HTM...What? I didn't get my first computer with Internet until February 2001. Back then, I mostly used it to look up Pokemon web sites, and then later on, other anime sites. It took me a year and a half or so to become truly computer literate(back then I didn't even know how to download!) When I was finally comfortable with using the computer, and as I explored many extensive anime web sites, I finally decided that I wanted to make an anime site too. But I had absolutely no idea how! Luckily, my friend Cori(whom I had met online through her Rocketshippy fanfic site) took the time to teach me the necessary html skills needed to build a site. I made an account with Geocities in June 2002 and, after spending that whole summer uploading images, building web pages, and arranging html codes, Anime Yume was born!
Anime Yume I first made Anime Yume public on June 30th, 2002("yume" means "dream" by the way.) My plan was to make it a fundamental anime site; it would have individual sections on it for my favorite animes, as well as information about anime in general. Like a lot of new sites, Anime Yume was very small when I first made it. It had less than 15MB of stuff on it and the only anime sections it had back then were for Cardcaptor Sakura, Pokemon, Digimon, Mon Colle Knights, Slayers, Trigun, and Tenchi Muyo!. Also, in its first few months or so, Anime Yume barely got any hits. But I was determinded to make it as successful as I could! As the months went by, I continued to spend many hours of my spare time working on it. I added new sections, kept updating old ones, and put as much of myself into it as possible. Finally I noticed that with each passing month, the site's number of page views was steadily rising. Not long after its first birthday, Anime Yume's monthly bandwidth rose from less than 100MB to nearly 500MB, and it continued to rise rapidly each month! This finally caused me to change my web site service and buy a lot more monthly bandwidth(and more space, since I was still adding more to the site.)
Anime Yume is made with the most basic html. I don't have the time or money to deal with fancy web site building programs and computer accessories. But for a site that's always kept the same simple layout, it has certainly grown more successful over time. Comparing Anime Yume now to what it was two years ago really makes me feel proud of all the hard work I put into it! What used to be only seven different individual anime sections is now seventeen, with new ones always on the way! In addition to those, there are tons of other great sections that I never even thought of when I started the site! I get at least five e-mails a week from many different visitors saying how much they enjoy the site, and now its daily hit count has risen from less than 200 to about 1,000, with almost 250, 000 total hits as of today! My original intention was to make Anime Yume a basic fan site where people could find information and pictures from their favorite animes. But over the years I've put so much of my own individual love for anime into it(not to mention hours upon hours of hard work!) that it's no longer just a regular fan site to me!
Finding the Right Path...And Taking It! Ever since I was little I always loved to draw cartoons and I received nothing but compliments on the many drawings I made. So naturally I believed that my future career would be some way involved with artistry and drawing. At first, I thought I would want a career working with an animation studio like Disney. But as I grew older and discovered more about myself, I realized that I'd rather make my own individual animation series than do work for a large corporation. I think it was sometime in late elementary school that I decided I wanted to become a cartoonist and make comics for things like newspapers and graphic novels. I continued to pursue this potential career of mine through middle school and high school by taking as many drawing and art classes as I could. Once I became an anime fan, my goal shifted from making typical "comics" to making my own manga series. I really thought that being a manga artist was my true calling. So many of my favorite animes are based on an original manga series and I would love nothing more than to have my own series among them! I even started developing ideas for my new manga series, and I planned to be some sort of art major when I got to college. However, it wasn't until my first semester of college that I realized this was not the career for me.
First of all, I'm a good artist, but I'm not that good. Compared to all the doujinshi and fan art of potential manga artists out there(many of whom are Japanese, which already gives them an advantage), my art just can't compete. Also, manga artists are always buried in deadlines and have to be able to draw fast and come up with ideas on the spot. But I've found that although I love to draw, it's not something I like to do all the time and I can't do a good job unless I'm in the mood. And even when I am in the mood, it takes me forever to draw something until it looks right. For all these reasons, I've decided that being a manga artist just isn't for me. However, I'm still full of ideas for potential manga and anime series', if I could possibly find someone to do the drawing for me. Working on a partnership manga series(I do the story and someone else does the art) is still something I would love to do. But the chances of finding the right person for the job who's willing to work with my ideas, and the chances of our manga being successful, are pretty slim. I'll still keep this goal of mine open though, since it would be the biggest thrill in my life to see a manga series I created turned into a beloved anime series for Japanese and American fans alike. But for now I'm working on a slightly different career idea.
Even after I gave up being a manga artist, I still wanted my future career to tie in somehow with the anime/manga world. Then it dawned on me that you can still work in the anime and manga industry without actually drawing it. And that's just what I wanted to do! As long as I'm working close to the thing I love most, anime, I'd be happy! So currently I'm planning on getting some sort of a career in the American anime/manga industry. Being fluent in both English and Japanese would definitely help my chances of getting a job like that, so right now I'm taking Japanese classes at my college(and teaching myself at home too) and hoping to later get an A.A in Japanese. Being an anime fan, I've always wanted to learn Japanese and be able to watch anime in its original form without subtitles. So knowing Japanese would benefit both my personal and working life! Right now I'm willing to take any job I can get in the growing American anime/manga industry. What I would really like to do is be a professional translator and work on translating scripts for the American releases of anime episodes and DVDs, or translate manga from Japanese to English. I won't be able to do this until I learn Japanese, but even before I do I would like to get a job in the industry, such as writing for an American anime magazine, working on English dubs, etc. I'm hoping that since anime and manga are rapidly growing industries, more jobs will be open for them by the time I'm ready!
Conclusion There's no doubt that anime has had a strong impact on my life, and still continues to do so. Ever since I was little, I was certain that my life's career and passion would be somehow related with cartoons and animation. But after years of sharing most Americans' one-sided views on cartoons, anime most certainly threw me for a loop and opened my mind to the fact that animation can take on an endless range of stories and themes beyond just "kids' stuff." Though many of them believe it, Americans did not make it a fact that all cartoons are either children's shows like Rug Rats or adult comedies like The Simpsons. I've always believed that the definition of "art" is not solely determined by its medium. Whether it be a painting, a sculpture, a song, a poem, or animated drawings, true art is determined not by what people call it, but how the artists put their own unique nature and passion into their creations. The never-ending world of anime stories and styles definitely proves this point and I can't begin to express how happy I am to be able to share and appreciate the sublimity and wonderment of this beautifully cultured art form.