Ten points for cliche tsundere title line, we're off to a good start.

The year is...I forgot, I was in 6th grade, at the tender age of...I forgot.

I just transferred to a new school, having just moved across town, so without friends and without a bearing of my neighborhood, I was pretty insecure for a kid, I quickly attached myself to the resident dweeb of the class, a buddy to this very day named Eric.

Initially, we became friends over our mutual appreciation of video games. (Legend of Dragoon to be exact, although I was playing Xenogears at the time.)

We became friends rather quickly, I've never really had a problem getting friends, so that's to be expected, but before too long, I was going over to his house and watching his TV while he did whatever it is he did, I never payed much attention. Why is it you ask? Because this was during the golden age of Toonami, and I had become captivated by a magnificent little gem of a series called Gundam Wing.

Gundam Wing wasn't alone of course, Tenchi Muyo, Cowboy Bebop, Sailor Moon, Outlaw Star, and in the coming months, Evangelion, Rayearth, Blood: The Last Vampire, Golden Boy, whatever came my way, I absorbed with a fervor.



Like a sort of anime sponge, I began watching and learning about everything animated in sight, I forget how many hours and unfinished homework assignments can be contributed to the addictive media outlet.

Once I learned more and more about anime as a whole, I began to look outside of television and common marketplace venues for my fix, I began by refining my knowledge of my roots, Gundam, Gundam 0079, Gundam 0080, Gundam 0083, Gundam 08th MS Team, G-Gundam, Gundam X, and as time went on, I moved more, giving me more time away from social networking that was spent on more anime. Eventually, I began to further define my own tastes, I went through a shounen phase, gathering works like Flame of Recca and Pretty Face under my belt, I went through a shoujo phase, Fushigi Yuugi, Angelic Layer, X, I got a taste of all the genres before finally settling in on the moe craze that had just begun to burst on the scene as it's own unique style, beginning with AIR, catching up on series I had missed, and finding myself now, hundreds of series and stories later, and not a single regret on my mind.

We've been around the block more than once, anime my old friend, here's to fifty more years! A toast!

But there isn't a first time post I could write without discussing my first time with the love of my life beyond anime.

Visual novels.

I don't remember when it started or how, but I do know that the beast of a game that started everything was Nocturnal Illusions and Princess Maker 2, Nocturnal Illusions of course only had really one ending and one route, but you banged a mermaid and a loli, so who really cares? I remember reading it and thinking "I have no idea what's going on, but this is awesome." which is a phrase that would be repeated MANY times over MANY visual novels to follow, but Nocturnal Illusions is where it happened first.



Princess Maker 2 was one of those games I hid from the rest of my family, moreso than any other game of it's type. It's not a visual novel, it's a family sim, but it still deserves mention because it's one of the few games I was playing at the time that posed real moral choices, and the first time I realized I really, really should not have a child.



I would have to say the first real visual novel in the modern sense of the word was Heart de Roommate, which is when I can definitively say I first felt an emotion I could call 'moe', the ending I went for first was the main love interest, Asumi, and it's also the first time I realized the potential in these games.



From this point on, I became absolutely obsessed with visual novels, which in turn made me obsessed with visual novel turned anime series, which only further dropped me into the moefest that new series tend to be. (So imagine how happy a camper I am at this trend.)

I think this just about covers it, anime and visual novels, the banes of my social life, and reason I am here at all.

If a social life is the sacrifice you require anime and visual novels, it is but a small one.

-Kageryu