IRUn's House of Whatever

With the new Unlimited Blade Works anime now properly aired, it strikes me just how far I've come as part of the fandom.

Back in late 2009, early 2010, when I first watched the animes for various Type-MOON franchises because I was a total noob who didn't know how to access the visual novels until well later, I was just a neophyte. Prior to that I had only a glancing experience with Melty Blood as I trawled the net for off-kilter fighting game concepts. I was drawn in by the Tsukihime anime that memetically does not exist, and compelled from start to finish by DEEN's Fate/stay night, which, while not that bad, most definitely has not aged well in the animation and probably several other departments. And those were the English dubbed versions, too - obviously this did not include Kara no Kyoukai - so objectively speaking I have had, by all accounts, inferior formative experiences with Type-MOON's work.

In spite of this, something about Kinoko Nasu and co.'s moonlit world latched on to my interests, captivated my imagination and hasn't let go since. Whether it be the characters, the setting, the themes or the potential of it all, I don't know if I can specify what exactly it was. It was probably KnK that sealed the deal, actually, though again, don't think I can narrow down the reasons that it did back then. Atmosphere, animation, music and oddness, I guess. Some time later I joined Beast's Lair at the urging of a 'net friend, and after time passed with me being an active part of the English-speaking fan community I ended up with a radioactive green username and access to a lot of features that an average user could never see. Throughout thick and thin, periods of inactivity and periods of semi-activity and even the rare moment of productiveness and contribution to the fandom, my like for these series hasn't dwindled in the slightest.

I've now read the games, and read the mangas, and what translations exist of the light novels and world materials and other arcane knowledge divined by the rune-reading forumites , and even played that monotonous dungeon crawler buddy film dating sim on PSP due to its association with the label. I laughed, I cried, I cheered, I fapped, I've conversed with others with shared interests. I've done all of that in every possible combination. Before, I was nothing. Now, I am definitely a fan. I will probably remain one for a long, long time. The me watching the UBW TV air now will have a completely different experience than the me who saw the DEEN adaptation. I'm not a curious teen seeing something for the first time - I'm a grown man coming back to something I love and know by heart.

I've said before in the /stay night 2014 thread to not overhype yourself and set yourself up for disappointment. That's what I aimed to do. But when it came down to it, and I finally got to see episode 0?



That's when I let it all go and simply just enjoyed an adaptation of one of my favorite things ever. That's when the hype went full throttle. There's plenty of time and ways for ufotable to drop the ball, but for now I am utterly excited, but still reserved enough that I can't deliberately set myself up for disappointment.

Thanks, Type-MOON, for enriching my pop culture life, though I doubt any of you of import will ever see this blogpost. Thanks, Beast's Lair, for making this, and me be possible. If I never write another blogpost again, then it's fine by me if this is the last one.