Wacky Wednesday: Beyond Video Games

I failed to mention in my origins story that I grew up on a healthy diet of Star Wars and watching cousins play Mortal Combat or whatever fighting game they owned. So, this post is less of me and my video games and me and my other interests.


I guess let's start at the beginning, shall we? (part of this will be in the orgins story, but this is kind of its own thing as well) So, as a young kid with no one to play with, and video games weren't such a big thing back then, what did you do? You watched TV of course! And it was there that I found my love for anime.


Anime is a Japanese Cartoon, simply put. But what's always drawn me to it is how strong the characters are. The expressions that they make still influence me today (My mom always said I need to stop acting like a cartoon character). More importantly, I loved the style of it. The way the animation was done was well beyond anything most American studios could pull off (keep in mind, I'm writng this retrospectively here).


So, what were my animes as a kid? I can easily name 3, and I think it's safe to say I'm gonna post some more links! I'll put up each intro, then discuss each one post the intro stuffins.
Sailor Moon:

You gotta admit, for a seven/eight/nine year old, a girl with super powers was freakin awesome.


Pokemon

If you didn't sing along, you have no soul.


And you gotta have Team Rocket! Before they became the never-ending comic relief.

Yeah, I miss the good old days of Pokemon. Now it just sucks.
Digimon


Yet another video that wouldn't let me embed. :( Well, here's the link. Copy Paste away!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L6gaeJkLNWE
I would often imagine Ash and Tai getting into fights over which "mon" was better. Yeah, it was a lot of fun in my imagination.


So, now about each anime: To sum up because I have yet to talk about all my favorite books, I love the characters. So much. I love how a perfect combination of voice acting and animation comes together to tell a story. And it works. (Granted, the Sailor Moon dub got a bit weird, and I never actually finished that series) But Sailor Moon, Pokemon and Digimon were all my gateway drugs (if you will) into Anime. Nowadays, I'm into Ouran High School Host Club, Princess Tutu (seriously, watch it. It is so well done), Fullmetal Alchemist, and Brotherhood (a more manga acurate version of FMA, since the first anime kinda ran off with its own story) and recently, Rozen Maiden (recent as of last year). Once again, characters are king, and I just love to watch them evolve and change over the course of the series.


Speaking of characters, HAVE YOU SEE AVATAR: THE LAST AIRBENDER?! No? Shame, you are missing out. It's anime-esque, but it shows that with the right people even "kids cartoons" can tell a good, moving story.

These are some of the few hilarious moments (and one really heartwarming one from Avatar. Sorry, James Cameron. This came first.
Oh, and I can't forget Legendo of Korra! The Sequel Series that was only orginally supposed to be a 12-episode mini-series but Nickelodeon asked for more and now there's gonna be at least 3 more season of Korra being awesome! :D

Here's the preview for Legend of Korra. Now go watch The Last Airbender and then watch Legend of Korra. It takes everything from the first series and makes it totally awesome. Seriously, you will be moved to tears at some parts.


Well, okay. I think its safe to say I've rambled on about my favorite shows now, so I'll let you all go with a little something I like to call...Animaniacs. :)



Now I need a marathon of all my favorite shows.