Why I write the blog

I started to write this free talk blog to talk about things that I don’t usually talk at work. Things like Anime, politics, etc. I grew up in Tokyo in 70’s. Back then the US seemed to be a brightest spot on this planet. (I seriously thought that news articles about Nam like “the US losing war” back then were misprinted. Lol.) Now America seems to an ordinary country and Japan seems to be kinda unique.

In 70’s Anime was known as “Manga movie” in Japan and largely considered as kid’s staff. At that time, American cartoons (Spider man, Bird man, Sabrina the witch, Jossie and the pussycats, etc.) were as popular among Japanese kids as Japanese Anime. Popular Japanese Anime shows were Star Blazers (Space Battleship Yamato, it was hugely popular), Battle of the planets (Scientific Ninja force Gatcha Man, I was good at mimicking Berg Katze’s voice), Tomorrow’s Joe (I still remember Joe’s line “What’s the matter? Hit me! Why don’t you hit me?”), and so on. I also grew up watching reruns of 60’s Anime like Astro Boy, Speed Racer, Cyborg 009 (the 1st series) to name a few.

In 1979, “Mobile Suites Gungam” became a huge hit. From there, it became common for late teens or even adults to watch Anime in Japan. At that time, people started to use the term “Otaku” (Nerd or Anime maniac). It is said that people like nerds or Anime funs refer to others as “Otaku” (I didn’t see that in a real world.) If I was asked if Anime and Manga will become popular in America at that time, I would definitely have said “no way!”