bane_ecf

I know you can get to this from the "old follows" page (assuming you have it on follows at all) but it seems so awkward that there's no link directly from the home page of a manga.

Hi all, I'm a 37 year old guy from Phoenix, now living in the Minneapolis-St. Paul metro area and I've been watching anime and reading manga for most of my life. I spent a significant amount of my childhood living in Japan (7.5 years) and since my parents are Japanese I continue to invest in the media both as a fan and to keep up with my Japanese. Since I've already been posting in a few mangas that I currently follow, I guess some of you might recognize me as a bit on the analytical side when it comes to reading and evaluating manga. I hope my comments and insights will be a benefit to the community.

I'm an old school fan of anime and manga because of their ability to develop story and character in a way lacking in Western forms of visual media. I grew up reading and watching classics like Mobile Suit Gundam, Kimagure Orange Road, and Saint Seiya. In addition to the aforementioned titles, I also have many of those older mangas on my bookshelf such as Touch, Maison Ikkoku, H2, Whistle!, Hikaru no Go...and yes, Dragon Ball (it was okay until the whole Saiya-jin thing!) The commonality among those titles is that no matter what the genre, a really good story with really deep characters really gets my attention. (Yeah, I'll watch and read shallow aniime and manga too, but I'll usually never come back to it again after the first pass.) Currently, my major manga interests are KNIM, Good Ending, Kaichou wa Maid Sama!, and MIX among those that are still ongoing.

As alluded above, I'm proficient in Japanese at the conversational level and literate at the shonen manga level, and I used to translate back in the day when I was still single and had time. Back when I was translating, I was proud of the fact that I was very familiar with both Japanese and American culture, so I was able translate and have it make sense from both culture's viewpoints. (NOTE: I no longer have the time to be a full time translater, but I wouldn't be completely opposed to the idea of being a proofer if it's for an manga that I'm interested in.)

Other than that, I'm pretty much a normal guy, a guy who has a job, his first child on the way, and loves watching all kind of sports. I'm glad I found this site and I look forward to treading and discussing manga with you all.