Hello to all guys, gals, and enby pals. I am 7Mononoke, but you can call me Mono. For new readers who might discover me, as well as anyone who has followed me for a while, it might be helpful or interesting to learn more about me. And well, this is an anime blog. That is why I decided to write about my history with anime. Please keep in mind that I sometimes need to provide context or facts about my personal history for a more complete picture. This post will hopefully also provide insight into why I feel so strongly about anime.

Article Contents

1. First Exposures (Pokemon & Medabots!)
2. Princess Mononoke and Ouran HSHC
3. Wolf’s Rain and Death Note
4. Exploring Anime (2012-2019)
5. Blogging at Anime Rants

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First Exposures (Pokemon & Medabots!)

My first memory of anything anime-related was seeing a rerun of an English-dubbed Pokemon episode on TV. I was very young, probably under seven years old. That instance, where I enjoyed that episode, was the only one of its kind for many years; soon after, my fundamentalist religious family decided that Pokemon was “worldly” and “demonic.” I was never allowed to watch it, buy merchandise related to it, or even sing the catchy English theme song. That should tell you something about the way I grew up.

By the time I was twelve or so, my family loosened up slightly: just enough to let us kids watch some English-dubbed and edited anime on 4KidsTV. My brothers really got into it. I recall being very excited about a show called Medabots, but after I loudly expressed my interest, I was forbidden from watching it because I am AFAB and I guess girls can’t like robots. For many years after, I was cautious to show any interest in anime, even though I liked the look of the art and some of the stories.

Soon after starting college, I got my own laptop (with a DVD player!) and gained some great exposure to the world. I asserted myself and explored much more in those days, despite intense backlash from certain family members. One day, I found Princess Mononoke in a Movie Stop. I purchased my own copy of the movie, watched it, and loved it. (It was also my first R-rated film.) Princess Mononoke became my all-time favorite movie and it sparked an avid new interest in anime.

In addition to Ghibli movies like Howl’s Moving Castle and My Neighbor Totoro, I watched and enjoyed a few anime episodes with my new friend from college. The anime was Ouran Highschool Host Club. I liked it a lot, especially since I was much like the heroine, Haruhi. Additionally, watching that anime made me curious to find something that suited me better. I did some googling and found the anime Wolf’s Rain. Even though I watched some of Ouran slightly earlier, I consider Wolf’s Rain my first real anime. After all, I found it on my own, and it was the first anime series I actually completed from start to finish. The next show I watched after that was Death Note.

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Princess Mononoke and Ouran HSHC

Let’s talk a little bit about these first few anime experiences: Princess Mononoke, Ouran High School Host Club, Wolf’s Rain, and Death Note. There is an immense amount of content one could discuss about these shows/movies, but my goal is simply to share a few personal thoughts about each. We begin with Princess Mononoke.

If you haven’t seen this movie, it’s about an exiled prince named Ashitaka, and his battle to find healing from the demon curse on his arm. He heads west to the giant forest where animal gods and spirits dwell, and there, he meets “Princess Mononoke,” a girl raised by wolf gods. Ashitaka finds Iron Town, a developing outpost that processes iron, makes guns, and chops down forests. The leader of Iron Town is Lady Eboshi, the sworn enemy of Princess Mononoke.

There are many conflicts, not just between Eboshi and Mononoke, but also trouble involving greedy Samurai Lords and a conniving old Monk. Violence is the name of the game amidst the hate, curses, and chaos. So it’s up to Ashitaka to “see with eyes unclouded by hate,” walking a dangerous road of unconditional compassion, to heal not just himself but also Iron Town and the wolf girl.

That’s what Princess Mononoke is about, but why did I love it so much? Why did I instantly latch onto it all those years ago, and why does it continue to be my favorite movie of all time? I have a strong emotional connection to the characters: especially Ashitaka, but also San (Mononoke), Eboshi, and Moro. I have a special connection to each of these characters, but writing about all of them would take too long. For now, let’s just say I love San’s ferocity, Ashitaka’s strong morality, and Eboshi’s charisma and intelligence as a leader. I empathize very deeply with fictional characters, so that’s one reason I love this anime film.

What else? I enjoy contemplating the central conflict, which can be interpreted as nature versus developing humanity, supernatural beliefs versus progress, or hatred versus acceptance. There are so many story themes and bits of philosophy in this movie that speak to me deeply. For one example, there’s the theme of overcoming hatred; for another, there’s the theme that humans are complex and have their own reasons for doing what they do.

Perhaps the most powerful idea is the one that people will always struggle to continue living, even when life seems to be nothing but pain and sorrow. There’s so much to love and so much that is explored in this classic anime film. I have only made a tiny scrape on the tip of the huge iceberg, but to avoid going on forever, let’s talk about Ouran.

