I became particularly interested in Japanese games when I started playing the Souls series and its other installments, as well as the Yakuza series last year. (b. 2004)
I started getting into manga/anime around 2005 (around 13 years old) when I began reading and watching translated series. Around the same time, I started playing JRPG games (Final Fantasy, Kingdom Hearts…), which are still the biggest part of my hobby today. (b. 1992)
Around the age of ten, the Pokémon TV series was something completely new compared to other cartoons. My first three game consoles were Nintendos, and I borrowed or played PlayStations at my friends’, including rarer JRPG import games from the USA. I began to realize that all my favorite games and the consoles they ran on came from Japan. Of course, I liked some Western games too, but they generally seemed dull and unimaginative in comparison. (b. 1989)
I got into a certain game (around 15 years old) when I discovered an anime adaptation of it. After delving deeper into the game, I got involved in its community and the role-playing games it inspired. (b. 2002)
The Final Fantasy series captivated me from part 10 onwards. Since then, I have played other installments of the series. Not all of them, of course. Square Enix’s other series Kingdom Hearts holds a special place in my heart. Of course, Zelda and many other Japanese game series like Tales of… and Harvest Moon, as well as perhaps lesser-known games like Klonoa and Tomba, have been strong in my gaming history. Super Mario Sunshine and Pikmin are also some of my favorite games. (b. 1990)
As a child, I always watched Pokémon and collected Pokémon cards. I had to watch Sailor Moons and Dragon Balls. For example, I bought all the Conan manga. When Fullmetal Alchemist came out, I also started drawing anime characters. In 2006, a friend told me about a Japanese band called The Gazette, and that’s when my interest in Japanese music started. (b. 1992)
When I was 7 years old in 1999, I was in the United States with my parents when I woke up one morning to watch TV. The first image I saw on TV was the Moltres episode of the Pokémon anime, which immediately made an impression on me. I didn’t understand English at the age of 7, but even then, I knew that this was my thing. Pokémon came to Finland six months later, and I was ready to record the first episode of the anime on video. Six months after that, I got a Game Boy Color and Pokémon Blue. Now, 25 years later, I can say that both anime and Nintendo video games are still my thing, and my interest has not changed over the years. (b. 1991)
It all started with Pokémon around 1999 when I was 11/12 years old. First, there was the anime, then the trading cards, and eventually the Game Boy games. With Pokémon, I also became interested in series like Digimon and Sailor Moon. As an adult, anime doesn’t interest me as much anymore. However, collecting games, figures, and plushies, as well as studying Japanese, have stayed with me. At the age of 30, I also got my first tattoo, which is, of course, Pokémon-themed. (b. 1988)
Everything changed with Final Fantasy VII, which I got to play at the mature age of 14. I played it on the computer. It was something I had never seen before; the backgrounds were amazing, and those polygon characters looked really good compared to the pixelated mess I was used to with other games. Not to mention the cutscenes; they were absolutely stunning. The immersion was helped by the great music and the concept art of the characters included in the game’s booklet, which filled in the gaps between the polygons with imagination. Cloud and Sephiroth were beautiful in just the way a teenage girl bored with Western boxy faces could only hope for. (b. 1985)
At some point, I got interested in reading Anime magazine, which had a separate article about the game Kingdom Hearts II. I got that and the preceding game and ended up getting into the Finnish con scene through cosplay. Kingdom Hearts was a big and visible part of the Finnish cosplay community at that time (2008-2009). My first cosplays were from Death Note and later from Kingdom Hearts II as Roxas. (b. 1995)
