Hello

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runesaint
Posts: 173
Joined: Mon Oct 10, 2016 2:47 pm
Anime Fan Since: 1985

Hello

Post by runesaint »

Hello everyone. I look forward to poking around a bit more and writing. I wonder how many of you I may have interacted with 'back in the day'. Lets see... back on effnet I did visit the #anime! channel fairly often... for a while I posted on rec.arts.anime a bit.. I was on a bunch of mailing lists that gradually faded. I wrote stuff up for the Rose magazine for Anime Hasshin..
Lets see.. online names I used over the years were combinations of Rune, Saint, and Ghost. RuneGhost, GhostSaint, RuneSaint...

I remember trading tapes across america. I remember Arctic Animation.. I remember getting orders of godzilla toys that were mailed to someone in exchange for barely labeled tapes wrapped in brown bags(why brown bags instead of the cases that come with the tapes I do not know...
I remember starting up a club at college, then leaving and returning to the college a few times ... at least in part due to running the club. I remember trading for item "A" so that I could get a copy of "B" to trade for item "C" which would fill a gap in a collection.
I -still- remember the commercials that usually started the break before the credits for Seiya (either the gold fields one, or the one with classrooms of kids using sorobon).

Later, I remember getting a GoVideo machine to copy VHS onto DVD...

...
I remember when anime fans were few enough that it was enough to bond over and you could make friends that would be there. I think that is what I miss the most. I can accept that items that took me years of multiple trades to get even an Nth generation copy of can now be downloaded or watched on TV trivially now...
But I suppose I miss it being special. That being a fan or recognizing Yamato or the designs of Rumiko Takahashi meant that you belonged however vaguely to a group. That others that knew what you did could be trusted .. that you were all doing something vaguely illegal (at the time) to keep the tapes circulating..
That if someone knew the term Mospeada or Harlock that you could talk to them .. that you had some common experience that would let you talk to them and consider them, if not a potential friend, then a good acquaintance. Even if you were into shoujo and they prefered cream lemon; or if they were into mecha battles while you were trying to understand what BubbleGum crisis was about... Dancougar.. Seiya... these code words meant that you had some shared experience that you could use to build on.
.. Anyway. Hello everyone, I look forward to discussions.
-R
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usamimi
Posts: 2783
Joined: Fri Jan 25, 2013 2:00 pm
Anime Fan Since: 1987
Location: The Lonestar State
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Re: Hello

Post by usamimi »

Welcome! Always so glad to see new faces. Hope you enjoy the forums, you def came to the right place ;)
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Daniel
Site Admin
Posts: 525
Joined: Sun Jul 24, 2011 2:56 pm
Anime Fan Since: 199X年
Location: USA

Re: Hello

Post by Daniel »

runesaint,

This is a fantastic piece of writing that really touches my heart.

I to feel like there was something special about those days. It sounds silly to say this, but they felt almost magical, even. Being an anime fan today is easy -- more than you could ever want is just a few mouse clicks away. No more does one have to pour vast amounts of time and effort (and money, and loads of it) into obtaining barely watchable VHS copies of Japanimation – these crazy Japanese cartoons that no one's ever heard of. Now I suppose that people watch Naruto and Bleach like any other cartoon on TV. But I wouldn't trade my memories of the old days for anything. And there is still one thing that hasn't changed: Still to this day, no one's heard of the shows that I like. ;)

(I would be remiss if I did not note that anime fandom wasn't as small as some people, or perhaps my previous statement, would have you believe, especially in the '90s. There are loads of official North American VHS releases, magazines, and whatnot still left over from that era to prove that. So when I say "no one", I'm exaggerating a bit. But you get my point.)

I've written more about what anime means to me in another thread: viewtopic.php?f=6&t=576

I can also echo the statement that it was easy to bond with fellow anime fans back then. Paradoxically, the more that anime fandom grows, the more difficult it becomes for me to make friends. I just don't have anything in common with modern day fans.

However, this is why I've created this forum. So that people who do have those memories can find that common ground and have somewhere to kick back and hang out -- perhaps even with just a little bit of the magic of the old days, to.

Welcome! I'm glad that you joined!
Daniel
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usamimi
Posts: 2783
Joined: Fri Jan 25, 2013 2:00 pm
Anime Fan Since: 1987
Location: The Lonestar State
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Re: Hello

Post by usamimi »

Yeah, most modern anime fans are more casual. I believe I read somewhere that the "typical" anime fan only really watches anime for about 5 years, and after that they "grow out of it" and move onto something else. So supposedly, fans like us who have loved this stuff for decades are a rarity? Which makes a little more sense, I guess...If you're only into a niche thing for a few years, you're probably not going to get too deep into the old stuff & you'd probably want to only consume the newest, "coolest" stuff. That makes it a bit harder to connect with younger fans for the most part.

I am glad that there ARE a small chunk of younger people out there that want to learn & consume more. (Some on this forum, I see some on twitter & tumblr as well!) It helps that we have Discotek periodically putting out some choice titles & oddities.

But I do understand what you mean. Less releases and a smaller fandom meant that most everyone into anime knew about most titles, characters, etc. It felt like we were all collectively on the same page, even if our tastes were different. But having more variety and releases does help get more stuff translated here, so it's got it's good & it's bad. At least it's easier to buy stuff. No more having to buy money orders & pray the dude you're sending your order to is legit! :lol:
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Kame-Sen'nin
Posts: 451
Joined: Wed Nov 28, 2012 2:20 am
Anime Fan Since: 1996

Re: Hello

Post by Kame-Sen'nin »

Welcome to the forum! As usamimi said, you definitely came to the right place. :D
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