the good ol' anime collectives era

[elyse]

Really now, this LJ post of foxleaps and the comments made me so nostalgic. I can't help but being reminiscent of the good old days of the anime collectives era. I was in college by then... about 6-10 years ago, I think. I made so many international friends, and managed to regularly keep in touch with some of them, to the point of chatting, talking on the phone, sending stuff via snail mail, and even visiting each other! The wonders of the anime community.

What has happened now? As the trend shifted to mostly social networking sites, I could only find a small number of the webmistress & webmaster of the good old anime collective sites. They mostly don't maintain anime collectives anymore, but still maintain their online presence one way or another. Most of them have LJ, so we can still connect to each other. But what I really miss is the community...

Sure, life goes on, but I don't buy it if they didn't go online. With the current technology and the fact that the internet world has been a part of daily life (I mean, I would love to see someone who doesn't have an email address nowadays! Really, even my friend's daughter who's only 3 years old has an email address!), I think everyone still goes online. They just prefer to not maintain their old online presence anymore... Or maybe they do, but I just can't find them. Who knows.

Above all, though, I know one thing for sure. Most of their priority in life is certainly not anime anymore. By now most of us anime collective owners will be above 20... and some of us are even above 30. I myself am only 2 years away from being 30.

So anyhow, if you're from the good old anime collective days, and used to keep in touch with me one way or another a few years ago, do notify me! I'd be more than happy to meet old friends :3

Comments

[magicnoire.livejournal.com]

Well, there's me obviously. :P

If you remember Rose of elusive-heaven.net (which is still up and running!), she's skyoverheaven on LJ.

I can't remember how much of our circles overlapped. I used to be hosted by Alexa and I used to chat with Val (sakurazukamori & later, petshopofhorrors.com) on ICQ all the time but that was years ago. I have no idea what happened to Val.

But yes, I feel like I still know folks from the anime collective days but they're not the same folks I was tight with back then. Things change, I guess.

[lisette.livejournal.com]

hey vern dear ^^

i think i remember rose of elusive-heaven.net... the domain does ring a bell.

and actually i forgot that you used to be hosted by alexa.. really, where at? traumatic.nu?

yep, you're right, we grow up, we make everything change :)

i'm just glad that i still can get in touch with the very few left in the anime community..

[magicnoire.livejournal.com]

Yup, I was hosted at traumatic.nu. :)

[skyoverheaven.livejournal.com]

Hey, you friended me! :) I remember Ikkoku.net from way back then!

I didn't really "establish" myself in the "community" until like 2001-2002 (which was pretty late in the collective craze), but I still do work on new projects/updates from time to time.

From time to time, I think about the old anime community and have some thoughts of ressurecting things like the Anime Federation, but realistically, most of the community now only has the attention span for fanlistings and weblogs, so I'm not really sure how far I'd get with that. I did have an ambitious project that myself and Diana (of EternalSenshi.com) started some years ago (which was ShoujoStation (http://www.shoujostation.com/)), but we all grew up and had less and less time for online stuff. Personally, I still have some intentions of revamping ShoujoStation, but any kind of project now takes months and months to do, hehe.

Sheesh, and we were in a community that prided itself on monthly layouts! I wish I had that kind of spare time now! :)

Mostly I just write entries about cats and my boyfriend. And like... games. Though I still love anime/manga, I'm much pickier these days and only follow a series or two a time.

[lisette.livejournal.com]

hello rose! :)
ah, thank you for remembering ikkoku.net
i didn't realize that people did notice it :P

yes, i noticed that it was when i was about to abandon my domain that you started to 'establish' yours. it's very good that you still maintain it :)

well, i think people's taste has shifted away from anime community, so i'm not sure either about resurrecting AF & such.. but shoujostation looks promising. although yes, time is the ultimate problem as we grow up..

i also thought the same (about the monthly layouts), but it was the problem with me starting to abandon ikkoku.net... it was because it took me too much to maintain it, with having to change the layout every so often. i just didn't have the time, patience, and interest anymore (not to mention that as the years went by, my creativity somewhat lessened & with the fast-developing technology, i was just plain lazy to learn the new html levels).

but it's still nice to see each of you (with the same interest -- so that sure feels like a tiny anime community) around :)

[ecatalina.livejournal.com]

Oh man, ressurrecting Anime Federation would really bring back memories! I'd root for you to do it. :P SS.com was great too. Tasuki (genrou.com) kept mentioning that there are no good anime directories left after SS.com stopped updating, so there are definitely quite a few of us around still.

For memory's sake: anime federation (http://web.archive.org/web/20031001172859/http://www.prettysenshi.com/af.html) on Wayback Machine.

[flojack.livejournal.com]

I guess I was a bit of an enthusiast but never actually committed myself into creating one, but we're still keeping in touch right :D oh we shall meet up again too when I'm back in Indo this year!

[lisette.livejournal.com]

yep, you're a great enthusiast, fel!

wahhhh mesti ketemu taun ini! kapan kapan kapan? :)
eh tp gue kan mau pegi sebulan... hik hik hik... bisa2 ndak ketemu.. ;_;
update me yah..

[novasonic.livejournal.com]

hmm well novacaine.net is still up but I haven't touched it really in years =\ Those days were good tho huh... i don't really watch that much anime anymore, and the ones I do like I don't feel the urge to make fansites for anymore. I suppose I've outgrown fangirling lol Other things have taken priority in my life and there isn't the idle time anymore

[lisette.livejournal.com]

hehe... that's exactly what happened to ikkoku.net back then. i left it without touching it... and suddenly the domain was expired without me realizing. so stupid -_-
i don't watch anime either, but i read lots and lots of manga.
i download lots of manga scans.

[amamiyarin.livejournal.com]

Oh, God... now you remind me of silver-shining.net and ex-dream.net.

...Man, I missed those domain names. XDDD I found lots of my blog friends on LJ too now, though. ^^

[lisette.livejournal.com]

hehehe... now the fates of your domains are the same as mine :P
too bad, isn't it..

yep, i'm glad i could find a few of my anime community friends on LJ ^^

[foxleaps.livejournal.com]

I miss you, Elyse!
I was just thinking that the other day!

It was a strange thing that triggered it -- I was sitting at my desk, looking down at a handful of CD spindles, and suddenly remembered that literal TOWER of anime CDRs you had piled up (neatly) on your carpeted floor...

Also, I would like to contradict the "we've all moved on, we've all changed" bit up there. I'm still the very same. Just perhaps a bit less annoying.

[lisette.livejournal.com]

I miss you too lots, Alexa! ;_;
In fact, I've been thinking of that everytime I read your LJ.
Did you stop writing altogether now?

I didn't remember I had a tower of anime CDRs piling up on my floor... is it really? You have a good memory!

We really should keep in touch. I would love to hear your stories... what you've been doing up to now.. If email's no good, maybe chat? Whichever is to your most convenience.. Email me your chat addy? My email's still the same, you know it :)

Yea, I suppose I'm still the same too, just a little bit growing older & (I hope) more mature...? :P