How old are you?
I'll be 26 in August.
What is your yearly income?
Too little, but I work part-time only with a salary (the rest of the time I can't be paid yet), and with very nice compensations, such as our small business paying the rent and bills.
How old you were when you first saw anime? Which were your first impressions?
It's hard to remember, probably 6 or so, as at the time some anime such as Captain Harlock were on TV in my country. I however remember very clearly my parents getting me the Queen Millenium tape when I was 7. none of us knew it was anime by then, but I used to already like it, even if not understanding much. I think that from this point on, I've always preferred the anime shown on TV, rather than the "cartoons".
How it evolved? What do you see today?
My first phase of anime was triggered by what was on TV, which was varied enough; among other things, Captain Harlock, Saint Seiya, Dragon Ball Z and City Hunter (we had a certain variety, our TV channels were buying whatever they could find, which sometimes came with problems).
When I was 14-15, a friend of mine got a few issues of a fanzine named "Namida", which author was writing about less known anime and manga, such as the works of the Clamp studio (Note: this was in 1994/1995, France was still pretty poor regarding manga and having *lots* of anime; now we have way more, but at the time, whatever yow wanted, you needed to go to Paris to get it, or import it). My horizon expanded from this point on, although I've always been more "manga" than "anime" (cheaper to get and easier to carry and "see", too). I'll usually watch more "serious" anime, or "fun/action" ones (give me a City Hunter or a GTO whenever
); these don't necessarily need to be brand new; as shown here, I can have my fun with older anime as long as they're itneresting. Usually I don't remain narrowed on one genre, I can watch something very "shojou" one day if the story looks interesting to me (yeah, I've watched the whole Utena series...), then the next day I'll put a more action-oriented series in the DVD player. I go by the very simple road of "if the summary looks interesting and/or my friends have seen it, can tell me what it's about and it also looks interesting, I'll try to give it a shot".Any favorites? Anime, directors, studios, manga... and why are they your favorites?
Current favorites (because my tastes evidently changed with time, even if still remaining wide): City Hunter, Samurai 7, Trigun, FMA, some Gainax productions (Nadia and Evangelion namely, except that I dwindled out of Eva for a time after a few encounters with drooling fangirls who left me all ashamed about my own genre) ... I usually like the works of Studio Ghibli a lot, and anime in which ABE Yoshitoshi has taken part tend to catch my fancy as well, even if sometimes leaving me with a "what was that?" feeling.
Regarding manga, I definitely swear by HOJO Tsukasa (City Hunter, Angel Heart, F-Compo...), Meitantei Conan, GTO, and I also appreciate a lot the works of URASAWA Naoki (Monster, 20th Century Boys...). I keep a stash of other kinds of manga as well, lots of Clamp, my collection of Kenshin, and a few series by WATASE Yuu, but they're not my favorites, and I read them less often.
When and how did you find the .org?
Sometime in March or April 2002, I don't exactly remember if I signed up straight after having found it, or if I waited a little. At the time, I was gathering AMVs by studio to put them on CD, and I probably found a link to the org on one of these studios' sites. Perhaps Aluminium or Kusoyaro, I'm not sure.
Do you edit?
Yes, and I'm eager to start on my next vid, as soon as I get the DVDs for it.
If you do, what do you use for editing (hardware/software) and how do you obtain your footage?
Currently using Premiere Pro 1.0 and Paint Shop Pro 9 for any image manipulations, as well as a bunch of free small software such as VirtualDubMod. These I consider my "basic tools" (and the ones I have license for, I plan on getting After Effects someday when I can afford it). I also rip my own DVDs, I just couldn't "regress" to compressed downloaded sources, it just feels too wrong. Like using a crappy cheap brush that will leave hair in my paint, when I could do much better and more pleasant work with a good brush
Which non-anime shows or movies do you like? Why do you think they’re good?
Old Babylon 5 nerdy fan here
I also have a soft spot for the first Star Wars movies (ep. 5 notably). Another show I absolutely dig out is a parody amateur show from France called "Damned" and "Damned: Next", but I bet it's mainly because they use many of the cheesy effects/themes that I know as an old RP gamer, so it's like tons of private jokes for me.How do you see american animation compared to japanese animation?
Hard to tell, because I don't watch much American animation, and although we've had some shows on TV here, I've never really cared about making the difference between American and French ones. I also don't have TV, so I'm lost regarding what's been broadcast in the past few years. From what I remember, though, I've always found anime to be of better quality, more varied and more enjoyable. The only real exceptions to me being Daria and South Park, because these I really find special and fun for me (a.k.a. not great on animation.
