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Digimon, easily. Yeah I watched all the way up to Tamers on tv, still kept up with the franchise even though I didn't watch any of the others... the Adventure tri was revealed... I didn't watch any trailers, except maybe the first trailer for Reunion... and as soon as the dubs were released, I got them... and love them, I need to get into Adventure 2020 but real life prevents that right now

"Oiy, Chica!" Alice turned around to look at who was addressing her. One of the other exorcists in this group. A volunteer to join her on her quest to find the boss monster? A most welcome addition to the team! As well as another girl, and... a monkey? That couldn't be right. "This ain't no scavenger hunt. Even weak spooks can be dangerous if they catch you off guard- I almost got done in by the ghost of some old lady's parakeet once. Might be a better play if you stick around with all of us and listen to what Senior 1400 has to say, eh?" Fine. But only long enough to listen to what he had to say. Alice did not like that man, but now that this other guy mentioned it, getting some valuable experience would help since this was her-- "Besides, this is your first time ghost hunting, right?" "Sh sh sh sh!" Alice kept her ears open as Aki over there explained this and that, but kept her primary focus for about half of it on this other guy. In a hushed tone she responded "Yes, but let's keep that under wraps!" As Aki started toward the stairs, a horrific ghost of some sort charged down the stairs, intent on making him its meal. Now those, Alice had seen before. She had some theories as to why some spirits looked so hideous, but she'd seen her fair share of monstrous spirits back in Miami. Though the ones she'd seen were generally pretty docile, despite the appearance. Alice paid full attention as Aki blocked the spirit's attempt to turn Aki into a snack, then did what was called a soulblast. What really interested her was how his PPL went up by absorbing the spirit! "Anyway, now that that lug is out of the way, I'd say the stairwell is the safe bet. I've heard plenty of stories of haunted elevators. Doesn't sound very fun to me. Feel free to come along, but I'm not signing autographs." Like any of us want your autograph! As the exorcists - experienced and wannabe alike - went upstairs, Alice split off from the group. In retrospect, hunting down the boss monster alone probably wasn't the best way to do things. Especially if there was a technique she could hone to use in combat against a spirit! That sort of thing would be huge for her! She had to figure it out! And so, Alice roamed the halls, in search of some small-fry spirit to exorcise. It would be welcome practice and it would boost her PPL! New goal: Exorcise enough spirits to one-up Aki! As Alice turned a corner, she was met with a spirit. At a glance, she thought she'd gotten more than she bargained for. Until she noticed the PPL. Only 70! Not to mention the thing was huge! Six feet tall, and with those massive wings! It would surely have trouble moving around in these corporate hallways! Perhaps it was concerned with her own PPL being three times the spirit's, or maybe it was a warning, but whatever the reason, once the spirit saw Alice, it released a deep rumbling sound and raised its arms. What's he doing? Some sort of attack? The spirit then turned around, and started moving away from Alice as fast as its stony legs would allow. Alice paused for a moment, trying to process what the hell was going on. Before realizing that she couldn't let this thing get away! Alice broke out into a sprint, chasing the gargoyle down. Like hell you're getting away! Come back here and cough up that PPL!

