Up until I was 11, I had never heard of anime. The most Japanese thing I had known was my Tamagotchi.
It began when my friend started talking about a program called ‘Mew Mew Power’ she had seen on Sky. I wanted to find out what it was so I eventually ended up watching 26 episodes on youtube because I didn’t have Sky. It was so bright and colourful that my ears didn’t seem to notice the terrible dubbing. I then proceeded to watch the rest of the anime subbed and enjoyed it even more. Tokyo Mew Mew is still one of my favourite animes to date, Zakuro is still my favourite ever character and I still find myself humming ‘Koi wa a la mode’. At Christmas 2007 I was given the first two volumes of the manga which I also enjoyed.

Of course my other way into the anime world was studio ghibli. It started off with Spirited Away, then Only Yesterday, then Totoro and before you knew it I had seen them all.

It has been three years since I found anime and manga (and more recently jpop) and what a great three years its been!!!