WW (Week 6): How I Started

Last week I found out that I'm not cut out for stuff like manga reviews, so until I read some more, I'll be sticking to anime and the lot. That being said, today's post will be about how I got into watching anime. It's somewhat of a bland topic, but I don't have a lot of time tonight, so I can't do something like a full in-depth review. However you can expect something like a review next time around.

As far as my records go (and by "records," I am referring to a Notepad file), I began my dive into the anime world on July 15, 2013, with my first completed anime being Highschool of the Dead. Being exposed to an excessive amount of boobs and a sub-par plot turned me away from anime for a bit, until I gave it a second shot with Sword Art Online.

I ended up absolutely loving it, and for the first time, I experienced the void. There was a period of time where I had an intense longing and craving for more of SAO, and this eventually pushed me to try other anime. Before you knew it, I was binging series and had accumulated a reasonable amount under my belt. I carefully kept track of everything I watched (oblivious to the service that was MyAnimeList) in a Notepad file, and watched as the list grew.

During my early stages, I considered anime as a form of entertainment. It had opened up a whole new world to me, as silly as that sounded. For a long time, I was bewildered to how something I was looking for the whole time was right under my nose. Needless to say, I was hooked. Everything I watched was enjoyable, because I had no prior experience to rightly critique anything.

My very first experience with a bad anime was Amnesia. From that point on, I had furthered my understanding of what made an anime good or bad. I didn't comprehend or make an attempt to learn about genres and distinct elements of an anime, but these were things to come.

I believe it was a bit after this point that I stumbled across some really good series, namely Clannad, Toradora!, and Hyouka. By this time, the medium of anime had become an escape for me. I was glad to "live and grow" with the characters as a form of forgetting how my day had gone. It was not long after watching these heavenly series that I was introduced to airing anime. Once I had established an understanding of how the airing seasons worked, I set out a schedule and watched airing series along with completed ones.

Fast forward about a year and a half and you have me here. There really isn't too much that is different in my schedule, asides from the fact that I am watching much less completed series. However my mentality has changed a large amount. I see anime now as an escape and a side hobby. I now take my time and watch episodes in small amounts, as opposed to binging and making anime a top priority. I have also become much more critical of shows, but because of that, I am able to appreciate everything that I have and will watch.

It would be an overstatement to say that anime is one of my priorities in life. Naturally I view it important and hold it close to my heart because of what it has given me, but it has definitely gone on the back burner.

So there you have it. Not a terrifically special story, but something that I am proud of.