Dillon's Game and Anime Reviews: ARTICLE: My Anime Story (Spoiler-Free)

Y'know, anime really is a beautiful art form. As I sit here contemplating what I should say in my review of Say "I Love You" (which, in brief, is another slice of life shoujo anime based off a manga of the same name), I look back on my 9 months Otakuship, and I've realised how far I've come in so little time. Today, I've decided to take a break from writing about certain anime and just write about my life as an otaku so far, and how I've come to appreciate the anime art form.

Like all great things, something has to begin somewhere, and I could say that my anime story technically began in my Youth. It all started with a little show known as Yu-Gi-Oh!, a show about a teenage boy who solves a puzzle which contains dark secrets. I liked the show back then because of how different it was to any other "cartoon" I had seen at the time (my five year old self had no idea that anime was it's own thing back then), in it's animation style, it's theme and just how the story was too. I will always be proud to say that Yu-Gi-Oh! is the only long-running Shonen that I've ever completed, clocking in at over 220 episodes + the Capsule Monsters OVA's.

Yu-Gi-Oh! was my start point. It was also to be my re-envigorator.

After Yu-Gi-Oh! finished some time in the mid 2000's (I think 2006, but I'm not sure), I actually stopped watching anime for a number of years (around six I'd say), simply because I thought that it was all for kids. Also, over this six year period, one of my friends kept trying to shove One Piece down my throat (which I did try, but gave up at around 40 episodes), and my cousins tried to make me watch Naruto. And thus, my hatred for long-running shonen began. I never liked the fact that these two shows were constantly the only two things these set's of people wanted to watch. I just wanted to go and play some Zelda or Smash Bros., not watch some show about a whiny ass pirate and his rag-tag band (HATERS GONNA HATE FIGHT ME IRL). I just got disinterested in anything that looked like those shows, except one episode of Soul Eater that I was shown one night. That was actually decent from what I can remember.

Sorry pal, your show is boring as shit.

2012 was when my interest started to slowly come back, and I mean really slowly. It all started when I got back into liking the Sonic the Hedgehog games. I became a hardcore, no nonsense Sonic Retro-obsessed Sonic Fan for most of 2012 and early 2013. O course, with me liking all things Sonic, I of course, started to watch the anime based off of the Sonic games, Sonic X. To be fair, Sonic X wasn't TOO bad. Now I know Sonic fans will be down my throat for saying that but as an anime, Sonic X was pretty decent for a show that ran for 78 episodes. I think that the best part about Sonic X was that they followed the games sometimes (they had an arc based off of Sonic Battle of all things...) and, while the English dub was pretty terrible, I think that it did the job well. Hey, it even entertained my little brothers for the summer. Due to being a Sonic fan, I was all over Sonic fansites. I'm also a retro gamer at heart. So when I saw posts about this new anime that was going to be based off of the infamous Nintendo vs. SEGA Console Wars of the 1990's, I flipped my shit. Now, before I go into a bit more detail of the next show, I must explain something here. At this point in My Anime Story....I used to have the conception that ALL Anime was extremely, EXTREMELY Perverted. Now, I know it isn't, but back then I did. So, that's just to give you a bit of an understanding of my mind frame going into my first traditional, non-English anime; Aoi Sekai no Chuushin Dei. Now, I did enjoy these three episodes, the problem was, it had everything that's wrong with modern anime in them; Women with what I like to call "Rias Gremorie Tits", some borderline Hentai moments and a fucktonne of groaning from women being beaten up by Monsters. But, as a whole, i enjoyed the show, due to my love of retro gaming and how much of a fan-service this was to retro gamers.

Aoi Sekai no Chuushin Dei (top) & Sonic X (bottom) got me back interested, but they didn't make me a fan

Now here is where the story gets interesting, since it all goes back to square one. I had gotten back into to Yu-Gi-Oh trading card game with the online Dueling Network, which allows you to build a deck of cards and play other people online. I then started to watch the anime again and became really nostalgic. I also started to watch the Abridged Series on YouTube, created by LittleKuriboh (which you should all go watch since it's amazing). Here, I learned about "Season 0". If you read my Top 10 Favourite Anime List, you know what i'm talking about. Before the "original" series aired in Japan in 2000, there was already a Yu-Gi-Oh! anime out in Japan for about 2 years, based directly off of the manga series which started the franchise off. I still to this day haven't seen something like Season 0 of Yu-Gi-Oh!, it's quite something else, but it's still a great anime.

HERD U BEEN TALKIN SHIT

And now, for the moment at which I became an otaku. After recently playing through the emotionally gripping don't take it personally, babe, it just ain't your story, I had nothing to do. So I asked my internet friend, Ms. Jacqui Davieau for an anime recommendation, my exact words being:

"HEY.

I NEED TO WATCH A HIGH SCHOOL ANIME.

ANYTHING AT ALL.
PLZ.

JUST NO TITS."

A name of one of the anime that caught my eye was one that i'd seen before; Angel Beats! Despite how I feel about the show now, I went into Angel Beats! not knowing what to expect. Sure it wasn't as weird as the original Yu-Gi-Oh series, but the first episode of Angel Beats! was funny, had action, beautiful animation and one of the best endings to any anime episode ever. Seriously, while the show may be under the bar, the first episode is a stunning one, and it's the reason I got into anime the way I have now. After that, i moved onto shows like My Teenage Romantic Comedy SNAFU!, Sakurasou no Pet na Kanojo and many others, which I mostly enjoyed (there being one, VERY LARGE exception). I found a new fandom and hobby, and I love it to this day. Anime is something I think everyone can enjoy. Even my mother enjoys watching Death Note for Christs sake! If she can do it, you can too!