Vinniesama

Hello and welcome to my Anime-Planet page! No matter how you stumbled across me, basically, I'm a 20 year old student from south-west England.

I have many, many hobbies, most of them to do with media. I love watching TV and films, reading books, surfing the net, and occasionally writing both original stories and fanfiction, role-playing, studying ancient religions (despite being a staunch atheist) and history, languages, as well as drawing stuff that usually stays trapped in my sketchbook forever.

I first got into anime as a young kid, which is a pretty common story among people in my age-group: you saw it on Toonami/Fox Kids/Sci-Fi when you were younger, then discovered the term 'anime', and fell in love, right? :)

My big, first anime love was Sailor Moon. It's responsible for ruining my sleep pattern forever, because Fox Kids only put it on a reasonable time-slot for a short period of time, then they made it a breakfast cartoon, then they shifted it back to before sunrise. You can tell I was a big nerd back then, because I would rather diligently get up at these ridiculous times and be eating breakfast by 5.30 in the morning.

There was other stuff on Toonami, like Tenchi (which I wasn't a big fan of), Dragonball Z and all the series after/before it (never... again...), and I swear Rurouni Kenshin was on UK TV (I certainly remember it), but I don't remember seeing much of it...

Then I got a computer with broadband a couple of years later at the age of 12 (back in 2003), and discovered AOL Video (t'was the days before YouTube!). I typed in my favourite childhood show, and was then introduced to the original Japanese (I kid you not, all 200 episodes were on there, DVD-ripped subs) version of Sailor Moon. I marathoned this over a school holiday, and somewhere along the line, I learned of the term 'anime'. I would go on lots of UK anime AOL chat-rooms, and I asked what channels it was on TV... shockingly enough, there were only very few, and all scheduled for really early in the morning. Card-Captors, You're Under Arrest!, and Bubblegum Crisis to name just a few. I found one channel that showed an anime block in the evening, and from there I got into FMA, as well as mildly enjoying what I saw (damn you strict mother who enforces homework rules!) of Escaflowne and Wolf's Rain. I know of a few other anime blocks on different channels, and the UK even had an Anime Network for a bit, but sadly, it bombed. :(

So, with the advent of getting faster broadband, streaming sites, anime going up on YouTube the moment it was subbed, I got into many more anime, and I think this is half a blessing and half a curse, because for all the anime I do really enjoy, I begin to notice tropes more and more with every new one I see. I try my best to finish anime that I begin, but I think I tend to get distracted easily.

I'm a big supporter of the UK anime industry these days in that I buy what I can afford. I love manga and the emotions you get when reading a really good one (and obviously, the 'meh' feeling when you read a pretty bad one).

I'd also like to take some time to clarify that there are times when I may badly rate an anime or swear I won't watch it simply because I don't like the premise, but if someone convinces me otherwise, I'm game to give it a go. We all have different tastes, but feel free to comment if a show is more than meets the eye. :)

Please enjoy my reviews and no flaming, please. Remember, nobody's opinion is right or wrong on a universal scale, and you are not going to get me to change my ways. I'm stubborn, stalwart, and often hard-to-please. But I'll try my best. ;)