? (This would make more sense if I had mentioned that I'm going to school for chemical engineering).

Also, writing the katakana characters was a little challenging, my penmanship is definitely less than perfect, and my tsu and shi always look the same, even though I know the difference.

It just all seems so overwhelming ya know?

[kalla]

Start with hiragana, not katakana. You'll see more hiragana anyway and that way you would be able to read the beginning texts from text books. Practice and tracing is what I'd suggest for the penmanship...my teacher was very picky with my writing, which was kind of frustrating because she didn't do that to other students, but it made me a lot better at it. Remember too, there is typed and calligraphy writing so your script won't look exactly like the text anyway. (Just like in English, your writing is slightly different.) As for tsu and shi, it's the hook and direction of the stroke. (And this is really hard to explain without showing you lol.) You can see the "hook" at the bottom of shi and the top for tsu because that is where the calligraphy brush would have started and left more of an impression on the paper, where as you travel and release towards the end leaving no impression. My Japanese teacher told us to think like we were using brushes because that is where it came from originally and that helped see the differences, at least for me.

In learning a language that has a different "alphabet" especially yes, it can be overwhelming. Learn the syllabry in hiragana first. I literally think that in my head when I conjugate, so it will help you later. But just start with the sounds and do them in sets. A I U E O then ka ki ku ke ko then ta chi tsu te to, etc. Do them in sets so they relate...THEN you will not only remember it better, but you will start understanding the language itself better and start thinking more like a Japanese person as opposed to someone just trying to learn the alphabet. How many people do you know that have to recite the alphabet to put things in alphabetical order? They learned the information in isolation and never really related it to the language. ^_~

And I had to edit my post...I forgot about Vampire Princess Miyu. I really liked that, but there's only a few DVDs of it around I think. I haven't finished the manga yet (because I only have it in Japanese), but I really like it. I was really mad they didn't continue any of the anime/OVAs, but that seems to happen a lot with the series I like lol.

[Sinamon]

Let's share!

1. How did you to find D. Gray-Man?

2. How did you get into manga/anime? Or why/what do you like about it? Anything specific about your preferences?

3. What other manga/anime do you really enjoy?

4. What has been the most influential manga/anime for you and why?

oh goodness...here we go....

1.) i had seen images of d.gray-man in many forums (people with icons, sigs, etc) and had heard references to it but my laundry list of manga/anime to read/watch was just too long. i also tend to obsess over one series at a time. i go full board over it and the intensity tends to last several months, if not years, so it's any wonder that i even let myself move onto new series' lol. but i finally ticked down my list and got to DGM and i have been happily fixated on it ever since (3 years ago). the one thing i hate about getting into a new series is if i love it and it's not finished. such is mango and now i'm doing the "wait for the next chapter dance" that i hate so much. especially now that DGM is a monthly (and sometimes not even that) release, the waiting blows now more than ever.

2.) i got into manga and anime when i was about 8 years old. i would come home from school and watch cartoons just like any other child but when i first watched "robotech" (the americanized version of "macross," which i saw much later), i thought...this is so "not kidsy!" subject matter dealt with mature topics, complex inter-relationships, and even death! even the art style was way better. the battle scenes were unlike anything i'd seen before. i was hooked on that style ever since. same goes for "voltron" to a certain extent. i haven't been able to watch american cartoons since.

3.) rurouni kenshin
moribito: guardian of the spirit
samurai champloo
blade of the immortal
darker than black
cowboy bebop
hellsing
DGM
ranma 1/2
samurai 7

4.) i'm a big fan of samurai epics/period works. "rurouni kenshin" was a great mix of history and fiction and i came to care about the characters deeply and learned about the bakamatsu and meiji period along the way. but "samurai champloo" is probably the big one for me because it turned all that on its head. it takes place firmly in the edo period but the music, dialogue and language (and sometimes the clothing) are laced with hip-hop references. i know. sounds kooky. but it works! besides, i have a weakspot for the stone-cold, regimented, disciplined warrior who sometimes cracks (jin)...or in the DGM world - kanda. DGM has gotten me interested in drawing again but it was samurai champloo that got me back into writing so i'd have to say SC was the most influential. that being said, "blade of the immortal" is awesome. :-)

[kalla]

Ah Samurai Champloo...I remember that. I started watching it right before I lost cable. I did like what I saw of it...I may have to see if I can find it online. What is it about a guy with a sword...hm...there's probably some Freudian Psychology to that somewhere, but I like them anyway. :P

I totally agree with you about the not-kidsy part. It was one of the reasons I was so taken with Tokyo Babylon; the plot was definitely not for a kid and it read more like a novel than a comic as we think of the in the U.S. I've noticed even with cartoons from when I was kid to now, I can't stand to watch the ones now because it's like they all have ADHD and jump from one thing to the next. But even when I was a kid a lot of the still lacked the depth I found in anime/manga.