The shy/thinkers club:)

my high school friend draws it now so it was cool..and my other friend and I would watch digimon cause matt looked like the guy we knew and it was funny ...that was years ago..man..but it was fun..I used to not like anime at all..thought it was so stupid..eep..don't hit me please

Ahh I hated anime, too, in high school, I thought only losers watched it. Well, that is how you think in high school, right? Then in college, I saw Gundam Wing on the Cartoon Network. It was so good, and I really couldn't believe a cartoon could be that good. My little brother watched it with me, and sometimes my dad. My dad seemed bemused that a 18 or 19 year old young woman could be entertained by cartoon robots blowing each other up.

Then a few years later, an online friend encouraged me to watch Saiyuki as well as Gravitation. Saiyuki was just, wow. And Cartoon Network was airing more anime, like Inuyasha, Cowboy Bebop, and Samurai Champloo. I used to watch Inuyasha, and my roommates would admit that it was "very intense" for a "cartoon," but no one would sit and watch it with me. I felt very embarrassed.

Then the teasing started, amongst my family and friends, as I started to watch more anime, downloading it and really falling in love with it. It's just a "quirk" of my personality now that people in my life chuckle about. If just one person, just one, would offer to watch some of the shows that move me so much, I would be so eternally grateful to them. But no one ever will.

I'd totally watch them with you!
what did you think of gundamseed?

haha, thanks XD

Ahh I haven't seen Gundam Seed; the Gundam universe really doesn't interest me anymore, I was simply initially so impressed that a "cartoon" could be so philosophical, and that is what drew me to Gundam Wing. And of course I was totally in love with Zechs Merquise! But part of my first bishie love affair had to do with the fact that he is such a complex individual, and that again was something I did not expect to find in a cartoon.

lol I've never watched any of the other gundams just seed and destiny..I like the thought they put into it too..if you can get past the mechas theres actually a story line in there o_O

I know! The mechas really take me out of the story, I mean, how practical is it that in the future humans will build gigantic space faring robots

But the Gundam shows are shounen and kinda kiddie-ish, so I can understand friends and family not wanting to watch those. But there are such sophisticated shows out there, you know? It would be nice if "the rest of the world" would just open its eyes and sit down and watch it with us ^^

I'm watching Gundam 00 right now...and I have to say that I like it. Pretty much the only other Gundam I watched was Wing as well (I'm not a real Mecha fan either). So check that out if you have time.

It was actually opposite for me, I liked anime in high school, but then when I went to college I met so many otaku that they killed it for me. No offense to those who like J-pop, but I couldn't take it and the fact that totally white people dyed their hair black and tried to sound Japanese. Not to mention that I felt that the shows were starting to go down in quality. I got back into anime during grad school when I realized what I was missing out on.

@ArtemisMS - what are some of the shows that moved you?

Ahh, well, the first show that really turned me on was Gundam Wing. I had never seen a show, animated or not, that delved that deeply and seriously into philosophy. I was eighteen and not used to thinking like that. I struggled to accept that there were no "bad" characters.

The next show that moved me (in a sense) was Gravitation. I live in a very homophobic area, and it was so shocking and moving to see a boy falling in love with a young man ... and it be treated as any other normal romance. My eyes were opened. It can happen! It isn't just fantasy! (The only other "slash" couples I had encountered living genuine, happy lives were in fantasy novels. Gay people I knew in real life were pretty much closeted and unhappy.)

After that, shows have just affected me in different ways. Tactics for some reason really touched me; love that can't be expressed, but can't be denied, either. Believe it or not, when I saw Haru wo Daite I was also struck, because here (again) was realistic treatment of a relationship (in this case a relationship b/w two men). They had genuine difficulties, both with each other and the world around them.

On t.v. you don't get realistic relationships like that. You get Ross and Rachel, you know? Just either goofy comedy or overly serious melodrama, like on ER or something. I guess that's what's always moved me about anime, is its realism in how it deals with its characters, and the friendships and relationships between those characters.

I put up a funny quizzie in the Everything Else section, go check it out if you have time. Here

How did we come to discuss anime in here, gosh, I'm missing so much.

But yup, was deeply moved by Gravitation too, not even only because it was BL but for many other reasons, one being the figure of Eiri who just seemed and still seems just so realistic to me. So yup, anime dares a lot and dares going where a lot of other shows don't go.