Ouran Highschool Host Club focuses on main AFAB character Haruhi and her life in a rich, elite academy. Haruhi comes from humble origins and only got into Ouran Academy by being an excellent honor student. She encounters a group of boys called the Host Club, who entertain the lovely girls of the school in their free time.

Through a humorous mishap, Haruhi ends up in debt to the Host Club, and they make her pay by becoming a host – a male host. Everyone believes Haruhi is a boy, or AMAB, except the other hosts. So Haruhi begins her work as a host entertaining ladies and helping those in need with their emotional or romantic dilemmas. It’s a comedy, and something of a satire of common shoujo (girl’s) anime. There are many tropes, but the show doesn’t take itself very seriously at all.

The quirky and ridiculous humor in Ouran is something I love. So is the educational aspect; Ouran taught me a lot about anime in general, but especially about the shoujo genre. But the main thing this anime did for me was showing me a character I could connect to in a way I had never experienced.

It’s taken me most of my life to realize I am nonbinary, but I’ve always known I didn’t fit into gender norms. Haruhi shed light on this for me and become my hero when she said, “I don’t really care whether you guys recognize me as a boy or a girl. In my opinion it’s more important for a person to be recognized for who they are, rather than what sex they are.”

I can’t even begin to explain how validating it was to hear that. I enjoyed a lot of the loose, mostly joking discussions of gender and sexuality in Ouran. It opened my mind. Now, in hindsight, it’s clear that this anime isn’t exactly “progressive.” It has a lot of problems with its depiction of LGBT+ people and issues. But for the largely homophobic Japan, Ouran is pretty forward-thinking. Furthermore, compared to the extremely homophobic family I grew up in, this anime was groundbreakingly positive and progressive for me.

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Wolf’s Rain and Death Note

Now we get to my first true love of anime series: Wolf’s Rain. The show is about a small pack of “wolves” and their journey to find the mystic land of Paradise. Wolves in this fantasy universe are as intelligent as humans and can communicate among themselves. They can also fool humans with some kind of magical façade that makes them appear human.

The world is ending, and everything has become desolate. As the world dies, the instinct awakens in wolves to discover their Paradise. But there are also extremely technologically advanced nobles who wish to interfere with wolves and paradise. The nobles created a strange entity named Cheza, said to be a sentient Lunar flower with the mind and body of a young girl. Drawn to Cheza, Kiba the wolf rescues her from the labs and sets off on an adventure with three furry friends.

It’s going to be difficult to be brief, but I’ll go over some reasons I felt so connected to Wolf’s Rain. The animation is terrific and although I like the Japanese audio better, the English Dub is also pretty good. The soundtrack is one of my favorites in all anime. The songs send shivers down my spine. Wolves are my favorite animals, so naturally an anime focused on wolves would delight me to the core. The world lore, though difficult to piece together at times, is highly interesting to me. There’s also the general atmosphere of Wolf’s Rain, which I can’t adequately describe, but which I love. Perhaps I should say melancholy?

Let’s look at a few other reasons for my attachment to this anime. The story themes and elements of philosophy and psychology are sometimes profound. One of my favorite themes is the yearning for something intangible. Another theme is the effects of loneliness and isolation, and how great trouble makes people bond together again. Hope, determination, fate, and loss are other huge themes.

Character psychology is interesting too in several cases. Everyone has something to struggle with or come to terms with. For Blue the wolf-dog, it’s growing out of her dependence on the human Quent. For Toboe, it’s his deep need for humans to love him. The interactions of the main wolves and Cheza are intriguing, as are side characters like the human scientist Cher.

Wolf’s Rain has as unusual ending. Many people find it unsatisfying. I won’t spoil it, but I’m a fan of the ending. That’s another reason I love the anime. For a final reason, there’s the fact that some elements of Wolf’s Rain are up to interpretation. It’s not clear what precisely happened at the end of the series, so you can read it the way you want (to a degree). I often enjoy stories where some aspects are open-ended. As I watched Wolf’s Rain for the first time, I found it dark, melancholy, and thoughtful. It’s perfect for me. To this day, Wolf’s Rain is in my top ten favorite anime series.

Next we’ll discuss Death Note, one of the most widely recognized and discussed anime series in existence. Since you’re reading an anime blog, I’ll assume you know what Death Note is about. Watching the show with my partner at the time, I discovered that I loved it intensely. Why? A few reasons include: the entertaining character of L, the brilliantly written psychopathy of Light, the intrigue and mind-games between the two, and profound themes about justice, law enforcement, ethics, and more.

This content was important to me because I’m someone who has always had a strong sense of morality, as well as a thoughtful outlook on life. Since I like to exercise my mind when possible, I enjoyed the thought-provoking aspects. I also appreciated the character of Rem.

