Let's talk about Japanese Animation.

Seriously, we should before we get too heavy into this blog. Why? Because most anime fans that people run into on the internet are batshit insane, and I don't want you to think that I'm one of them.

Now, I'm not really a great example of a well-adjusted person who likes anime, but I try very, very hard not to do things like insert random Japanese phrases into my speech or make obscure references that only anime fans would get. Occasionally it happens, but when it does, I don't feel superior - only retarded.

I didn't get into anime in general until I was between high school and college. Technically it all began with Pokemon and Dragonball Z when I was 14, but I outgrew those within a couple of years.

In fact, those shows actually made me generalize anime into a specific childish stereotype. I decided that Japanese cartoons were immature. Big eyes, ridiculously epic storylines, plots that never seem to end...I thought it was all really stupid.

So when Cowboy Bebop aired on Adult Swim when I was 16, I only decided to watch it because everything else on that block was a comedy, and I figured that this show would be some sort of a spoof.

I was wrong, and I knew as much from the opening moments of the show - the rose, the people getting gunned down in the rain, and the quiet lullabye that was playing in the background. This was different from ANYTHING I had ever seen before at that point, and I decided "OK, I'm game."

And then I heard "Tank!" by Seat Belts. And I felt like a cooler person for having heard it. And I decided, comedy, drama, it didn't matter worth a shit. I was watching this series.

(Not much more to say on Cowboy Bebop in general, which is why I linked the Cowboy Bebop list entry to here.)

So from that point on I started watching pretty much anything else that came onto Adult Swim. There's really not much of the old guard AS anime that I remember aside from Blue Gender (which I liked for some reason - seems that people hated it enough for AS to forget its existence) and Inuyasha. (Every time I watch Inuyasha, I have an urge to bitchslap each and every person who made it popular. I can't even have it on as background noise. It's just garbage.) Eventually I hooked up with some more knowledgable friends and learned how to get into shows that didn't quite make it here yet.

What I like about anime is pretty much what I like about any American cartoon or TV Show or Movie I watch. I always look for the same elements; I want to be involved and entertained. The difference here in critiquing anime vs. critiquing anything else is that I have to allow for certain adjustments to my expectations. Anime/Manga seems to be an art centered around exaggeration. It's shown in the character designs as well as the writing. It's not usually a punch. It's a VICIOUS PUNCH. Nobody takes mild offense. They get REALLY ANGRY. So it goes with any actions or emotions. As such, I take those extremes into account when I can.

That said, the majority of crap that makes it to our shores is just that: crap, and I've seen a few shows and movies where I felt like punching a random asian person afterwards.

"THAT'S FOR MABURAHO*, YOU JAPANESE FUCK!"
"I'm...I'm from Korea!"
"...Yeah? Well FUCK YOU ANYWAY!"

Mostly, though, I'll be focusing on what I like on the off- off-chance that somebody who judges anime on retarded shows like the two I badmouthed above is reading this blog. I'm not looking to turn people into Japanophiles, even though I'm probably halfway there anyway. But I got into it because I was looking for something different and interesting, and that's who I'm going to be reaching out to when I make a recommendation.

*Maburaho - it's a show that lasted 26 episodes. That's thirteen hours the world would have been better off without. To sum up: clueless but well-meaning wimp has three women competing for his attention. Which is great unless the women are as follows: a conniving, stupid rich bitch; a cold warrior bitch who is one of those "love is for the weak" types, and a possessive, annoying, passive-agressive piece of rapebait. Oh, and they can all use magic. It's really fucking stupid.