Laura asks:

> 1. how did u get into anime?? (man im really scraping the
> bottom of the barrel with this one  n.n)

Yes you are... but that's okay.  Hell, I thought this place had
died yet again.... not that I ever have much to say, anyway,
recently....

How did I get into anime.... hmm.... I guess it all started
with Robotech back when I was a wee lad.  It was just coming on
when I got in from school, and I thought it was the absolute
best.  Finally, something that didn't assume I was an idiot. 
Something that had causality.  People died and stayed dead. 
People didn't always get along, and things didn't always get
better.  Good people got hurt, and good people died.  But that
went as Robotech came to an end.

Come high school, and I was filling my mind with enjoyable
trash like the Disney cartoons, like Darkwing Duck, Rescue
Rangers, Tale Spin, etc ad infinitum, and a buddy of mine
brought a couple of AD Police videos he'd rented over to the
house.  Whoa, I thought, blood, guts, and gore!  Add that to
adult themes, a bit of nudity and a dark story line, and I was
sucked in.  I needed more, but didn't know where to get it.

Enter in the not so local comic store.  After I got my driver's
license, I explored the local area (central Kentucky, that is)
and discovered a few places where I could get the stuff, and
found a place that had it on sale to boot.  I said, hell, why
not? and bought a series of tapes, sight unseen, for ten bucks
a pop. I'd picked up the original AnimEigo release of Bubblegum
Crash! without knowing a thing about it.  Ranma followed in
short order, as well as manga, laserdiscs, Japanese classes,
exchange programs, and finally a job teaching Japanese and
doing software in Japanese for a local company.  Hopefully, it
will lead me to a graduate degree in Japanese before too long
as well.

Leona then asks: 

> how did you influence anybody into Anime? 

Well, I got my brother and most of my friends hooked into it at
one point or another, but they still to this date rarely buy
anime, preferring to borrow mine.  I borrow their movies and
games, so I guess it's cool.

In my teaching job, I use a little bit of anime in our culture
discussions to get students interested.  I also have a library
of Japanese music that students are allowed to "check out,"
provided they sign an agreement that they will pay for any
damages to the discs.  I don't lend out my anime discs to
students (some have nudity, you know), even if they are college
aged.  I do allow the local anime club to borrow if they wish
for their showings, but I don't allow them to charge admission
on those nights.


====
Colin Keefe
WoS EOE GSFLGL
biokeefe@yahoo.com

Ein Bier das nicht getrunken 
wird hat seinen Beruf verfehlt!