Otaku108

Extreme, how often does one hear this word these days? More than we might think actually... but that's what an otaku is. An extreme fan in some form or forms of nerdly activities. In my case these extremes don't run into any one or two specific avenues, I like to have a much broader spectrum of "addiction".

As you can see, my anime seems to boast a title of #1 biggest addiction. Sadly (?) this isn't the case. Books attest to ownership for that most "esteemed" title. Video games come in a distant second but followed closely by anime, then movies, and rounding out the polygamy of my otaku addictions harem... manga.

I've been reading sci-fiction and fantasy novels since I was 8, started off with The Hobbit and then Lord of the Rings (yes at 8). I never really stopped from there. My favorite authors are Peirs Anthony, Larry Niven, and R. A. Salvatore for a top 3. I couldn't possibly narrow down a specific book/series as a #1, I tend to re-read them all quite often. If you want any suggestions I can at least give you a few series to look at depending on your tastes.

Games followed quickly but being expensive and my family being poor... the were slightly nerfed in consumption for several years. The Atari 2600 gains note of being my first ever console system but the Nintendo and Sony franchise have most of my money right now Xbox isn't too far off anymore though, and quickly gaining steam. The DS is my one and only hand held ever, I enjoy it but I don't play it much at home, it's really my travel mate. What, the beach is to be enjoyed and not gamed on? pfft...

So we finally arrive at animu. Voltron counts as my very first anime but at the time I didn't know what it was... I was only 6 or 7 while it was being aired on TV in the States. Flash forward 10 years; Akira was the first title I knew was anime and fell in love with the genre completely. Princess Mononoke was my first ever anime purchase (VHS lulz). Though I don't have a huge library yet, I do have plans to buy at least the top 10 animes in my top 50 list. Once I got internet access of my own... lets just say my consumption has more than tripled in the last 2 years, thanks mostly to A-P and it's wonderful (infernal) recommendation system. ;) Thx sothis, you're feeding my demons.

First movie I ever saw was Star Wars, the very first, I was 6 mo old and my parents tell me I was riveted, didn't make one sound as my eyes were glued to the silver screen. So you could say that movies are my longest standing addiction but the lack of production has led to it's "downfall". In any case I usually watch just about any movie that's fantasy/sci-fi, a lot of romance/comedy, and if it's worth the time I'll catch a good action flick or two.

Manga is a relatively new, by comparison, addiction. I have only been reading it for a little over a year, however in that time I have nearly read as many titles in manga as I have seen in anime. A lot of it is one shots so the overall consumption isn't as large but there are a lot of titles I've read that aren't yet in the A-P database. There are a few titles that I have picked because the synopsis I read on A-P made it sound worth reading.

All in all I tend to flip-flop on my ownership/subscription to the title of "otaku" mainly because I do not have a single specific outlet that really could be granted otaku status, however, add all 5 of these up and I more than qualify for it. My life as an otaku probably can't be recognized by the greater otaku population and in the end I frankly don't care what they think. I'm the jack of all trades (genre) style otaku, welcome to my world.

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A bit about my ratings/star "system" from worst to best:

0.5 Stars: Something about this title has irked me to the point that I will acitvely steer people away from it. Usually insest or death(s) of the main charater(s) gives me that reaction.

1.0 Stars: Ultimately bad but I leave it up to others to make their own choices about, after all, everyone is different.

1.5 Stars: Also ultimately bad but had at least one redeeming value to it that made me recognize it as... "consumible".

2.0 Stars: Not very bad, but nothing noteworthy or worth revisiting later.

2.5 Stars: Decent, I enjoyed watching/reading but I wasn't overly impressed, I probably wouldn't recommend it to anyone however.

3.0 Stars: I enjoyed it, there was probably something about it that stuck in my head but it also lacked something important and so I would probably only recommend it to people that specifically enjoy the same type of materials.

3.5 Stars: This was enteraining, I probably laughed a lot, got some sort of strong feeling from it and would probably revisit it again somewhere down the road. I would also recommend this to someone if they also liked similar titles.

4.0 Stars: This was a noteworthy title, I enjoyed it thuroughly and will definitely watch/read it again. I probably will recommend it to just about anyone that enjoyes the genres it's a part of. (4 stars is a minimum point for "My Top List")

4.5 Stars: Almost perfection, I enjoyed this so much that I couldn't wait to talk to someone about it, sadly there was just this one thing that made it not quite worthy of 5 stars. It would get a recommendation to any anime/manga fan.

5.0 Stars: Perfection, this was such an awesome, unique or heart string strummer also having found nothing serious to gripe about or it just was -that damned good- that I could overlook any obvious flaws that it got the last 0.5th of a star. This was either dead on my type of anime/manga or it just surprised me so much that I felt it deserved the praise. Some titles I might not recommend to people because they are so geared towards my own specific likes and dislikes that I'm not really sure how much someone else would like it.

Anyway, that should give you an idea of how I rate what I like/dislike. Thx for reading all this... I kinda have no off switch sometmes ;p