Welcome, all. All are welcome in the tavern. Except spammers and advertisements per the rules.

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3,2,1, Let's jam.

Welcome to the new members! Nowadays the Tavern isn't as bustling as it once was, so it's good to see some new faces. I hope you'll stick around!

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Hello everyone!

I'm Isabel, a 17-almost-18-year-old Brazilian girl. Please, call me Bel or Beru.

My first contact with Studio Ghibli was in 2011, when I watched Spirited Away at a friend's house. I fell deeply in love with it. I've never experienced something that touched me in so many ways like it did. After that, I watched all the other movies produced by the studio, which strengthened my attachment to it. It is now my favorite thing. It was really important to make me understand myself better and to pave the way I chose to take in life.

I found Ghibli Tavern looking for Ghibli forums/groups on Google. I really liked the atmosphere, so I decided to join it.

Hopefully you'll see me a lot around here, and in the way you'll get to know me better, but here's a little bit about me anyway:

~ Animation is my passion.
~ My favorite non-Ghibli anime is Nichijou.
~ I prefer feature film anime, rather than anime series. Besides Ghibli animators, I really admire Satoshi Kon, Katsuhiro Otomo, Makoto Shinkai, Mamoru Hosoda, Mamoru Oshii, etc.
~ I really like music. Prog, synthpop, videogame music, soundtracks in general and classical music are my favorites. Some artists I like: Michael Jackson, Joe Hisaishi, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Koji Kondo, Nomi Yuuji, Susumu Hirasawa, YMO, Grimes, Arcade Fire, Yes, Pink Floyd, Tangerine Dream, Osamu Kitajima, Armcannon, The OneUps, Daft Punk, and the list goes on...
~ I like videogames, mostly (but not only) Nintendo games. I've been playing Animal Crossing: New Leaf, Pushmo and NSMB2 lately. My favorite games are The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask and Mother 3.
~ I also like photography, cinema and other art forms.
~ My favorite fruit is banana.
~ I like webcomics.
~ I like traveling.

Hello! What a lovely introduction post! Welcome to the Tavern. As its getting wintery here in the N hemisphere have a virtual cup of hot chocolate.



We discuss music here a fair bit and swap notes on what we're listening too currently. There's also active threads on what anime/manga people like and recommend or are watching/reading at the moment so I hope you'll find something to enjoy and keep you here.

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Isakaya High School Roleplaying Info

"An old man like me stands no chance fighting against a high school girl in her underwear" - Oshino Meme, Nekomonogatari (Kuro)

Welcome! This new trend of lengthier self-introduction posts is quite nice.

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Thank you, Saddletank and arren18!

Again, I must send a welcome to you, Bel

Very nice intro, I must say

Me?, short and sweet, lol

5'6", a bit on the chubby side ..and I have two granddaughters in Saudia Arabia your age.

Roarkiller, our lovable moderator hangs around now and then and is in Singapore...

We have many members from the British Isles, all of the Scandanavian countries, Canada and all the way down in Bangladesh... I love the fact that we have so many members from around the world

And I love to see new members here. I have two ghibli Studio tattoos on my forearms (Totoro and Kodama) and get a lot of recognition when I am out and about (of the characters, not myself, lol) and tell a lot of people about the Tavern. It never ceases to amaze me how many people do recognize them, young and old.

I'm 69yo and my fav Ghibli is Whisper of the Heart.

Did I say that this was short and sweet??? sigh

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Welcome, it's always great to have new members join. As Husky mentioned, our members are from around the world and our love of Ghibli films is what has brought us all together, I am English myself. I am 20 years old and a Chef.

One thing I love about this forum, more than the people here which is the best bit is that it's not too big. It's a small group of friends, it feels like a family. Now I would say I am like a cousin, I don't see the family too often but when I do it feels like I never left haha.

Anyways like Husky my favourite is Whisper of the Heart, and Spirited Away was the film that got me hooked back in 07 I think, at the tender age of 11/12


Welcome to the family , Sincerely hope you enjoy yourself here

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"A loving heart is the beginning of all knowledge

Welcome, Beru! What a wonderful introduction!

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3,2,1, Let's jam.

husky51 ~
Thank you very much!
I love the idea of connecting with people from around the world! As I said, I love traveling, and I also enjoy learning about different languages and cultures, but since Brazil is such a huge country and traveling abroad costs A LOT, I was never able to do so. I'm happy that Internet exists and allows me to experience a bit of it.
I love Whisper of the Heart! Shizuku, along with Kiki and Chihiro, is a character that I really relate to!

Koda ~
Thank yooou!
Yes, being a small community is awesome, since you can feel closer to the other members. I always preferred talking to a small amount of friends rather than being in a large group, it's much nicer!

FlareNetworkC ~
Thank you!!!

It's really nice to meet all of you, guys!

I've always been interested in animation starting with just plain cartoons on TV and at the theaters. One of the earliest full-length animated movies that I remember was "Alakazam the Great" from 1960 seen from the back seat of my parents car when I was a kid, about a monkey who became king of all the animals. I understand now that it was based on a Chinese fable???

I got into the Ghibli's from seeing them on TV at home. I remember Kiki, Spirited Away and one or two others that I can't remember offhand watching with my kids at home. I didn't connect them as Ghibli's until much later in life.

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I, myself got into anime from a youtube series put out by my favorite youtuber at the time, PinkMushroom. I got into Ghibli because I'd heard about it from the internet and anime community, and I decided to do a Ghibli Marathon in the month of June last year. Then, I stumbled upon the Ghibli Tavern on accident, and then I joined and now, here I am, more than a year later.

