Your Otaku Origins

[TC X0 Lt 0X]

I guess I haver always watched anime, sense I can remember anyway.

Than in the summer before going into High school, I had an urge to watch anime, like I need crack urge, and thus I became Otaku.

[rubymoonIII]

once upon a time my parents went to Mexico for some bizzaro reason  and as night fell my cousins wanted to watch(mind u all of these were dubbed spanish)Saint Seya, DBZ, Dragon Quest, Doraemon, Dr.Slump, Capitan Tsubasa after all the manly shows were done  i sat and watched Mikami the ghost sweeper, Ranma 1/2 and  Ursei Yatsura and ray earth
thus since i was 10 ive been and otaku... watching all kinds of none mainstream anime in mexico oh when i  got back id just watch my shows on telemundo

[Shinsengumi]

I started when Voltron and the Transformers and Robotech came out back in the 80's, I think I was about 4 or 5 years old, I remember watching Saint Seiya in spanish in telemundo. when I was 12 years old I remember FOX use to show the Ronin Warriors (Samurai Troopers) around 1:30 pm during the summer and fall. When I was 13 years old on sunday mornings on FOX they showed some DBZ eps and I use to watch them in spanish too. At the same time on sunday nights on KTEH around 9pm they used to show 2 eps of  Robotech later it was Tenchi Muyo, Urusei Yatsura, Sakura Wars, Dirty Pair, Key the Metal Idol, Please Save My Earth, Bubblegum Crisis, Cat Girl Nuku Nuku, Neon Genesis Evangelion. My dad and my older brother showed me an anime that my older brother use to watch it was Star Blazers (Space Battleship Yamato) I did use to watch cartoon network when they showed Gundam Wing and Sailor Moon and many others. I remember TNT they showed Vampire Hunter D when I was 9 or 10 years old. From there I was starting to like anime very much.

[rubymoonIII]

I started when Voltron and the Transformers and Robotech came out back in the 80's, I think I was about 4 or 5 years old, I remember watching Saint Seiya in spanish in telemundo. when I was 12 years old I remember FOX use to show the Ronin Warriors (Samurai Troopers) around 1:30 pm during the summer and fall. When I was 13 years old on sunday mornings on FOX they showed some DBZ eps and I use to watch them in spanish too. At the same time on sunday nights on KTEH around 9pm they used to show 2 eps of  Robotech later it was Tenchi Muyo, Urusei Yatsura, Sakura Wars, Dirty Pair, Key the Metal Idol, Please Save My Earth, Bubblegum Crisis, Cat Girl Nuku Nuku, Neon Genesis Evangelion. My dad and my older brother showed me an anime that my older brother use to watch it was Star Blazers (Space Battleship Yamato) I did use to watch cartoon network when they showed Gundam Wing and Sailor Moon and many others. I remember TNT they showed Vampire Hunter D when I was 9 or 10 years old. From there I was starting to like anime very much.

hey you remember Super Campiones?(captain Tsubasa) XD

[Shinsengumi]

I started when Voltron and the Transformers and Robotech came out back in the 80's, I think I was about 4 or 5 years old, I remember watching Saint Seiya in spanish in telemundo. when I was 12 years old I remember FOX use to show the Ronin Warriors (Samurai Troopers) around 1:30 pm during the summer and fall. When I was 13 years old on sunday mornings on FOX they showed some DBZ eps and I use to watch them in spanish too. At the same time on sunday nights on KTEH around 9pm they used to show 2 eps of  Robotech later it was Tenchi Muyo, Urusei Yatsura, Sakura Wars, Dirty Pair, Key the Metal Idol, Please Save My Earth, Bubblegum Crisis, Cat Girl Nuku Nuku, Neon Genesis Evangelion. My dad and my older brother showed me an anime that my older brother use to watch it was Star Blazers (Space Battleship Yamato) I did use to watch cartoon network when they showed Gundam Wing and Sailor Moon and many others. I remember TNT they showed Vampire Hunter D when I was 9 or 10 years old. From there I was starting to like anime very much.

hey you remember Super Campiones?(captain Tsubasa) XD

Yeah I remember Super Campiones  ;D

[OniCourseMusha]

Its really hard for me to say when did I got into anime?
I was like probably around 4 years old when I was hooked up wit beta tapes watching Doraemon.  I was fascinated wit anime as a kid including the tapes recorded from japans like Dragon Ball, Crayon Shinchan, Nintama, Ninja Hatorikun, etc...  When I barely attended community college, I recently got into fansubs, magazine, and conventions.  Now I like to share anime fans and otakus of old anime and kids anime back when I was very young.  DDR community was part of what got me more into the anime community.

