Interbie

[Bobtheduck]

THIS IS PART 1! I only wrote this little bit because of the fact I have Japanese class in about 15 minutes, and I'm going to be late...



I'm not quite a newbie, but I ain't exactly an old hand, either... And I never made an intro post here

Anyhow, my handle is "Bob The Duck" but I am neither a bob nor a duck. Um, Well, I am sort of a duck, and sort of a bob, but that is going to be a mystery for everyone on here... Hehehe...

I'm 21, my B-day is August 3 1982. I love Jesus, anime, Games, Hiking, travelling, and the nation of Japan.

I've been into anime since I saw some anime on Sci-fi that was sorta mideavel (how exactly is that word spelled) and I think it was green legend ran, but I'm not sure... From there it went to Akira, Project A-ko, Urusei Yatsura, and then I got a sailormoon video game (in Japanese) and got curious, so I watched some stuff my friends taped off TV... And I loved it, and convinced them to buy a box set (of the first arc of the "r" series, in case you were wondering... I then found "Save our Sailors" and learned the awfull truth! DiC had changed the story! So I found Hitoshi Doi's website and printed up each and every summary/script on his site (no joke) and had a massive collection of Episode summaries that often got lended out (I was a hardcore moonie)

that's all for now (sorry, wasn't paying attention to the time... Japanese class in 14 minutes...)

[Saint]

good to get to know you more duck. I remember watching 'Green Legend Ran.' it was pretty good, yet rushed...
"(I was a hardcore moonie)" Wow was that you at the airport?

[Bobtheduck]

Not THAT kind of moonie! No, I am not of "reverand Moon's" fellowship. I was part of the cult of serenity, and our theme was "My sharona" played backwards (ok, that was an obscure refference that only a small portion of old moonies will get)

Anyhow, on to PART DEUX

Well, I stopped bothering with other anime because, well, nothing interested me like sailor moon did. So I found "Sailor moon TV" which had realplayer episodes on it, that would cycle.

They had like 20 dub eps, 1 or 2 eps of "r" subtitled, 3 eps of "S" subbed, ??? of SuperS subbed, 1 of stars subbed, and episode 200 raw japanese. Well, of course I watched the dub stuff first, since I didn't speak Japanese. I liked it, but I was curious. I checked out the episode of R, and two of the S eps, and noticed a blurry yellow line in the bottom of the screen. I said "THose are subtitles! That means there is a subtitled version of the show out there somewhere!" (that was before I knew what fansubs were) I eventually got all of the realplayer eps (very hard because I was on 14.4 at the time... for you youngans, that's less than 56k) Then they went off, but at that time I found "SenshiTV" which had better quality episodes as well as having entire seasons online...

I didn't have a fast enough modem or reliable enough service to get all the eps, so my friend who had this glorious thing called a 56k modem downloaded all of the S series and all 3 movies. That was before CD burners were a reasonable price, so he just stored them all on his HD... Well, what I did was set up my video camera and record them off the monitor and plug the speaker jack into my VCR to get sound, and except for minor color problems and a little barely noticeable line, it worked just fine. However, I found out about the people who did the translation for those eps, and I found this guy who was selling Fansub tapes who would put 15 eps per tape... I got all the money together I could get and bought the first two tapes, which contained random episodes of the first two seasons raw, and then one episode subtitled. I watched that tape like 10 times, especially eps 44-46, even though I had no clue what they were saying. I could tell easily what was going on... MAMOCHAAAAAAN!!! Um, yeah, anyhow... I ended up getting 4 more tapes. I got the remaining part of R on one tape, then 3 tapes to get all of S. I was so happy to get these... I actually had the mumps and my Sailormoon tapes were my sole comfort... Wow... And as I was watching them with a very high fever, getting high off the mumps, I got up one time and asked my dad if he sent Amy home... And meant it... Good memories...

