2001: depressed, a fish out of water, lost in a spiral
Enter a friend(now wife) bringing Kanon.
2001 After: renewed, committed to the job, optimistic
I spent thousands of bucks on VNs ever since and I don’t regret it.
It’s 2015: I’m an old geezer now, taking two little Ushios to school, but Key’s charm never fades. (Though I never did find that old copy of Kanon after we moved)
Oh wow, that’s a really touching story :’) That was the visual novel you started with? Such a long time ago, wow o_o
I started watching bishoujo anime in 2010, that was when Angel beats! first aired. It was the first anime that I actually cried to, so it left quite a deep impression on me. Then I went on to watch Clannad, according to some “if you like ____, you might like _____” type of anime recommendation. It was through Clannad that I truly fell in love with Key and it was also through Key that I started reading visual novels. 
I don’t have a very touching or exciting story like most people here.
I had little interest in anime, let alone VNs, for a long time, but since I like emotional stories a lot my friend convinced me to try watching CLANNAD. Immediately fell in love with the story. The characters, the depth, the attachment, the quality writing, emotional tear jerking moments… It was the beginning of a long road. Played the Clannad game after that, then Kanon, LB, Rewrite, etc… and here I am today, a total anime and VN nerd. No regrets.
Key has never let me down with their quality games and doubt they ever will.
When I started watching Clannad back in 2012 to prepare for the Little Busters! anime adaption.
But the true beginnings lie several years ago, in an age I didn’t even know what anime was; when I was browsing music on youtube, I saw that a famous Belgian DJ, Svenson did a remix of a song called “Haruka Kanata”; I decided to check it out; I really liked the song as the Japanese vocals where exotic for me back then. I saw something called “Little Busters” in the recommended videos (sometimes it feels as if god was trying to send me a message); but unfortunately I never check it.
Few years later, early 2012 at a party a random person recommended me an anime called “Death Note” and since I lost interest in gaming I decided to give it a chance; and this got me into anime. Later in 2012 I saw on MAL news a work called “Little Busters!” would get an anime adaption; this immediately ringed a bell as I have seen the name on youtube before. Because of this I got hyped for the anime; and since I saw Clannad is from the same creator and it was in my PTW list (back then I never knew why I did add it to my PTW because I thought I wouldn’t like it) and of course I loved even the first season. So when the first episode of LB started airing I was already really hyped; I even watched the 1st episode raw. Of course I also loved the LB anime!
Since at that time my favorite anime where Steins;Gate and Higurashi, the step to visual novels was a very logical one for me. I started the LB VN while the anime still was ongoing and finished it before the 1st season ended; after which I started reading Rewrite. Currently I have spend over 1000 euros on Key VNs, anime and merchandise.
it was kanon the 2006 remake anime then was air then i found out about VN etc
yes i saw it long time ago i wish they bring it in eng but it seems that not going happed
Same here, I personally liked it more Than most people, of course the kyoani one is infinitely better but I still truly enjoyed 2002, I had to import the box set but it was only like 20 bucks
Wow I thought I posted here already guess not lol. The best way for me to describe it would be to start before I knew anything about key. Ofc it started with discovering I enjoyed these things called anime, but you see when one discovers anime they don’t just discover anime, alot of things came with it. You find new communities games, ideas ect. This might sound like a troll answer but I feel like when I become a fan of something, I’ve always been a fan I just didn’t know it… yeah its sounds odd but I feel it is true. Like take the now airing Charlotte for example, right now can I call myself a fan of it? I am not really sure how much I will like it in the end, but I still feel like I am a fan of it? Lets put it this way, for me fandom doesn’t really has a start or a end, you just don’t know about it or forgot about it or are avoiding it for some reason. All these little things click together and bam one day you are standing there trying to understand why you became a fan…
Okay now all the abstract things are out of the way let me start, One day many years ago when I was getting into anime, I saw this guy watching higurashi, (um this could be the start of my key fandom? lol?) so I was like wtf is that you are watching? I saw some clip and was like welp I am never gonna watch that! Then one day for some unknown reason I watch it… yeah even though I said I wouldn’t I did… and I liked it… and I felt like I had become more open minded, I don’t remember when I came to be open minded about keys work but it happened at some point in time, pretty early in my anime days and it just opened my mind to more and more things can’t remeber exactly when I watched kanon 2006 but it could of been the reason.
Start here for the short easy to understand answer.
The true start of key fandom was watching kanon 2006 for sure, but why did I watch this show? It felt like when I started watching anime I had become more open minded towards genres and such I never watched before. Now the easy to understand version of this is that from watching kanon 2006 I watched clannad, found out about little busters ect ect. became the key fan I am today, but if you want the long version… I really feel like my higurashi/uminko fandom has been connected together with my key fandom… I mean around the same time I was getting into anime… I opened up to both kanon and higurashi… the same day I decided to try umineko was the same day I decided to try little busters… there is way more beyond that, things like translations finishing the same day, and me radnomly going to AX very recently cause of ryukishi and hinoue, and the kicker is at the con ryukishi said he would of probably not of written anything if it wasn’t for key, so yeah hard for my mind to not think about all of that not being connected…
So… what really happened? well I am not sure really… some where along the way I really just started to like key, it wasn’t really during one show I watched or anything, I just woke up one day liking it… forgot about it another day, then the next thing came along made me remember… then one day I just said I don’t wanna forgot again… I feel like everyday my key fandom goes up and down for various reason that are beyond me, maybe I have a thought going through my head that makes me like it more no idea lol. It felt like I was always a fan I just didn’t know, hadn’t tapped into it yet… you have to put down one game to play another if you know what I mean.
