[Last Sinner]

I first saw an anime when I was 4. It was Sherlock Hound, which had Miyazaki directing a few episodes. I was instantly in love with the medium. It had substance and imagination to it I didn't see in Western shows. And that title in particular felt like something I'd still like when I was an adult. Unfortunately, since anime was hardly around in Western countries in the 80s, lost contact with the medium. It wasn't until the mid 90s I saw Evangelion airing on TV. As a teen, I found it a bit sexy yet rather absurd. Anno probably kept me away from anime for quite a while. I saw Pokemon, Sailor Moon, Zoids and DBZ on TV in my early adulthood but they weren't spectacular. When I saw Cardcaptor Sakura airing, that was when I began to truly feel something. It was the first time I'd seen something so feminine/girly and I began to wonder 'What else is out there if something like this exists?' It took Spiritied Away's release to truly ignite my interest in the medium since I could tell this was a tale that was pure, straight from the heart and without personal rants.

Wanting to know more about what this medium could achieve, seeing a flyer for a local anime convention (it had only just started occuring when I found out about AVCON), I went there that weekend to see what else was out there. It was quite an experience. Seeing titles like Full Metal Panic, Read or Die OVA and Nadesico there got me excited. By chance I crossed paths with someone who was a long-time anime fan and told me there was actually an anime club in Adelaide. As of late July 2003, I started going there (AJAS) and still am. It was an interesting playlist - last episode of Someday's Dreamers, early into Witch Hunter Robin and Scrapped Princess. What won me over was that was the night that Last Exile started screening. It was the final show for the night, so it was fortunate some other titles were good. Last Exile blew me away from the moment it started - hearing such exotic music, a steam-punk world full of carnage and detail, spunky characters full of personality. It was love at first sight. Last Exile was what compelled me to keep exploring the anime medium.

I guess most of the next 2 years I explored shows made in the 1998-present time period. I think I was fortunate to have started my journey in proper detail in 2003 because 2002-2003 was a great time for anime. So much variety, risks and titles pushing the barrier. 2004, I felt a little let down by the sudden lack of decent titles. However seeing Satoshi Kon and Makoto Shinkai works gave me some faith. 2005, I almost lost interest in the medium, wondering if I'd seen all there was to see, although October that year proved otherwise. 2006 was a good year and provided me with plenty to enjoy. 2007 - I hit another wall. The sudden barrage of Shounen Jump titles hitting the screen and narrowing variety worried me. This was probably the closest I came to parting with anime.

I was rather late onto the Code Geass bandwagon, but I was utterly into it once I saw it. For all its flaws, everything it did right as well as its ambition and passion just compelled me. I hadn't felt so desperate to see a new episode of any show in years. 2008 brought a good helping of titles that appealed to me and I felt safe in the medium once more. 2009, I saw the K-ON and Shaft empires take hold - I wasn't enthused. July season was all I cared about that year. 2010, January and April brought me enough to like, as well as another title I truly admired - Tatami Galaxy, which was so unlike anything airing at the time. It felt challenging yet so rewarding to watch. 2nd half of 2010 was rather bland for me.

Despite my trials in 2007, perhaps my greatest trial could have been 2011. I have no problem admitting that there is no series made in 2011 I've been able to watch in full or enjoy. I'm rather appalled at how much simplisitc slice of life, generic moe harems and botched attempts at trying to recycle the past (sorry, Fractale, but you're clearly a mediocre remake of Nadia from 1992. Only takes 1 episode to see how blatantly identical they are! And let's not forget this newly announced crossover of Gundam with Inazuma Eleven...give me a break...) Suddenly all that seemed to matter to a great deal of newer fans was pretty animation, a certain mood and characters you could lazily watch without a care in the world. My long-time mentor saw my conflict and invited me over to his place. He took me aside for 6 hours and showed me material from the early 60s to about 1994. He told me in was time, now that older shows were emerging, that I should take the plunge back into anime's history and see where the medium came from.

And I am never going to regret having my mentor send me on the journey back into the earlier days of anime. Seeing how Tezuka boldly took it on himself to be the father of modern manga and modern anime. Seeing how Nagai, Matsumoto and Tomino generated genres like mecha, space opera and the like in their own way that made the 70s daring, yet also seeing the iconic Group Year 24 allow icons like Ryoko Ikeda and Moto Hagio show that women did have a place in the realm and lead to shoujo and other genres being a place where women could create. Seeing the importance of singers like Ichiro 'Aniki' Mizuki and Isao Sasaki in forging a series as great by having epic theme songs to go with them. Seeing franchises like Lupin being born, seeing where the team of five/Let's combine gimmick came from. Seeing the Miyazaki/Takahata partnership grow from its early days to taking the plunge leading up to the formation of Ghibli. Seeing the raunchy, hilarious ways of the 80s and that the high school dynamic was viable. Seeing the rising role of the seiyuu selling a series in the 90s as well as why anime gradually became more accessible for the Western world. And I've only seen a fraction of what there is to see in the pre-2000 era. I'll have a lot of time required to properly explore it.

So I say to you fellow anime fans - if you hit a wall, don't let the idea that you have to rely on current anime be the reason you stop or lose faith in the medium. My advice to you is to dare to take the journey back in time. Older series are now accessible - they are worth watching. You'll learn where anime came from, the titles that were crucial in genres/animation styles/tropes being born, that there are other characters back then that helped to pave the way for the characters you like today to be viable. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised. Just don't let the idea that the animation isn't digital/super pretty or that it's so far back in time that it's just not possible. I think that the current generations of anime fans are somewhat taking for granted that the animation can reach the levels it is today and compensate for weaker aspects in the medium, because it's pretty looking. Yet not many studios utilise that properly - and truth is - there were people that could do a damn good job with it even 3 decades ago.

If you think you've seen it all, there is a likelihood you haven't. Something I keep learning no matter how many series I've watched. Just be willing to keep looking and see where the medium came from back then. It's a very fulfilling journey. Now if you'll excuse me, my mega marathon of Galaxy Express 999 beckons.