My first real experience with anime and manga was when I was 12 or 13. As a child, I didn’t really watch many cartoons in the morning unless I was over my best friend’s house. I saw all the old school cartoons like Smurfs, Jetsons (which I loathed), Flintstones, Dungeon’s and Dragons, Thunder Cats, Gummi Bears etc.. but I didn’t eagerly await them in the mornings like I did when I discovered Sailor Moon. I had a TV in my bedroom but only switched it on when I came home from school, but this one morning, I had just gotten out of the shower and I turned it on. Cheez TV was came onto the screen and they played Sailor Moon - my dad had to yell at me to get ready for school. Sailor Moon was the first anime I saw that completely captured my attention. I had never seen colours, story and animation like that before. I was enraptured by the big eyes and long legs ( I wished I had legs like that) Thus began my love affair with Japanese Animation. I devoured everything that came my way. I watched Slayers, Pokemon, Yugioh, Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi, and so many more I can’t remember. I then discovered that the dubs were cut. I was devastated. So I endeavoured to get all my anime in Japanese and watch them with English subtitles and I discovered a whole new world (cue dreamy music)
Going online in the so called early days of the internet (1995) I found many internet pages devoted to my obsession and that was when I discovered I wasn’t alone in my anime/manga madness and there were other like me. I miss those early days, because those type of pages has since disappeared. You could find character histories, pictures, songs, etc.. They were called all manner of names and I spent hours trawling through them. (I’m sure there are pages still out there but I haven’t been able to find them how I use to remember them.)
It was when I went online I found out about the written expression of anime – Manga. On my quest to discover manga in Adelaide I went into many comic stores and finally came across a comic store in the city that stocked what I wanted. In fact I saw they had Sailor Moon manga! I was so excited. It was very expensive at the time (remembering I was only 13-14) I could only afford to buy one at a time. After I devoured those, I went onto others until my library was quite large. I find that manga and anime have such indepth storylines and you grow really attached to the characters. I bawled my eyes out at the end of Sailor Stars (last season of Sailor Moon that will never get released here due to gender issues) The authors are not afraid to get their hands (or pens) dirty with the storylines. I have been shocked at some manga (DearS) and have teared up at others (Chobits) I have never looked back since starting to read and watch anime/manga. I read this types of books because most of them have fantastic concepts, the story arcs are huge and expressive.
Now when I order manga in for the store, I am reminded of the feeling I used to experience each time they come in. The covers are so bright and attention grabbing. We have brilliant series like Bleach, Naruto Kamisama Kiss, Blue Exorcist, Slayers, Cardcaptor Sakura, Death Note, Pokemon instore and I love to see that look on people’s faces when they come in and find the book they were looking for. I am now 28 years old and I still have every scrap of Sailor Moon merchandise I have collected. In fact, at the end of the year they are re releasing Sailor Moon manga and releasing for the first time Code Name Sailor V!!!!!!! What manga do you enjoy reading? What got your interest in the genre? Do you go to conventions like AvCon, Supa Nova, Animnation?
