I never so much as imagined that a casual remark could lead to the fulfillment of a dream, but here I am, still pinching myself every few minutes to make sure I’m not making it up.

My experience with anime has been a deeply personal one. I was a sheltered child whose television programming was carefully controlled in order to weed out “bad influences”, so my first true encounter with anime came one day in the eighth grade, when one of my teachers decided that it would be fun to watch the original Fullmetal Alchemist in class. Never before had I been exposed to something that mature and thought-provoking outside of books, and Hylia-be-damned, I wanted more. It wasn’t long after that I discovered the internet and its proliferation of anime.

In 2006, a year that marked a very difficult time in my life, I stumbled upon Eureka Seven. I found myself in the characters and themes in a way I never had with any other work, and suddenly the crushing depression that had driven me to some very dark places began to dissipate. The experience was so powerful that some six years later, I’m still watching E7 at every opportunity, despite having seen it over thirty times.

More after the jump.