Well, around that time, I taped the Urusei Yatsura 2 movie off sci-fi, and I knew they changed it a bit, so I convinced my friend (notice how I never did the buying) to buy it. We did, and brought it home, and noticed the subtitles... Well, we wanted it dubbed, darn it, so we returned it (in retrospect, the horrific dubbing in that movie was good reason to burn it and then pour acid on it, flush it down the toilet, and feed it to pihranas (SP?)) and got the dub and payed an extra 5 dollars (boy, we were dumb) but yeah, I loved that. I still think it's a great movie, and has many classic moments of bad dubbing I can laugh at and create many inside jokes... It's great.

Well, we got bold, and decided to buy tenchi (what is this tenchi? I have never heard of such a thing!) and, well, we got hooked. I found out that Hollywood video had an anime section and spent the money I used to spend on games, and spend it renting anime. I saw Bubblegum Crisis, Macross Plus, Ghost in the Shell, Macross II, Appleseed, and some others. I also watched my first subtitled anime outside of Sailormoon. I picked up "Urusei Yatsura 4" and I loved it... It was so weird, I just loved how different it was.

In 1998 (or was it 97?), I bought my first anime video tape (besides my SM fansubs, I mean) I was at a youth convention in San Diego, and I went into Sam Goody and picked up "Final Fantasy: Legend of the Crystals"... It was a horrible anime... But, I mean, I still watched it and sorta liked it, but it is horrible... Yeah, so I gave it away a couple years later

In 99, I co-bought my second anime video tape: The first volume of "Martian Successor Nadesico" Man, this was great... I loved it, it was so crazy and then, of course I ain't spoiling it for those who have yet to see it, but episode 3... I was in shock... And as to whether [spoiler="spoiler"]Gai Daigohji actually died or not[/spoiler] me and my friend debated for a long time, since we didn't have a way of getting the second tape.

Because of Nadesico, I rented "Blue Seed" tapes from HV, and I loved it, and I really loved all the tidbits they gave me to make my mouth water and want to see more anime (the ADV previews were great, except for the previews on Blue Seed tape 1... They were not age appropriate...)

My last year of High School, I had to do a thesis for Goverment and chose "implication of the atomic bomb" as my topic. I had heard of "Barefoot Gen" and "Grave of the Fireflies" and got them mixed up. I meant to rent "Barefoot Gen" (which wasn't even there) but rented Grave of the Fireflies (which had nothing to do with the bomb.)

Wow... Masterpiece is all I can say... I started crying part of the way into it and didnt' stop until I was done... I probably cried for days after that too... I only watched it once, because it was too heartwrenching to watch again...

I remember when my nephew was over, who is totally anti-anime (still is, but anyhow) and I showed him "Grave of the Fireflies" and he actually had an emotional moment (not cried, but he's like a stone so the emotion he did show was quite impressive)

In 2000, I went to mexico, and while I was there, Cartoon network finally reached our cable company... That's when my friend was introduced to DBZ... And felt compelled to share that with me when I came back.

Hmm... Well, I don't know where eveyrthing fits on the timeline, but I was into pokemon before it debued in the US (how do you spell that word???) That was in '96, I think... I was into SM before that... It was like '95 that I started watching sci-fi's anime. (I normally avoided sci-fi because it played a lot of horror, and I was deathly affraid of "The Fly" at that time)

Anyhow, back to DBZ and the timeline at hand... I got into it for a while. I saw it first on International channel before I got Cartoon Network. I had NO stinking clue what was going on. I got characters mixed up, I thought one thing was happening when another was (it was the android saga when i started watching on I-C) it just made no sense, but I didn't care... I tried my best to fill in the blanks, but it ended up like a game of madlibs.

When cartoon network finally showed up, they were still stuck in the Freiza saga, but it was about to show new eps (android and Cell sagas) I got hooked for a while, but of course it eventually got boring... DBZ wasn't really my style, and it was very repetitive. So, I turned my search online again, and found a site called "Luna Arts."

