BraveMSW Intro
Posted: Wed Oct 10, 2012 2:53 am
Hello. My real name is Darren. Born in 1970, my father took me to see Disney's Fantasia in 1975. I was blown away, up until that time cartoons were silly Warner Brothers and Hanna Barbera stuff. I never knew somebody could animate dinosaurs and images from dreams.
My first clue into the world of anime, was when watching Battle of the Planets I could detect the change in animation quality from the Gatchaman footage and the newer, much more stiff, 7-Zark-7 stuff. And I would ask my parents about this, but they had no clue.
But in 1979, afternoon on thanksgiving day, we were at my grandparents whom just got cable tv. Me and my younger brother were flipping through the channels and all of a sudden we were watching Diamos. Which I immediately recognized from the Shogun Warriors toy line. And I was hooked.
Back then, living in a small town in mid-west flyover country, you didn't have many options for learning about 'Japanimation' (as it was called back then). But there was Starlog magazine, whom infrequently covered the growing anime fandom scene. Of particular note was the classifieds in the back, I would write to each one that use the word 'Japanimation' within it's copy.
By 1984, I had a copy of Fred Schodt's Manga! Manga! book and I knew about all the series that formed Force Five, Voltron, Starblazers, BTOP, etc. That year Harmony Gold put out a full page advertisement in Starlog Mag. for their upcoming VHS release of Macross...At that point it seemed that most of the sins of Americanizing and editing the shows (Force Five, Voltron, BTOP) were over...But, Harmony Gold switched gears and instead we got Robotech.
While Robotech was on air, I was using my contacts from the back of Starlog Mag. to find out anything I could about the Select Convertor Toy line, L-Gaim, and this new (back then) show called Zeta Gundam.
1986 was a year of my "firsts" for me, first job, first bank account, got my drivers license, and picked up my first import Japanese robot toy in a Japanese box courtesy from the Galactic Trade Federation (mail-order business advertised in Starlog) the DX Zeta Gundam.
In 1987 my family took a vacation to the west coast. I was able to visit Books Nippon in LA, picked up a couple of NewType issues (both with a couple pages of Mamoru Nagano's Five Star Stories) and some Z Gundam art books...
Wow, didn't mean to write so much. Suffices to say, by the time 1995 rolled around I had most of the Streamline VHS catalog and feeling a bit overwhelmed by the speed in which new shows appeared...Never mind when DVDs were introduced.
My first clue into the world of anime, was when watching Battle of the Planets I could detect the change in animation quality from the Gatchaman footage and the newer, much more stiff, 7-Zark-7 stuff. And I would ask my parents about this, but they had no clue.
But in 1979, afternoon on thanksgiving day, we were at my grandparents whom just got cable tv. Me and my younger brother were flipping through the channels and all of a sudden we were watching Diamos. Which I immediately recognized from the Shogun Warriors toy line. And I was hooked.
Back then, living in a small town in mid-west flyover country, you didn't have many options for learning about 'Japanimation' (as it was called back then). But there was Starlog magazine, whom infrequently covered the growing anime fandom scene. Of particular note was the classifieds in the back, I would write to each one that use the word 'Japanimation' within it's copy.
By 1984, I had a copy of Fred Schodt's Manga! Manga! book and I knew about all the series that formed Force Five, Voltron, Starblazers, BTOP, etc. That year Harmony Gold put out a full page advertisement in Starlog Mag. for their upcoming VHS release of Macross...At that point it seemed that most of the sins of Americanizing and editing the shows (Force Five, Voltron, BTOP) were over...But, Harmony Gold switched gears and instead we got Robotech.
While Robotech was on air, I was using my contacts from the back of Starlog Mag. to find out anything I could about the Select Convertor Toy line, L-Gaim, and this new (back then) show called Zeta Gundam.
1986 was a year of my "firsts" for me, first job, first bank account, got my drivers license, and picked up my first import Japanese robot toy in a Japanese box courtesy from the Galactic Trade Federation (mail-order business advertised in Starlog) the DX Zeta Gundam.
In 1987 my family took a vacation to the west coast. I was able to visit Books Nippon in LA, picked up a couple of NewType issues (both with a couple pages of Mamoru Nagano's Five Star Stories) and some Z Gundam art books...
Wow, didn't mean to write so much. Suffices to say, by the time 1995 rolled around I had most of the Streamline VHS catalog and feeling a bit overwhelmed by the speed in which new shows appeared...Never mind when DVDs were introduced.