Greetings

Tell the old school world who you are, and let us welcome you into the forum!
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Path
Posts: 125
Joined: Mon Mar 25, 2013 6:00 pm
Anime Fan Since: Circa 1993
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Greetings

Post by Path »

I wish I knew this place existed before, I could have been here alot sooner.

I'm probably a lot younger then most of you guys, being born in 1982. But I've been an anime fan since I can remember, even though I didn't know what anime was at the time. I was a huge fan of shows like Robotech, Voltron, Leo the Lion, Maple Town, and I was (and still am) also a big gamer. I remember drooling at all the import games (and toys) listed in the backs, which were so mysterious to me.

One day sometime in 1993 I picked up a copy of Animerica from a Suncoast. I have no idea why I did it, but after that it was over for me. I had answers to all my questions. I spent the next two years buying expensive two-episode VHS tapes of shows like Ranma, Tenchi, and Macross. A year or two later I got my first computer and I finally met like-minded people like myself. I'm more of a lurker by nature, but I do try to participate.

Last October I managed to realize a dream of mine and go to Japan for two weeks. My original travel date was March 18th, 2011, but as I'm sure you can guess I didn't get to go. Thankfully nothing went wrong this time and I spent a week in Morioka/Hanamaki visiting the homeland of Kenji Miyazawa, one of my favorite writers. The other week was spent in Tokyo/Kyoto, where my boyfriend and I blew ridiculous amounts of money on anime stuff and playing arcade games.

Some of my favorite old anime: Kimba the White Lion (and all Tezuka), Dirty Pair, Crusher Joe, Minky Momo, Captain Harlock, Galaxy Express 999, Nausicaa, Ginga Nagareboshi Gin, Urusei Yatsura, Night on the Galactic Railroad. I do watch modern stuff too, and some of the good ones I've seen recently are: Moyashimon, Baccano, Madoka Magica, Clannad, Wolf Children.

Other hobbies of mine include: books(mostly science fiction), manga, writing, 80s toys and cartoons, vintage and import gaming, 80s jpop, Sentai and Kamen Rider, animals, and crytozoology.

Pleased to meet you all!
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Animusubi
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Re: Greetings

Post by Animusubi »

Oh man that makes me wonder if I'm the youngest on the forum, I was born in '84. XD;;

Welcome to the forum, Path! Isn't awesome that you found the forum now though? I totally feel the same way, if I found this years earlier I woulda joined immediately!

Suncoast was one of my favorite places to buy anime, bought many a VHS and Animerica there myself. And Ranma 1/2 was my first VHS ever.
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Path
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Re: Greetings

Post by Path »

Yep, this place looks like just what I was looking for. I have several friends who like anime, but I'm mostly alone in liking old things. I have one friend who likes Kimba, and my boyfriend gets forced into watching things like Captain Harlock and the Crusher Joe movie, but in general when I want to watch something old I have to do it by myself.

Suncoast was my main source back then too, along with Amazon later. I can't say I miss the prices though. People these days have it great, with some boxsets under $20. I spent all my disposable income back then on tapes, and I do think Ranma was my first VHS tape (the OAV with the orochi?) followed shortly by Tenchi. My first subtitled anime was the Macross Plus movie (absolute masterpiece), and that was from Suncoast too.
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usamimi
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Re: Greetings

Post by usamimi »

Oh no way, you're definitely not the youngest! I was born in 82 as well! *high-fives* (Ryoran, I think Nitro might actually be the youngest, he was born in 85 XD)

I feel ya, a lot of my friends have either claimed to have "moved on" from anime, or my friends that still do seem to be gravitating towards series that I have little to no interest in whatsoever. It's so nice to have a place like this to assure me I'm not the only one--so welcome, welcome! :D
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Daniel
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Re: Greetings

Post by Daniel »

Ah, you early bloomers... ;)

Welcome!

Path wrote:I wish I knew this place existed before, I could have been here alot sooner.
ryoran wrote:if I found this years earlier I woulda joined immediately!
That's why we all need to...

...Need to...

...

Drumroll...


Need to... We all need to pitch in and help get the word out!
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greg
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Re: Greetings

Post by greg »

Welcome to the forum! It's great you were able to visit Japan last year. A few of us live here, but I'm probably the only one who actively posts here.

So what retro import games are you into? For me, it was in 1994 with Super Famicom games. The titles I was interested in and the ease of playing imports on the Super Nintendo was the deciding factor. A few years later, I got into import games on the Sega Saturn, then later Playstation 1 games. Once I moved to Japan for the first time in 2000, I got into PC Engine (Turbografx 16) gaming.
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Path
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Re: Greetings

Post by Path »

greg wrote:So what retro import games are you into? For me, it was in 1994 with Super Famicom games. The titles I was interested in and the ease of playing imports on the Super Nintendo was the deciding factor. A few years later, I got into import games on the Sega Saturn, then later Playstation 1 games. Once I moved to Japan for the first time in 2000, I got into PC Engine (Turbografx 16) gaming.
My first import game was a copy of Super Robot Taisen EX I found at a local flea market for ten bucks. I'm a huge fan of the Mother/Earthbond series (have a "shrine" of the games, books, and merch) and Chrono Trigger. RPGs are my favorite games, though I do play a bit of everything. I have everything from Famicom up to JP PS2 games, but SNES rpgs are probably my favorites. The system I have the most imports for is the Saturn at some 24 or so games, but some of the best import ones I've played are: Mother 2, Breath of Fire II, Tenchi Souzou, the Densetsu no Stafi series, Legend of Mana, and the Sakura Taisen games. I'm kind of a Sakura Taisen nut, I own every game they put out, the animes, the live action stage shows, etc.

