The Old School Otaku Lounge

Daniel asked that I post a little bit here so that others may get to know me. No worries whatsoever.

I've been an anime and manga fan since the early 90s, but was actually - unbeknownst to me - watching anime at a far earlier age, especially Voltron and SilverHawks, which were two favorites of mine (although technically SilverHawks only had the animation done by a Japanese studio).

I started to discover more about anime around 93-94 when I started using newsgroups on Compuserve, and then later on a local dial-up ISP. I found it fascinating and visited as many sites as I could, one being Anime Turnpike that comes to mind. Through local videostores, I had my first taste of anime with the Streamline edition of Akira, Riding Bean, Bubblegum Crisis, Appleseed, and of course Outlanders.

From there, I began ordering tapes of Ranma 1/2 and others through mail-order services like AnimEigo and Viz Video. I loved the feeling of having these treasures that so few people in my neighborhood knew about, and it was - and still is - something I keep very close to my heart.

My romance with fansubs began with Dragon Ball Z, like a lot of people. Chinatown was always a great place to score VHS tapes, and I think at the time I was paying $10 a pop for a movie or a few episodes, with a clamshell case and color cover. Sometimes the tapes were even blue, which I thought was an unusual and very cool thing to do. Anyway, I always grew up wondering who Games and James were and these other guys they were so angry about! Aside from that, I had some fansubs of other shows I really enjoyed, like Escaflowne and a few others I can't really recall at the moment.

Perhaps my last true obsession in the anime world was and still is Crayon Shinchan. My prized collection consists of about 15-20 odd VHS tapes full of television episodes recorded directly from KIKU-TV here in Honolulu. To my knowledge, nowhere else was Crayon Shinchan fully subtitled in English. It's a shame they lost the license to do that show so many years ago.

Anyway, that's about it. For me this is a real nostalgia train, because I've lived overseas for so many years, away from the anime and manga scene. Jumping back into it at the age of 30 is kind of a neat feeling.

Tim

Hey Tim, welcome! I'm glad that you decided to join us...!

Have you seen the pages that I've got up detailing the ins-and-outs of Dragonball fansub tapes? http://animepast.net/Time_Capsule/Fansu ... sub_Tapes/

Totally! I'd love to see these tapes digitized at some point. It seems like an awful shame that many of these gems from the early and mid-90s are slowly being lost or deteriorating in most people's attics, basements, etc. I have dozens of these tapes back at my parents home, and hope to get back there one of these days and watch them again. E. Monsoon, Anime Labs, etc. were (and still are) a big part of my childhood and early interest in watching shows that were never brought over here at the time. I wonder if any of the old Ranma 1/2 fansubs are still around?!

Welcome to the forum! I never used Compuserve, but back before I got Internet access in December of /94, I used to look at the ads for services like Compuserve and Prodigy and longed for contact with fellow SF and anime fans and such.

Welcome! I'm new too, but these people so far have been awesome.

I remember the Anipike! Back in the pre-Google webring days they were a great way for me to find websites for shows that weren't popular enough to have webrings. And the mascot was a hitchiking girl whose costume changed depending on the season.

Welcome to the forum, Mori!

I love Crayon Shin-chan. I first watched it in Japanese class, subtitled. The episode where he dresses up as "Sailor Muufu". God, my sides were bursting from laughter. I always wished it had gotten a proper subtitled license here, since I don't really like the redone English humor of the dub.

Welcome, Mori! Always good to see new people!

I had a friend who lived in Hawaii in high school who would periodically record Crayon Shin-chan episodes off of tv for me and send me tapes. I always thought it was the coolest thing ever, and wondered why they couldn't show it on a national channel or something. XD I don't mind Funimation's "Shin-Chan", but I think of it as something entirely separate from the original, y'know?

Welcome aboard! Yeah, I still have lots of the old KIKU tapes as well as the live action shows which have finally come out on DVD. But there were a lot of shows that never saw release. Sorta sucks that the Japanese would release a show like Dr. Slump to every market BUT the U.S. or that they would release the DVD set with no subs. The trend today seems to be that at least some series get subs. I wonder who determines that? Also, KIKU had a few historical anime series that were very educational. I haven't watched many of those old tapes but I should transfer them over before they deteriorate further.

As to fan subs, the place is cluttered up enough without looking for more stuff that I will just forget about later. It's tough going through all this stuff again. My big project though is ripping my bud's DVD collection. I expect it will take all summer. Most of the discs have been withdrawn or the companies are no longer in business. I'm already getting requests from some individuals on the original discs but I have no idea if or when my bud will sell the collection. If nothing else, I'll have something to watch when I get bored...

Was it Jeff? Maybe we knew the same person!

usamimi wrote:Welcome, Mori! Always good to see new people!

I had a friend who lived in Hawaii in high school who would periodically record Crayon Shin-chan episodes off of tv for me and send me tapes. I always thought it was the coolest thing ever, and wondered why they couldn't show it on a national channel or something. XD I don't mind Funimation's "Shin-Chan", but I think of it as something entirely separate from the original, y'know?

Nope, it was a girl. but that would've been funny if we had known the same person!