Other reasons to get into Death Note are 1) the interesting lore of Shinigami and Death Notes, 2) the well-paced and thrilling plot, and 3) audiovisual aspects like the realistic animation style and the classic soundtrack. A huge portion of the fanbase views the last third of Death Note as vastly inferior to the earlier story. Personally, I disagree, and I continued to enjoy the last 10 or 11 episodes with the introduction of characters like Near and Mikami. To each their own, I suppose. The long and the short of it is that by the time I finished Death Note, I was a real anime fan.

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Exploring Anime (2012-2019)

This next section won’t be as detailed as the previous ones, but I’ll go over several time periods and mention what was happening in my life and some of the anime series that stuck out at me. First there was the time I was at a State university from early 2012 to the end of 2013. During that time period, I was struggling intensely with mental health issues in addition to the stress of classes.

Somehow, I still found time to watch a couple of anime series. The one that sticks out to me the most in that time was Steins;Gate. I loved it and showed to whoever would watch it with me. Besides that classic anime, my taste was darker and more edgy. I watched and enjoyed Mirai Nikki (Future Diary) and Higurashi no Naku Koro ni (When They Cry). There are probably a few others I’m forgetting to mention, but let’s briefly go over why I connected to the main three I remember. The common denominators between those three shows are the psychological/thriller aspects and interesting plot twists.

In addition, Higurashi and Mirai Nikki also deal with characters who are insane. Onset of various mental illnesses can do strange things to a person’s mind. It did for me. In that very dark place, the insanity in those series made me feel heard or understood. And the violence and plot twists were the thrills I needed to distract from my troubled mind.

Mirai Nikki‘s yandere queen Yuno became one of my favorite female anime characters; her story and psychology remain interesting to me today. As for Higurashi, it became one of the series I love most, and my ultimate favorite horror anime. It’s extremely violent and the story is amazing once you get it.

What about Steins;Gate? That’s another one that would take me several paragraphs to describe why I love it. So let’s just say it’s the best time-travel anime ever and a great thriller with a sprinkling of comedy, drama, and interesting characters. The idea that there are infinite “world lines” is something I appreciate immensely in sci-fi. I felt annoyed with main character Okabe sometimes, but overall, I admire him. My favorite of the female characters was Kurisu (on the left) since she is a scientist. Also, for a tsundere, she’s pretty original and well-written.

Note: Other anime series I watched during this time included Ergo Proxy, Code Geass, Elfen Lied, and Serial Experiments Lain. Additionally, the first season of Attack on Titan aired in 2013, and I enjoyed it immensely. Each one of these shows was important and significant to me in its own way, but for the sake of not rambling forever, let’s move on.

The year turned to 2014, one of the most eventful years in my life. I had a temporary job, and in summer I moved in with my romantic partner. Both of us were crazy and toxic, so in hindsight, it’s unsurprising that things fell apart. My partner left me toward the end of the year and I sunk into a depression so deep I had to move in with a parent again so they could help take care of me.

That’s not to say there were no good times in 2014. I liked the experiences I gained at my job, and I’m glad I got to be with my partner for as long as I did. Do you know what we loved to do together on weekends and after work? We watched anime. Additionally, I watched a lot of series by myself after the temporary job ended.

What sorts of anime did I see in 2014? Here’s some of them: Madoka Magica, Mushishi, Nichijou, Kill la Kill, Spice and Wolf, Akuma no Riddle, Kyoukia no Kanata, and Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei. Again, I’m not going to write about each in detail, but let me make notes about a few. I recall smoking weed and laughing my ass off as I watched Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei. It has a lot of dark humor, social commentary, and absurd/surreal comedy. The story is about a teacher with suicidal ideation. Another funny show was Nichijou, which focuses on the daily lives of three schoolgirls and those connected to them. This is still one of the funniest shows in existence, if you ask me. It’s also really cute.

The weirdly soothing, episodic fantasy anime Mushishi helped me through an incredibly difficult week during the summer. I watched all of it in a couple of days. The music was to die for; truly one of anime’s best soundtracks. Akuma no Riddle was fun to watch for the fights as well as awesome character designs and a central lesbian relationship.

Although I did watch Madoka Magica, I was so drunk and high that I didn’t pay attention. I retained very little memory of it, but it would become important to me when I re-watched it the next year. Besides those, Kill la Kill is the most important 2014 anime for me to mention. It remains in my top twenty favorite anime series and I’ve seen about six-hundred now. Usually, fanservice anime isn’t for me, but Kill la Kill is a notable exception. My favorite character is Satsuki, and I continue to admire her immensely.

