TL/DR: Peggy has a long history loving anime+manga and thanks for sticking for sticking with us.

Well, this is not the post I expected to make. I was planning to edit a notes post from a panel that Casea and I attended during the Aniplex Online Fest this year but was inspired to write and publish this instead. (Though I promise to get the Aniplex post up before Christmas, okay? Or… closely after… maybe. Before New Year for sure.)

You see, today was kind of a thinking day for me regarding The Anime View, and what pushed me over the edge and into writing this was me seeing a car covered in a full vinyl print of a half-dressed anime-girl who I vaguely recognize from some game that came out years ago during my drive home. 

It was so out of place for this hometown of mine. A town where the nearest comic book shop is closer to two cities away than one and manga is pretty much only found in your local Barnes & Noble or via Amazon and other online distributors. I was stunned. It made me giggle a little to think about who this stranger was and what people must think when they see his car at the grocery store. I don’t necessarily approve of the car print being the cover image of anime’s intro to our home town (outside of some high school/college anime clubs), but I can’t help liking, just a little, the enthusiasm to so proudly and boldly put that on your car. Anyway. 

What started my thinking and the lead up to this post was a trip to B&N earlier today. It started as a quick gift-card pick up for some last-minute gifts, but then I remembered that I needed to buy the next copy of Otaku USA while I’m there. (Link to the publication’s website below). Their other publication, Anime USA, was also in stock, so I picked that up too. Next thing you know, I’m in my car enjoying an ice tea and reading some letters from the editor before skimming the articles.

This time, Anime USA did a 2000s throwback in their Fall/Winter 2020 issue, and Joseph Luster’s letter from the editor reminded me a lot of where things started for me and where they’ve come to now, which I planned to push to the back of my mind again until I saw that car on the way back home some odd hours later. 

I remember when anime was something I could only watch late at night, on or after Adult Swim came on, without my parents knowing. It was something a babysitter introduced to me one late night in either 1998 or 1999–I’m not exactly sure as I was too young to tell time properly then beyond knowing that at 8 I was supposed to be asleep–and I became hooked. I remember when Toonami was my bread and butter when Borders first started getting manga on the shelves, and when I joined the Anime Club at my first high school where they only watched the first few episodes of Aria the Animation again and again (It was so much that I still can’t watch it again to this day). I remember how I started my own Anime Club a few years later at my second high school. By then, my mom had found a comic book store that carried manga, which we frequented during the holidays. And it was around then that I got my first introduction to anime journalism through Otaku USA (yep, we’re coming full circle). In fact, I still have the first issue I ever bought, the October 2009 issue with Evangelion 1.0 on the cover, which Google let me find a clean cover of since mine is kind of beat to heck and unacceptable for pictures:

Otaku USA/Anime USA – For those interested: https://otakuusamagazine.com

Otaku USA, Shojo Beat, and a few others became my main go-to magazines.

Then, in 2013, as I’ve mentioned many times, I started The Anime View. By then, I was in my freshman year of college. I was pretty comfortable with Tumblr as a platform and still fully obsessed with anime/manga, so I started the blog. It was just a collection of images and reactions with some OTP posts sprinkled in here and there, most of which I have since removed as this blog is being remodeled into more of a publication than its previous role as an individual’s lone hobby-blog.

All this is to say that it’s really awesome being apart of this community and to see anime/manga go from obscure to practically, if not actually, mainstream. It’s been amazing to see the community grow around me and with me and to see this blog grow over time. You have no idea how thankful I am to everyone who has stuck with me for all these years, as well as those that just joined, and who will maybe join in the future. It’s a blast! As well as something I hope to continue enjoying for years to come. 

As I close here, I can’t help thinking that this was the kind of letter I wanted to write to you all in our December 2020 post that was meant to close out for the year and perhaps the decade. I couldn’t then, as I was overwhelmed with the planning for our content next year, the podcast, and a Give-Away (news on that to come). 

Next year I hope to do so much with The Anime View, with the people on the team and/or those that may join it, and with all of you following. 

Once more I write, Thank you. 

Sincerely,

Peggy Wood, @peggyseditorial/@pswediting​​

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PS: It is now after 2 in the morning my time and I am physically exhausted. I want to get this up tonight so I am posting it unedited, unreviewed, and uncensored (not that anything needs censoring in this, I hope). Since I claimed this as a stream of consciousness, I don’t think I will edit it. I know that this is largely a “no-no” in blogs hoping to become more professional, but why not end the year with a post or two that is the way I have most always been on this blog? From one anime-fan to another, I’ll see you next year! (Well, and a bit later this week with the Aniplex notes post [hopefully] and maybe one or two more before New Year’s Eve, but you get the idea! Because next year we’re turning to a more journalism heavy publication style than before.) 

HAPPY HOLIDAYS! – PSW