20 were? XD
Used (but in like new condition) on yahoo auctions Japan, I then used taigaya proxy to import it
We should probably switch this conversation to private messaging to avoid getting off topic on this post haha
I started off with the Air anime, around 2007-08. I remember being entranced at the time by the adorable characters beautiful animation, great comedy, and overall relaxing atmosphere of the first few episodes. I actually didn’t finish it right away, although I did have the ending spoiled for me long before I watched the middle episodes. Thanks Youtube!
After that it’s kind of fuzzy for a little while, because I knew that Key had also done Kanon, but I was too lazy to watch it. I remember when the Clannad anime first came out subbed in English I tried checking out the first episode on a whim, and thinking that it was boring. I didn’t find out that it was by Key until much later, when I started getting into visual novels. My original goal at that time had been to start with Kanon, but as a tech-illiterate 13 year old, I couldn’t get a working copy of Kanon in English. What I COULD find, however, was a pre-patched version of Clannad. So off I went on my first reading of a Key VN. Ideally I would have started with Air, but obviously that wasn’t translated in 2010.
I enjoyed Clannad a LOT more this time around, obviously, and I eventually got my hands on Kanon about 6 months later. Fast forward about a year and a half, and I downloaded and played Little Busters as soon as the complete patch was out. That right there was what escalated me from a casual Key fan to what I am now.
Biz and another friend of mine insisted I watch this show called Clannad because it was amazing…
Granted, I’d already seen Angel Beats but hadn’t thought much of it.
And then I watched Clannad… And that was pretty much the catalyst for a huge hobby-shift for me.
I was seriously bored one hot summer afternoon and I wanted to watch an anime other than Naruto. I looked up anime after anime on a wikipedia list until I came across Kanon. I could have literally chosen any anime… but I chose Kanon. Yes, Kanon. It became my second adolescent audience anime I ever watched.
My path was set. It started my long uphill climb.
I found key about 3 (almost 4 now) years ago.
I was hanging around my local card shop playing Naruto, Yu-Gi-Oh, Vanguard or Magic? I honestly don’t remember what I was playing at the time I just remember I played alot of different card games lol.
Anyways my friend who was working there at the time decided to introduce me to Weiss Schwarz. A Japanese card game that puts different anime series against each other. At the time he said he could make me 3 different decks and I had to choose (kinda like how you choose your starter pokemon)
The choices were Angel Beats, A Certain Magical Index, or Sengoku Basara. I forget what drew me into Angel Beats but I chose it anyways (Eventually bought an Index deck off of him as well)
At the time I wasn’t really into anime all that much and I also haven’t even watched Angel Beats but, I was taking Japanese classes in high school. My teacher told me about a Japanese event at a University and I went there out of boredom. When I got there they were having a silent auction and Angel Beats happened to be one of the items there. It was being auctioned as a bundle with a couple other anime discs that I don’t remember but I auctioned hard! There was one person who kept on bumping up the price everytime I checked back so, in return I bumped mine as well and by the end of the event I was on top with the auction going for I think $50 for the stack? I then talked to the person running it and asked them if I could just get Angel Beats for $15. They said yes and then I cried that night as I marathoned the series. I then sought out other anime series that were related in almost anyway. Director, voice actor, production company etc
I forgot that I never posted on here.
So anyways I started watching anime in general at the beginning of 2014 cuz it was winter break and I was just hella bored. My first anime was To Aru Kagaku no Railgun and then Nisekoi and then SAO. By this time it was the summer and I really started getting into it. Started watching a series per weekend with the suggestions of one of my friends. Somewhere along the lines I landed on Angel Beats. Contrary to many others, I didnt cry but I did feel like some strong feels hit me. I started looking for something that would make me cry cuz I’m just heartless and I cant cry to anything really. So after a few more series my friend told me that if I wanted something then it would be Clannad and Clannad After Story. So I watched that and suprisingly (or unsuprisingly) I did cry. After that I kinda just made it my quest to find the things that would make me cry. Which is how I ended up at just watching all the Key stuff except Air and trying to play the Key vns that I could. Even if I still can’t cry to anything else other than Clannad, I’m still glad that I watched/read the ones that I did. Now I don’t particularly care about crying but the stories that come from Key works are just so fricken amazing I feel like I can learn so much by watching/reading them. So now I’m here.
tl;dr I got into Key because I cried.
technically it was through Angel Beats! but really, it was through Clannad. Clannad was a fantastic story I really got into, and then I discovered it was created by the same company as Angel Beats!, at the time, it didn’t matter too much to me. Then I saw Little Buster, and I’ve heard plenty about Air and Kanon and now Charlotte, so it was obvious to me that this was a company that brought amazing storys ranging from action-comedy, the slice-of-life and school life and romance and, of course, always brought the feels!
A long time ago, back when I only had dial up, I came across a picture of Nayuki and kind of had an instant obsession - the school uniforms are amazing in Kanon. I think this must have been around the time the Toei Kanon started airing, and eventually I was able to track down Toei’s anime of Kanon. I liked it well enough, but a few years later I found out it had been remade and the remake was supposed to be way better. I watched and loved it 100 times more, and since I was no longer stuck with dial up I could do things like research it - which led me to the Air anime, and I was lucky enough to watch Clannad as it aired. Basically it has been a long spiral of love.
My big bro watched Clannad and I saw a chapter from the anime with him. I liked that chapter then I tried to read the VN because I always like to see the closest form of the original source, in fact Clannad was the first VN I ever read.
