Nostalgia. For me, anime has a nostalgic feeling, as much of what I watched was so many years ago, I have very fond memories of it. But that doesn't mean I will only watch older anime. No, I'm always interested in new stuff.
I started watching anime before I knew it was anime. You know, Astroboy. Tetsuwan Atom. Then I started university, and the only anime on TV was Dragonball and Sailor Moon. 1996 was the year everything changed for me. I attended a two day long anime festival near my home. I could literally walk there within ten minutes from my apartment! This is where I discovered the wide world of anime. Everything was subtitled, which was a first for me. I was introduced to such series as Dirty Pair Flash, Armitage III, and my memory is foggy about anything else. I mean, it was 28 years ago.
I moved to another city shortly after because of my field of study, and discovered that Blockbuster had anime. I rented it all, and it wasn't much. But there was another, even better video rental store that had a much larger selection. I discovered Ranma 1/2, Devil Hunter Yohko, Bubblegum Crisis, and so much more. I then found out about fansubs, and I collected so many video tapes, I was running out of space. I discovered an anime club in the city, and joined. I enjoyed even more anime, such as Evangelion, Slayers, Escaflowne, Gundam Wing, and so much more. I was a member of that club for about four years, and was even asked if I would run for president of the club. No thanks! Not my kind of thing. But during this time, I bought a DVD player, plenty of DVDs, and started an anime review website. This was back when I was having a lot of fun with html. I was proud of my late 90s website.
Eventually, I graduated from university, then moved back to my hometown. I left behind friends at the anime club and had to find work. Thanks to having high speed cable internet at this time, I started downloading anime through torrents, which was what everyone was doing at that time. But one thing bothered me. I was always starting series and never finishing them. The video stores rarely had complete series. I borrowed DVDs from my friend at the anime club, and was able to watch the full series of Kimagure Orange Road, Boys Be, and more. I was able to watch full series through the anime club and anything I bought. But I was finding that I wasn't completing series.
And then in 2004, everything changed again. I got a new job. A job in Japan. So, in 2005, I moved to Yokohama, and lived in Kanagawa prefecture, just south of Tokyo, for 11 years. I watched .hack//Roots, Aquarion, Aria the Animation, and Uninhabited Planet Survive (reruns on NHK). And then I stopped watching anime. I found comedy variety shows. And that is where I got most of my Japanese language listening practice. They spoke quickly! I never really returned to anime during my time in Japan, though I did occasionally catch an episode of Fullmetal Alchemist from time to time. I got married, had a kid, and watched way too much Anpanman. But in 2016, things changed again.
We moved back to my hometown, where we remain today. I was able to start watching a little anime again through Netflix, but not much. I watched season 1 of Attack on Titan, and was forced to watch some Pretty Cure with my daughter. But it wasn't until a couple years ago that I started watching more, but only occassionally. I watched all of the original Macross series, which was something I'd wanted to do for a long time. And this year, I decided to start watching a lot more, and I'm finding that a lot of memories of anime I watched nearly 30 years ago came flooding back. And that's where I'm starting.
You see, I love the anime from the 1980s and 90s. That's why this review blog is called Natsukashii Anime Review. I'm going back to my old favourites, and some of my not so favourites, to see if my opinions have changed. But I'm also watching a lot of newer stuff. Frieren. I'm loving it. But I want to watch it all. There's so much to watch and so much to catch up on. The anime of 2006-2023 is mostly a mystery to me. But I will try pretty much anything.
In the "In Progress" page, you will find everything I'm currently watching, as well as a handful of series waiting to be started. I am watching a maximum of 10 series at once. I like variety, and I'm not usually in the mood to binge watch a single series like I used to. However, on that page, you can request anime for me to watch, and I'll add them to the "coming soon" list. I'll watch pretty much anything, though there are some series I really don't care to watch. But I'll talk about that another time.
So, welcome to Natsukashii Anime Reviews! I look forward to discovering a lot of amazing anime.