This was way more embarrassing than she thought it was going to be. Her face began to turn a bright red, as Aki gave the espers some more shit for being inexperienced. Although, she could tell that most of the comments were aimed towards her. She watched as Aki himself began to ascend the stairs, and being attacked by a spirit. She recoiled a bit at the sight of the ghost, seeing as how all of the other spirits she had encountered thus far had been harmless and cute. This thing was an absolute monster! However, Aki seemed to take it down with ease, demonstrating what he called a soulblast to finish it off. Penny really did hate this guy, but she had to herself that he was the real deal. If Penny was gonna live here, and make a decent living, she'd have to become the real deal too. Hopefully she'd be able to cheat a little along the way. As Aki gestured for the rest to follow his lead up the stairs, Penny couldn't help but roll her eyes. She placed her hands in her pockets and sluggishly began to make the climb. ---- A large majority of the Espers had started making their way through the buildings, splitting off to do their own things. Penny was in no such rush and had no desire to do anything but the bare minimum to get her paycheck. She soon found herself behind the pack, and all alone on a staircase. As she kept going up and up, she couldn't help but get the feeling that something was watching her. Watching wasn't really the word for it...but more like stalking. Something instinctual inside everybody's primal side of the brain. She looked behind her in flash to see if anything or anyone had been following her...but got nothing. She shrugged, and kept on chugging up theses stairs. Her legs were starting to hurt...this was the most exercise she'd gotten since moving here...scratch that...ever. The staircase she found herself on had lead her to a new floor. In front of her lay another staircase. The sight made the hairs on her arm stand stiff...no...that wasn't it. Her shadow alerted her first, but something was headed this way. Penny took a dive to the side, as she saw what appeared to be a flash of light emanate from behind. She rolled away before stumbling to her knees. In front of her now was some sort of strange fox spirit. She reached out her hand in a bid to stop it. "H-hey there!" It was no use, as the fox began to approach her, its body extending to a five feet in length. The fur on it's body was lathered in what looked to be sparks of electricity. These city spirits didn't seem like they were to be trifled with. Even though she was inexperienced...she had to make somewhat of an effort. She started by slowly moving her shadow towards the fox. The spirit's ears twitched in response, but Penny snapped her fingers to regain it's full attention. "You wouldn't be the one who's been hunting me this whole time would you? That's not very nice Mr. Fox." The fox, in turn, snarled at her, baring it's teeth that were dripping with static. Now was the time! "Uppercut!" Penny shouted, standing to her feet while raising her fist in the hair. From below the fox, a large shadowy fist drilled it's way into the spirit's stomach, launching it into the air. The fist followed through higher, as the fox's back collided with the ceiling above. At the display, Penny pumped her fist. "Hell yeah!" While she wasn't paying attention, the fox had gathered a ball of electricity in it's mouth, and had let loose a bolt of lightning that hit her shadow. The fist convulsed, before shrinking back into the floor, as did Penny who got a heavy dose of current. She fell back to her knees, as her shadow made it's way back to her side, as if to check on her. "Yeah, I got carried away...let's put this thing down before it hurts anyone else."

in terms of actually properly watching it's fullmetal alchemist brotherhood, which set a very high bar i don't even know for sure how i ever got into it exactly but i do remember discussing it on the schoolbus many evenings with this lad from the year above me who's gone on to be a competitive bodybuilder, he was actually key in my beginning to watch anime which is pretty funny now i think about it, we weren't really friends prior to this or since

Apparently I was watching Sailor Moon on TV with my mom when I was two, though I have no memory of this. I have a little memory of going to a friend's house after school so my parents didn't have to rush to the school at 3 PM, and we'd watch Digimon at 4, and I definitely saw Ghibli movies growing up, so probably My Neighbor Totoro if we're going by that, but the first series was probably when I found Funimation had (still has? I haven't checked) Initial D episodes on their Youtube channel, so I binged those on a little iPod touch instead of sleeping.

I literally cannot understand why anyone would put milk in first But hey it's not my food they can do what they want but I'd never 68

