aww... its okay my first con was last may when i was 16 i really enjoyed reading this it brings back a lot of memories

@Miss Anonymous:

I still have the ability to make people think I'm older than I am. Shwing!

I remember when the manga bookshelf at Waldenbooks (pre-Borders) was teeny tiny, yet I was grateful for that. Now, the Borders shelves extend into four or five gigantic storage units. Tis amazing.

Kids these days need to watch/play the first Pokemon season/games. The originals. The BEST.

*laughs at how you're younger than me, even though I thought you were older*

I'd say 'Amen!' to it all, however the fact is that I'm one of those 'newer' parts of the audience. >.> I started off with good ol' Tokyo Mew Mew and Saint Seiya, so I can't say I started off with completely 'new' series. And I'm glad. Because some of the newer fans think they know everything which kind of makes me inwardly twitch as I stand in the manga isle. Mentioning the fact that there even is a manga isle now could get me shot. I'm so lucky to have a whole isle(s)!

'Back in my day, there were only 151 Pokemon and we liked it.' D@mn straight. I was in the manga isle and at the end of the isle are some game guides and two boys where sitting there talking about which Pokemon were the best. Didn't know a one they were talking about. *cries* And watching my brothers play the new Diamond and Pearl (often includes phrases like "What the hell is that?!" and "Oh Lord, is that some freaked up mix of two other Pokemon?")... It pains me to do so...

A 24-hour anime channel... Oh, how I wish those existed in my area.

Spread the word, Katana's got exactly what all the youngins need to hear!

Yeah, I remember when there was only 151 pokemon. It bugs me to watch the Burger king commercial.

"Well we use pokemon like pikachu."
"And Chimchong to battle each other."
It makes me cringe.

My first con was age 15.
Yeah, this took me back watching all the older animes on Toonami. I would race home to watch Kenshin.

I look at the anime industry and it is just loosing money because of the internet, I take pride that I buy all my manga(besides for naruto)!
*remembers the good ol days*

Woo! You did some justice for us oldies! Well, I'm Canadian and it hasn't quite reached that level of annoying noobs. The most annoying stuff I hear from the noobs is "OMG!!! Naruto and Bleach are the best animes ever!" When they haven't even heard of anime greats, such as Wolf's Rain and Cowboy Bebop.

However, I have heard noobs on the internet complaining about speed of release and such too. Claymore gets a new manga released about every 1-3 months, and I think that's amazing! I mean, normal books often take years to get sequels! XD Hehe, I like the "I remember when there were only 151 Pokemon and COLORS!" That's so true! ^.^ Thanks for helping us oldies get back at the whiners. ^.~

This article deserves a standing ovation, and I'm here to deliver it.

Preach that good word! Remember your roots, bruthas and sistas! Look back to your heritage and proudly declare! Tell the world that you loved that repetitive Digimon opening song! Tell them how Fox Kids made your spirit sing! Hallelujah!

Anyway, yes. I completely approve, not that you need the approval of little ol' me.

wow great article! yea i remember the only 150 pokemon X3

I really loved the article. Ahh,the good old days.

I remember being about six years old, watching Pokemon with my little friend in the 90s... (Why'd those happy times go away?)...But when I first started really getting into anime, it was because of Miyazaki films. I didn't even know what Naruto was until much, much later.

I cry at this stuff too. The little shop I used to go to for my geek kick has closed down and now own a Borders Rewards card simply because of my manga binges. All the new kids to fandom, the Narutards and the Death Note Writers, they don't have the level appreciation we seem to have. My first manga was Inuyasha, which was totally flipped. I haven't picked up a new one in years, so I'm not sure if they kept the format. I also have Slayers manga that was flipped and published in a comic book format, just to blend in with the rest of the comic books in the stores. It was a cruel world, but we weren't the first anime-loving generation. At least we haven't been subjected to trading fan-subs at cons. Plus, my first con is later this year; I'm nineteen. It's a cruel, cruel world.

