3. Kumi-chan (24). Any, as long as it doesn't interfere with the Rumiko Takahashi meetup I'm organizing; we'd probably be later in the evening anyway?
Been watching stuff I assume was probably anime since the mid-90s--a couple of shows on Nickelodeon, one of which involved gnomes--but didn't get into it as Japanese animation until middle school. First series were Sailor Moon, Dragon Ball Z, Mobile Suit Gundam, and Digimon when it first premiered here. Became seriously obsessed when introduced to Escaflowne, Ranma, and Magic Knight Rayearth via loaner VHS (MKR was definitely a multi-generation fansub); once I was into the community I made a conscious effort to look into older series. Favorites include Urusei Yatsura (anything by Miss Takahashi, older one-shot manga and Mermaid Saga especially), Dragonball, DNA^2, older incarnations of Gundam, Ghibli, Rurouni Kenshin (manga), Cardcaptor Sakura, and Escaflowne. I don't like Evangelion, but I do like Nadia. I'm not opposed to new series, rather enjoy them, but the fans do get to me at times. At least the ones who don't know much about their anime roots, and think that anything shiny, new, and digital trumps classic and hand-drawn. Personally, I prefer the look of cel animation. *shrugs* Small mistakes add to the charm, and the old coloring style is more appealing to me.
Subs and dubs...I do prefer to listen to series in Japanese. I'm a fast reader so subtitles don't detract from my watching experience. I like the exposure to Japanese culture even if I don't totally understand all the jokes (the more you watch the better understanding you have). If I watch something in English first, especially if it's something with a lot of "culture content", I get the feeling that I'm probably missing out on a lot of subtleties that contribute to the feeling of the series. I like to read up on other cultures, in this case partly to get a deeper understanding of the interesting stuff I keep seeing in different series. Some series make more sense to me storywise if I watch the less-localized version, because I get some of the cultural in-jokes or shorthand. The localized version will occasionally confuse me because the changes make the story less clear, especially if its setting is obviously Japanese or Japanese-inspired.
I don't dislike dubs at all. The most recent generation of them is of a pretty high quality. And they're very useful if I'm watching something and I need to work on sewing or cooking at the same time. It's rare I'll be so annoyed by a dub that I can't watch the series in English; even the bad ones, because they can be so obviously inaccurate at times that it's amusing. (I'm probably one of the few people who didn't totally despise the 4Kids "One Piece" dub, for this very reason. The new one's better, of course, especially if you want actual series content.)
And that's long enough, I think. I'm older(ish), I've got a lot to say.
I don't know if this is related, but I have issues with poor spelling and grammar online. Is that a maturity issue?
