Thanks to Yumeka for providing this idea. You can find her original post here. Marina also wrote a post on it here. Over the three years that I've been interested in anime, I've tried a lot of different stuff out. I've experimented with different genres and found what was most appealing to me. It's been a fun three years filled with anime club meetings, weekend marathons, and convention craziness. And in those three years that I've been exploring the anime medium, I've had quite a lot of "firsts." As cheesy as it sounds, these firsts will always hold a special place in my heart (except for Boku no Pico; I need to get that shit out of my head), and they very well may have shaped my preferences in anime and how I look at anime today. First anime watched without knowing it was anime: Spirited Away or Castle in the Sky When I was five or six years old, my grandfather gave me this huge box full of Christmas presents. I distinctly remember being really excited about it; relatives usually gave you rectangular boxes with boring clothes in it. No, this box was huge, and it looked exciting. Upon opening it, my five year old mind was astounded to find a small white TV and placed among it, VCRs. The little white TV had a VCR deck built in, and for the next four years, I watched VCRs as I went to sleep. Oftentimes, I would be much too lazy to change the VCR every night, so I ended up watching the same video over and over again for a month or so. Among those watched were: Parent Trap, a recording of the Rose Parade, a movie tour of the Newport mansions, and of course, Castle in the Sky. Every night, I would rewind the movie to the beginning and see how far I could make it into the movie before falling asleep. I knew the movies so well that I could pinpoint the exact moment where I had dozed off. Since then, I've gotten cable for the TV and don't watch VCRs all too often, but I refuse to let go of that little white television. Simply because my grandfather, who used to be such a huge part of my five year old life, died the following year. The reason I also say Spirited Away is because I can't remember if I rented it from the long since closed video store before watching Castle in the Sky. I didn't know that they were anime. First anime w/ subs: Bleach As said in my history with anime post, my first ever anime watched in subs while knowing it was anime, was Bleach. I became hopelessly obsessed with the series and was really into for about six months before I noticed that there are other anime out there, and Bleach really isn't as fabulous as I once thought it was. After I watched other series, Bleach was knocked a few pegs down on the pedestal that I had carefully set it upon. Bleach wasn't the perfect series that I had thought it was, though it still holds a special place in my heart. It was the start of my passion. First Japanese video game: Kingdom Hearts I already wrote quite a lot about my experience with this game back in this post, but I'll regurgitate some of it for a new reader's pleasure. I got into Kingdom Hearts long before I started watching anime. My friend introduced it to me, and it quickly became an obsession during my sixth grade year. Every day, after I came home from school, I played Kingdom Hearts. However, I'm not much of a gamer and whenever I play a game, I tend to get into it for a while and then suddenly drop it. It's not that I don't like it or I don't plan on going back and finishing it; I just forget about it and don't feel motivated to actually sit down and put time into finishing it. This has happened with Kingdom Hearts (lost interest right at the end lol), Pokemon Black & White (lost interest after gym 4), and Persona 3 (lost interest at the beginning before doing anything of actual importance). And even though I know that I'll inevitably lose interest in a game, I still buy games. I never learn. First shipping: Orihime x Ichigo - Bleach I've supported this couple ever since episode 140-something when Orihime almost kisses Ichigo. That was the turning point for me. Never once did I give any thought to Rukia x Ichigo, simply because (Oh God, people are going to hate me for this) I really don't like Rukia. Orihime heals people, and while I admit that she can be annoying at times, she still has a power that is extremely handy. Rukia, on the other hand, is really quite weak. She hasn't grown as a character since the beginning (of course, I could be wrong; I'm about 40 episodes behind and haven't read the manga). She holds, like, fifth chair in her squad, and none of her powers compare to Ichigo's and yet she still insists on fighting alongside him and getting her ass kicked practically every time. Now, I wouldn't mind if she got her ass kicked and treated Ichigo with deference, but she kind of bullies him. I know some may see her in a different light, but I find her to be annoying. I do really like Ichigo and Orihime together, though, and I hope Kubo actually develops the couple a bit more (which he probably won't because he's fucking Kubo). First DVD: Azumanga Daioh Before going on a road trip to Nashville, I walked into Best Buy with the intent of buying an anime to entertain myself on the long journey there. I walked through the limited anime selection and debated upon whether I should buy Ergo Proxy or Azumanga Daioh. The latter won out in the end, only because I had seen a few episodes at my friend's house, and I thought it was hilarious. I did end up really liking the series. I loved watching the girls go through high school with all their individual quirks.  First Figurine: Small Luffy from Strong World Kind of looks like this; is it "figure" or "figurine?" I bought this little itty bitty Luffy figurine at my first convention for $8. He now sits upon my alarm clock and is knocked off it every morning by a tired Nadja, who can't process the fact that it's an alarm trying to wake her up, not a loud mosquito that needs killing. I really do love Luffy. He's one of my favorite characters ever. You'll find quite a lot of One Piece posters hanging from my walls.  First Poster: Bleach similar to the one I have When I was in Hawaii two summers ago, I bought a Bleach posterzine at a Borders. Once home, I excitedly pinned them all up on my walls. Although my passion for Bleach has faded since then, I still keep a few of my favorites up. The ones I still have on my walls are the one with all the captains on it and Ichigo in his bankai form. First Manga: Vampire Knight I didn't really know that many manga when I started watching anime. The only one I picked up was Vampire Knight. In my mind, I had a simple equation that almost always ended in awesomeness: Vampires x Romance x SEXY vampires x Action x Sex x School = WIN. It was majorly disappointing for me, though. It had the sexy vampires, the school, and the romance, but the main girl was weak as hell, and the action sucked. Barely anything happened ever. I especially hated how Yuki would swing around her Artemis stick and talk about how you shouldn't mess with her, and then she'd end up getting her ass kicked. Also, her hair pissed me off. I don't know why. Oh, and the incest. I did not want to see that. >.> First Convention: Colossalcon 2010 I went with some of my really good friends, and we had a blast. Although I had a great amount of money stolen and we couldn't find our room, it was really, really fun. It's a treasure trove of do-you-remember-whens.  First Japanese Learning: Japanese Coach for DS I took an interest in the Japanese language very early on in my anime years. On my plane ride to Hawaii, I used this game a lot, thinking that I could pick up most of the language during the summer. HA. HA. HA. Pick up an entire language in only two and a half months? Wow. Anyway, although this isn't exactly the best way of learning the language (especially all the grammar bits), but it's great for games and memorizing.  First Anime Blog Read: Eyesedso (?) I'm not actually sure if his blog was the first I ever read. I started reading a lot at the same time, but I'm sure that his blog was the first I really got into, and that lead to discovering several other blogs. So, uhhh... thanks, Glo.      First Yaoi: Boku no Pico Well, I was on /a/ and you hear quite a lot about this infamous anime and decided to give it a go. It was disturbing, to say the least. Probably not the best entrance to the yaoi genre... But I did end up watching Junjou Romantica a few weeks later, and I enjoyed that show quite a lot.  I feel like I'm incriminating myself by saying I watched it. xD What do you think of my anime firsts? What are yours? :)  
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