Hey, my name is Paul Atienza and like everyone else in Japanophilia, I am a freshman at the College of William and Mary. Here, I plan to major in Accounting (granted that I get into the Mason School of Business) and I also intend to minor in English.
Like most kids in America,
I grew up watching Saturday morning cartoons while eating a gigantic bowl of cereal. For me, the cartoon block started with Yugioh at eight o’clock and ended with Pokemon at ten o’clock. The elements from the show that struck me the most were the overly animated expressions, the powerful, manly voice overs i.e. Yami Yugi from Yugioh, and the fantastical plots. I also remember that I would try to imitate Yugioh’s deep voice whenever I played the card game with my friends at school. I started to associate the characters from the shows with the essence of coolness. However, unbeknownst to me at the time, these cartoons were made in Japan.
So the reason that I decided to take Japanophilia was that I wanted to learn more about the culture of Japan besides the cartoons and what I learned in history class. This class is going to be legendary.