Here’s a Q&A to tell you about AstroNerdBoy and this blog.
Q: Just who is AstroNerdBoy?
A: I’m an older anime and manga fan who lived in Japan for a couple of years (1989-1991). When it comes to religion, I am Calvinist. When it comes to politics, I am more libertarian.
Q: Where’d you come up with the name AstroNerdBoy?
A: Back when 9600 baud modems were king, I bought a PC with a free month of Prodigy access. While exploring it, I wanted to try out the chat area, but I needed an alias. Every name I came up with was already taken and Prodigy would suggest things like my user-ID or the name I’d chosen plus some number, depending on how many others were using that name. Since I was determined to come up with something unique, I tried more and more outlandish names until I came up with one no one had thought of. The rest, as they say, is history.
Q: How long have you been into anime and manga?
A: I was introduced to anime and manga in 1989, when I moved to Japan (Yokota AB, outside of Fussa). My best friend and roommate, Robert, was a big fan and swore it would be big in the U.S. within ten years. I wasn’t into anime during this time, but the seeds were planted.
Then in 2002, I found myself unemployed when my entire department was eliminated. On a whim, I went to Amazon to see if there were any anime titles out there. To my great surprise, there were a ton of anime titles. I tried some out, starting with a couple of small titles (Oh My Goddess OVA and Hand Maid May). From there, I spread out to titles like Love Hina, Neon Genesis Evangelion, and more. By the end of 2002, I realized I could truly say I was into anime.
I got into manga a little later. The driving force behind that was my desire to know more of the Ah! My Goddess story as well as the Love Hina story. As such, fans directed me to the manga origins of those anime titles, which opened my eyes not only to the joys of manga, but also to how much an anime adaptation can change the story of the source material.
Q: What’s your favorite anime and why?
A: The canon Tenchi Muyo! Ryo-ohki anime series.
I started watching it because I found I had a taste for harem genre anime. Folks online told me that the first Tenchi series was the father of the modern harem genre, so I sought it out. I went in for the harem cake, but came away with a full course meal. The more I dug into things, the better I liked it, so much so I ended up taking over the Tenchi Muyo! FAQ site, which back then was a single page, half of which was dedicated to AIC’s English forums.
Q: What’s your favorite manga and why?
A: This one is more of a tough question for me. It used to be Negima!, but the way Kajishima-sensei ended it didn’t leave a great taste in my mouth.
Now I’d say my favorite manga is Hayate the Combat Butler. I love the humor, the characters, and the stories. The plot was so subtle, I ignored it thinking that things were all being done for the gags, but in fact, there’s an actual plot and a really interesting one so far. That’s what puts it over the top for me.
Q: Why did you move from Blogger to WordPress?
A: There were a couple of reasons. First, I did not like the direction Google took Blogger, where what I wanted in terms of functionality were ignored in favor of Google having a 1-stop shop for all their products (Blogger, YouTube, Google+, etc.). Second, I have a lot more control with WordPress on my own domain, which is pretty sweet.
Q: What are the categories for this blog?
A: There are only four categories for this blog and unlimited tags.
- Anime — This is where all of my anime reviews and anime news items will go.
- Manga — This is where all of my manga reviews and manga news items will go.
- Japan — This is where my posts regarding aspects of Japan (music, culture, etc.) will go.
- Other — Image posts, live-action reviews, and anything else will go here.
There are times where I may use a couple of categories on top of the various tags used.
Q: Where is your avatar from?
A: That’s Junpei-kun from Those Who Hunt Elves. ^_^
