Anime and Me: A History

Back in August, when a dear friend of mine suggested that I watch anime to alleviate my end-of-summer blues, I was confused but hopeful. I was bored of listening to music and Gilmore Girls (*gasp*) while unpacking my new house. So, after a brief lesson in changing language preferences in Netflix, I was excited to try something new.

My friend recommended that I start with Ouran Highschool Host Club, so that I did. I pressed play on the dubbed version and listened to the first few episodes while attempting to unpack. I actually laughed for the better part of an hour and was happier than I had been in weeks.

Centered around the students of an elite private school, specifically the members of the host club, Ouran is charmingly dramatic, quirky and flat-out funny. It has likeable characters and the storyline, while not entirely consistent, is simple enough that it entertained me even while I was working around the house, unable to give it my full attention. That’s about all I feel qualified to say being that it was the first anime that I watched from beginning to end, but if you’d like to read more about it, there’s an excellent review by Alex Cook on AniTAY here.

Amused by my total TV hangover, my brothers decided to pick my next show. Twenty minutes later, I was watching Sword Art Online with very little grasp on reality left to my name.

SAO is beautiful. While it may be possible to follow the storyline without actually watching the episodes, I never tried or wanted to try it because the animation is just that pretty. I’ve never been all that into gaming (unless you count Mario Kart Wii), but it didn’t take long for me to become obsessed with the idea of playing a VRMMO (Virtual Reality Massively Multiplayer Online).

The characters in Sword Art Online are believable, even for those of us whose only real aspiration in the gaming world is to win enough races to beat the CPU to the top of the podium. Unfortunately, many of them are developed extensively, only to drop off the face of the show in later episodes. The second story arc (the second half of the first season) was also slightly less inventive than the first, but I enjoyed it and immediately dove into Sword Art Online II.

Though extremely different from the first show, I appreciated SAO II’s new, masterfully developed characters and drastically different setting. “Gun Gale Online” is not as pretty as the original scenery of “Sword Art Online”, but, nevertheless, it’s interesting to watch. The second show introduces two twisty and heart-wrenching story arcs, and I was devastated when they ended. For me, that’s always the mark of a good TV series.

It took me a while, but I finally clawed my way out of the show hole that SAO left me in and watched The Devil Is a Part-Timer! which was recommended to me by my dear friend. I hadn’t laughed that hard over a TV show in a long time.

Though my brain seems to be in constant editing, outlining and reading mode these days, I’m not opposed to crashing in front of the TV to gather inspiration, so after Christmas, I’ll be posting “What Anime is Teaching Me about Storytelling”. In the meantime, tag me @AquinnahBree on Twitter with any anime recommendations that you have. I’m building a to-be-watched list and would love your input!