Blast From my Anime Viewing Past

Hey everyone!

I’m hoping that you all had a fantastic Wednesday and I hope your week is going great! Is it me or has time has been passing pretty quickly these past two weeks? I blinked and the past two days were over. Of course, I’ve been keeping myself busy so maybe that’s it? I find busy is good though, better to be putting time to use rather than letting it pass you by. Part of what’s keeping me occupied is my upcoming Pathfinder campaign. With this upcoming Sunday being the last session of the current campaign, the group and I are all excited. I’m happy to say we have two new players joining the table; however, we are losing one for the foreseeable future so that’s a bit of a downer. Nevertheless, the campaign must go on! I’ve been running back and forth between all seven players to make sure everything they need is in place, all the while feeding them more information and lore that their characters would be aware of. It’s heartwarming hearing them say how excited they are just based off the small nuggets of information that I’ve given them and of course playing the characters that they’ve created. We had what’s referred to as a session zero this past Saturday and it went wonderfully. We went over expectations, set rules, and framed the world that they would be playing in. Then, we dove into the real fun stuff, introducing the characters and building character relations. It came with some light roleplay, characters had duels, and shared some of their quirks. We had a good laugh when one of my players openly stated his character’s name was a fake name. We called out his decision to have a fake name as being a means of buying time to come up with a real name for his character. We were right. He’s not good when it comes to coming up with names. In any event, the first session of the new campaign will be on the 19th, and I can’t wait! For now, however, let’s dive into today’s topic.

Have any of you watched anime? I’m always surprised to find out who watches it, and even more so when I learn who reads manga. Of the top of my head, I can only name a handful of people that read manga, but I can probably name a few dozen people who watch anime. I think that’s one of the neat things about anime, just about anyone can find something that they enjoy. Of course, there’s a wide range of genres that fall into the category of anime and I admit my knowledge is a bit shaky on and I only know some of their names because of my friends so I’ll do my best sum up what I know. For instance, there’s Shonen anime which from my understanding is one of if not the most popular. Think of shows like Dragon Ball Z, Naruto, and Bleach, those are some big name Shonen series. Then there’s Isekai which as far as I’m aware focuses on being sent to another world, and there’s also Mecha which from my limited knowledge is about big mech suits duking it out either with each other or against monsters in space or on a planet. I’ve watched a few shows in those genres but not enough to claim to be a big fan of them. One friend of mine is big into the Mecha genre and would know far more about the genre and the shows in it than I would. The list goes on, but I would be here all day writing about them. There are some great series to be found and enjoyed.

I was a little kid when I first started watching anime. I didn’t know what anime was at the time, I just saw it as cartoons. As it turns out I was watching what’s referred to as “dub” which means it’s doesn't have the original Japanese voice actors. If you watch it with the original voice actors with subtitles, it’s referred to as “sub.” The first series that I watched was Dragon Ball which follows the character Goku as he and his friends go around collecting the wish granting Dragon Balls. I don’t remember much of Dragon Ball as it’s been years since I last watched it. I will say that I enjoyed Dragon Ball Z far more than Dragon Ball. Dragon Ball Z is the continuation of the Dragon Ball series, it still follows Goku and his friends who are now older. The series expands the universe and has what I believe to be one of, if not the most legendary moments in all of anime, which is the first time Goku transforms into a "Super Saiyan." The scene still gives me chills to this day. The voice actors did a good job, and I love the soundtrack by Bruce Faulconer.

It was around 2002 or 2003 that I would be introduced to another anime called Naruto. It followed the titular character who was a ninja and frankly an unlikely hero. Everyone in his village hates him and he’s an outcast. This is due to the demon fox that is inside him which nearly destroyed the village. Despite being an outcast he’d rather earn their respect than turn on them which is admirable. He’s also not the best at being a ninja, far from it actually. Also, while they’re called “ninjas” they pull off countless supernatural feats and abilities that actual ninjas can’t, so keep that in mind if you every give the series a watch. The series has two continuations, those being Naruto Shippuden which takes place after a time skip and then Boruto the Next Generation. I have watched Naruto Shippuden and I think it’s a good watch but I haven’t watched the Boruto series. I do keep track of how it’s proceeding from time to time. The soundtracks in Naruto and Naruto Shippuden are awesome but I find that Naruto has the better music though that may just be because I grew up with it. I do think the first of the three series had better horror elements in it though. There was one character who would always manage to scare me whenever he was on screen. For anyone who’s seen the series, I’m sure you know who I’m talking about. Now that I’m going down memory lane thinking about the series, I want to give it another watch.

I think it’s about time to wrap this one up now. I’ve got plenty more anime to talk about but for now I’ll give it a rest. If you haven’t watched anime or read manga what’s your thoughts on it? If you have, then what was your first series? Feel free to leave a comment! Thanks for reading and have a great one.

Best regards,

Aaron Kirby