As my 44th birthday is coming up quick, a few days in fact, I spent this Saturday afternoon pondering how anime fandom has evolved over the years. There are many places I once visited in my youth that are no longer around and so their story must be told. So let the adventure begin!
One Christmas back in the 80's, I got an electric wok. I also received a cookbook called Oriental Cuisine. It was broken down into different parts of Asia, China, Korea, Southeast Asia, and Japan. Each chapter had maps and drawings and a short history of the region. It also had tasty looking recipes. I was at Joto Japanese restaurant, and couldn't decide what I wanted and took a chance on sukiyaki. Well, the Asian cookbook I had did have a sukiyaki recipe and I tried it at Joto's so I started my culinary journey with Japan. Some of the ingredients were hard to find at Publix so riding around one day, I saw Kotobuki on Dale Mabry, just past Neptune, and next door to Wright's. I went inside and with the help of the employees found everything I needed to make sukiyaki, still one of the best sauces I have ever had. Also, I noticed that Kotobuki had candy and ramen with pictures of Ultraman. I also saw cute cartoon characters. So I bought a few anime snacks mainly because Ultraman was one of my favorite Saturday morning shows. The stage was set.
A few years later I was in the 9th grade and met Patrick Conroy who was a big fan of Robotech. In the mid 80's, Robotech was on broadcast. Anyway, Pat would ride his bike to my house and we played Metal Gear on the NES, before Solid was added to the name. Sometimes we would go to Kotobuki because they rented anime tapes that were all in raw Japanese, and sometimes, the commercials were left in. The toy commercials were amazing. At the time I had no idea what I was watching. I had two VCRs and I would dub shows like Jo-Jo's Bizarre Adventures, Ranma 1/2, and whatever Sci-Fi or Fantasy posters I saw hanging up inside Kotobuki. This was back when to buy anime, tapes were expensive and had to be mail ordered. I mainly watched anime but would sometimes watch the Japanese comedy shows, such as, The Drifters, and Shimura Ken no Bakatono-sama, a crazy show that reminded me of The Benny Hill Show. Comedian Ken Shimura played a foolish prankster that was always in trouble. He wore white Kabuki makeup with his hair sticking up. It was so good back in middle school. Now I was helplessly hooked on Japanese entertainment.
In that same area, on Dale Mabry, just before Neptune and across from Plant High School used to be a comics and gaming store called Merlin's. The first time I went inside I bought two Tokusatsu magazines for the Ultraman and Kamen Rider pictures. You couldn't find them in magazines like Starlog, so I had to by the import magazines. They even had Japanese toys like the Zentradi Battlepods and you could also buy Gundam model kits. Then suddenly Merlin's vanished. They reopened on Fowler near USF for a few years before closing for good.
It was hard to find anime outside Asian markets. You had to buy Starlog and request a catalog from an Anime company. Then, you would probably end up getting two episodes for $30 to $40 and that was steep as a junior high student without a job. So the best place to feed your addiction were cons. My first real con experience was at Necronomicon at their old location and not at Sable Park. There were no cosplayers. It was at the Holiday Inn Cypress on Cypress Ave. The big guest was Piers Anthony. I remember going to a panel by author Peter David called Does Humor Belong in Science Fiction? David was discussing humor in the unexpected, then an army of Pizza Hut delivery guys marched in carrying stacks of pizza. David told them to feed the attendees and they handed out boxes to everyone. I have never laughed that hard during a panel. He must have ordered 100 pizzas because boxes were everywhere. I'll never forget that moment. Anyway, I bought a bad copy of Akira at Necronomicon for $5. Despite how bad the quality was, I still have it as a reminder of the struggle.
I used to spend Saturday afternoons driving to Largo to go to Camelot Comics & Gifts. It was the only place to get Robotech on videotape at $30 for only 2 episodes. The last time I checked, you can order the entire series for $41.30 and compared to the good old days that is a steal. Just as Merlin's went so did Camelot. This was pre Sunset video and Blockbusters in Tampa didn't even have a Anime section. There was nothing. I was so jealous when my friend returned from a trip to Simi Valley, CA and told me that Blockbusters had an Anime section and so many titles.
The last place was so small that I don't even remember the name. There used to be shops in Feather Sound and there was an anime store. I'm not sure how long it lasted back in '92. It seems like I blinked and then it was gone. Anyway, inside that store I discovered a magazine called Mangajin that taught Japanese through comics. There were ads for teaching English in Japan. Around 92 anime was drying up in Tampa so I decided to go to college and go to Japan to keep my anime dreams alive. When I was in junior high and then high school, there was only two anime fans, my friend and I. No one was interested in Ultraman, MS Gundam, Dominion Tank Police, or Kung Fu movies. That has changed for the better today. I was just at Publix and the cashier saw my Godzilla shirt and told me he was a kaiju fan. I never thought the word kaiju would be used and understood all this time later. What was once only for nerds has branched out further then I ever thought possible. So if you wanted to know about anime fandom in Tampa from 1978, the year I first saw Battle of the Planets, to 1992, this is how it really was.
