Without Anime/Gundam

[CHASER]

I would have a few extra hundred dollars ($300-$400), and possibly a different direction in school. Otherwise nothing would be really different. I would likely have less "friends" than I had in the past few years, though personally I would welcome that change.

[Tafumi]

Well, in the past 25 years I've dumped serious time and effort into about 21 of them. I tend to go on week long stints sometimes where I'll get absolutely nothing done except for Gundam related projects.

But before that I'm known by some friends as a computer network engineer that's obsessed with his job. Other friends see me as the guy that's obsessed with cars and rally racing. Others see me as obsessed with video games. Only a small fraction of the world see's my Gundam obsession. Despite the fact it's the one obsession I've worked the hardest at. (Maybe tied with Video Games.)

Anime in general, I don't watch. As I've said before - I don't watch anime. Just Gundam.

Not anymore at least. I used to be a dried up encyclopedia of anime knowledge. I could tell you things about the world of Slayers that just don't need to be known.

[Antares]

Hum. I suppose the following are good examples relating to anime in general, not only Gundam; without anime
-I would have more money. No manga and anime DVDs. Nor OST CDs.
-I would have a lot more shelf space in my apartment (relating to the previous point).
-I would not have learned that there are fansubs.
-I would not have met one of the more significant people in my life (or if I had, she would've introduced me to anime anyways)
-I would not have started writing as excessively as I do today
-I would probably be still very heavily into clubbing. I still am but an evening with a friend watching something funny/entertaining is now an okay alternative.
-I would not have been introduced to rampant yaoi/4chan/narutardism/many other things I sometimes wish I didn't know about other people and their... tastes.
-I would most likely still fight every Christmas with my brother. If we watch a DVD we don't speak, and if we don't speak we (usually) don't fight.
-I wouldn't be going to Japan for a holiday after I graduate (I would've picked some place warmer).

[CarbonStereoxide]

I would have discovered the cure for AIDS and solve all major world conflicts in 24 hours with Steven Segal and Jackie Chan (Which is more awesome way of solving world conflicts than calling the Celestial Being to intervene)

But seriously, without Gundam, I think all the money that I spent to it will go to warhammer, women, booze, and cigarettes

[mcred23]

Without anime and/or Gundam, I'd be... no different really.

Honestly, my anime interests (Particularly Gundam) are so similar to my interests in military stuff and Sci-Fi and things of that nature (All of which were well established long before I even knew of Gundam) that I really wouldn't be all that different. Granted, a huge amount of my time would be spent in different ways (Probably playing video games or reading) and my money would have been spent on non-Gundam things over the years (Who knows how that would have turned out) but overall, I'd still be pretty much the same person I am now.

Or would I be?

[razgriz]

probably be watching more family guy and the simpsons than i already watch now, which is a freakin lot, more discovery channel and the history channel, a shelf full of aircraft models instead of msias, though i must admit the aircraft models now r catching up but its still a 1/5 ratio of gundams to fighters. and um welllll id probably watching more porn

[Dygenguard]

Hm. I'd probably be locked up in a padded room somewhere.

No, you'd probably be writing Ace Combat fanfiction, instead.

[razgriz]

lol i guess id be WZA's cellmate doing that then

[Newtype87]

I might never have learned that main characters can suffer psychological trauma and/or die horribly in a work of fiction.

Um, seriously though, I'd probably have a few more video games, and I definitely wouldn't have the complete G Gundam DVD collection sitting on my bookshelf. I also wouldn't have a collection of action figures from across the Gundam franchise. Hm, note to self: pick up Exia MSIA. Aside from that, not much would change.

[Ascension]

I would read more sci-fi instead of watching sci-fi.

This would probably be a great improvement.

I used to hate television. I generally view the printed page as a far superior medium. With movies and television, the creators can rely on flashy special effects to draw your interest even if the actual story stinks on ice. To be an interesting book, the story has to be good. There's no other hook (well, unless it's a trashy romance or something like that... ).

Mecha anime basically was what convinced me that television is a valid storytelling medium. It is very difficult to visualize a giant mech or to get any proper sense of scale without some sort of image. While my mental images are pleasant, it's nice to be able to see it all in action. I think this is the same reason why they did the animated promo for Unicorn... mechs garner much more interest if you can see what they look like and how they move.

I have since allowed this principle to apply to most everything in the land of the fantastic. If the show's presentation of events seems to be superior to what I could visualize myself, I'm willing to give it a try. Unfortunately, in the process I've lowered my standards of entertainment and I've gradually fallen out of the habit of reading. In late elementary school and early middle, I'd often read more than one novel a week. In late middle (after I discovered G Gundam) I read one a week. In high school (after I started watching a lot of anime) I read about one every two weeks. Now I'm in college and I'm still watching a lot of anime, but I'm barely reading a book a month.

