Digimon During my time as a Pokemon and rookie anime fan, naturally I looked to TV for other animes that I could watch. Since I didn't have cable, the only other animes on local channels at the time were so-called "kiddie" or "monster" animes, similiar to Pokemon. I knew that an anime called Digimon was on Fox Kids, but I was hesitant about watching it because I had heard that it was pretty much just a cheap Pokemon rip-off. After being indifferent to Digimon for a while, I finally decided to check it out for myself. It took me a while to piece the whole Digimon story together, but when I did, I realized that it was definitely not a Pokemon copy. The way the characters were portrayed, the complex plots, and just the general style of it were very different. The only real similarity that I saw between Pokemon and Digimon came from the characteristics of the pokemon and digimon themselves. But I soon realized that the whole "many different monsters with special powers" is just a familiar and endearing concept that a lot of animes utilize, and it's what gives shows like Pokemon and Digimon their "Japanese-ness." I continued to watch Digimon and it grew to be my second favorite anime for a while(after Pokemon of course.) But I still had yet to see a truly Japanese anime, one that was not watered down in its American release. Also, I knew that Pokemon and Digimon faced some edits and name changes in their English versions. But what they had was nothing compared to an anime that came a little while later...and I had yet to learn just how bastardized some animes can get when placed in the hands of American translators.
Cardcaptor Sakura - Bless the Sub, Burn the Dub! As Pokemon and Digimon became my most favorite shows, I was always on the lookout for other animes that might air on the limited amount of TV channels I had. In late 2000, I saw commercials on Kids'WB for a new show called Cardcaptors that was coming soon. I could tell right away that it was anime, so I was very eager to watch it the day it first came on. I did, and I liked it...but I could tell that something about it was not right. That episode did not seem like the first episode; there was no introduction to the characters or plot, and events took place without any sort of explanation as to "how" or "why." Back then, I was still somewhat ignorant about just how much some animes can suffer in their American translations. Regardless, I was so desperate for anime that I kept watching Cardcaptors, hoping that I'd be able to figure out more of the story. The show steadily began to grow on me, but I could still tell that something was missing.
However one day, while exploring a store called Anime Plus, I noticed a couple of videos that had Cardcaptor Sakura episodes(why they weren't called Cardcaptors I would soon find out!) I realized that the videos had episodes that I had never seen, episodes 1 through 7(I later found out that Kids'WB had started with episode 8...no wonder I didn't get it!) Not only that, but the episodes were in their original Japanese dialogue with English subtitles...something that I had never experienced before! So of course I bought the videos, and Cardcaptor Sakura became the first anime that I ever watched in its original, uncut, Japanese language version. It took me a while to get used to the Japanese voices, but when I did, I was totally blown away! I had never seen a "cartoon" like this! I then realized just how superior it was to the English version. As I continued to buy the Japanese videos as they were released each month or so, I began watching Cardcaptors less and less. After watching episodes in their Japanese version that I had already seen in the English version, and finding out all the edits and dialogue changes, I really started to get irritated! I just couldn't understand why they would dumb it down like they did. But after doing a bit of research I figured out the reason why some TV animes, especially ones that are aimed for children, are changed so much. I won't go into detail about how and why Cardcaptor Sakura was defiled so, but to make a long story short, Kids'WB had a plan to change Cardcaptor Sakura from a cute, sweet, romantic show for girls, to a fast-paced action show for boys. Not only did they do the usual edits like changing the characters' names and dumbing down the dialogue to make it sound more American, but the episodes were shown out of order, episodes without enough action were skipped altogether, and almost every scene that focused on relationships between the characters, especially romantic ones, were edited out. The reason Kids'WB skipped the first seven episodes was because Sakura's rival Li, the main boy in the show, wasn't introduced until episode eight. Sakura is the main character in the original version, but Kids'WB was trying futilely to make it seem like Sakura and Li were equals(hence the name change from Cardcaptor Sakura to Cardcaptors.)
