Was There A Time You Almost Gave Up Anime Very Early In Your Fandom And You Didnt Realise It At The Time?

I

Invisible Crane

Straw Hat Pirate
The recent news about Discotek putting the entire Urotsukidoji series on Blu Ray reminded me of a very awkward viewing experience I had with it on TV circa late 2001/early 2002 (can't exactly remember when it was but it was around then)

So to set the secene i was starting to get into anime heavily, between the DBZ on CN UK, starting to import DVDs from the US (which mainly consisted of ADVs original release of Robotech and the first 3 DBZ movies) and Sci Fi Channels late night anime on weekends. One night they show first Inferno Road (the 4th Overfiend OAV and the 3rd episode due to the first 2 being banned by the BBFC) and then I think the Lupin The 3rd OAV Goodbye Lady Liberty (could be wrong on that cause I think this was post 9/11 and it has Lupin stealing the Statue Of Liberty)

Now I was aware of Urotsukidoji at the time but only knew it as one of the most extreme animes ever made that made the BBFC wince plus Sci Fi Channel had shown Return Of The Overfiend previously which I saw a tiny bit of so when Inferno Road episode 3 aired i decided to watch it..........I won't get into what happens in it cause well its way to explicit to mentionhere.......I remember after seeing it being just........unable to process what I saw. Had it not been for the aforementioned Lupin OAV (and being under 18 i should point out) i think this could have put me off anime......but it didn't. It left a negative impression on me but it didnt kill my interest in anime and im so glad for that.

So with that said did anyone here have a similar experience?
 
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My holiday from anime was a little more mundane. I got into it back in the mid-nineties, back when I was collecting VHS tapes of violent Japanese cartoons, with most of them being released by Manga Video. The cool stuff was on TV though, and I nursed some home recording of Akira and The Wings of Honneamise for years, while it was Channel 4's Late License that informed me of the VHS tapes I'd be buying the following week. I also had a series with a BBFC mandated gap, although in my case it was Genocyber.

But it was a short lived passion, the VHS tapes were just too expensive when it cames to how much content there was, and I just couldn't justify the expense. I think I was an anime fan for a year, maybe a year and a half.

So come 2000, I buy my first DVD player, and I start penning a few reviews for a website, and I'm just getting review discs at random, along with all the DVDs that I'm double dipping so I can throw my videos away. I get a few anime discs to review, some random Sailor Moons, Warner's half-hearted attempt to release Dragon Ball, Transformers Takara, and none of it excited me.

Then one day early in 2004, I got a big pile of random check discs to review, and in there were three MVM titles, Love Hina Volume 2, Vampire Princess Miyu Volume 5 and 6, and Kiddy Grade Volume 1, and I was hooked again. About six months after that, Manga Entertainment offered up Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex Volume 1 for review, and after that there was no looking back.
 
As another survivor of the 90s anime on VHS time period there were many occasions where I saved up and bought something speculatively only to discover that it was a bit rubbish. But I think that it was actually a long time before that where I went through a flirtation with anime in my early teens, and for some reason I just couldn't get into it at all. Loved the art style and the varied subject matter, couldn't enjoy the actual content. I stopped and started a few times before I could commit to really diving into the medium properly, forcing myself to stay up and watch the stuff on the Sci-Fi Channel and studying Manga Mania/Max to try to work out what was wrong.

But even though I'd assumed that it was something about the storytelling or visuals, it turned out I simply don't like dubs, so when I got my hands on the tiny handful of sub-only titles (and some unsubbed imports) that we got in the bad old days my enjoyment of anime skyrocketed. Weirdly the over-the-top fan service of the era never bothered me, even though I'd never been exposed to anything like it in my sheltered childhood.

I still think there's a lot of rubbish out there but even when I end up watching something crummy it never dampens my enthusiasm for long.

R
 
Invisible Crane said:
The recent news about Discotek putting the entire Urotsukidoji series on Blu Ray reminded me of a very awkward viewing experience I had with it on TV circa late 2001/early 2002 (can't exactly remember when it was but it was around then)

So to set the secene i was starting to get into anime heavily, between the DBZ on CN UK, starting to import DVDs from the US (which mainly consisted of ADVs original release of Robotech and the first 3 DBZ movies) and Sci Fi Channels late night anime on weekends. One night they show first Inferno Road (the 4th Overfiend OAV and the 3rd episode due to the first 2 being banned by the BBFC) and then I think the Lupin The 3rd OAV Goodbye Lady Liberty (could be wrong on that cause I think this was post 9/11 and it has Lupin stealing the Statue Of Liberty)

Now I was aware of Urotsukidoji at the time but only knew it as one of the most extreme animes ever made that made the BBFC wince plus Sci Fi Channel had shown Return Of The Overfiend previously which I saw a tiny bit of so when Inferno Road episode 3 aired i decided to watch it..........I won't get into what happens in it cause well its way to explicit to mentionhere.......I remember after seeing it being just........unable to process what I saw. Had it not been for the aforementioned Lupin OAV (and being under 18 i should point out) i think this could have put me off anime......but it didn't. It left a negative impression on me but it didnt kill my interest in anime and im so glad for that.

So with that said did anyone here have a similar experience?
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I get what you mean. Some early anime can feel really heavy and strange, and it almost makes you want to stop. For me it was the same with a dark webtoon I tried felt too much at first, but later I found lighter series that kept me in the anime and webtoon world. Glad I didn’t quit!
 
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