Anime On My Mind

I’ve had anime and manga on my mind, lately. I’ve been watching shows and drawing images in this distinctive style quite a bit in the past month or so. I can’t put my finger on why, exactly, except that I’ve been a fan of the style since its early days in America.

One of the first TV shows I ever remember watching was back when I was four (so it must have been around 1965): Astroboy. This show, and its anime cousin, Gigantor, were two of my favorite entertainments when I was a wee lad. Being that these were the first anime series in the U.S., and still in their first syndicated run, it’s fair to say that I got on the anime train at the first station. Since then, my childhood diversions were populated by the likes of Kimba the White Lion, Speed Racer, Tobor the 8th Man, and my all-time favorite: Marine Boy.

It wasn’t until I entered college in 1979 that I realized that others were fans of the style as well. Actually, more than just fans: they were big fans, obsessive fans. Although I was otherwise distracted with helping to contribute to the evolution of our future cybernetic overlords (i.e. I was a very busy computer science student and programmer), they educated me that there was a lot more to anime–and these comic books known as manga–than I’d ever suspected.

Since the 80s, anime and manga have just exploded beyond anything I imagined. Then again, why not? We are now a few generations of new viewers along since I first started. Those kids started with things like Transformers and Robotech, or later with Pokémon or Yu-Gi-Oh! or the dozens of others that have appeared in the third millennium. With a generation or two of anime fans having raised anime fans of their own, it’s no real surprise that the breadth of anime–from kid-stuff to very adult-themed stories–has become more mainstream and not relegated to a half-, or maybe even one whole, back-shelf of import VHS tapes at the video rental store.

I might not be able to point to and name most of the anime characters that populate a lot of the cosplay at conventions, but my lifelong enjoyment of the form continues unabated. Though I still enjoy Disney, Warner Bros.,  Hanna-Barbera, Pixar, and others; it was really anime that showed that animation–especially television animation–didn’t have to be generally vapid. So…if you’ll excuse me, I have some back-catalog to return to.