It wasn't long before I couldn't stand watching Cardcaptors, but my love for Cardcaptor Sakura continued to grow. Cardcaptor Sakura made me more aware of how screwed up dubbed TV anime can be. From then on, I was much more keen to the mistranslations and edits in the English language anime that I watched, and it became very easy for me to point out a poorly dubbed anime when I saw it.
Jubei and Mononoke - First "Mature" Animes At this point, the only animes that I was currently watching were Pokemon, Digimon, and Cardcaptor Sakura - all of which were relatively considered children's shows. Since anime was still a very small genre back then, and was still marketed along with other cartoons, finding more "mature" themed animes on TV was pretty much impossible. But luckily a lot of video stores were just starting to get a supply of anime videos among their other products, so it was time for me to start my long-running anime investments! The 13 episode series Jubei-chan and Hayao Miyazaki's epic movie Princess Mononoke became the first animes that I watched which were specifically marketed as anime and not just "cartoons." Jubei-chan introduced me to the unique humor and extremely cultured themes that are present in a lot of anime. Besides the Pokemon movies, Princess Mononoke was the first anime movie I ever saw. For someone who's been raised on Disney movies, seeing a movie like Mononoke gave me a whole new perspective on anime and animation in general. Mononoke showed me that anime isn't just about magical girls and battling monsters in wish-fulfilling situations, but it is an art form that can carry a range of themes beyond any scope.
Now that I was familiar with a bit more than just "kiddie" anime, my Pokemon obsession was beginning to change into an anime obsession. Unfortunately, without cable and without any friends to really share in my new interest, my "anime-gauge" was running low and I usually kept my passion for it locked inside me, since no one seemed to understand why a teenager would want to watch "cartoons" so much. I was already an anti-social person, so I feared that I was going to have a lot of trouble finding even one friend to share my love for anime with. But, I'm happy to say, once I was out of that snobby middle school, I couldn't have been more wrong!
High School - Alike Interests?! I graduated from middle school in June 2000. I was a little hopeful that I would make friends in high school since, compared to my middle school which had less than 800 students total, my public high school had nearly 4,000, and thus a much larger variety of people. Luckily, that was true! Right away, during my first semester of 9th grade, I met my good friend Amanda. She was in the same P.E. class as me and I noticed her because she had a Pokemon folder in her notebook. As we got to know each other better, I was so thrilled because not only did she live less than a block away from my house, but she also shared my interest in Pokemon and other anime! I finally realized that a large public high school like the one I was going to plays very much like the real world. Unlike middle school where everyone is basically the same and "follows the leader" under peer pressure, high school has all kinds of people, most of which are jerks unfortunately, but many good people too, and certainly people that like anime! During the rest of my years in high school, I made many anime-loving friends and I met tons of other people who liked anime. And if I thought making a lot of friends was great, finding out that there was an anime club at my school was the tops!
An Anime Club Too!? When I first heard about the anime club at my high school, I was ecstatic to say the least! I'll never forget how happy I felt when I attended that first club meeting. That was the first time in my life when I was surrounded by people who shared the same interest as me. Seeing people my age with Pokemon and Sailor Moon T-shirts, talking and laughing with each other about Pokemon, Digimon, Cardcaptor Sakura, and the other animes that were popular during that time, made me realize that I wasn't as queer as I thought and that anime really was a new and growing genre among people of all ages.
Unfortunately, my 9th grade anime club hardly had any meetings(the president was either always sick, or she was way too busy with school work.) And even when we did have meetings, we did practically nothing. But at that time I didn't care because, after feeling left out for my middle school years, I was just happy to know that there really were people who liked the same thing I did. However, my 10th, 11th, and 12th grade clubs were much better. We had meetings almost every week, and over the course of those three years we watched tons of different anime series', from Di-Gi-Charat and Excel Saga, to Cowboy Bebop, Full Metal Panic!, Hellsing, and so many others. I even brought some of my own anime videos from home in case the president and the rest of the club members forgot to(which happened pretty frequently.) I was even able to get discounts at Anime Plus with my club membership card! Even though the anime club was a bit disorganized at times and a lot of the members were kind of rowdy and noisy, the club was definitely one of my high school highlights.