Since I collect plush dolls, it's pretty easy to track my life that way. My three oldest are Killua from Hunter x Hunter, Miroku from Inuyasha, and Len Kagamine from the Vocaloids.
Killua was my first plush doll from my parents. I got him when I was in sixth grade toward the beginning of the year. I had just started reading the Hunter x Hunter manga, and I loved the funny and unique plot. It was well known by my friends that I had a habit of having a crush on one fictional character from every series I got into, and each time I started a new series it would change. Killua Zoldyk was the first fictional crush to last an entire year. However, after that year I started to slowly dislike what Hunter x Hunter was changing into. Recently I heard from someone that the reason for the change was that during that time the author fell into a state of depression and anxiety. This resulted in the once funny and lighthearted plot, shifting to what I found to be a dark, gore fest with a plot that was far too confusing to keep up with (this being the “Chimera Ants” arc). A remake of Hunter x Hunter by the same author was released in 2011 and aired to 2014. However, I couldn't bring myself to watch it. I found no reason to retry the series after so many years. I also heard he kept the plot change in, which really doesn't interest me. He apparently made it easier to follow, but I'm just not into that kind of gore porn.
Inuyasha was an anime I was never really into, but I just sort of casually liked and watched when I saw it on TV. I was watching it when I was in fifth grade, which really says a lot about me seeing as it got pretty violent. There was also a bit of cursing, and my favorite character was a perverted monk who asked every girl he saw to "bare his children." Miroku was the only character that was always funny, though. Every other character had a bunch of drama linked to them which I found to be boring at the time. Miroku did have a dramatic past, and could be dramatic at times, but he was normally very light hearted. (I almost always go for the comic relief characters now that I think about it.) The plushie was a present from the girl I considered my best friend at the time. I remember being so happy when she gave it to me and pissed when my mom’s dogs got to it. I still don't know what happened to the staff it used to be holding. I thought one of the dogs ate it, but since it was made out of felt and metal wire you would think it would have gotten sick. I met the girl again about six months ago, after years of being separated because she moved with her dad to Vermont. She had completely changed. She lost so much weight that she looked like she might be anorexic; a big change from when she was about fifty pounds overweight like me. She didn't like much anime either; only Neon Genesis Evangelion, which I never liked. It was so awkward I actually made an excuse to leave early. I feel bad, but I haven't talked to her since to avoid more awkward confrontations.
The Vocaloids are a virtual music group made entirely of anime characters. Their voices are made by sampling the voices of real people, and altering them to sound different and sing songs. My favorite was always Len Kagamine, only because I found him the cutest. I remember having to go to Canada for a wedding in seventh grade and learning that Canada is only second to Japan in population of anime fans. There were three stores in Toronto dedicated to anime/manga when I last went there over the summer. I remember there being quite a few more when I went all those years ago. One of them had a whole set of Vocaloid plushies. My mom said I could only get one, so of course I grabbed Len. He used to have little, cone-shaped socks and armband, sleeve things. They weren't sewn to the doll, though, so I lost the socks pretty quickly. He still has the sleeve things though (I’m not sure what they’re called).
Of my three oldest plushies, Miroku certainly raises the most questions, mostly about the girl who was once my best friend. What happened to make her change so much? Why (and how) did she lose so much weight? She looked sick when I last saw her. What happened to her in Vermont? She had insinuated that her dad wasn't a very good person, which made me worry a lot about her. Is she okay now? I remember her mom used to smoke a lot and had a gambling problem. If she's living with her mom now, does that mean her dad was worse? Was he abusive? Did he make her lose that weight? So many questions that will never be answered now because I purposefully lost her number. I wouldn't have been able to help her anyway, and I haven't talked to her since the meeting. I don't plan to either. It would just be too weird.
I know that makes me a terrible person, but I never said I was nice. Hell, in one of my previous works for this site about embarrassing family stories (insert shameless promo) I openly stated that I laugh when other people get hurt. If that person ever reads this, I would like them to know that I’m sorry we drifted apart so much. However, it was really strange the last time we met, and I don’t want to ruin the amazing memories I have of us being together by replacing them with forced smiles and awkward moments. Situations like this really make you wonder what might have happened had things been a little different.
