Like most of my peers, I grew up with anime. It was really big in Indonesia when I was a kid. TVs were bombarded with lots of anime, and I vaguely remembered about a TV station that once solely dedicated just for anime and cartoons.
Anyway, I don’t think I need to explain what anime is, right? So let’s go straight to my all time favorite anime!
Card Captor Sakura
Aah, my teenage years.
I was 12 back then in 1999, and just started junior high school. I was stumbled onto this gem when I was randomly switching tv channels on Sunday morning. It was broadcasted at 7 am, quite early for an anime back then. And I fell in love at first sight.
I was so so invested that I would buy anything that has Card Captor Sakura in it. I remember hunting the first two volumes of the manga (Indonesian version of course) because by the time I knew that there is a manga version of it (hello, internet didn’t really exist back then), it was already on third volume.
I also remember I hunted down all tabloids I could get which had Card Captor Sakura’s articles or freebies. I even tried to get my hands on Card Captor Sakura Movie’s DVDs although they were quite hard to find as well.
I even started writing fanfiction because I was yearning for more after the series ended AND sent them to a fanfiction website AND they were published (yes, they are still up; no, don’t ask for links). Sure, my grammar and vocabulary were beyond bad compared to now. But I thought those moments were really stepping stones to encourage me writing more in English.
Yes, I am still invested to this series that I still have the whole 70 episodes (plus two movies) in my hard drive now. I even still find myself smiling watching the last movie when Shaoran finally got his reply from Sakura.
I think I will still keep loving it until I am old 🙂
Neon Genesis Evangelion
While Card Captor Sakura is all about cute and sweet, Evangelion is the perfect opposite. Blood in almost every episode, absurd storyline that I can’t even fathom, etc.
But I love it. I love the cool Eva-01 and the psychology bits in every character. They gave different colour to this series. Again, I was so invested with this series I even bought the whole set of its VCD with my own pocket money. Each piece costs about 25,000 IDR and it contains 2 episodes. 25,000 IDR may not seem a lot these days, but it was definitely something for me back then.
This anime even pushed me to start learning Japanese! I remember learning Hiragana and Katakana by spelling the characters’ and seiyuus’ name.
I am still a fan until now, although the absurd new Rebuild series is completely off from the original I keep scratching my head watching it >.<
The original one is still the best!
Inu Yasha
I don’t really remember why did I start watching Inu Yasha. I only remember that this series had the best and vibrant graphic I had ever seen. I was surprised to learn that this series comes from the mangaka of Ranma ½. And I was even more surprised that I really like Inu Yasha.
OK, I am a sucker for anime with love story. And add to the fact that its OSTs are SUPER GORGEOUS. I found BoA through Inu Yasha, and became a fan of Do As Infinity afterwards. I never knew that anime OSTs can be that good!
Doraemon
If you don’t know Dorameon, you must have been living under the rock. No, under the cave I think. This super cute mutant (cat x human) is super duper adorable and so memorable. My first manga was Doraemon volume 6 and since then I never looked back.
Although I don’t watch Doraemon regularly anymore (are they still broadcasting it? I am not sure), this series will always hold special place in my heart.
Sailormoon
Ah yes. Which one of my peers don’t know about this one? Even Husband knew the soundtrack by heart :p
Sailor Moon was super popular in my era. I am pretty sure every girl knew this one. Actually, the storyline of the series is pretty simple: a group of pretty girls that somehow got their power from planets (????) defending the Earth from a group of bad people with black power. Oh, don’t forget the love stories that were thrown here and there. With final message : the power of love is everything.
As cheesy as the storyline sounds, Sailor Moon was a big hit. Even the merchandises (official or non-official) were always running out of stocks. I, like any other girls my age, collected some of them as well, e.g stickers (omg), loose leaf sheets, and I think I also had a shirt with Sailor Moon characters on it.
My childhood was precious :’)
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So that’s my top 5! What’s yours? 🙂