[Rhornez]

mm otaku first anime shows i watched was sailor moon then DBZ and other shows
but when i first saw naruto the english dub premier thats when it piked my interest to check out the japanese version with subs and from then on i started watching alot of other shows including death note and bleach i hate english dubs of some animes one exception is the inuyasha english version is ok....





9000!!!

[rubymoonIII]

i remember inuyasha dubb when it forst came out.. i was one of the first ppl to get into it then i spread it like an std

[PyronIkari]

i remember inuyasha dubb when it forst came out.. i was one of the first ppl to get into it then i spread it like an std

Oh ya, because it totally wasn't popular until you started telling people about it. No one ever would have watched it if it weren't for you, you are such the original Inu Yasha dub fan and America should thank you for spreading the word about the series...

...

totally.

[rubymoonIII]

 ::)

[JohnnyAR]

lol, I know this girl who is a big fan of Inuyasha  who was like three years younger them me and was taller than me :( I've always tried to get her into Evangelion and Hellsing. She quit on the the Hellsing TV series because of the first few minutes of the first episode, if you've seen it before then you know what happened in the first few minutes. We would argue from time to time about which series was better

Me: Hellsing is not a sick anime! Its full of awesomeness!
Lea: At the first few minutes I was like :O
Me: You barley gave it a chance: You judged it entirely by the first five minutes! So what if you saw a tiny part of her ass? Chobits has it worse!
Lea: But its still too explicit.
Me: How would you know? You never read the manga and barley saw the anime?
Lea: You showed parts of the manga to me and I've heard you talk about some of the violent scenes, you even reenacted a part!
Me: Heh, oh yeah ;D

I remember when showing the manga to my friends...

Me: Hey Fletcher, check this out!
*I hold it open to him showing a part with Alucard eating people*
Fletcher: Dude you read some freaky shit!

I want to show them the stuff in volume 6 through 8, I like seeing they're reactions its so funny.

Oh, I just remembered the first manga I read. I was in summer school and I saw a kid reading Is, so I came over to him started having chat with him, he let me read only if I don't let any teachers see it during break. I soon found out why (for those who have read, you know what I'm talking about) so one day a teacher come by, she came over and asked to see it he handed it to her, we both kept giving each other these "Oh shit, we're in trouble" glances while she was looking through them, he even started to sweat because he was borrowing them from a friend. And amazingly she gave them handed them back as if there was nothing perverted in there.

[Kaura117]

I was smack dab in the middle of the targeted age range for the first season of Pokemon. Even caught the first episode when it came out. I've watched anime before then, but that's when otakudom started sinking its treacherous claws into my psyche.

I've not yet found it in me to forgive Nintendo.

[mDuo13]

lol, I know this girl who is a big fan of Inuyasha  who was like three years younger them me and was taller than me :( I've always tried to get her into Evangelion and Hellsing. She quit on the the Hellsing TV series because of the first few minutes of the first episode, if you've seen it before then you know what happened in the first few minutes. We would argue from time to time about which series was better

There was a guy at my college a couple years back who had seen, like, InuYasha and then Fullmetal Alchemist. And he kind of liked them. Then - and mind you, he was a senior econ major with no thesis, with ungodly amounts of spare time - he discovered my anime stash. In two semesters he watched an amount of anime that took me three years go to through.

[XpHoBiaX]

I am not an otaku...I can't afford the fandom crack, but it was in 2nd grade watching Tonari No Totoro for Japan Week. Then shortly after it was cartoons like Samurai Pizza Cats and stuff like that as I went up in grades.

[rubymoonIII]

i remember samurai pizza cats... oh how they years have flown by... :'(

[Shinsengumi]

I remember back in high school when I was 14 or 15 I think, when I had CineMax as a cable channel at that time, they showed a couple of anime movies, I remember one of them was Vampire Hunter D I forgot the rest but they use to show it every friday I think but late at night around 12 am. I remember that plus I remember one time on Showtime they showed macross plus but around 6 am on saturday just once.