←Previous Post -- Next Post→ Episode Two -- “Who Do You Like?” Here are some alternative names for our protagonist that I was thinking about before settling on “Mary ‘AAAAAA’ Sue”: “Utena Two-jou,” “Itsyagirl,” “Jenny Scrambles,” and “Famous Youtuber James Turner.” There was also “D ko” or “Protagonist D-ko”, who I saw while poking around fan content because while the show has A-, B-, and C-ko as Shadow Girls, and E-ko and F-ko in the movie, we never see any D-ko anywhere, so obviously it must be her. Like I said last time, I wanted to be a little less serious about things, but I didn’t want to choose a name that was completely not a name. The name “Mary Sue” might come off as derogatory what with its history in fanfic self-inserts (or really any female character in a popular franchise with agency), but it’s the fun kind of silly to me. The protagonist in this game is us, and we’re getting to hang out with everyone’s favorite Revolutionary Girl Utena characters and also Saionji. Anyway, Mary totally sleeps with Utena. The bedside chat is reassurance like this. Mary barely even talks, Utena goes through her own experience of being sucked into the dueling game in a more personal way than she did during lunch and also reaffirming her belief in Mary’s character -- that she’s not the mystery duelist -- “All this stuff is pretty weird, but you’ll get used to it,” Utena seems to say. “I believe in you.” And with that (and actually getting to the second save slot)… Everyone in this shot is actually a statue, not really a person. The class is expected to just ignore it and focus on the lessons. Of course, our first day wasn’t exactly a normal first day, what with the weird encounter in the chalk-white fencing hall or the masquerade or that rendezvous up in the Student Council room. So now we have to make an effort to have as normal a day as possible… while also investigating who threw the lights or stuck the note to our backs. One might say one of those tasks is more important than the other, and I think Mary would agree with you. So obviously it’s time to talk with Wakaba about our school crushes. No Wakaba option -- clearly her inferiority complex runs deep. This is basically a route-selection point; you can gain a nobility point for each character that you choose, but, unfortunately for Mary the Pansexual Disaster, you can only choose two. As a matter of personal taste, I went with Utena and Juri. Drink! It wouldn’t be Juri if it didn’t involve internalized homophobia. This is especially weird since if you choose Utena, Mary and Wakaba have a brief argument about who gets to be Utena’s wife and who has to just be her mistress. It makes me think that the Juri comment is very much a “protest too much” moment which is another drink in my book. The other choice is whether or not to also make small talk with Utena, which is a pretty obvious choice, I think. We’re an outgoing girl, and we’ve already shared a bed with this person, it’s not like we’re going to be scared of talking to them now. My personal headcanon is that Utena talks in her sleep, mumbling about her prince or whatever. The only pertinent information in this conversation is that there’s a cafe in town called “Magnolia” that sells rose tea that Utena and Anthy like. We’re outside most of my memory here, but I assume this is a place we’ll be able to visit soon, so keep that in mind. Any further discussion is lost as another new student is introduced to the class: a student named Sanjoin Chigusa. They say gender’s what’s in your pants, so… This is the second time Chigusa’s gender has been called ambiguous by the story. I think I’m running into some sort of culture clash, whether that’s 90’s understanding of gender or Japanese gender expectations or both. Points in favor of this ambiguity are Chigusa’s voice actor, Maya Okamoto (of Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam fame), lowering her voice to something akin to a (still feminine) growl, her height is comparable to 6’1” Touga (her being in middle school is justified by having taken a three-year break due to illness), and Utena’s cast already having three long-haired pretty boys, but at the same time, she walks into the classroom wearing a full dress -- I feel like she’s presenting female pretty hard. I wrote about this a bit when I talked about this game in the middle of my Utena rewatch, this is in contrast to Utena, who, though tomboyish (and gets a few jokes about it -- she’s introduced as Wakaba’s “boyfriend”), never seriously has her gender called into question in the show. The movie, of course, is a bit different, but I would definitely call Utena’s getup, combined with how she never directly addresses it until it does matter, significantly more ambiguous. That being said, since I vaguely know where the story goes and I know there’s trauma here, I suppose it gets a bit of a pass, even if it is still a weird line. It also fits the game’s theme of exploring the breadth of femininity. Chigusa being female doesn’t mean, again like Utena, she doesn’t attract the fangirls. For practically everything she does in this blog from here on out, imagine a collective schoolgirl sigh immediately following it. When she manipulates the teacher into being allowed to sit next to us, I bet everyone in the room was jealous. The moment Chigusa sits down, she immediately starts gaslighting us. I cut out the bit where Chigusa addresses us by name (“Sue-san”) without us introducing ourselves, but it’s about to be important. After class, everyone rushes up to give Chigusa some attention, and whether our motivation is wanting to get to the bottom of all this or just being a naive idealistic soul who wants to see the good in everyone, no matter how threatening they seem to be, we do too, and manage to shoulder enough people out of the way to get a full introduction out, complete with an “I’m just transferred here too, let’s be friends!” What follows is one of the more inscrutable choices in the game. It’s less inscrutable on later playthroughs, and I know enough to not completely be thrown off, but it’s still the second or