I'm not sure if I made the cut since I only saw this post today and it has been on its 6th day. Anyway, whether I could still join or not, I'd like to share how I got into anime. Let's start. :)
IMAGE SOURCE
In the late 90s and early 2000s, I was an elementary school student. During that time, there weren't any K-drama and other stuff we find on TV now. There were mainly anime on every TV channel in the Philippines and I couldn't be happier.
The schedule you see above is just from one TV channel at one point in those few years that I enjoyed. Once an anime ends, they change it with another one. We can also watch other anime in other TV channels, so we can choose what we want to watch.
I won't be talking about every anime because it would take forever to talk about them, rather, I'd like to share the anime which got me hooked that until now I'm still living in the anime realm. Yes, I just turned 30 a couple of days ago and I've been watching anime for more than 20 years.
LET ME TELL YOU A STORY FIRST~
This picture was taken when I was either in third grade. I'm an only child but I grew up with my cousins. One of them is that guy behind me in the picture. My parents, especially my mama, was super strict in terms of my studies. You know that kind of parent that wants their child to excel in school because they were also top of their class when they were young. And because of that, when I became too addicted in watching anime on TV, mama prohibited me to do so. DID I GIVE UP??? NOPE~!
I made a deal instead. For one quarter (half a semester for elementary students), she's going to observe my grades as I continue watching anime. If my grades are maintained, she'd let me do what I want. However, if I am to fail or have grades below her standards, I'm never to watch anime again. GUESS WHAT? I exceeded her expectation and even improved my grades, so I got the freedom to watch anime as much as I want. Now, she's also crazy about anime like me~!
WHAT ANIME GOT YOU HOOKED?
As I've said there were a lot of anime to watch when I was young, so it was so difficult to know which ones really got me hooked. However, allow me to share some of my faves during that time.
IMAGE SOURCE
From left to right, I have known these guys as Vincent, Eugene, Dennis and Alfred. They're the main characters from the anime "GHOST FIGHTERS". That's how they were introduced on Philippine TV back then. I and my cousins were really crazy about them and we often reenact some clips when we play. Of course, I play as my favorite character Dennis or better known as "KURAMA".
I painted this a couple years back. I watched YU YU HAKUSHO again around 5 years ago and it gave me the same excitement as when I was a child. It's available on Netflix now, so I'm planning to rewatching it and drown myself in nostalgia one more time.
This anime paved the way for me to like all the other shounen anime like One Piece, Naruto, Hunter X Hunter, Black Clover, Kimetsu no Yaiba, etc. Before these big names existed, there was YU YU HAKUSHO... and it will always be one of my favorites.
You guys know how crazy I am when it comes to SPORTS ANIME... and this one right here started it.
Basketball is the most popular sports in the Philippines. As I've mentioned earlier, I'm an only child, but I grew up with my cousins and most of them were boys. We used to play basketball together since there was a half-court basketball court in our compound before. Every afternoon after school, we go there to play together... then around 4 or 5, one of my younger cousins would shout from grandma's place "SLAM DUNK IS STARTING!!!!" so everyone stops playing and race to my grandma's place to watch Slam Dunk together.
I have always been into basketball, and Slam Dunk made me even more into the sport. I used to play in elementary school. It was a mixed team of boys and girls, and I was the only girl playing for our grade. That's also the reason why I was much closer to male friends and acted like a tomboy since then. It's just so good to feel the adrenaline rush. The same excitement I feel when watching SLAM DUNK and other sports anime these days.
My favorite was MIYAGI because of his awesome footwork and ball handling as well as MITSUI and his fade away jump shot which I used to imitate when we played basketball back then.
I'M CRAZY ABOUT BATTLE AND SPORTS ANIME THESE DAYS
Some things never change! That's for sure.
Although I have been very open and watched various genre of anime, I'd still go for shounen and sports anime up to these days. They were mostly the anime which got me hooked. I just mentioned two of them, but there were loads of other anime to talk about. I'd be happy to talk more about them next time. :)
Ahhh~ it's so nostalgic writing this, so I'm definitely watching them again soon. Right now, I'm rewatching MAJOR series. This is my third time rewatching the whole thing and mama's first time to watch it. I'm happy my mama got hooked as well. haha
I'll end my post here. Thanks for reading. :)