Anime transformed me from a bibliophile into a fan of a television show about bibliophiles. It's pretty pathetic, really.

The sad thing is, now I'm too hooked on this drug called television to give it up again. I've become one with the masses, and Gundam is at fault.

[G-Slayer]

The sad thing is, now I'm too hooked on this drug called television to give it up again. I've become one with the masses, and Gundam is at fault.

Sure, blame everything and everyone but yourself!

Without Gundam, I would've given more attention to shows like DBZ and Naruto. Or maybe Toonami would've showed Robotech and we'd all be into that instead! Without anime--other than the increase in money, time, focus, etc. I'd have--I doubt a lot would've been different.

For the record, I was always a TV/cartoon buff, watching anything and everything that caught my eye. I also drew a lot until college (though the sketch pad I had since junior high still has blank pages). The closest thing I had to a career ambition was to be a cartoonist for TV. My mom talked me out of that and I got more into computers so I tried my hand at computer science with no success.

Watching anime has really changed my perspective during that time. It wasn't just the style that got my attention, but the way the stories were told. While being entirely fictional, the feel of some shows was 'real.' So now I wanted to make anime, though I felt that at the time it wouldn't possible. So I took up writing, a medium that I used to despise. Then I wanted to know about the world where anime comes from, so I'm currently taking Japanese at school. I joined a "Japanese Media Club" with people who shared my interests. I was listening to J-Pop artists like T.M. Revolution and See-Saw. Upon discovering Megatokyo and Shonen Jump, I started picking up manga from the library and reading it on the subway. Now I'm currently training myself to create OEL (Original English Language) manga somewhere down the line (when I have the time!!!). While I may admit to not growing so much socially, anime has infused me all these passions that I never knew I had.

I guess the real question is whether anime has changed me for better or worse.

[Kuruni]

Without anime, I will be more addict to tokusatsu show .

Oh, and have several GB of free space on my HDD, since I won't have my collection of moe and hentai . That's suck...

[lalahsghost]

To overgeneralize this thread, I put gundam/anime into my computer|internet time. I live a very balanced life by cutting down the amount of time I am near anything that has a screen connected to it. I'm healthier, happier, and *cough* happier... ~_~.

I've always kept my nerdiness on the down-low, and have had a moderately sucessful social life, but while not buying model kits, I can really afford to have fun when I want to. (Might help that I'm not an art major, too...)

I've bought a bicycle and ride an average of 70-110miles [112-170km] a week. I've also been making better grades, and have time to party on the weekends! Did I also state that my skills in half-life have increased? Yep! Life is better without mecha

I watch Family Guy, House, and anime. Not at the same time, but if I could...wow...

You aren't the only one.

Might as well throw in mine. Well my life would actually be really different not so much of money and time spent but because people I've met through anime. A few years back I started to hang out with people from the local anime convention through the forum (we never actually did anything anime related). To make this a short story I became friends with some people through that and that's how I met my ex-girlfriend (she didn't like anime her friend dragged her along). So because of her I ended up going to college, I always planned to but I honestly probably would have never gotten around to it. So really pretty much all my friends these days are either the cause of the anime convention people that I'm still friends with or paths in life I've taken after my ex-girlfiend and I broke up which otherwise wouldn't happen.

So where would I be? I'd be way more into videogames I guess like I was back during the N64 and to a lesser extent the Dreamcast eras. Probably working some construction job and not going to college (to be fair I do demolition now but I go to college too) and hating my job. It's also a possibility I'd live in Edmonton as a few of my friends from highschool moved there and wanted me to go too but I got school. And of course I met them before I was too into anime and they hated it.

Lies. You would either be a porn star, when that one guy said they were hiring a few years back, or you would be dead in a ditch. Don't deny it. (Inside jokes)

[wing zero alpha]

No, you'd probably be writing Ace Combat fanfiction, instead.

I've already done that, what's your point?

[Haros_Pet_Kat]

Without Gundam, I would watch Zeon march into victory.

[Mark064]

Lies. You would either be a porn star, when that one guy said they were hiring a few years back, or you would be dead in a ditch. Don't deny it. (Inside jokes)

No I think anime is the one thing that will make sure I'm dead in a ditch, otherwise it'd be different.

[Antares]

I think I've started to get a bit of resistance against anime, because at the moment anime has been replaced by "real people" acting. I saw an odd episode of Boston Legal, which on fairly late at night here, and something prompted me to see more. After a second episode I simply had to have the boxset for the second season and it's been all Spader and Shatner since last Friday. I believe this is relevant here because there are a few anime shows I've watched with similar abandon ("just one more episode, then I'll go to sleep"). So it possible to rediscover life without anime. The only problem might be that the medicine is worse (or at least as bad as) the disease.