5 Gateway Fandoms That Made Me Who I Am Today

Yes I'm aware that it's a Thursday, but I'm a little bit behind in the general geek blogging loop, so it's taken me a while to put this together. I will be participating in these link-up Fandom Friday posts for the forseeable future (and will hopefully be posting them on Fridays from here onward XD). So this past week we are supposed to share 5 Gateway Fandoms that got us started. I'm looking forward to sharing some insight into my favorite fandoms with all of you for the next few weeks :)

#1: Gundam SEED Anime & Manga

It was probably finding this anime late one night on YTV during the summer before 8th grade that really got me started to own up to being a geek and getting really invested in certain fandoms. I adored this show, and I ended up getting all 5 volumes of the manga that same year. I actually used to carry around the 1st volume of the manga with me throughout most of the 8th grade - you should see the beat-up condition it's in XD I actually included cut-and-pasted images from Gundam SEED on my campaign posters when I ran for Class Chair in 8th grade :P

#2: Fruits Basket Anime & Manga

Let's go back to the very first day of high school: None of my friends from grade school were going to the same school as me, and I knew nobody there. Instead of making my way to the cafeteria at lunch time, I went to the library instead. The wall facing the door into the library is shelves of various volumes of manga. I spotted Fruits Basket, which one of my friends that had moved to British Columbia the previous year had mentioned to me at one point. With nothing else to do, I grabbed it, finishing the first volume during lunch, and when it was time to leave I checked out the next 3 volumes to take home with me. When I got home I ended up watching the anime on YouTube as well. This was probably the start of my obsession with anime and manga.

#3: The Shakespeare Series by Gary Blackwood

I picked up the first book in this series, The Shakespeare Stealer during a Scholastic book fair happening at my grade school. I honestly can't remember how old I was when I read this book, but I do remember how much I loved it, and this was probably the first book I ever attempted to re-read as well. I also read the second book in this series while I was in grade school, Shakespeare's Scribe. In grade school I was easily labeled a bookworm, and I loved to read from a very young age, but I'm pretty sure that this was my favorite series by far when I was younger.

#4: *sigh* . . . The Twilight Series

Now hear me out! When I started reading manga in high school, I became wholly obsessed with reading manga and not much else. It probably didn't help that I was assigned to read The Chrysalids for my grade 9 English class, which is a book that I really didn't enjoy at all . . . But in grade 10 my girlfriends finally talked me into reading this book, Twilight, that I'd seen on display in the library for quite a long time. I devoured it and read the other books in the series (at this point Breaking Dawn hadn't been released, nor had any of the movies). Reading this book opened me up to other vampire YA series (first was Blue Bloods by Melissa De La Cruz, then The Vampire Diaries by L. J. Smith, and so on . . .). From there, those vampire series opened me up to other YA books, and from there I became able to finish and enjoy reading novels again. So I am grateful to Twilight for that (and really that alone XP).

#5: The Princess Bride Book & Movie.

I read the book The Princess Bride in 7th grade, which was a particularly hard time for me. I thoroughly enjoyed the characters, the fantasy, and the sense of adventure that I found in this book. One night when I took this book home I also ended up watching the movie in full for the very first time (pretty sure I rented it from Blockbuster . . . there's some nostalgia for you!). Ever since then The Princess Bride has been one of my go-to fandoms, and the movie is actually one of the main ways I connected with my last boyfriend, who is a cinema enthusiast and listed The Princess Bride as his all-time favorite.

And that's that with that. You can click here for the original post I located by The Nerdy Girlie, who is hosting this series of link-up posts with SuperSpaceChick. Hope you enjoy, and look forward to another 5 Fandom Friday tomorrow (on an actual Friday! Yay! XD).