Editorial
Reminiscing the Days of the Analog Otaku Life
A hamster once told me that I remind her of Kona-chan’s otakuness.
Ok, it’s been weeks since I started writing this post, and now it’s finally out of my “queue of planned posts” list. By now, other bloggers are reminiscing their blogging nostalgia, and I’m reminiscing something else lol.
Let’s begin this post with a question, shall we? (to those who have been anime fans ever since the 90s…) Do you remember the time when there was no other way to watch animes but through local or cable television, betamax, VHS, or laser discs? Way back the dial-up age when you used the internet primarily for surfing, and/or communicating with fellow fans through mailing lists and forums?
I’ve been thinking about these good ol days, the time of the 90s which I’d call the analog otaku days. Hinano’s post about the absence of fansites weeks back made those memories even more vivid, compared to when I was first writing this post. Allow me to share some tidbits about my “analog otaku life” experiences, specifically before the dawn of the broadband internet…
At the time when laserdisc (LD) was considered THE [only] optical media, fansubs came in the form of VHS. Those who want to avail of these fansubs can opt to sponsor a certain project, where you’ll pledge a fixed amount to fund its costs. In return, you get the master copy of the fansub, mailed right to your home after they complete the project. This sponsorship is how we first obtained our analog copies of Fushigi Yuugi, Marmalade Boy, and Rurouni Kenshin (with the first 2 titles now belonging to the list of animes I’ve forsaken lol). Other ways of obtaining these fansubs would be through trading, or requesting a copy of the finished projects, but I can’t elaborate more on these methods due to the lack of firsthand experience with them.
the tsundere and the otaku.
Simply put, anime was not readily available that time. It took painstaking efforts to be able to watch certain shows (pardon the little exaggeration). Anime was a rare and precious commodity. Just being able to watch a certain non-mainstream show featured in the local or cable TV was enough to make for a starstruck impact on viewers. This is especially true for people like me who lived in the province most of their lives, where there’s even meager sources of anime. Useless fact: I only got exposed to the wonders of the internet when I reached high school, and it was not until my mid-college years that I got to have a broadband connection. \o/
We can say that anime was more special back in those days, in the sense that you don’t take it for granted like some ordinary commodity. People who get to obtain certain anime titles become so excited to preach about them, create fansites (or mailing lists) during their leisure time, to either start a fandom hype, and to liven-up an existing fandom. With the absence of whooping broadband speed internet connection, people’s energies were focused on “analog” activities (or at least, semi-digital, web 1.0 activities. anipike anyone?): fanarts and fanfics, fansites, mailing lists and forums (reminds me of the times I was soo active in the GateKeepers and Boys Be yahoo groups. oh the memories. I still can’t believe I actually became the moderator for GK, and then I disappeared after 8D)
In a way, people have become lazy, I guess, like me for example. Way back when I didn’t have the leisure of downloading mangas and animes, I would sit through one or two episodes of a series each day, through the aforementioned “analog” sources, immerse myself in what I was watching and brim with excitement each time. Instead of blog posts, I produced fanarts (and yahoo groups discussion replies). When anime and manga turned into a common commodity, readily available for download on the net, I found myself addicted to downloading and collecting, instead of actually watching and reading them orz. If I were to have a timeline for my otakuness, it would be something like this: neophyte otaku (the hyperactive days) > “hikkimori otaku life” (or “closet” otaku life, as I was focused on college studies) > blogging otaku (present)
Before I stray from the topic any further, let me end this post by showing the “proof” of my productivity yearsss ago, I humbly present to you, some of my fanarts (and copy-arts?) *bow*
I was ashamed of showing the Fushigi Yuugi fanarts I have (considering I supposedly hate it now), but here goes:
These are all analog drawings, coz I suck at CG-ing (not that I actually spent time learning it in the first place) :p
and… it’s been 5 years since I last drew a fanart, from what I can remember… I wonder if I can get the fanart drive back =/
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18 comments for “Reminiscing the Days of the Analog Otaku Life”
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Wow, those are some skillz. I demand that you get your fanart drive back.
Ah… the good old days. I wasn’t even into anime then lol
That’s a stunning CCS drawing you’ve got there. It looks like it might just be a trace, but still, I love it and it’s better than what I can do.