third weird thing Chigusa’s said to Mary in the last few moments. Mary’s not weirded out enough to not answer, though. Mary’s father named her, we say. “Oh, and how’s he doing?” Chigusa asks, though she denies any sort of familiarity with him when questioned, claiming it’s just polite conversation. We actually lose nobility with Chigusa for this interaction, probably for making her reminisce about something and then gaslighting us about it? In either case, nobility with Chigusa is about to become real important, so let’s keep that in mind. After the first actual save point of the post is the first true branch in the story tree. Who do we eat lunch with? I admit, there was a temptation to choose Utena here. If Mary was feeling anxious about being around strangers, I probably would have. But Mary so far has seemed to me like a perfectly sociable young woman who always wants more friends, so why not take this opportunity to branch out? It might even let her escape from this whole “Rose Bride” business (Of course, this is ignorant of the fact that everything at Ohtori Academy is “Rose Bride business,” but hey). To the cafeteria we go! The people Mary is talking about are not the ones in frame. Those are just statues as well. It’s Chigusa, obviously, the cool new transfer student, not like that less cool transfer student who came in yesterday. “It makes sense,” Mary thinks. “Chigusa-san is popular because she’s so cool and she’s good in class,” and if you didn’t think that was enough for a drink… So again, it’s up to Mary to shoulder through enough people to get through to Chigusa. “There are still things I want to ask her,” she thinks. And you know what? Good for her sticking to her guns amidst all the misinformation that’s been going on. Asking also lets us get this choice look at Chigusa’s “surprised” face. “What is this girl who has every reason to be distrustful of me doing in my face right now? Didn’t she see the option to eat with the show’s protagonists?” It does work, though, obviously, and we get a little more conversation out of Chigusa. Apparently, the reason she called us “Sue-san” before our introductions was because the name was written on the notebook we had on our desk, and she just assumed, which seems totally reasonable. Chigusa also doubles-down on this being her and Mary’s first day together, because of course she does. We lose one more point of Chigusa nobility as she once again slips up and starts reminiscing about our father’s fencing saber when we say we brought it with us. Listen some women just like a guy’s sword okay? Nothing weird about that. There’s also this choice moment when Chigusa explains away her popularity because she’s three years older than everyone else and therefore more experienced. Drink! The final scene before the next save point is a brief interaction between Mary and Chigusa in math class. Funny story, I remembered this scene and thought you could actually solve the problems the teacher was teaching, though that turns out to not be the case. These middle-schoolers are already learning algebra, apparently We’re next in line after Chigusa to answer a question, but we’re unsure. Mary thinks it’s “a+18”, but is worried about being made a laughingstock if she gets the question wrong. In fairness, of course, this would only be her second or third impression, and middle-schoolers are perhaps the meanest of the bunch, so it’s only natural to be nervous. Like an angel, though, we hear a voice telling us the answer. That feeling when the smart kids are discussing their quiz answers and you got something way different. Now we have to make another decision. If it was anyone -- anyone -- besides Chigusa, obviously we’d answer 38 right here. But this girl has been feeding us misinformation since the moment she walked into homeroom, and dang it if Mary’s not gonna put her foot down some time. She stands up, looks at the teacher, and announces to the world, “a+18” Hooray, we’re impressive at algebra! We don’t even lose any Chigusa nobility, all we get is a threatening stare. I mean, she’s been trying to manipulate you since she first laid eyes on you, girl, I’m gonna say yeah, that’s why. That’s the last line before the save point, and therefore this post, but the game has one more mechanic to introduce us to: the “Nobility Point Slash.” Basically, nobility with Chigusa is parasitic, for each point with Chigusa you have, she drains points away from everyone else, with consequences if anyone gets low enough. It happens every so often and looks like this: It’s off-center because the nobility trackers are supposed to balance out the other side. “But wait!” you might say. “Shouldn’t you be at minus two nobility right now?” And, okay, well, nobility is confusingly given out in points but measured in percentages, so yes, but actually no. You’re correct we don’t have any nobility points with Chigusa, though, which means instead she wonders why you haven’t fallen for her machinations. I’m sure she’s not going away any time soon, but that’s it for this post! A bit shorter this time, but we’re still getting into the swing of things. Until then! -r Total drinks so far: 14 (4 this post) Next time: Will Chigusa Sanjouin ever recover from this crushing humiliation? How does she know our father? What clubs will Mary Sue join? ←Previous Post -- Next Post→

Excluding Pokemon and Yugioh it would probably be Bleach, since one of my cousins had DVD'S for it which ended up with my gran after they moved to England, then it would've been Naruto, Code Geass and Ghibli movies.

Well, I do like the amount of participation this thread has gotten so far! By now, I will say what my first anime was. While technically, I watched the original Yugioh anime on TV (or really any anime that was dubbed for 4KidsTV), the first anime-related thing I saw that wasn't just because it happened to be on TV was Kiki's Delivery Service. However, I only saw part of it at the time. And even then, it wasn't something I purposely chose to watch. That honor will have to go to this: Certainly marked a turning-point in my life. Well, media-wise anyways.