Introduction – “Welcome to the Velvet Room”

Hey all, I’m verdant and I'll be the "main" writer who will be guest blogging Persona 4 the ANIMATION along with unlisted. Earlier this summer, he piqued my interest in the upcoming anime adaptation of Persona 4, so once classes finished, I decided to play both the Persona 3 and 4 games (a daunting task, but someone had to do it). Fortunately, my dedication paid off when a couple weeks later, unlisted tells me that Divine is looking for someone familiar with the game to cover Persona 4. Challenge accepted.

Compared to most people, my introduction to anime is probably quite unique since my dad was the one who introduced me. He would peruse the kids’ animation section of our local library and bring home shows like Fushigi Yûgi and Revolutionary Girl Utena, even though he never watched anime himself. Being young, I probably didn’t fully understand what I was watching, but nevertheless, what stood out was seeing the stories, themes, and action that couldn’t be found in my usual Western cartoons. I was starting to get hooked, and once I discovered Escaflowne on Fox, Dragon Ball Z on Toonami, and that my best friend also secretly liked anime, there was no looking back. We even dabbled in some drifting thanks to Initial D (please don’t try this at home).

More after the jump.

Introduction – “Who Invited This Guy?”

I'm the other half of the duo that will be guest writing/covering Persona 4 the ANIMATION.

I’ll try to refrain from telling you my favorites since you can get that from MyAnimeList. Instead, I’ll try to explain what my list can't: how I got into anime.

I've seen or been exposed to shows like Dragon Ball Z, Pokemon, Yu-Gi-Oh, Sailor Moon and Gundam. (None of them except for the original Pokemon are on my anime list since I can't tell you how many episodes of I've seen of each.) But it wasn't until late 2006 when I started watching seriously. This was when I got into Bleach which was airing dubs on late night television. I then followed up with another of the big 3 shounen Naruto. Soon after I watched Hayate no Gotoku and loved it. This is where I steadily branched out into the anime scene.

More on my "credentials" are after the jump.