I'm sitting here at home, in my comfy sweater, trying to remember what the anime fandom was like back in the mid 2000s - namely the years between 2003 and 2007, before my life was turned upside down.

The main thing that comes to mind, at least for me, is authenticity. Like, Toonami was still pretty dang popular, along with Adult Swim, but I found myself wanting more stuff direct from Japan - never mind that I couldn't speak a lick of Japanese to save my life.

It wasn't easy to buy stuff from Japan back then. I remember that proxy services were the way to go in order to buy things. I remember making a huge order for gothic/lolita stuff via a proxy service - so much trouble! But if you wanted that stuff, that's what you did.

Let me take it a step backward. One of my beloved birthday gifts was a fan sub tapes of Fushigi Yuugi that a dear internet friend of mine at the time sent me. By the end of the 90s, I was looking at anime beyond Sailor Moon/DBZ/Pokemon. I wanted MORE.

By the mid 2000s, that hunger grew even further. Internet was much faster and communities much wider, and suddenly Japanese pop culture was much more accessible. After the FRUiTS fashion book was released in English, I was obsessed with Japanese street fashion.

Unfortunately for me, buying Japanese magazines and the like wasn't so easy back then, I don't think Amazon Japan shipped worldwide yet. That said, there was this one bookstore that offered various fashion mags from Japan and you could pay by credit card or money order (hehehe).

I bought the fourth and fifth volumes of the Gothic and Lolita Bible (Gosu-Loli) from this website. I must have read those books hundreds of times. Eventually, I found a big Japanese book store in town and I bought more magazines there.

In terms of anime, I wanted to see more shows that what was airing on Toonami. Anime onDemand became a thing (I saw Azumanga Daioh and Princess Tutu that way). Most shows I saw were still dubbed, but I was getting more and more interested in watching subbed anime.

Fan subs on the internet were coming into prominence during this time. I remember how hard it was to get subs to work on a video. You'd have one file (the movie) and another file (the subs) and you'd have to do magic in order to get them to work.

I never did.

I began to see more arcade machines from Japan during this time as well. Namely DDR/Bemani machines. DDR USA wasn't all that great and people who imported the original Japanese released wanted more. So if you were lucky, you'd find an arcade that miraculously -

- had the Japanese versions of the machines. There was this one arcade in the northern suburbs of Chicago that had DDR machines direct from Japan. I visited the place every other Friday. Took a metra train and a Pace Bus to get there. Didn't get home til late. It was glorious.

Anime Cons were becoming more of a thing as well. My first Anime Con was Anime Central 2005. It was 96 hours of insanity and bliss. I remember how I was amazed at all the people who showed up. I thought 10k attendees was "huge".

I find that hilarious now.

Between the viewing rooms, VIP Suite parties, the dealer's hall, and the massive gaming room where I got to play games that were hard to find unless you were in Japan (Pop'n Music, I'm looking at you). It was basically a three anime fandom pimp slap.

Cosplay was still under the radar back then, but I was still amazed at the people who made their own costumes. I'm still amazed by that, even though cosplay is more mainstream nowadays. I don't want to call them "unicorns" but you definitely took notice of cosplayers.

I was incredibly lucky to be able to visit the Mitsuwa Marketplace with my boyfriend at the time. Because of the bookstore inside, I was able to purchase things I didn't have to fish for via proxy service, like manga and fashion magazines.

My ex, a big fan of the Beatmania IIDX series at the time, bought three of the soundtracks via that bookstore - IIDX 10th Style, Red (11th Style) and Happy Sky (12th Style). I don't want to think about how expensive it would be if he purchased it via proxy.

I know I'm probably sounding like a wee weeaboo with this recollection and you're probably right. I was hungry for things from Japan. I can't explain why other than "I thought it looked cool" and "it looks better than what we have in the states".

Once I married (since divorced) and had my son, that kinda died down until my son was three and we went to @TsukinoCon 2013. By then Crunchyroll was a thing, Netflix had it's own anime, and translated manga was more mainstream.

OH!! Yeah, lemme talk about that. Tokyopop. Man, I was all about Tokyopop manga. I think Viz and Del Rey were in the game, but I can't tell you how much money I spent on manga back then. Shojo manga was my jam (even though some of those series were kinda problematic)

Bookstores like Borders (RIP) had sections of manga and I'm sure most of them are out of print now (like the first English translation of Sugar Sugar Rune and let me tell you, I WISH I BOUGHT THEM BACK THEN). I could spend hours reading those books.

The manga section always seemed to be busy, with people looking for manga. Or at least me and my friends were. Also, Suncoast Motion Picture Company had so many Anime DVDs. But I could never afford them - but it was definitely the place to go.

I think...that's everything I can remember. If you stumble upon this thread, you can add your memories of that time too. Maybe it'll help me remember too!