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3,2,1, Let's jam.

husky51 ~
Cool! My introduction to animation were the cartoons I used to watch on TV too. Tom & Jerry was my favorite.

FlareNetworkC ~
My first contact with anime was in Cartoon Network. I loved Sailor Moon, Mirumo de Pon, Kaleido Star, Cardcaptor Sakura and my childhood favorite Ashita no Nadja. When I turned 8 yo or so I stopped watching them for some reason (or CN stopped airing those anime... I don't remember). When I was about 12 or 13, I found some really interesting people on Twitter that were into anime. I got curious, did some research on it and found my old favorites and discovered new ones. Since then, I watch anime on a (not so) regular basis.

I've probably said this before to the old timers on the Tavern but it was the Wachowski brothers' Matrix film that got me into anime. I heard they had a wide range of inspirations for their film among which was Japanese animation. The films Ghost in the Shell and Akira were mentioned specifically. This must have been around 2000 ish or a year later. I went into a music and video/DVD shop in my nearest city (back in the days when such things as music and DVD shops existed) and began looking in their animated films section. Back then anime was not nearly as well known or popular in the west as its since become and the anime section was quite small. A lot of the DVD covers seemed ridiculously colourful and crazy to me with al kinds of flying girls, giant robots and explosions. However the shop had copies of both Ghost and Akira and I picked these up. Then another DVD cover caught my eye. It was of a pig flying a red WWI period aeroplane and since military history is one of my subjects I looked at it again. The blurb on the back of the DVD case made me impulse buy it even though I had no idea what it was about. It turned out this was Porco Rosso and was my first Ghibli film even before I knew what and who Studio Ghibli were.

I can tell you I was completely stunned by Ghost and Akira as well. Akira especially made a huge impression on me because it dealt with subjects like rape and biker gang warfare that I had never seen before in animated medium. Western animation is mostly cute and funny and family oriented and these two films blew me away.

I loved Porco as well - the semi-real/semi-fantasy 1920s fascist Italian setting was such a surprise and the references to WWI aviation had me hooked. I went online, found out who Ghibli were and began collecting their other works. I also frequented sites that had lists like "10 greatest anime" etc and from such lists began to watch other significant series - Evangelion was my first (and remains my favourite) TV series boxed set I bought, then Cowboy Bebop, the Ghost in the Shell TV series, Serial Experiments Lain, Paranoia Agent, Haibane Renmei, Fooly Cooly, Bakemonogatari and other shows in similar genres.

I enjoy comedy and romcoms as well - the latter much more these days - but as you can see I went straight into the deep end of what I suppose is the really hardcore serious anime right from the start and have never enjoyed any other genres as much.

In addition to what I listed above among my favourite films are Jin Roh, Sky Blue, Junkers Come Here, Colourful, Tekkonkinkreet, Sky Crawlers, Wolf Children, The Girl Who Leaped Through Time, Time of Eve, Patema Inverted, everything by Makoto Shinkai and Satoshi Kon but especially Place Promised, Garden of Words and Millenium Actress (this stands head and shoulders above almost all else, a wonderful film).

On the more lighthearted stuff I like Haruhi Suzumiya, Beck, Azu Daioh, Kare Kano, Love Hina, Hyouka, Lovely Complex, Usagi Drop and dozens of others.

I still enjoy the more mind-bending and intense shows occasionally like Revolutionary Girl Utena, Marawu Penguindrum, Aku no Hana, Genius Party, Stein's Gate, Welcome to the NHK and more.

The sheer variety of what anime offers is its great strength. In any other country such stories would be told in live action films and shows but in Japan, everything from love stories to war stories to sci-fi and slice of life is animated.

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Isakaya High School Roleplaying Info

"An old man like me stands no chance fighting against a high school girl in her underwear" - Oshino Meme, Nekomonogatari (Kuro)

Thanks, Saddles... You've given me a few more titles to look up...

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Any in particular you need a thumbnail sketch of?

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Isakaya High School Roleplaying Info

"An old man like me stands no chance fighting against a high school girl in her underwear" - Oshino Meme, Nekomonogatari (Kuro)

Saddletank ~
Thanks for sharing your story.
I LOVE Millennium Actress as well, it's my favorite Satoshi Kon work. It's so beautifully constructed, the way it deals with the passage of time using cinema is amazing. It's fantastic and surreal yet it has a very solid core and somehow isn't confusing. It's constant change of environment and time doesn't get lost in itself. And there's so much more to it than that! It's really a work of art.
I plan to watch Jin Roh, Utena and Tekkonkinkreet on a near future, I think I may enjoy 'em.

I have some of the anime such as Millenium Actress, tekkonkinkreet, The Girl Who Leapt Thru Time, and more.

I am interested in Beck, Hyouka, Aki no Hana, Penguindrum, Lovely complex and Welcome to the NHK... there are more, but that is enough for now.

Thanks, Saddles

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quote:

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Originally posted by husky51
Love your intro, Lynnie, I too am Canadian born, but my mother came to the States when I was 6 after I attended 1st grade up there. I am sorry for your illness and hope that it is curable. You sound like a great, upbeat person and I hope to get to know you better through the Tavern. Hang in there, kiddo..

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Please stay around Lynnie. Its lovely to have new people join us but far too often they post for a few weeks then vanish. Maybe Koda and Flare are our only new members who have really stayed - in the last year - or 2 years?

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Isakaya High School Roleplaying Info

"An old man like me stands no chance fighting against a high school girl in her underwear" - Oshino Meme, Nekomonogatari (Kuro)