Watching anime you missed from your childhood
3
Gravity cat
the adequately amused
As a kid I didn't have access to a lot of TV channels, so I missed out on a lot of anime like DBZ, Bleach, One Piece, and Naruto which people raved over, and the internet was still in its infancy so I couldn't just watch it anytime I liked. What I could watch with basic TV was one or two episodes per day dictated by scheduling, and even that was notorious for episode repeats and episode order inconsistencies. More annoying still was that episodes aired at the exact time I finished school, so I had to rely on my parents to record episodes for me on VHS tapes and they would often forget. With repeats, episodes aired out of order, parents forgetting, and VHS-quality recordings, trying to watch this shit could only be described as "infuriating", and that would still be an understatement.
But I digress. Over the years, I've managed to catch up with Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Z, GT, and Super - and while it's not official I've also watched DBZ Abridged many times. I also watched all of Bleach all the way through until the anime ended, and One Piece up until the timeskip. I still need to pick that back up. Even managed to watch shows I did watch in their intended episodic order, like Pokemon S1 and Digimon Adventure and Digimon Adventure 02. Even watched banned pokemon episodes and DA/DA02 in JP just to see what the difference was.
Right now I'm binging Naruto in JP (went with JP purely because I don't want to be put off by nonsensical dubbed anime censorship and I'm a fast reader).
For years I've been curious about what made the show so popular. It took me this long to do so because I was swayed by word of mouth and jokes on the internet that convinced me that the show was trash without even giving it a chance. But jokes get old, you start to think for yourself, and my curiosity has peaked.
I've done my homework to skip all the filler content, which I know the show is notorious for.
And I've got to say, I've been thoroughly enjoying it so far. I'm pleasantly surprised.
Has anyone else been in a similar boat, to catch up on shows you missed out on when you were younger?
But I digress. Over the years, I've managed to catch up with Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Z, GT, and Super - and while it's not official I've also watched DBZ Abridged many times. I also watched all of Bleach all the way through until the anime ended, and One Piece up until the timeskip. I still need to pick that back up. Even managed to watch shows I did watch in their intended episodic order, like Pokemon S1 and Digimon Adventure and Digimon Adventure 02. Even watched banned pokemon episodes and DA/DA02 in JP just to see what the difference was.
Spoiler:
Right now I'm binging Naruto in JP (went with JP purely because I don't want to be put off by nonsensical dubbed anime censorship and I'm a fast reader).
For years I've been curious about what made the show so popular. It took me this long to do so because I was swayed by word of mouth and jokes on the internet that convinced me that the show was trash without even giving it a chance. But jokes get old, you start to think for yourself, and my curiosity has peaked.
I've done my homework to skip all the filler content, which I know the show is notorious for.
And I've got to say, I've been thoroughly enjoying it so far. I'm pleasantly surprised.
Has anyone else been in a similar boat, to catch up on shows you missed out on when you were younger?
2
Not a show, but Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind was the first anime I saw. I think that might have been around 2008. I saw Spirited Away, Howl's Moving Castle, and My Neighbor Totoro shortly after that. Since then, I hadn't seen any other Studio Ghibli movies until a couple months ago when I went through almost all of them. Three that especially stood out to me were Ponyo, My Neighbors the Yamadas, and The Tale of Princess Kaguya. They all had such creative animation styles and more relaxed stories that overall just took me by surprise with how fun they were.
2
I finally started One Piece a few years ago and haven't binged it but am slowly but steadily getting there. Back when it started I just pre-judged it as a show I wouldn't like, tried out a couple of the movies finally and realized how wrong I was. I'm about to the part where the OP left off, the timeskip. I've also recently watched a lot of the old Tatsunoko Production classics like Casshan and Gatchaman.
1
My first adult anime i've ever seen was Lupin 3rd part 2 on Adullt SWIM as kid back in 2004. Just finished today watching the first Lupin 3rd tv special BYE BYE LIBERTY CRISIS i can dig 4:3 ratio hell just recently i was the last person in my house to get a flat screen donated the old tubey.
1
I was a fan of Toriyama Akira's classic manga 'Dragonball', which peaked in the Cell Saga. Seeing the adaptation 'Dragonball Z'- which constantly wasted my time by having fighters boast of how powerful they are, powering up, being intimidated when their opponents power up, and then repeating this cycle instead of FIGHTING- actually killed my interest in the manga.
The anime adaptation was such a disappointment.
The anime adaptation was such a disappointment.
1
I'm still catching up on the YuGiOh 5Ds anime. I've played every 5Ds game available but I've only seen a little bit of the anime and manga since I was always more of a fan of the card game itself. Since the version we got in the West has been butchered by censorship and questionable name changes (a 4Kids staple) I'm currently watching the JP version with subs. It's a strange experience because I've already been spoilered on the major plot points but I'm also seeing a lot of context that is missing in the games.
I should probably go back and rewatch Duel Monsters GX as well. Apparently there is an entire fourth season of GX that we didn't even get here in the west. The localization of this series is a tragedy.
I should probably go back and rewatch Duel Monsters GX as well. Apparently there is an entire fourth season of GX that we didn't even get here in the west. The localization of this series is a tragedy.
1
I used to watch Hamtaro on Cartoon Network. I have the first 3 volumes for VHS but apparently the VHS episodes aren't inorder?(or maybe there are unreleased episodes not on VHS that were supposed to be in between) I never realized because the plot(if any) went smoothly. Volume 1, we meet Hamtaro, Oxnard, and Boss who try to woo the French Hamster to play outside. Then they invite neighborhood Hamsters(even though they never show how they met the hamsters(but are friends with Boss, who hates company) to build a club house. Finally, Volume 3 ends with the tiger striped hamster reuniting with her twin older brother(btw do hamsters have litters because if they do, there is a lot of missing siblings in this show). I can't remember it playing on tv except a scene where their running on a rainbow. As for other Shows, Kirby:Right BackAt'Cha, Medabots, Case Closed, Bobobo, and MÄR used to show on TV. I loved MÄR(Marchen Awakens Romance) but no one I ask remembers it. I feel it came out before isekai became a craze(then again Monster Rancher was already a thing so maybe somewhere in the middle). Its about a 14 year old kid who's been dreaming about another world. Not only is it real, but the world needs him to fight in a (magic)war(and I use the term loosely) against a organization called, "The Chess Pieces"(this anime and Highschool DXD is where I learned how to play chess). Only thing, MC's chosen weapon belonged to the villian, "Phantom".(oh, and the weapon talks and has a face)