Anime and manga were the Big Thing and an important part of my identity as I grew up and searched for myself as an adult. My favorite series and games will probably remain important for the rest of my life, and it’s nice to be able to revisit them and see how my feelings towards them change as I get older. Watching anime together with my partner who lives far away is a good excuse to have date nights through the internet. (b. 1992)
As a child, my first contact with anime came in the form of VHS tapes with Finnish dubs: Ginga: Nagareboshi Gin. At the library, one of the staff was reluctant to lend them to such young children. You always had to wait until another staff member was present. I believe Inuyasha was the first manga series I borrowed from the library in English. (b. 1987)
At the library, there were a few anime series and movies on VHS tapes, like Candy Candy and Ginga: Nagareboshi Gin. They fascinated me. On TV, there was Pokemon and Digimon, which I naturally became addicted to. I was probably around 9-10 years old at the time. Then came the Final Fantasy games and fan art from them. When I was 11-12 years old, I got online for the first time at home with our family’s first PC, and that’s when I started downloading manga, anime, visual kei music, and other things. That’s where it all began. (b. 1990)
When I was 11, my brother and my friends started talking about something mysterious called anime. It didn’t take long before I started watching anime enthusiastically. Even though I couldn’t speak English at the time, let alone Japanese, I don’t remember it hindering my viewing experience. Throughout middle school, watching anime was almost a competition, and with friends, we compared who had the most entries on MyAnimeList.net. (b. 1996)
As a child, I watched various Japanese animated series on VHS tapes. The Japanese style and storytelling appealed to me. Candy Candy was my favorite. We eagerly watched the Moominvalley on TV. In the early 2000s, around the age of 19, I started reading manga at the library and buying manga pocket books published in Finnish. My first reading experiences were Akira and Ranma 1/2. (b. 1983)
In the early ’90s, Yle aired, among others, Porco Rosso and My Neighbor Totoro (then titled My Invisible Friend), so I came into contact with anime completely unintentionally. At the time, I didn’t know I was watching anime. Ginga: Nagareboshi Gin and Candy Candy were also childhood favorites. (b. 1989)
As a child, I watched Ginga: Nagareboshi Gin and Candy Candy on VHS tapes without knowing they were anime. I was in elementary school then. Later in middle school, I watched Sailor Moon in German when I was 14. (b. 1986)
My first contact was with Ginga: Nagareboshi Gin and Grand Prix videos from the video rental store when I was around 9(?). Then the Anime Express and MangaMania sections of the Super Power magazine got me interested when I was 14, and that’s where I learned the terms ‘manga’ and ‘anime’. (b. 1980)
As a child, I watched Pokemon, Digimon, Moominvalley, etc., but I didn’t know they were anime at the time. When I was around 10, I learned about Ginga: Nagareboshi Gin (Ginga Nagareboshi Ren) and was completely fascinated. Through Silver Fang, I began to understand what anime/manga is when I started searching for information about Ginga: Nagareboshi Gin online. I also began to familiarize myself more with anime/manga on TV (SubTV), for example, there was Neon Genesis Evangelion, Dragon Ball Z, and Sailor Moon, which I watched. InuYasha and Tokyo Mew Mew were the first manga series I encountered. (b. 1993)
