We all know manga and anime as those "Japanese comics and cartoons".
Some of us are avid fans and try to consume as much as we can...sometimes with horrific results.
Like most Westerners my first real introduction was
Astro Boy...I thought Astro was cute and blowing rockets from his butt was the apex of toilet humour. Please remember I was seven at time.
Then came G-Force or
Battle of the Planets which I later dis
covered was a butchered American adaptation of
Science Ninja Team Gatchaman. I say butchered because to edit out most of the violence from the original, the Americans created 7-Zark-7. This little robot who loved oil showers was basically was a C-3PO in a shape of the love child of R2-D2 and a football. He would explain what was going in the guise of worrying.
My family could not understand me and my obsession. My school mates just thought I was werid. I could not articulate how I was waiting for the show's only female character Princess to die...horriblely. In a vain hope that 7-Zark-7 would call me and ask me to take Princess' position as kick-arse-ninja-girl. But I was going to insist on an outfit similar to the show's villian Zoltar.
Things change and so did public programming so I got into ponies instead. My family relieved that I was becoming a normal girl and a result of lots of school friends due to my uncanny ability to draw horses for them.
Then Jap-animation came to town.
As someone who was blown away by
Akira when it first hit our shores, I went anime and manga crazy...and
I sat through some dreay flicks and read some crappy things but when I found a gem I feverently grabbed it. Anime movie festivals were rare and usually only featured three movies at a time. Most of the time new things were seen via video tape swaping...or going to Chinatown and grabbing the chinese translation and try to figure out what was going on by looking at the pictures...these were the days before DVDs and Madman Entertainment. And they were not that long ago.
So I'm just going to give you a basic low down on the types and genres of manga and anime, for those of you who already know this I apoligise for the re-hash. For those who don't, well this is for you if you are trying to find direction in locating something you like.
If you're a fantasy fan like me you'll be happy to know that the TV series based on the George R.R. Martin high fantasy fiction series A Song of Fire and Ice is starting soon on HBO in the US.
taking a turn for epic television.
