So let's talk about anime.
I am a fan of the style, either in the movie, TV show, or comic style. There are a few greats that stick out for that I recommend, but anime isn't something that I have dove head first in to.
Flash to years ago when I was just a young lad growing up. My first foray in to the Japanese culture came through playing some old school Super Nintendo RPGs. The first one, and the one I fell for, was called Breath of Fire. I played it, the sequel, and got in to Final Fantasy with Final Fantasy 3 on the SNES, or 6 in the regular series.
I became friends with this kid named Justin. He was big in to anime, Final Fantasy, and Japanese culture. It really was from him and him wanting to watch things that I fell for some of the anime. In particular, I believe that this is where I was first introduced to Record of Lodoss War. It was big at the time, and I think it was big for me. I remember buying the Chronicles of the Heroic Knight series on VHS and watching it. I had mixed feelings about both series, as I felt like it was something I should be interested in, but I just wasn't getting in to it.
Side story - Justin once stayed at my house when we were 15. We rented an anime to watch that night and it ended up being some sort of tentacle porn thing. Yeah, not exactly the thing you want to watch where your parents are in the next room. I remember being very confused and not too interested in what was going on with the characters and the weird tongue stuff. Thankfully, I blocked out anything else that happened that night. I think I tried to fall asleep as soon as I could.
Flash forward some years and the next big thing I remember being shown to me was Cowboy Bebop. To say that this was a world of difference would be an understatement. Also introduced around the same time - Akira. Between these two, I really wanted to get in and like some more anime.
My comic book approach to anime is limited to two series. First, Akira. The books and the movie couldn't be more apart, as the books just went leaps and bounds beyond what even the movie did. It had me set on all grounds.
The next major show or movie I can remember came very recently in watching Death Note. I think I saw the live action movies first some how, which I believe I can blame Netflix for. The movies were good, the animated show even better, and the books were the icing on the cake.
Somewhere in that era came Princess Mononoke. It fell a little flat for me. Either I didn't really click with what was going on, or the concept was just a little beyond me. Again, my approach to anime sometimes leads me to knowing I should like it, but it just isn't clicking. The feeling I could best relate it to is that there is a mirror universe version of me that is loving all this stuff, but I am really iffy on.
The Animatrix got me fueled a little on anime again at one point. Go-Lion, which Voltron is originally based off of, was something I dabbled in, but I couldn't divorce myself from the animation which was very much more blood, guts, and adult than what was re-cut to fit in to a children's show in the states.
I have recently watched Attack on Titan, which was very boring and dragged in spots, but is something that can be very good at times.
Samurai Champloo, from the same creators of Cowboy Bebop, also was one that I had to continue watching until finished. Love/hate relationship.
At some point, Vampire Hunter D was a thing, but I think I fell more in love with the concept and the look of the movies/show than I ever did the actual story.
I think that is what gets me about anime. At times the story can seem so high concept, or so simple, and the animation has to really sell it. I am very fickle when it comes to anime hitting me at the right time with the right kind of tastes that I have. I can't just sit down and watch something that is either great with the anime or great with the story, there has to be that balance between the two. That's where the beauty of anime lies.
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