It was here that I was introduced to "Kodomo no Omocha" They had 20 episodes, and my friend had a CD burner at that time, so he got all of the eps, and we were all hooked on it... It was so rediculously slapstick and so break-down-and-cry serious as well... I mean, I'd never had my emotions change so rapidly... The sound at the end (because almost every episode was a really bad cliffhanger) was a sound I grew to despise... I could smell that end theme coming, and I wanted to shoot my screen. This show was NOT like sailormoon, with like a few episodes of plot and a whole lof of fluff... This show required viewing, and it moved really quickly and progressed incredibly fast (for the first arc, anyhow... it does slow down later and ends up being 102 episodes... grr...) With the exception of Sana's imaginary situations (which you may not know are imaginary unless you're really paying attention) there is no fantasy to the show... It's much more realistic than SM, and it dealt with very serious issues... I didn't know that was possible. This show really gave me a great deal of respect for Japan and the animation industry (akira didn't because I was so shaken by it, and just didn't get it at the time...) It really made me interested and I started to learn a lot more.

Actually, before that show even I started to get interested in Japan. It started with my games, and led to my Government thesis on the implications of the Atomic Bomb... Has anyone read "Children of Hiroshima"?? If you haven't you should at least read some of the essays... It is a very powerfull book.

Losing focus here... Ok... Well, Kodocha really increased my interest in Japan... I started paying attention to everything about Japan... I read some articles about it in christian magazines. I read things like "Japan is such a dark country" and calling it impenetrable, and saying that no westerner can enter the culture because it is so foreign... I got so p***ed off... I was mad...

END OF PART 2

[Bobtheduck]

Part 3!
The best things always come in threes

I went to Youth With a Mission for a discipleship training school, and while I was there, my desire to go to Japan got a lot greater... People hassled me a lot at my otaku-isms and my Jahpahneese (um, that's the opposite of Engrish, in case you're wondering... I'm of the "bush" school of vocabulary, and see nothing wrong with making up new words as long as what I say is understood ^_^) and even a korean guy was very annoyed by the things I'd say and do (I think partly because he was tired of people asking him questions about china or japan (since he was neither) or whatever, and didn't know if the stuff I was saying was sincere). Towards our Outreach (we went to Australia and Fiji, and I've got loads of pics if anyone wants to see some! Hehehe) An american-japanese guy (he's not quite "nissei, more like yonssei he's fourth generation American) finally pulled me aside and said "I know a lot of people are giving you a hard time on this issue, but I think you are going to go to Japan, and God's going to use you there to change it"

The Korean guy, who was 180 changed from when he got there, at the end of our outreach he said "I know you really have a heart for Japan, so I bought this for you" he gave me a lonely planet Japanese Phrasebook. The great thing about that is that I asked God "If you want me to go to Japan, have someone other than me give me a way to learn the language." and it was only like 2 hours later after I prayed that in my head, he gives me this book.

Man... so much to talk about... Trying to keep it on Japan or anime, though... I guess I could talk about games, but that would take WAY too long... Another thread maybe...

Well, in any case, my friend started using direct connect and I found all sorts of new anime I knew nothing about, and it's great, and well I've seen too many anime to name now and I am in love with Japaense culture (not just anime, I love... most of it (can't say it all yet, since I haven't really been there yet!))

Um... In 2002, I did another YWAM school and that's when I realized that I wanted to pioneer GOOD christian video games... I went home and took an animation course and heard about "Full Sail" from a YWAM friend (well, ex-ywam, he sorta ditched it in the middle of a school because of some personal issues which I am praying for... ) and decided that I wanted to go there for either their Computer Animation or their Game Development degree. However, I don't got that kind of money, so I'm required to get credit first... Meaning I need a good job and start buying on Credit and payin off on time, then I may go in 2005, and off to live in Japan as soon as I can land a job in Square Enix or Konami... I will probably take some jobs in EA games first (they are allways hiring, and hire people straight out of Full Sail) but Japan is my final destination as far as I know right now.