I'm trying to hook the eight-year-old brother on anime/manga right off the bat, which it seems to be working. He gravitates towards it now, and requests to read my Yotsuba&! volumes. It makes me sad though, that I went through so much to make it so that my parents accepted the stuff inside the house, yet he just picks it up off the shelf without thinking. I think that the good side of it is the lack of culture gap. Japan used to be confusing to everyone; now a very young group of people is emerging with the (slight) understanding of a society once dubbed imperturbable and impossible to decode. We've paved the way, now the younger ones have to be the ones to follow our lead.

...and I blame the sheer amount of Pokemon on Nintendo's hunger for our money. I'm glad I know what a Chimchar and a Mudkip is, but I'm pretty lost on most of the rest. Plus I now know that Eevee has a third evolution. I think that thing is like the fall-back Pokemon when they can't think of anything else to evolve. It's almost like a paring horse or something. B@stards.

@Baka No Hanyou:

You could and, in fact, I did. XDDD So I had to catch Mewtwo with an Ultra Ball. 8D;

I so totally agree with this. Like, I remember when Card Captor Sakura was airing, and when Pokemon was COOL. And I had no idea they were dubs, or even that they were anime, but did I care?

And just today, this kid pulls out his GameBoy SP and goes, "Time to train my Bolteon!" The following conversation ensued:

"You mean Jolteon. Evee's electric evolved form, right?"
"No, Bolteon!"
"WTF is Bolteon?!"
"The third evolution!"
"Since when did Evee have a third evolution!?!?!"

I feel old.

THIS IS A GREAT ARTICLE!!!

I'm dead serious. I got into anime when I was around 11--my first manga was 'InuYasha, Volume Four'. I was in the middle of the time you're talking about and the time we live in now. I remember DBZ, Sailor Moon, Hamtaro, all of that, but my memories of those days are not so prominent then the days of InuYasha and Naruto.

(Hehe...big words are fun. :D)

Kudos to you, my friend.

Rishi~

Oh, I certainly remember those days! As a youngster, I only had Pokemon and Digimon and CardCaptors to keep me occupied! And I didn't know a thing about manga until I was almost in high school! At 20 now, it certainly is astounding what kids now are exposed to in the world of anime today. I didn't go to a con until 2004... I didn't know about cons until 2004! And cosplay and all that good stuff.

Youngsters now just don't realize how lucky they are! To be able to waltz into Borders and pick up any manga they want! Or turn on the TV anytime Saturday to catch an anime show... In some ways, I fear for the fandom having such a young generation immersed in the anime ways... We get enough of "OMG, that's soo kawaii!" as it is... -_-' But times change... change is supposed to be good, right?

So many Pokemon, I used to be so happy I could identify all 151. I was overjoyed when a movie came out. An episode of Dragonball Z had a swear word in it! I'd watch the same episodes of Digimon over and over as that was all we had in the UK.

And Akira, opening my eyes to a new and bizzare world, such joy's hunting it down in a specialist comic book store.

@:

Well, anime fans are coming in at a younger age...though it's more of a ambiguous meaning. Though honestly, the people who are both new and young tend to be the worst offenders...But it doesn't mean they go hand in hand. ;D

I remember when the only anime worth watching was when SciFi Channel played movies like Vampire Hunter D and Galaxy Express 999 late nights on weekend. That was my first real exposure to anime; it was the early 90s, and I was 12-13 years old.

I remember when the only reference to anime on TV at all was those 1-800 cumber ads where you coudl order the anime movie collections, with things like Akira. For years, my idea of anime was that it was all weird violent stuff like Akira.

Amen, sista! Seriously. My sister and I were reminiscing the other day about how we used to be able to name all the Pokemon! And now look what's become of it!! I remember when Sailor Moon and Dragon Ball Z used to come on the Toonami block after school!! And now, the younger you are and the more into anime you are the sadder it is for the 'older fans'.

I love it. Just like my life, except a little tweaked...

Muu, I can hardly relate on any of this. I got hit with the anime at a late date...like what 8th grade? And I'm pretty sure it was because of you...

Though fangirls do upset me and I think its childish...and I do remember preNaruto craze. Cause I know I got passed the manga, didn't like it and didn't hear about it for like, another two years.