Week 4 - Straight from the Heart: From Shoujo to Shonen, My Anime History

Straight from the Heart by Jennifer Prough, pg 1-88

As much of a hardcore Gundam and TYPE-MOON fanboy as I am, I must confess that the very first anime that I ever watched was Sailor Moon and my very first anime favourite was Cardcaptor Sakura. I was first exposed to anime via my kindergarten daycare; every weekend we had a 30 minute slot allocated to TV during which (due to the overriding opinions of the older female children at our daycare) Sailor Moon was shown. While as a kindergartener I understood neither the plot nor mahou shoujo elements, I did quickly become used to the shoujo art style and love story elements. My early exposure to shoujo anime arguably led to my greater acceptance of the genre. (Interesting to note, Usagi's terribly high pitched, unrealistic English VA was arguably my source for detesting dubs over subs in anime.)

This arguably continued on with Cardcaptor Sakura which I watched in Elementary school. Originally captivated by the entrancing North American opening song (which I later found out was, alongside many other adapted animes, was drastically different from the cutesy Japanese opening), I grew to both have a crush on Sakura and respect and admire Syaoran. But instead of leading me into watching more shoujo animes, things took the opposite direction when animes were made out of two other of CLAMP's works: Tsubasa Chronicles (a shounen anime) and Chobits (a male-centred comedy/romance that I would classify more as a harem-type anime). CLAMP's intricate crossover universes (featuring Cardcaptor Sakura, Tsubasa Chronicles, xxxHolic, and Angelic Layer) also got me interested in TYPE-MOON's Nasuverse (featuring Tsukihime/Melty Blood series, the Fate series, and Kara no Kyoukai, being so intricate it requires a constantly updated chart: http://images.wikia.com/typemoon/images/5/56/TYPE-MOON_relations.jpg ). Chobits led me into more harem-comedy animes such as Love Hina, DearS and Dokuro-chan. At the same time, Gundam Wing (pure shounen) and Escaflowne (shounen and shoujo hybrid) was airing roughly an hour after Cardcaptor Sakura on TV, introducing me to the mecha genre that I became more of a fan of over time.

Nowadays while I don't watch Sailor Moon or any mahou shoujo animes (two notable exceptions being Mai-Hime and Madoka, but they were enjoyed for the plot twists), I still do occasionally enjoy some occasional light-hearted shoujo animes. Aishiteru ze Baby and Usagi Drop (the one and only manga series I ever finished reading) were enjoyable in their own rights, and Ouran High School Host Club and The Wallflower were watched with my floor as a regular floor event (which I admittedly enjoyed watching but nowadays I show more shounen animes such Fate/Zero and Steins;Gate). Even though I didn't really enjoy their plots, Kaichou wa Maid-sama and Vampire Knight were watched from start til end for a different reason; I strangely found myself admiring the gentleman-like personalities of the male leads in both and wanting to be more like them. Either way, although today shoujo animes make up for a very small percentage of the animes I watch, they have had a long-lasting impact on what I watch (~10 notable shoujo titles out of the 200+ anime series that I've watched) and, to an extent, softened my personality.