As A Black Woman, I Can Admit Anime Has Changed My Life
<p>Over on Substack, I completed a<a href="https://open.substack.com/pub/itsericajean/p/lets-talk-anime?utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank"> 20-minute podcast on how and why I got into anime</a> and explained why this medium is life-changing and <em>significant </em>for me as a Black woman.</p>
<p>Looking over the chapter of my life before anime, everything appears in technicolor. There <strong>is</strong> life and vitality and yes, there is love, pain, and all of that in between, but vastly different from my life now.</p>
<p>Anime has become a huge part of my life and has shaped it in so many ways: I schedule my evenings around anime, I have anime coloring books, have met friends who love anime and manga, and am even considering going to Comic-Con one day (once I get up the nerve!)</p>
<p>It has even influenced podcasts I create and fan fiction(<em>some fanfiction is way too explicit to share here, sorry!</em>)</p>
<h1><strong>It began with a gentle nudge in the right direction</strong></h1>
<p>Before getting into anime, I was already into mostly Disney animations and watching reality television. Romance novels were a big part of my reality back then too, but in 2006 a young woman who was part of the reading lab I worked in, approached me and asked if I watched <em>InuYasha</em>.</p>
<p>I told her nope.</p>
<h2>“Okay, well here are some DVDs. I’ve included <em>Boondocks</em> too. You’ll be addicted!”</h2>
<p>She said gleefully. I was 26 years old and trying to get through the day, but her energy was <em>electrifying</em>. Does anime watching do that to a person? I wondered…</p>
<p><a href="https://zora.medium.com/as-a-black-woman-i-can-admit-anime-has-changed-my-life-c68ef944fa10"><strong>Learn More</strong></a></p>