I have a lot of things I need to get done before the Vision God's given me can be fulfilled, but I am confident God will guide me along the way, and provide for me where I need provision.

[Bobtheduck]

oops, this is supposed to be in "Who's Who" not the welcome area... sorry

[Psyco]

I dont know why I read all of that but it sounds like you have had a very eventful life. (im 16 I wouldnt know what one of those are yet )

Have fun in Japan, it should ROCK!

[Bobtheduck]

I dont know why I read all of that but it sounds like you have had a very eventful life. (im 16 I wouldnt know what one of those are yet )

Have fun in Japan, it should ROCK!

My life has been pretty eventfull, but most of this has been my experience with ANIME... That's like not something you just talk about in normal conversation... "Oh yeah, when I was such and such an age I watched this one show that I didn't like and forgot about it" it's more like a list for people who like being comprehensive... like me!

[shooraijin]

Is the UY #2 movie dub really that bad? I have it on backorder ... still waiting.

Admittedly, having watched the TV series for so long (which is sub-only), I'm totally used to the Japanese voice actors and I suspect any English ones would be poor seconds. Movie #2 is the only UY property AnimEigo doesn't have USA rights to.

[Bobtheduck]

Yeah... the dub IS THAT BAD... Particularly Mujaki, the dream spirit. It is stinking funny though, the bad dub adds to the comedy of it, I think...

[Bobtheduck]

In this post (which I deleted) I said it was up in the air if I would leave... I think I'll stay, but may leave if I get caught up in another bitter debate... I'll try to stay out of them, but that is a hard thing for me to do.

[Mithrandir]

I just gotta let you know, that's one heckava sig! I loved that book!

[Bobtheduck]

Yeah... I would have loved that book, except I could not find it in any bookstore... I looked all over the place, just couldn't find it... But I loved the movie that came out of it...

[Mithrandir]

Hmm. Planning on traveling north anytime soon? You can borrow mine! Or you can try ABE. They probably have a copy somewhere that's dirt cheap!

[Bobtheduck]

I had forgotten about this thread... Um, well I'm sure that now I can find it on half.com, it's just that when I was looking so much two years ago, I didn't know about half.com... and even if I did, at that time I couldn't order stuff online... I don't have enought money for, well, anything right now so I will probably buy it when:

1. I get a good job that affords me some extra moola
2. I finish reading "The Lord of the Rings" and "The Hobbit" and "The Similarion" since that is my current project right now for pleasure reading.

[Bobtheduck]

Ok... Cephas had a post in "Day in the life" that inspired me to do this...

I have a stuffy nose right now, so it didn't sound as good as it could have, but this is me trying to sing "Galeana" by waterdeep... Because of File Limits, it's very very short, but this is my voice.

I'm thinking of uploading something bigger to Geocities for you to download. If I do that, it will be a while.

[Fsiphskilm]

Whoa there b

[cbwing0]

Thanks for the bio...I finally got around to reading the whole thing.

I can't say that I've had quite the same experience with anime. My story mostly revolves around Cartoon Network, Sci-Fi Channel, and spending hours in Suncoast (or online at Amazon.com) looking at all the anime tapes/dvds.

I hope your vision works out. I used to want to make games, until I found out that there is math involved.

[Bobtheduck]

"What is impossible for man is possible with God."

That's a verse I think can apply to anything.

That doesn't mean I'll be going Konami or Square-enix... Actually, I don't plan on going S-E, just konami. And I'm going to learn to fit into the Japanese crowd, but God may not have Konami in my future. I just think they'd be the best.

[That Dude]

My head sploded from all the reading. I think you were like the first person I ever saw on CAA...So I'll still sometimes think your a mod or something...Your like my dad here on CAA or something...Yup I'm like "BobtheDuck guy is like the first person I ever saw on here, so he's my mommy now!) (just like a little ducky would do.) And along these lines I consider Oldphil like my/the CAA grandpa. Yup...Pretty weird.