[rubymoonIII]

ah i remember watching the  Rayearth movie in spanish... good times goooood times :)

[K-ayu]

I'm not exactly an otaku, but my interest roots go back to the very beginning XD Before I was in grade school, I of course watched all of those series shown on cable like Sailor Moon and Speed Racer (haha), but I also have an old and dusty copy of Bubblegum Crisis on VHS! Later on, I started watching Yu Yu Hakusho in 1st grade and things just got rolling even more from there ;D

[Kyley]

I started off with Sailor Moon, then moved onto Tenchi, fansubs of Rayearth and Fushigi Yuugi, and DBZ.  From there, it just exploded into a full on obsession.  Though nowdays I'm not as much as a rabid anime fan, but I still like to be around it and watch it as much as I can.  :3

[Jun-Watarase]

I never posted in this thread, and since I'm bored enough to... nerdpost ahoy, rage away.

The definition of "otaku" varies amongst different groups, whether it be used correctly or incorrectly. The title is loosely defined, and from what I've witnessed, the standards are set as low as "you watch anime, you like it, you're an otaku", and some are set a lot higher whereas no matter what you do, if it doesn't impress, you aren't an otaku. I've watched Japanese cartoons for pretty much my entire life. Watching things like Doraemon, Miyazaki films, Anpanman, Ararechan, Crayon Shinchan, and a medley of kid-styled mahou shoujo series was common for Asian kids my age. Watching popular series like Voltron, Slayers, Rurouni Kenshin, Yuuyuu Hakusho, Macross, Dragonball, Sailor Moon, and whatnot for a young kid at the time was also considered very normal.

By most standards, in America and the rest of "normal people", then I could've been considered one from the days of Voltron and the like, rather than it just being considered "being a kid and watching cartoons". A lot of girls and women also choose to watch series like Karekano, Kimagure Orange Road, Hana Yori Dango, etc etc are normal and aren't considered otaku. By the standards of some people, and other hardcore fans, what I did was normal.

My family shared bits of their fandoms with me as I grew up. My mum loved reading josei manga and has an extensive collection of them laying somewhere that she'd show me, and she also liked series like Initial D and Fushigi Yuugi. My uncle was into comic books, action figures, and introduced me to Power Rangers, Voltron, Transformers, Slam Dunk, and whatnot. My other uncle was a huge Kamen Rider fan, and he'd collect all sorts of merchandise. Another uncle was into military stuff, and collected airsoft guns, surplus uniforms, model fighter jets and everything. My grandfather was really into feudal Asian films and kung-fu. All of these sorts of hobbies can fall into "otaku", or they can be taken as hobbies. The original meaning of what an otaku is, is a fan of a particular thing, and can be applied to almost any hobby, and even have it become something as extreme as a manic. The meanings and connotations have changed from its original meaning though, and all above relatives would have been insulted if one were to approach them and tell them they are an "otaku". It is also observed that an "anime-otaku" and others relative have a different understanding and sentiment for the title. It feels that, to be a fan, you express your fandom in a different way, and contribute back to it because you love it, but being an "otaku" can be considered something beyond that.

It wasn't until I became really interested in the seinen genre did I become anything remotely considered an "otaku". Sure, I may have been exposed to some To Heart and popular harem series like Love Hina as a kid, and maybe even more mature/violent seinen series like Golgo13, Bubblegum Crisis, and Hokuto no Ken(which I had ironically watched much later than the former.) but I didn't UNDERSTAND the obsessions with any of it until middle school, when I pushed my hobby to something beyond just watching cartoons and having it become a lifestyle, watching series, loving characters, playing galge, and being a loser. I've had feelings for all of them before, but they're incomparable from the slight difference of just watching cartoons and loving it to being an otaku. I can't explain the difference, but it's there.

But anywho, compared to the super hardcore people (with money), I may not be completely up to par, but am knowledgeable enough to feel somewhat prideful for my fandom. I don't know as much as I'd like, but my fandom is present enough to make me happy, which is the initial reason why I even got into it in the first place. I may not broadcast it as openly and enthusiastically as some people, but the love is there. It wasn't an escape from anything, nor was it an attempt to be original, and though it may have felt a bit competitive at times, having this fandom in the purest sense has done what it initially intended to do-- to make their fans happy. Admitting the title of "otaku" is bittersweet. To some, I may just not be nerdy enough, and to others, I may even deserve it, whether it be a positive or negative connotation, but it's just another one of those cheesy scenarios where it pretty much sums up to "I am me and this is who I am."