I’m a big anime fan, and have been watching it since I was a kid. My brother and I used to watch Voltes V and Daimos on weekends, and borrow Betamax tapes from the neighborhood video shop for classics like Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind, Pon Poco, etc. That was back in the early to mid 80s.
In high school I was a sort of misfit because I read manga and watched anime. Of course, we don’t have bullies in school since my classmates and I knew each other from pre-school. I just get teased a lot, though I’m thankful that my close friends were all anime-freaks like me.
I used to get Animerica magazine from the then small shop Comic Alley. However, I usually had to save up to get the latest one or go for a back issue. Still, it was fun to read up on what’s new with anime.
Nowadays, you can pretty much get all the information you need off the Internet, but it’s still fun to grab a magazine and read up. Animerica is now a free magazine, but you can only get it at a specific bookstore in the U.S. Probably the premiere anime magazine nowadays is Anime Insider, with monthly manga magazines like Shojo Beat and Shonen Jump for your manga fixes. I can’t get these magazines here unless I pay for a subscription (which is too expensive). Though sometimes I get lucky and find back issues in Booksale. Nice.
A word of caution though. I noticed that sometimes the prices of magazines and books are different per branch. I got an issue of Shojo Jump for Php130, but in another branch it costs Php250. Big difference.
Of course, if I do want to read manga there are *stops and decides to shut up*. Fans would know what I mean.
