It feels odd to refer to myself as a newer anime fan when I began watching anime before most of the people I know, but compared to all of you, I guess that's what I am! Although the anime that I personally enjoy leans more towards late 90s - 2010 stuff, I've always been very interested in "old school" anime fandom in the West. To me, the most fascinating period in anime fandom was during the mid 90s and early 2000s when online fan communities were thriving but streaming didn't really exist. I've spent hours just pouring over archives of websites with in-depth reviews and analysis of obscure 90s anime titles and am in the process of watching William Chow's History of Fan Anime series on Youtube, which is honestly a gem.What prompted me to create an account here was both my growing interest in ultimately writing an article on the history of anime fandom, as well as my recent dive into the archives of my university's former anime club, which was active from 1998 - 2002. As the founder of our current organization, The UR (University of Richmond) Anime Society, I was amused to discover that the reason the club was disbanded was due to waning interest and "rapidly growing mainstream accessibility of anime through both commercial and internet distribution channels." I'm here in hopes of learning more about the beginning of anime fandom in the West and the point at which anime shifted to what is now viewed as "new school." So without further ado, let this post serve as a warning that I will be bombarding you all with threads and posts in the near future