You can believe I was foaming at the mouth when I got to the gaming stores in Akihabara, but then I discovered I could get most of it cheaper on ebay, lol. The only two games I bought were Moon Remix RPG (PS1) and some GBC game called Survival Kids from a dollar bin.
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usamimi
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Re: Greetings

Post by usamimi »

omigosh, I used to be SO into Sakura Taisen <3 I still have my Dreamcast games and some of the merch I've found over the years (figures, keychains, shitajiki, pins..I even have a heart-shaped alarm clock that came with one of the games, I can't remember which) I used to have the whole series on VHS back in the day. One of these days I really should at least get the original OAVs on DVD...I really loved them. (There were some great voice actors in that series!) I still haven't played the American version they brought over here a while back...I keep forgetting about it! :oops:
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greg
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Re: Greetings

Post by greg »

Nice! I actually saw the cast (or most of the cast) of Sakura Taisen at the Tokyo Game Show in '01. I played the first game twice (once on the Saturn, once on the Dreamcast)and got most of the way through the 2nd game, but lost track of it (that was at least 8 years ago! :O ). There used to be a Sakura Taisen store in Sega's Gigo game center in Ikebukuro, back in the height of popularity of those games. I had just bought my limited edition pink Sakura Taisen Dreamcast console in December 2000 when soon after that, before Sakura Taisen 3 was even released, Sega announced that they would end the manufacture of Dreamcasts. I was shocked and saddened.

I made the first-ever English homepage dedicated to Super Famicom import gaming and I've done a few retro import gaming videos for my YouTube channel. It's ended up mostly involving plastic models, but I do gaming videos, too. I have two "100 Super Famicom games in 10 minutes" videos and a "100 PC Engine games in 10 minutes" video. I am currently working on another 100 SFC games video and a "100 import-only Sega Saturn games in 10 minutes" video.

With my experience, I haven't seen eBay prices being better than the game stores in Japan. Heck, there's a place in my town that sells old retro games 3 for 500 yen (Famicom, Super Famicom, Saturn, and Dreamcast).

Quite often though, the best prices for games can be found on Yahoo Auctions Japan, or YAJ as my friends and I call it. At least for the pricier games. Still, game shops like Super Potato in Akihabara provide such an incredible atmosphere and shopping experience that I don't mind paying a bit more for it.

I own Super Robot Taisen EX too! My first import was Ranma 1/2: Chougi Ranbuhen on the SFC (or Super Battle as it was unofficially called back then). I think the second one was the Macross shmup for the SFC, then the Patlabor game. I didn't really start collecting import Megadrive games until recently. Now, I can't even imagine how many games I own for these systems.

I am constantly discovering new games for these retro consoles that I never knew about. I've decided that I won't bother buying any newer gaming consoles. I am tired of all this stupid DLC you have to pay for, or DLC that is only available when you preorder games, the lack of 2D gaming, and all that crap.
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My Tumblr page
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Path
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Re: Greetings

Post by Path »

I have the Dreamcast games too...and no Dreamcast to play them on, lol. I remember going nuts trying to find the original OAV when it came out subbed, I couldn't stand the English dub. I think they gave them accents? I don't really remember why anymore, but that was one of the few shows back then I would rather pay more to have subbed. Who is your favorite girl? I like Sakura, but thanks to all the stage shows I'm really starting to love Reni.

The American version of V is pretty good, but only the PS2 version has the Japanese voices. Its a shame it didn't sell well, I'm sure NIS would have grabbed more of them if it did.


Wow, I would love the meet the seiyuu. Mayumi Tanaka is my boyfriend's favorite, he calls her his "mom". So needless to say his favorite girl is Kanna. I remember there was a Sakura Taisen cafe some years back, but I didn't get to Japan in time.

That looks like a lovely website, I'll have to go look through it later. Looking all these games makes me wish I had more free time, lol. I'm slowly working through Dragon Quest VI on the DS (very slowly, been playing since late October) for console/PC right now I started Rewrite, but I'm only two hours in. Should finish in several years.

I did visit Super Potato, that was where my copy of Moon Remix RPG came from. I was pretty much trying to shop for things I couldn't easily find online, so I passed over alot of stuff. I did manage to find (for 105 yen each) copies of the Final Fantasy IX and Chrono Cross soundtracks at Mandarake. The booklets where missing, but at that price who cares?

I've had occasional luck finding imports locally. At the same flea market I've also found copies of Legend of Mana (PS1), Dragon Ball GT (PS1), Samurai Pizza Cats (FC), Kinnikuman (FC), and various JP Pokemon games. At a different flea market I was digging around a box of tapes once, and ended up pulling out a SFC copy of Street Fighter II! Guy though it was a VHS tape.

I'm a little disgruntled about all these download-only games these days too. I don't trust my Wii and PS2 not to die on me and take all my games with it. Lately I've been playing mostly portable DS or GBA games, just for the ease of playing them on the go. I still have things like Xenoblade, Last Story, etc sitting unopened over there.
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