Man, I totally missed the old era of anime though. I think my fandom started around ‘97 or so, but I lived off R1 releases until…uh…last year.
So I guess the advances of the internet are really what create a lot of fans.
Makes you wonder what the future of anime fandom will be like… will we get to say old people talk, “back in my day, we had to DOWNLOAD anime…on a DSL connection!”?
yuyu hakusho huh….that certainly brings back a lot of memories =p
I was into animes in November 2006..
So, I didn’t have the chance to experience animes in the old days..
Btw, nice drawings..
@Asuka: hehe, we’ll see about that. It’s the least of my priorities right now… so many things I want to do, so little time *sigh*
@CCY: nuuh, they’re not trace! I never trace!
that’s a sin for me. If I remember it right, I copied the CCS one from a bunch of trading cards or stickers I have…
“Makes you wonder what the future of anime fandom will be like will we get to say old people talk, back in my day, we had to DOWNLOAD animeon a DSL connection!? XD” LOL
@hayase: oh the nostalgia :p
@Setsukyie: hehe, old school ftw \o/
Lol gatekeepers fanart!
I actually remembe downloading anime in like RM format off of Hotline. Hell my first evangelion series fansub was in VIVTV format
@hinano: I remember downloading rm videos too, but they were simply anime clips lol. I had a little “time gap” in downloading, and the next thing I know, avis were the “in” thing
Ahh the good old days. When I had to send blank tapes out and hope to get bootlegged copies of char’s counterattack back. Unsubbed of course!
@Hinano
Ah, evangelion… Still remembers how I got it from my cousin and the still 6th grader me took all of it innocently; AND without subtitles… just watching pictures lol
til the end of evangelion, where the “scene” between Rei and Shinji (when I’m still awfully innocent and don’t know what they’re doing) and my mother comes in and I just look on her without any hint of guilt (except from neglecting homeworks back then)
ol’ school… gah *shivers* loss of innocence T.T
@usagijen
somewhat, I can relate. Rurouni Kenshin was also one of the first anime I hunt as a schoolkid in video stores lol since the dubbing for it is one of the greatest dubbing i’ve ever heard for my language (that’s the one and only case where I preferred dub over sub)
then come mirc, where my connection was dialup and try to download it (the ‘time left’ says 2 months … days … hours … secs for every downloads lol) never again until cable connection arrives
Love the detail on the last two Fushigi Yuugi sketches. Get back into drawing again!
I remember watching tons of shows on VCD. This brought me back. (: CCY is right though, I wonder what the future of anime’s going to be like, and if things are going to change eventually. It would be great to have things so automated that downloading becomes antiquated, and we have the anime equivalent of TiVo where minimal input is involved in order to obtain anything.
I vividly remember watching The Flying House and Superbook (my dad required us to watch those), Cedie, Princess Sara, Ghost Fighter, Sailor Moon, etc. on the local channels, dubbed in Tagalog of course. Some are still on even now, after all these years. I watched Samurai X dubbed in English, I think. Same here with being immersed in the broadband internet scene in my college years already. When I went off to college, I didn’t have the luxury of my own computer… orz, so Cartoon Network and Animax was where I got my (limited) anime fix once in a while.
Woohoo! Eugene! Dennis! (I never could remember their names in Japanese, haha) I loved watching YuYu in high school. I think it was aired in primetime. You have really good drawing skills! Your sketches are very well done. =)
@Watch Anime for Free: that’s piracy! (if that was actually known before xD)
@rev: lol *pats* I found Evangelion too much too bear… it was just too much for my simple mind back then x__X
after several attempts to download anime with my uber slow dial-up connection, I just decided to settle for mangas, which is why I became more of a manga fanatic, at least in those years.
@Owen: I need a great amount of inspiration to get back into doing fanarts again… but we’ll see
it’ll be great to have an anime TiVo of some sort. we’ll be able to watch them as fast as them Japanese!
though, fansubs would be another thing… hehe
@hazy: Flying House and Superbook! I loved those!
lucky for you to have such fun/anime-loving dad :p when I was in college, I actually resorted to “buying” fansubs, because of the lack of broadband “power” =/
haha, Dennis = <333
I think my sketching skills have now become rusty
i like this gril thanks for sharing
Gyahaha~! LaserDisk. Ah… those were the days.
@picchar: yes indeed, oh nostalgia~