The year of 2014 was characterized by a wide variety of anime. The next period of time was heavily colored by my severe depression and other mental health issues. Everything in that time kind of blurs together. From 2015-2017, I watched hundreds of anime series and OVAs, many of which I liked simply because the darkness and depression in them spoke to me. Then from 2017-2019, my taste mellowed out again and I watched more balanced shows.

With this many series, it would be ridiculous to try naming all that were significant. Instead, I’ll tell you my top ten series I watched in this time period. They are: Monster, Madoka Magica, Shinsekai Yori, Psycho-Pass, Parasyte The Maxim, Shiki, Paranoia Agent, Angel Beats, The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, Hunter x Hunter, and Death Parade. This list does not include Attack on Titan seasons 2 and 3, but those were also just as good as the others.

These anime shows spoke to me on a profound level, but I don’t have the attention span or the right words to describe the significance of each show to me. So, rather than that, I’ll list just one thing out of the many that I absolutely loved about each of the ten shows.

• Monster: The psychologically fascinating antagonist, Johan Liebert
• Madoka Magica: All five main characters and their interactions as they struggle
• Shinsekai Yori: The theme of humanity’s darkness and great power
• Psycho-Pass: Main character Akane’s sense of morality
• Parasyte The Maxim: The theme of what it is to be a human
• Shiki: The extremely interesting monk and author named Seishin Muroi
• Paranoia Agent: Trippy, deep dives into human psychology
• Angel Beats: The strong female character Yuri Nakamura
• The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya: Excellent sci-fi content and humor
• Hunter x Hunter: Everything about the Chimera Ant Arc
• Death Parade: The theme of valuing one’s life

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Blogging at Anime Rants

The final part of my history with anime is the time I’ve spent writing an anime blog (2019-2022). I started a blog not just because I love anime but because I have always loved writing even more. In spring 2019, I had just written a 30-page discussion and information packet about Shinsekai Yori to satisfy my hyperfixation with it. Additionally, I had written a long analysis packet about Sayaka from Madoka Magica. I knew how to start a blog since I had used WordPress for a school blog in college. And so, almost a whim, I created Anime Rants to upload the shortened versions of the content I’d already completed.

It turned out that I enjoyed blogging immensely. Knowing that a few people were reading my work felt gratifying. But even if a post of mine received no views, it still felt good to publish it for my own self-expression and validation. Thus began my hobby of writing new content and building a successful anime blog. I had quite a few popular posts that, for a time, would garner a few hundred views per day. My top posts were those related to the MBTI personality model and how different anime characters fit into the types. Learning to stylize my blog was fun, and I commissioned an artist friend of mine to make me a Gravatar/Wordpress logo for me. (See below.)

During the last three years, my favorite series (that I’ve seen anyway) are: Boogiepop wa Warawanai (2019), Beastars, The Promised Neverland, and Attack on Titan seasons 3 and 4. There were several others that I fancied too, including Dr. Stone, Fruits Basket (all seasons), and Re:Zero Staring Life in Another World 2nd season. Browse my blog if you want to see my content related to these series. You can start here, at the Anime Directory.

I didn’t just write about newer anime; I also delved down deep into analyses of older series. Some of these analyses led me to loving the particular anime even more than before. For example, take Revolutionary Girl Utena. Although I watched it sometime within 2015-2017, I didn’t consider it a favorite because I found it confusing and because the ending was so disappointing at first. However, as of 2021, RGU is one of my favorites. I’ve written detailed analyses of each arc in the series. Seeing the movie, Adolescence of Utena, was what made me get back into it, work harder at understanding it, and adjust to the ending.

I briefly tried out a different platform last year in 2022. I was blogging at a Wix site, Mono’s Anime Rants. That was because of difficulties with WordPress and not being able to afford their plans. It was an interesting experiment, but it was ultimately a failure because I had no audience on Wix. My posts would get 1-10 views on Wix, while they get to 30-100 on WordPress. That’s why I moved back here to my primary blog, Anime Rants.

It’s now 2023. As of this year (and maybe a little bit last year too), my thoughts and perspectives on anime have shifted and changed a lot. I take issue with many aspects of the anime industry, and problematic elements of individual anime bother me more than they used to. I have become a more ethical consumer of anime. I also try to include as much education as possible on social issues and my humanist views – in as much as it’s relevant. Even though I have more reservations now, I still love anime.

My blog is doing well this year in terms of views. I also have a few readers whom I cherish for their constant likes and comments. (You guys are awesome!) I hope this post was interesting and informative. It’s also my hope that if you’re new to and you read this, you will consider following the blog or signing up for the email list. If you want to support an active anime blogger with an interesting perspective, that’s the way to start!

Thank you for reading~

Note: A slightly different version of this post appeared on my Wix blog, Mono’s Anime Rants, on July 26, 2022. After republishing it here on WordPress, I will delete the original to avoid confusion.

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