Ah, anime: the genre that helped fill my imagination as a kid. My love for anime has followed to adulthood, ranking high on my favorite things to watch on TV.
But lately, I'm starting to think my love for anime is becoming more of an obsession.
Let's start at the beginning. Growing up, for those that don't know or don't remember, Toonami was one of the best television programs around. Why, you might ask? Well, Toonami was a program that came on Cartoon Network every Saturday and had all the cartoons that had a little more...adult elements in it, so to speak. After a full day of watching the more child-friendly shows like "Chowder," "Johnny Test," and many others, Toonami would come on and stuff would get real.
Shows like "Family Guy," "American Dad" and "The Boondocks" would come on, and I would be cooped up in the living room with the volume on low (just in case my parents walked past while one of the characters was saying something crazy), feeling kind of devious. Back then, we all had bedtimes, but Toonami didn't follow bedtimes. The later it got, the better the shows--and that's where the anime comes in.
By about 11:00 p.m., shows like "Dragon Ball Z," "Naruto," "Bleach," and others would start coming on.
It was like nothing I had ever seen.
As a kid, you were used to action being more comic book-like thanks to shows like "Teen Titans" and "Sonic the Hedgehog," filled with booms, pows and big explosions for dramatic effect. But in anime, the action was a bit more on the darker side. Deathmatches, epic sword fights and villains with truly devious plots are within 23-25 minutes, and all you had to do was stay up until 2:00 in the morning.
Now I know what you may be thinking: "Why in the world would you stay up that long for some cartoons?" Like I said earlier, this was a more medieval time where you had to wait till the weekend for the episodes to come out. Re-runs were not really a thing because everything was just coming out at the time. So if I didn't see it then, then I wouldn't see it ever. So I waited and watched. When the shows finally came on, I would get so excited I would damn near wake the house up purely out of being hype that I made it as far as I did.
If you couldn't tell already, I invested a lot of my time into this as a child. But trust me, it gets worse.
The year is now 2018 and I'm 20 years old. I have money, a job, and when I'm not working or at school, I have a bunch of free time around a TV. So what do I do? Watch anime till the sun goes down. I could be a responsible adult and save towards paying off college loans or get even more ahead on rent, but what's the fun in that? Funimation ($5.99/month), Crunchyroll ($5.99/month), Netflix ($7.99/month), Hulu ($11.99/month) and even free websites like Tubi TV and Watch Cartoon Online. You name it, I've got. I know it's not the best long-term decision, but I work really hard so I might as well treat myself, right?
Before you judge me: if you've never watched anime, then try it out. Pick a favorite genre you typically watch, like action or horror, then look into the genre just in anime form. Not all anime is in Japanese; in fact, a lot of websites provide English versions of the show if available. You don't have to literally invest money like me to enjoy anime and if you're already paying for Netflix or Hulu (which I know most of you are), then try something different. If you don't know where to start, check out these 10 anime on Netflix. There's something on that list for each genre, and it's every college kid's favorite site!
This isn't meant to be a PSA about how anime is the greatest genre in the world or something. But trust me, if you give it a try you might find something you like. And if you do, maybe you will see why I can't get enough of this stuff. Now let's just hope you don't get as crazy as me.
