Okay, so I’ve not been shy about calling my debut book a “Ghibli-inspired fantasy” and indeed I have a deep love and respect for what Miyazaki as a creator and what Studio Ghibli has done for both animation in Japan and worldwide. It’s not a stretch to say that you don’t watch a Ghibli film but rather you experience it.
My first experience with Ghibli was in 1997 when Princess Mononoke was released. I was a freshman in college and my circle of geeky friends made the two-hour drive to the one small, independent theater (which ironically was in the neighborhood where I would find myself living with my then fiancé ten years later) to see the much-hyped cinematic experience. It did not disappoint.
And in years that followed, I tried to hunt down and watch every Ghibli film that was available, mostly through the Disney/Miramax releases, but a few were some truly awful lost dubs. Yes, the first time I saw Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind was New Line Cinema’s Warriors of the Wind dub, which I would not recommend.
But my love of anime didn’t begin with Ghibli and it dates back much further. As a young child in the 1980’s, I was a die-hard fan of Voltron: Defender of the Universe, though 5-year-old me had no idea that the show originated from Japan or that it was actually called Beast King GoLion. As far as he knew, all cartoons were made in the same cartoon factory and they drew Scooby Doo & Inspector Gadget right alongside my favorite cat-themed giant robot.
My first true exposure to anime as a medium from another country and culture was in 1994 and my best friend brought over a VHS tape he’d recorded from what was then The Sci-Fi Channel during their special week-long “Animation Festival” hosted by Ralph Bakshi (of Cool World, Fritz the Cat, and Lord of the Rings fame). What the tape contained was four hours of Japanese anime that would start me on a 30+ year journey into a fandom that that has enriched my life in many unexpected and unusual ways. The specific anime that was that tape? Masamune Shirow’s Dominion: Tank Police.
Even 30+ years later, that dubbed opening still kicks seventeen kinds of ass and It’s one of the few titles in my collection where I prefer the English soundtrack over the original Japanese. Sadly, the series itself is badly dated in the sense that at the time it was created, over-militarized police who blatantly ignore both suspect’s and civilians’ procedural (and human) rights was supposed to be a dark satire. Now, it’s kinda… ugggggghhhhh.
But still, it was what kickstarted what would become a lifelong fandom for me, and I would spend the next three decades evolving from a teenaged Weeb (though that term did not actually exist at the time I was one) to a full-fledged Old-Taku. And if I hadn’t watched it, I wouldn’t have wanted to watch Princess Mononoke, and if hadn’t watched that and fell in love with Studio Ghibli, then I wouldn’t have written the debut novel that I did. So, to recap: animated movies about hyper-violent cops in tanks –> sweet, coming of age story about friendship, feelings, and food porn.
Hey, I never said it was a particularly straight path.
I’m going to end this little trip down memory lane here. I plan to pick this up again later to talk about some particular favorite anime series and films I’ve loved (and may have inspired my writing), as well as how this fandom has impacted my life. Hope you’ll come back for that next leg of the journey.
Webpage note: I have disabled comments on this and future posts. I was getting too many crypto spams, and when got one for a pro-suicide website, I was thinking that maybe there are better ways for people to tell me that they have thoughts about what I’m writing here. So, if you like my content, hit me up on BlueSky @infinitesquirrels.bsky.social.
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